By Derek Edwards. This article is the winner of our first-ever Star Trek journalism competition.

When his real predecessor met his demise early in the mission, the EMH (played by Robert Picardo) could not have imagined in his bitmapped dreams that he would then become the primary source of medical expertise on board Voyager. You see, he was only intended for emergency assistance, but now he was � The Doctor.

The EMH is a Hologram, Jim, but not as we know it. Normally, you can't touch them and they can't touch you. I expect that if he�d qualified in the normal way he would have passed through his medical exams quite literally. Hence early experiments as a surgical doctor were presumably a real hands-off experience, well at least until his tactile capability was implemented.

Most of his non-invasive surgery is helped greatly by the use of the usual hand-held devices containing buttons, lights and beepers. But, remarkably, the Doctor is also programmed with several million treatments and knowledge of hundreds of cultures, so he�s certainly the man to see if you�re in trouble.

But he�s had a rather bumpy ride in his development. Quite soon, he became irritated with being activated and de-activated ad-hoc (sometimes in mid-flow of one of his labouring speeches), so he was eventually given more personal control over his presence.

As a prescription for personality improvement, he served himself a dose of the holodeck experience (a great place for a holo-person to meet like-minded entities). Here he conversed with some of the simulated great minds of our time (presumably there were few in our future?) and downloaded some of their personality traits. Consequently, he experienced human emotion after tweaking his own modules (software program modules, of course). This caused all manner of anti-social problems until he was told that this was not the way to behave in public and eventually had his sub(human)-routines corrected.

Positive aspects of this process, together with some social-skill tutoring, mean that the Doctor now has a much better bedside manner. He has at various times tried to further embrace human experience, even to the extent of giving himself flu symptoms, and having a holo-family for a (disastrous) while. His experience has been enriched by mobile holo-emitters, which now mean he can escape the sick bay, fraternise with the crew and even startle inhabitants of local planets with an EMH close encounter.

He is now regarded so highly he's considered a member of the crew rather than just a utility. I�m certainly surprised that he isn�t in competition with Tuvok or ex-Borg Seven to see who is the most humanised at the end of the current stardate.

Speaking of Seven: armed with a more sympathetic understanding, the Doctor gave the once human Seven a 'changing bodies' rehumanising makeover. But why didn�t he announce that she�d been upgraded to version 7.1? It�s a case of a Borg being Bjorn again as a human.

Nice one Doctor, anyone for holo-tennis?