Star Trek fans love The Doctor, portrayed by Robert Picardo for seven seasons of Voyager, as well as in other projects, including Star Trek: The Experience and, more recently, the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy. He’s also on board as the holographic medic in the upcoming Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series. Fans will also remember that Picardo played Lewis Zimmerman, the scientist who created The Doctor -- aka the Emergency Medical Hologram -- in three episodes of Voyager and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine hour “Doctor Bashir, I Presume.”
Somewhat lost to the passage of time is the fact that The Doctor was originally going to be called Doc Zimmerman. Memory Alpha points out that that the character was referred to as Doc Zimmerman “in the pre-production of Voyager and the scripts which were written for Voyager Season 1.” Further, the site mentions that both a British advertisement and a TV Guide article went with Doc Zimmerman.
Doc Zimmerman, to be clear, was not Lewis Zimmerman, but rather the character we know as The Doctor. Lewis Zimmerman came along later. The Doctor made his debut in the Voyager series premiere, “Caretaker,” which aired on January 16, 1995. But, for a while, the confusion was understandable. For example, in September of 1994, the media received press materials previewing the series. One six-page document confirmed that Kate Mulgrew had replaced Genevieve Bujold as the captain and then included actor and character biographies.
It states that Picardo will play Doc Zimmerman. And the character bio reads, “Doc Zimmerman (a human male), is a holographic figure -- an emergency medical program devised by Starfleet. When the ship’s doctor is killed, Doc Zimmerman becomes the resident physician aboard the Starship Voyager. The hologram is programmed with up-to-date medical knowledge and is capable of treating any disease or injury.” A second document provided to the media in a press kit includes a quote from Picardo in which he refers to the character as Doc Zimmerman.
The character, during Voyager’s seven-year run, was never given a name. Speaking to StarTrek.com in 2010, Picardo said, “The reason they didn’t name The Doctor was because of me.” He added, “Andy continued to play that joke on and off for all seven seasons because I think the idea of an indecisive computer program is an intrinsically funny one.”