JUPITER STATION, page 5
Screenshots are from [Life Line] unless otherwise stated.
Screenshots are from [Life Line] unless otherwise stated.
BIOGRAPHY OF DR LEWIS ZIMMERMAN
"Computer, display all Starfleet records on Dr Lewis Zimmerman."
| As a Starfleet technician Dr Zimmerman was assigned to the Holoprogramming Centre at Jupiter Station by 2367 at which time he made various breakthroughs in holographic technology. Lt. Reginald Barclay was one of the members of the team. Dr Zimmerman developed the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH), which was designed as a short-term starship supplement to medical personnel in emergencies (not to be used above 1,500 hours), and accordingly the EMH was limited to areas equipped with holographic projectors (a.k.a. holographic emitters), i.e. sickbay. USS Voyager's Doctor is an EMH Mark 1. Dr Zimmerman based the appearance and character of the EMH Mark 1 on himself. Dr Zimmerman programmed the EMH Mark 1 with information from 2,000 medical references and the experience of 47 physicians (including that of the legendary Dr Leonard McCoy, after whom the pet iguana is probably named) and the medical knowledge of over 3,000 cultures, plus over five million surgical treatments/techniques, with contingency options and adaptive programs, and the result was a program containing over 50 million gigaquads of data. Dr Zimmerman programmed the EMH to state a standard activation phrase: "Please state the nature of the medical emergency," and this continued with at least the EMH Mark 2. The EMH was also programmed to be activated automatically by a red alert. The EMH program's full name was "EMH program AK-one, diagnostic and surgical subroutine omega three-two-three".
In addition to the program, a holographic diagnostic tool was developed, which works on a holodeck in an environment that mimics the appearance and most importantly the facilities of Jupiter Station. (Sources include: [#3 Parallax], [#8 Ex Post Facto], [#17 Projections], [#46 The Swarm], [#118 Relativity], [#144 Life Line].) Unfortunately the EMH Mark 1, of which 675 (or thereabouts) were created, did not prove successful. | 
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Dr Zimmerman: Emergency Medical Hotheads, Extremely Marginal Housecalls - that's what everyone used to call the Mark 1s until they were bounced out of the medical corps. I tried to have them decommissioned but Starfleet in its infinite wisdom overruled me and reassigned them all to work [by cleaning conduits on] waste-transfer barges.
 EMH Mark 2 [Message in a Bottle] |
His holographic assistant Haley and his friend Lt. Reg Barclay described the effect this had on Dr Zimmerman:
Haley: He was extremely proud of the Mark 1. He used to dream about hundreds of holograms in every corner of the Quadrant, saving lives. He put so much of himself into its development. I suppose it only seemed natural that it should look like him too. .... He was devastated. We do not know how many EMH versions have been produced so far, but the Mark 4 has been mentioned on screen, together with the information that there is no Mark 12. |
| During this time Dr Zimmerman, in his capacity of Director of Holographic Imaging and Programming at Jupiter Station, visited Deep Space 9 for about three weeks to investigate the feasibility of using the renowned Dr Julian Bashir, the resident chief medical officer on the station, as the template for a new holoprogram - the LMH or Long-term Medical Hologram, whose use would be more extensive than the early EMHs and often in more remote facilities. During this time, the commanding officer of Jupiter Station was female, as mentioned by Dr Zimmerman in conversation (in a soundfile below).
When Dr Zimmerman was asked by Dr Bashir as a personal favour not to interview his parents, he made a note to contact the parents immediately. On accepting Dr Zimmerman's invitation to visit DS9, Dr Bashir's parents accidentally let slip to the prototype LMH (which looked identical to Dr Bashir) the secret that their son had as a child received an illegal course of treatment of genetic enhancement. As a result Dr Bashir was eliminated as the LMH-template. During this visit to DS9, Dr Zimmerman fell in love with Leeta, a dabo girl employed at Quark's Bar, and asked her to return to Jupiter Station with him where he had obtained for her the job of manageress of Jupiter Station's café. We learn from this that the cafe is half the size of Quark's Bar at Deep Space 9. Leeta was all set to leave with Dr Zimmerman, when at the last moment she learned the news that she had hoped for - that Rom, Quark's brother, returned her romantic feelings - and accordingly Dr Zimmerman returned to Jupiter Station alone. [DS9: Dr Bashir, I Presume?]
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 Roy, the holographic fly |
Dr Zimmerman was commissioned by Starfleet Intelligence to create a holographic experiment in microsurveillance. The result was Roy, a holographic fly, which Dr Zimmerman thereafter kept as a pet - Roy was allowed to fly around at will, although Haley told Roy: "If I've told you once I've told you a thousand times: keep off the food!" However, in 2376 Roy was squashed when Voyager's Doctor, irritated by Roy's buzzing, slammed a book down on him. |
 Haley |
One of Dr Zimmerman's main companions is his assistant, Haley. She is a hologram he designed and created and has been operational ever since she was brought online in 2367. Dr Zimmerman claims to have no affection for her but on stardate 53292 her program malfunctioned and he cancelled a lecture on Vulcan to return to repair her. |
Dr Zimmerman may be irrascible but one cannot help but be fond of him. After Zimmerman plays a practical joke on him, the Doctor relays the story to Barclay and Haley. She Haley tells him it means that Zimmerman likes him.
Voyager's Doctor: I ran a mitochondrial scan. There was something odd about the results. So I spent a full hour analysing them. And what did I discover? He's a Vulcan marsupial. He reconfigured my tricorder! |
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 | Only the viewer witnesses evidence of Dr Zimmerman's affection for his friend Lt Reginald Barclay and for Haley, when, alone in his lab late at night, Dr Zimmerman continues to dictate his last will and testament. He is preparing his will as he is dying (see paragraph below). He resumes with "Subsection 8, the Trojan Horse project. I hereby bequeath my latest research in holographic infiltration technology to the only engineer I trust to complete the work, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay. Subsection 9, holographic art. I hereby bequeath my entire collection, including the 23rd century masterpiece Woman in Four Dimensions to the person who has appreciated it the most. I guess that would be Lieutenant Barclay too. Subsection 10, Haley. I realise she's only a hologram but she's been a loyal assistant for many years. I'd like to request that Starfleet keep her program running for as long as this research facility exists. She's been as real to me as anyone I've ever known, not that I've known many people. I have created most of my friends." He suffers pains from his illness and has to pause the recording. "Don't worry," he says to Leonard, his pet holographic iguana, "I'll find a home for you too." [Life Line] |
In 2376 Dr Zimmerman knew he had only a few months to live. He was suffering from acute cellular degradation and up to then had been treated by the finest doctors in Starfleet as well as the most recent EMH versions, but without success. When Voyager's Doctor learned the news from Reg Barclay, he had himself sent to Jupiter Station where, after initial resistance from Dr Zimmerman who did not want to be poked around by doctors any more, he successfully used Borg regeneration techniques to reverse the cellular degradation.
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