10 Weirdest Laws In The Star Trek Universe
5. Protocol 28, Subsection D
In the event of a hostile takeover, the EMH is to deactivate and wait for rescue.
This one is bizarre! Quite frankly, this one could end up sentencing a crew to death. In the situation of the USS Prometheus, the EMH-2 cites this protocol to Voyager's EMH as he attempts to deactivate himself. Thankfully, The Doctor sees the folly in this and prevents it. While the crew of the Prometheus had been killed by the Romulans, this protocol simply couldn't exist fleet-wide.
If that were the case, Voyager's takeover by the Hirogen in The Killing Game should have resulted in The Doctor switching himself off. The same would be true of Voyager's takeover by The Kazon. Voyager gets taken over a lot, come to think of it.
Without The Doctor's help, many of the crew of Voyager would have perished at the hands of the hunters. He continued to patch them up again and again, so that they could continue to fight in the wargames. While this could be seen as a form of cruel and unusual punishment, it saved the lives of the Starfleet officers. Had this protocol been enacted to the letter, there would only have been Hirogen hunters to patch people up - something that no member of the crew would want in the least.