Because of his original purpose, it makes sense that the Doctor wouldn’t have held a Starfleet rank during Voyager.
However, in Prodigy, he still doesn’t have pips. This leads to my questions:
- Can a self-aware hologram hold rank or a non-com position in Starfleet?
- If so, how would the Doctor attaib it?
According to the STO wiki, he doesn’t wear them by choice but does have a rank. That might be a reasonable explanation; I can’t imagine Janeway not at least trying to field commission him.
He doesn’t need a rank to have authority over others. A duty station can give one authority, and he is the acting medical officer of the ship, so technically he can even order Janeway about.
Technically
In Voyager, he’s shown to have pips. In fact, switching him over to Command mode shows a deliberate animation of pips showing up on hid collar.
However, it is possible that this is something that only applied on the Voyager thanks to their excsptional circumstances, and regular Starfleet doesn’t recognise it as a “proper” rank.
- Can a self-aware hologram hold rank or a non-com position in Starfleet?
Technically, yes, in practice, it would be a bit more complicated. A lot of the Federation still has issues around recognising the personhood of inorganics, and a good many of them would hold the early Voyager attitude of seeing him as a regular hologram/tool that the Voyager got too attached to, like the Enterprise did with their Data.
- If so, how would the Doctor attaib it?
The regular way, in theory. The ranking system technically doesn’t change depending on what species you are, other than some minor twiddling to account for your species’ characteristics.
It would be silly to expect a species who can’t speak to give verbal commands, for example, or give them a crew who is not receptive to telepathy.
In practice, there’s a lot more complications, like how the crew of the Sutherland nearly mutinied against Data because they believed him to be a dispassionate computer weighing lives at data points.
In Voyager, he’s shown to have pips. In fact, switching him over to Command mode shows a deliberate animation of pips showing up on hid collar.
The EMH is never shown with pips on Voyager. The “ECH” was shown with pips appearing on its first appearance, however:
spoiler
The entire ECH subroutine was created as the result of The Doctor’s daydreaming, so the visualisation of a rank appearing out of thin air makes sense in that context.
The only other time the ECH mode was used in a genuine emergency (Season 7, Episodes 16/17), he did not have pips.
I can’t imagine Janeway not at least trying to field commission him.
Cries in Ensign Kim
I thought he was the commander of the Atlantis expedition.
I’ve never watched Stargate, except for the first film and a few random SG-1 episodes. I knew Sirtis was in it at some point, but not Picardo.
I like to play a game where if you see one Star Trek actor you often see others and you have to spot them.
Quite a few have been in CSI over the years.
He would most certainly be assigned a rank if for no other reason than to ensure he (as an asset) is treated by crewmen with care and respect. It is the same approach in logic that militaries and police use with K-9 units. Dogs always outrank the handlers as a further mechanism to ensure proper treatment of the self-aware asset.
