AI writes a holonovel; or, the Doctor goes to court to prove he is not ChatGPT.
“Author, Author” is an odd episode, and I’m watching it at an odd time.
A few weeks ago, I saw a Bluesky post from a critic who was lamenting that so much science fiction is invested in exploring the personhood of artificial lifeforms, and it’s all just ChatGPT apologia. I think this was specifically referring to Murderbot, but I can’t be sure because after a long internal struggle, I stopped myself from “Well, actually”ing her, and moved on with my life.
I joked a few weeks back, in my “Workforce” write-up, that AI is coming for Harry Kim’s job, and I’ve absolutely called the Doctor “ChatGPT with a Spotify account” on my podcast. He’s overbearing, mansplaining, prone to inserting himself into situations where he’s not needed, and when he’s wrong, it becomes everyone else’s problem. Frankly, the parallels are hilarious.
But, of course, artificial lifeforms in science fiction exist as metaphor and allegory. The first robots in science fiction — in the play R.U.R. by Czech writer Karel Čapek — were metaphors for the exploited working class, and the play ended with the very first robot uprising that ends in the extinction of humanity.
Artificial beings are often, though not always, allegories for oppression, and that’s the role the Doctor plays in this episode, which is an odd mishmash of holodeck shenanigans and legal drama and ends on a note that’s both bittersweet and hopeful.
It’s also another Voyager episode which has me going, “Yes, of course the Doctor deserves the same rights as any organic sapient being, but my gosh, he’s SUCH an ass.” And you know what? That’s good. The Doctor doesn’t have to be perfect — in fact, I’d argue that one of the mistakes his holonovel makes is depicting himself as the perfect victim and his organic colleagues as monsters.
The first A plot: the doctor has written a holonovel
This half of the episode feels in a lot of ways like a weak retread of “Worst Case Scenario”, and if I was able to give editorial notes, I’d be cutting the cold open and moving the stuff about regular communications with Earth, and opening on Tom’s experience of the opening chapter.
But I actually can’t hate the Doctor’s work. I mean, yes, his holonovel is very bad, and defamatory, and unfair to his friends, but the script really captures the messiness of a first draft by an inexperienced writer. There’s a seed of a good story here, and evidence that the Doctor is capable of telling it well — he just needs to go through all the tedious work of learning to get good.
Unfortunately, he is programmed to act like a straight white man, which means he sends his half-finished draft to a publisher before it’s ready. I am told this happens a lot; usually the submission is politely ignored, sometimes it ends up as a book chain’s Book of the Month, if the CEO wrote it.
One thing which struck me is that, while Janeway and the crew are understandably unhappy about the content of the Doctor’s holonovel, they mostly treat him the same way they’d treat Tom if he wrote and published a holonovel depicting his colleagues as murderers, bigots and sex maniacs. Janeway doesn’t order him to withdraw his book, the way she tried to order him to cut back on his musical career in “Virtuoso”. Growth!
Of course, she also complains that the Doctor seems to think he’s oppressed, and I’m like, ma’am, you have literally had multiple episodes this season about holographic rights, not to mention the two-parter about the horrors of being forced into a job instead of getting to choose your path.
In one sense, this is due to the Doctor’s flare for melodrama — instead of depicting the things he has really experienced, he’s gone for extreme and fictional examples (and then used his friends’ faces). But I think it’s also a failure of empathy and imagination on Janeway’s part.
The second A plot: “The measure of man” but make it intellectual property law
I don’t think that “Author, Author” is actually a good episode — the structure is messy, the pivot from “shenanigans” to “personhood” comes at an odd point, and the cold open is simply not exciting — but I really enjoy it, mainly for this second half twist. I work in the legal industry as an executive assistant because I find the law interesting and I enjoy it as a spectator sport, and this rare glimpse of the Federation’s civil law, of intellectual property law in a post-capitalist world, is genuinely exciting to me.
I appreciate that, no matter how much the Doctor has annoyed his friends and hurt their feelings, they rally around him. Tuvok’s half-hearted proposal of a strategy which would not protect the Doctor’s personhood is rejected, and instead, we get scenes where Harry and Seven talk up the Doctor’s skills — particularly notable from Harry, who was positioned as a rival in “Workforce” — while Janeway tells a story of him disobeying orders, which he simply could not do if he was “only” software.
And it’s realistic that the Doctor doesn’t win a great victory which secures personhood for all holograms. I mean, I hate it, but I respect that for once Voyager doesn’t go for the easy solution. The mediator goes, “Oh wow, I am NOT qualified to answer the question of hologram personhood!” but concludes that the Doctor fits the legal definition of “artist”.
A lot of civil rights battles are like this — very small wins in specific situations, working alongside direct action and campaigns to change the attitude of the general public, and next thing you know, marriage equality is being enshrined into law, and the bigots are moving on to persecute trans people instead. (Civil rights battles also never actually end. You take your wins, celebrate them, then gear up for the next fight, which is probably going to be a backlash to the success you just had. In Star Trek terms, the Doctor might be on course to secure personhood for holograms, but also the Federation is less than a decade away from banning all holograms.)
And that’s the real ending of this episode: while the Doctor is free to pursue a creative path, knowing that he will have legal control of his intellectual property, bootleg copies of his terrible holonovel are reaching the people who need it most — the enslaved Mark 1 Emergency Medical Holograms who have been assigned to mining duty on a distant asteroid. Cue the next robot uprising.
There are also a bunch of B plots
Real time communication with Earth! Harry wants to talk to his parents! B’Elanna’s dad wants to get in contact! Seven of Nine stands in the background and eavesdrops and learns about family!
These are all blips, but I love them. B’Elanna’s dad is THE WORST but he’s also apologetic about it, and not seeking forgivenness right away. Which is actually unusual for Voyager.
Also unusual is the tack it takes with Harry: for six and a half seasons, all he’s wanted is to talk to his parents. Now he has his wish, and it seems like he immediately remembers why he joined Starfleet in the first place. This scene feels like a bit of a joke about Asian parents having high expectations and no sense of boundaries, but it’s also a scene which shows that families can love each other very deeply, and be basically functional, but also, isn’t it nice to have a little bit of space? Not a whole delta quadrant of it, but a little?
Seven’s scene with her aunt is an odd capstone to an odd episode, but I like that she is finally meeting someone who knew her before she was assimilated, and who seems to take her adult self in stride.
Other observations
- Reg Barclay did not annoy me at all in this episode!
- In a post capitalist utopia, copyright and intellectual property rights seem to involve having control of one’s work and getting credit for it, rather than income. And yet, of course, once a holonovel is out there, it will always be circulating on the space torrents.
- I’ve talked about the mobile emitter as assistive technology to help the Doctor live with his “disability” of being a hologram, and it’s interesting that he essentially uses the same construction here — but he talks about his emitter the way able-bodied people talk about wheelchairs, as a sad burden rather than as an instrument of freedom. He’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s one of those moments where I go, “Oh, you guys should have asked a disabled person.”
In conclusion
This is not a good episode, but I like it? Three holonovels out of five.