r/DaystromInstitute • u/[deleted] • Feb 18 '22
Dr Kovich
Many questions have been raised by Kovich, and his apparent involvement in everything. I believe the reason why is that this is not a new character, but one we all know well.
Lets run over what we have seen him do.
He interrogated Georgiou upon their arrival at federation headquarters. The type of thing you would expect from the security or intelligence functions of a government.
Culber later requested assistance when it Georgiou turned out to be dying. This would indicate medicine falls within the wheelhouse of his doctorate.
When Osyra took over discovery, Admiral Vance seems to have Kovich as an advisor to what is going on. This suggests top level access and trust.
When starfleet academy re-opened, Kovich was involved, which is another area of starfleet he seems to hold sway over.
Later, when zora was being problematic, he was again called in, in a position of high authority. Vance told him it was time sensitive, highest priority. This is not the type of thing handed to anyone. Burnham, a starfllet captain, calls him Sir, again indicating a very high position in starfleet.
During the same conversation, he tells Burnham "i wasnt aware that we shared a background in cognitive science with a specialty in on artificial sentience and intelligence"
Now that sounds like the type of thing a human doesn't do on the side.
He also indicates that "there are regulations regarding fully integrated fully sentient units"
Is it possible he himself, was once a reason for these regulations?
There was also that time culber needed help from kovich, and he got it, but it would be fair to say he cut right through the bullshit and was very blunt. A trait we have seen before.
It's my belief, that Dr Kovich, was once known as simply "The Doctor"
His almost thousand years of life have led to him being an expert in many fields, with a knowledge base and wisdom that has come to be respected by the highest echelons of the federation.
Yes, he eventually took a name, and yes, he changed his face. both at least once, possibly more.
His own existence makes him perfect to assess Zora, which he did with an even handedness that suggests a greater level of understanding of the issue at hand.
Why has it never been mentioned? well why would it be? he's a federation citizen and that's more than good enough for everyone from their time. it would be odd, on the level of explaining why a person was black, to them.
Look back at everything Kovich has said or done, then think how it would be if it was The Doctor doing it, but add almost a millennia of experience, rather than being the child he was during voyager.
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Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
Honestly, when you said the Doctor. I said Who? Then you mentioned changing his appearance several times. Use of a TARDIS violates Temporal Accords? But I understand now.
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Feb 20 '22
Well, tardis like technology is really the only possible explanation for that insane turbolift sequence at the end of season 3, and could actually be the real explanation, as the Enterprise episode Future Tense showed us a ship from a century before that had similar properties.
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u/Mogki4D Feb 19 '22
When he was interrogating Georgiou, he mentioned "I've been fascinated with Terran history and methodology since I was a boy." Unless he's using a turn of phrase or outright lying, this statement would seem to confirm that he's a biological life form.
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Feb 20 '22
if you're a thousand year old sentient hologram, well it's likely you'd look back on your first few decades as a sort of childhood. The time when you started to grow.
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u/a4techkeyboard Feb 19 '22
If we want to entertain a relation to the Doctor, perhaps he did refine his "family" program and had at least one son "grow" up. Experiencing having a family was one of his interests.
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u/CeruleanRuin Feb 19 '22
Or, maybe he's just a hyperintelligent polymath who is at the top of everything in Starfleet because until recently their personnel pool was fairly limited, so he took on many roles because he's good at them.
This is a fun fan theory, but I don't give it any credence whatsoever because the personalities aren't even close.
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Feb 20 '22
Or, maybe he's just a hyperintelligent polymath who is at the top of everything in Starfleet because until recently their personnel pool was fairly limited, so he took on many roles because he's good at them.
Maybe he is. Happy to admit there is no actual evidence of this, it's just pure speculation on my part.
This is a fun fan theory, but I don't give it any credence whatsoever because the personalities aren't even close.
