2.3 — “Projections”

2.3 — “Projections”

Plot: The EMH is activated by a red alert signal and discovers that he is alone on the ship, with all escape pods jettisoned and no life signs aboard. As he explores this mystery from the confines of sickbay, escalating weird phenomena including a visit from a holographic Reginald Barclay cause him to question both his reality, and his unreality.

Thoughts: Some ideas create their own logic. “What if… EMH met Barclay?” There’s no “What?” Only, “Yes!”

This is such a fascinating show, and it’s all due Robert Picardo. His reactions are so interesting! EMH shows such angst, worry, and curiosity respecting the fates of the crew, as a hologram. I love idea of an acerbic AI that would mutter “Well, I’m glad everyone bothered to say goodbye”–talking to himself (itself?), because who else would be worth talking to? EMH is closer to Marvin the Paranoid Android than he is to Lt. Cmdr. Data, and thank goodness we don’t have to listen to him fret about how to become more human. Hint: kvetching is human.

His dialogue with the computer, played by Majel Barrett, is mindbending. Here are two machines talking to each other, and they couldn’t be more different. Barrett is playing an old-fashioned idea of a computer, a continuation of the ship’s computer in TOS, created in 1966. EMH is self-aware enough to get frustrated at the limitations of his colleague, without seeming to notice the irony. Will the ship’s computer ever get its HAL 9000 moment?

Later, when EMH receives news that the crew has installed holographic projectors in strategic locations around the ship, we watch him cycle through nervousness, trepidation, feeling moved, and feeling annoyed. He’s not only fascinating to watch; his every twitch provokes thoughts of “What is consciousness?”

And, in the end, the episode also asks “What is meaning?” Does it make as much sense for a holographic program to search for meaning in its existence as it does for a human to search for meaning in theirs?

When, in the end, it turns out that the whole sequence is a dream, it shows a passionate and restless AI. (“Well, this should make an interesting paper.”) I don’t get all the logic about why he was using the Holodeck, how the crew knew that anything was wrong, or how they decided to intervene. I presume that the ship was never in danger; he could not have harmed anything by firing a holographic phaser into the holographic warp core. Chakotay’s warnings about erasing his own program due to a feedback loop are probably part of the hallucination.

Nevertheless, the dream reveals that EMH has a subconscious which harbors a craving for physical pain, anxiety about harming the ship (and perhaps desire to do so?), romantic and physical attraction for Kes (he thinks she’s beautiful), and so much else we could extrapolate. And since Dwight Schultz is a similarly gifted performer, his interactions with Picardo are delicious. (Don’t Google Dwight Schultz, though. Apparently he has developed a side career in right wing talk radio and conspiracy-minded Internet commentaries.)

The nitpicker in me wonders, how could Barclay have been involved in EMH’s creation while serving on the Enterprise as an engine technician. It hardly matters; this episode is a joy. I even liked Kes in it. She makes a great turn on the line “Then I guess our marriage is over.”

4.5 out of 5 androids dreaming of electric sheep.

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Projections