Star Trek has built up many iconic characters during its run, but few would argue that Star Trek: The Next Generation had some of the best foes. Not only did the sequel series evolve a lot of characters and lore from the Original Series, but it also introduced new characters and lore that have become some of the biggest staples of the Star Trek franchise, thereafter. TNG also inspired a run of great Star Trek shows, including Star Trek: Voyager.
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Both TNG and Voyager have introduced Star Trek lore that the franchise is still playing with to this day; look no further for proof of that than the latest series, Starfleet Academy. In Episode 8, “The Life of the Stars”, Starfleet Academy tells a powerful story about a Voyager legacy character – but in doing so, it has us thinking more about one of Star Trek: TNG‘s biggest and most powerful antagonists.
The Lonely (Eternal) Life of The Doctor
“The Life of the Stars” has one plotline dedicated to SAM (Kerrice Brooks), the Kasqian holographic entity who is the first of her kind to enroll at Starfleet. SAM’s glitches have gotten to a life-threatening point, and so the Doctor (Robert Picardo) takes her home to Kasq to see if her creators, the Makers, can fix the issue. The Makers inform the Doctor that SAM is beyond repair and that her life is ending after just 209 days of existence.
The loss of SAM unlocks something in the Doctor. The holographic healer first appeared in Star Trek: Voyager, and due to the ship being stranded in the remote Delta Quadrant, the Doctor had to be online full-time, as the only available medical officer. He grew and evolved as a result of his experiences on Voyager, and the bonds formed with his fellow crew members; but that was just the start. The Doctor has been online and serving in Starfleet from the 24th century through the 32nd century, when Starfleet Academy takes place. But in “The Life of the Stars”, we learn for the first time what 800+ years of life have actually cost him…
SAM’s death forces the Doctor to confront his own emotional trauma. He has to admit to himself that losses like his daughter Belle (in the Voyager episode “Real Life”), plus the eventual loss of everyone he held dear on the USS Voyager (and afterward), have made him close off from forming emtional bonds with others, as “The only thing that allows me to bear my infinity is not having to love anyone.”
Ultimately, the Doctor realizes what SAM needs: he works with the Makers to rebuild her, only this time he invests 17 years on Kasq (two weeks of Earth time) parenting SAM as her “father.” As it turns out, SAM’s glitches were based on her incomplete experiences; she’d never had a childhood to help give her the formative tools needed to be a fully-formed “person.” The Doctor rekindles his “humanity,” while SAM gets the human experience of being raised and loved in a family.
The Doctor’s Story Is A Reflection of Q
This Starfleet Academy episode was about The Doctor, but that absolute bar of a quote (“The only thing that allows me to bear my infinity is not having to love anyone”) runs deeper than just the holographic being’s experience.
The Doctor has essentially become the closest thing Starfleet has to enternal being. His 8+ centuries of lifespan gave him the perspective of an omnipotent being, and Starfleet Academy reveals that, for a time, the Doctor was straddling the line of becoming like another omnipotent being in Star Trek: Q.
Q’s appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation (and the performance of actor John de Lancie) have made the god-like antagonist a franchise icon. Q’s thematic line runs through his fascination with humanity and all our emotional and intellectual contradictions, which Q seeks to put on “trial.” However, Jean-Luc Picard and other Starfleet personnel who have had run-ins with Q all come away fascinated (if not appalled) by the entity’s lack of god-like decorum. In fact, many of Picard’s spirited debates with Q have to do with his lack of perspective on how contradiction, imperfection, and mortality are key elements of the human experience, and the soul (so to speak).
Add the comparative experience of The Doctor, and it becomes even clearer: Q (the individual) is the malevolent end result of omnipotence that is devoid of love or connection. He is not like all of the Q (species), who have a connection as a collective, and even form individual love connections and mate at times.
The Doctor could have ended up being something like Q, save for the fact that he remains open to connection with his fellow lifeforms, and even intimate bonds of family with Belle and now SAM. It’s grounds for a great future episode wherein Star Trek brings Q and the Doctor together and directly examines the different points of view on eternal life, and how to live it (if at all). That would be some premium sci-fi TV.
Starfleet Academy and Star Trek: Voyager both stream on Paramount+. Discuss all things Star Trek over on the ComicBook Forum!
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Courtesy of David Production