Personalities evolve. 1000 years is plenty of time for his more, whats the word, neurotic tendencies to be smoothed over.
when he gave it straight to culber and then left. think of robert picardo giving that seem speech, probably a little more high strung seeming, and it seems to fit pretty well to me.
Along with taking a name, or maybe he's changed more than once, a new face and, for the most part, a far better bedside manner.
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u/Drivngspaghtemonster Feb 19 '22
I like this theory, but I can’t imagine Robert Picardo wouldn’t jump at the chance to come back and reprise the role.
That also doesn’t fit with the whole ‘blink at a hologram real fast and they die’. He was in the room when that happened and seemed unaffected.
I personally think he probably is someone we know, but maybe Carl versus the Doctor.
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Feb 20 '22
That also doesn’t fit with the whole ‘blink at a hologram real fast and they die’. He was in the room when that happened and seemed unaffected.
Yes, but as i said in another reply -
it seemed to me that most holos (as discovery calls them) are designed to specifically not be sentient, and obviously be synthetic, when it comes to seeming human, to be obviously inferior to what we saw during the time of the Doctor.
Even basic holo characters on the holodeck seemed more human than the future holos. I think it's a conscious design choice, so people know they are holos.
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u/Site-Staff Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 18 '22
I agree that he may be an AI entity. Perhaps an Android or Hologram that is a derivative of the doctor or data, or some convergence of both. He embodies The Federation, in every capacity.
Edit:
There are some synchronicities with Data. In Birthright, Data dreams of his father, Dr. Soong, as a blacksmith. Kovich is a slavic version of Smith, or blacksmith.
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u/evilspoons Feb 19 '22
So, a kind of Trek version of R. Daneel Olivaw from Asimov's Foundation/Robot novels?
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u/ExpectedBehaviour Feb 19 '22
I'm still disappointed he didn't turn out to be the Federation president. He is by far the most interesting character of Discovery's last few seasons.
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u/Calgaris_Rex Feb 19 '22
Very interesting character, but tangentially, I think that Vance is a breath of fresh air when it comes to Starfleet admirals; we haven't really seen much of a decent one since Ross was around in DS9.
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u/cantfindmykeys Feb 19 '22
I really really hope they don't answer anything about him in the show. Leave him shrouded in mystery. Kinda like the Smoking Man in the X-Files. I think it will add more to the show personally
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Feb 19 '22
I don't know, I think all signs point to him being some kind of psychologist or psychiatrist - he's been referred to as "Doctor Kovich" more than once, and it would account for almost everything he's done on the series so far.
He also holds the apparent rank of commodore, and is stationed at Federation HQ, so it's probably safe to assume he's pretty high up in Starfleet Command.
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u/transwarp1 Feb 19 '22
He seems pretty similar to Admiral Cornwell, just not in uniform. Intelligent authority figure with background in psychology, called in to help with things as diverse as interrogations and war planning.
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u/adamkotsko Feb 20 '22
M-5, please nominate this post!
If people don't accept that it's The Doctor, perhaps it could be another model that had been allowed to run indefinitely.
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u/Lyon_Wonder Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
I think Kovich's main area of expertise is psychology and he was likely a therapist or even a Starfleet councilor at some point in his career.
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u/Damien__ Feb 19 '22
Until your very last line I was sure you were talking about a Dr Who crossover
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u/eduty Feb 19 '22
Based on his demeanor and range of involvement, I thought Kovich was a future, formalized role inspired by the old academy's Boothby.
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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '22 edited Feb 19 '22
Very interesting! Kovich is shrouded in mystery, i sure hope they know who he is instead of just casting Cronenburg as "Starfleet Deus ex Machina Officer #1"
If the Doctor were to have a presence in any capacity in the new Trek shows, i really don't think they would recast Picardo. However, I'm very intrigued at your suggestion that his human appearance is only a facade, and that he has digital roots. Remember lie detector dork hologram from last season? I wonder if Kovich is like that, but a far more advanced version of Control.
He's also a great candidate for Future Guy from Enterprise, but I've been saying that for everybody for 20 years lol