"Doctors Three" by Charles Skaggs is the last of five TOS short stories in the May 1999 Strange New Worlds II anthology.

Description

Voyages of Imagination

Admiral McCoy visits Dr. Zimmerman as he works on perfecting the EMH program.

Summary

Offended by the idea of a humanless machine treating patients, McCoy travels to Jupiter Station to inspect Dr. Lewis Zimmerman's EMH. Station CO David Clarke and engineer Reginald Barclay are unable to stall him, and McCoy barges into Zimmerman's laboratory. The scientist is rushing to complete EMH AK-1's personality matrix before USS Voyager launches, but McCoy insists on a conversation.

Zimmerman demonstrates the EMH, who diagnoses and treats a contusion on security chief Lynn White's hand that she earned while catching a smuggler. Zimmerman is pleased with the results, but McCoy observes that the Doctor lacks a bedside manner. Zimmerman points out that the program is an emergency resource, intended to be activated during crises when having a personal rapport is less important. McCoy agrees to have dinner and return in the morning.

That night, McCoy returns to the lab and reactivates the EMH, hoping to talk to him about what McCoy really thinks is lacking in the programming: a sense of mortality, which McCoy believes inspires a doctor to heal. The Doctor points out that he can indeed die, in that his program could degrade or be erased. Assuaged, McCoy has become more accepting of the future of Starfleet medicine.

References

Characters

Reginald Barclay • David Clarke • The Doctor • Leonard McCoy • Debbie Walter • Lynn White • Lewis Zimmerman

Referenced only

Spock

Starships and vehicles

USS Hippocrates

Referenced only

USS Voyager

Locations

Jupiter (Holoprogramming Center • Jupiter Station)

Races and cultures

Human

Referenced only

Andorian • Vulcan

States and organizations

Starfleet • Starfleet Academy • Starfleet Medical

Science and classification

airlock • android • computer • dermal regenerator • EMH • exoskeleton • hologram • laboratory • laser scalpel • medical tricorder • neural grafting • phaser • transporter • tricorder • turbolift

Occupations and titles

admiral • assistant • attaché • captain • commander • counselor • Director of Holographic Imaging and Programming • doctor • doctor • engineer • ensign • lieutenant • medical officer • officer • physician • pilot • security chief • smuggler • surgeon • waitress

Other references

alcohol • angel • beam • blood • cafeteria • chimpanzee • culture • day • death • emotion • food • god • heart • lab coat • medical • minute • mirror • planet • quarters • rank • runabout • second • space • space station • star • Starfleet uniform (2366-2373) • starship • stun • tribble • year

Appendices

Related media

• TNG - Star Trek: Explorer short story: "Broken Oaths" – McCoy visits a Starfleet Medical task force meeting as they discuss incorporating certain Borg data into the EMH's database.
• VOY episode & novelization: Caretaker – The Doctor becomes USS Voyager's only available medical officer after a crisis.

Background

• Leonard McCoy's age is given as 144, placing this story in 2371, shortly before the launch of USS Voyager.

Connections

Star Trek: The Original Series collected short stories, novellas and short novels
The New Voyages	The New Voyages ("Ni Var" • "Intersection Point" • "The Enchanted Pool" • "Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited" • "The Face on the Barroom Floor" • "The Hunting" • "The Winged Dreamers" • "Mind-Sifter" • "Sonnet from the Vulcan: Omicron Ceti Three") • The New Voyages 2 ("Surprise!" • "Snake Pit!" • "The Patient Parasites" • "In the Maze" • "Cave-In" • "Marginal Existence" • "The Procrustean Petard" • "The Sleeping God" • "Elegy for Charlie" • "Soliloquy")
Star Trek II & III Short Stories	Star Trek II Short Stories ("The Blaze of Glory" • "Under Twin Moons" • "Wild Card" • "The Secret Empire" • "Intelligence Test" • "To Wherever") • Star Trek III Short Stories ("The Azphari Enigma" • "The Jungles of Memory" • "A Vulcan, A Klingon, and an Angel" • "World's End" • "As Old as Forever")
Strange New Worlds	I ("A Private Anecdote" • "The Last Tribble" • "The Lights in the Sky" • "Reflections") • II ("Triptych" • "The Quick and the Dead" • "The First Law of Metaphysics" • "The Hero of My Own Life" • "Doctors Three") • III ("If I Lose Thee..." • "The Aliens Are Coming!" • "Family Matters") • IV ("A Little More Action" • "Prodigal Father" • "Missed" • "Tears for Eternity" • "Countdown" • "First Star I See Tonight" • "Scotty's Song" • "The Name of the Cat") • V ("Disappearance on 21st Street" • "The Trouble with Borg Tribbles" • "Legal Action" • "Yeoman Figgs" • "The Shoulders of Giants") • VI ("Whales Weep Not" • "One Last Adventure" • "Marking Time" • "Ancient History" • "Bum Radish: Five Spins on a Turquoise Reindeer" • "A Piece of the Pie") • VII ("A Test of Character" • "Indomitable" • "Project Blue Book" • "The Trouble With Tribals" • "All Fall Down" • "A Sucker Born" • "Obligations Discharged") • 8 ("Shanghaied" • "Assignment: One" • "Demon" • "Don't Call Me Tiny") • 9 ("Gone Native" • "A Bad Day for Koloth" • "Book of Fulfillment" • "The Smallest Choices") • 10 ("The Smell of Dead Roses" • "The Doomsday Gambit" • "Empty") • 2016 ("Dilithium Is a Girl's Best Friend")
Constellations	"First, Do No Harm" • "The Landing Party" • "Official Record" • "Fracture" • "Chaotic Response" • "As Others See Us" • "See No Evil" • "The Leader" • "Ambition" • "Devices and Desires" • "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" • "Make-Believe"
Star Trek: Explorer	"All That Most Maddens and Torments" • "The Way to Exile" • "Cumulative Damage" • "Explorers of the Storm" • "The Guardian" • "The Trouble with Jones" • "Sundering" • "A Dish Served Cold" • "Forewarned and Three-Armed" • "Working Miracles" • "Cat and Mouse" • "Housewarming" • "Memoriam"• "Chekov's Challenge" • "My Name is Mudd" • "The Lost Noel"
Misc. short stories	"Though Hell Should Bar the Way" • "Conflicting Natures" • "The Avenger" • "Night Whispers" • "Just Another Little Training Cruise" • "Safe Harbors" • "Ill Winds" • "The Greater Good"
Misc. novellas & short novels	"The Business, As Usual, During Altercations" • "The Badlands, Part I" • "One Giant Leap" • "The First Artifact" • "The Sorrows of Empire" • "A Less Perfect Union" • "The Chimes at Midnight"

Timeline

published order
Previous story: The Hero of My Own Life	Strange New Worlds II	Next story: I Am Klingon
Previous story: The Hero of My Own Life Strange New Worlds II	TOS short stories	Next story: If I Lose Thee... Strange New Worlds III
Previous story: first Star Trek story	Stories by: Charles Skaggs	Next story: most recent work
chronological order
Previous adventure: The Name of the Cat sections 2 - 3 Strange New Worlds IV	Pocket Books Timeline	Next adventure: Intellivore
Previous adventure: Future Imperiled 2371 sections Convergence	Memory Beta Chronology	Next adventure: Intellivore