1. The Doctor and SAM
The Doctor had a great character arc during his appearance in Star Trek: Voyager, but in Starfleet Academy, he has been much more of a supporting character. As such, we had not received much character development from The Doctor until his appearance in this episode.
The episode calls back to The Doctor’s story arc in Voyager’s season 3 episode 22, “Real Life,” in which The Doctor had a holographic family and lost his daughter Belle to a sporting accident. The Starfleet Academy episode reveals that The Doctor has been harboring grief over the incident for hundreds of years. The incident taught him a lot more about what it means to be human than he was expecting.
As such, The Doctor has refused to allow himself to get very close to SAM because of the grief he still feels over the loss of his daughter. However, when it is revealed on SAM’s home world, Kasq, that she will require a true upbringing to help her handle the emotions that come with being human, The Doctor steps up and offers to raise her as his own.
The Doctor ultimately spends 17 Kasq years (two Earth weeks) raising SAM, providing her with more emotional depth than ever before. Upon her return, SAM has transcended her infancy and is now far more equipped to face the grief that is the central theme of the episode. Both characters develop serious depth despite their status as holograms. This depth will likely be central to both arcs during season 2.
For more Star Trek content, visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Add us as a preferred source on Google