Star Trek: Starfleet Academy certainly faces its fair share of detractors. However, creator Gaia Violo and showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau couldn’t have cast a better Star Trek icon than the Emergency Medical Hologram himself, Robert Picardo, to bring a sense of familiarity to the franchise’s latest streaming series.
However, Picardo initially “thought it was a mistake” reprising his role as the EMH. The actor said of returning to the role in an interview via People: “I would say very unexpected — I thought it was a mistake! They called back and said, ‘No, it's live action.' And then I was really confused! And then my agent, my theatrical agent, [said], ‘Yeah, they want to talk to you about being in the new Star Trek series.’”
The reason for Picardo’s surprise at playing a live-action version of The Doctor again is simple: the actor just lent his voice to the role in 2024. Unbeknownst to some fans, Picardo portrayed the EMH once more in season 2 of the must-see animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy, which also featured fellow Voyager co-stars Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran as Janeway and Chakotay respectively.
Nevertheless, as time passed, Picardo warmed up to the idea of playing The Doctor again. He said during the same sit-down: “Those first three or four weeks waiting for that meeting were really the strangest, that part of knowing they're interested but not knowing what it was. And then they laid out the idea they had for the character and how he would fit in and what he would be doing in the future: teaching cadets at a newly reopened Starfleet Academy.”
Clearly, Picardo made the right choice returning as The Doctor, and Starfleet Academy’s eighth episode, “The Life of the Stars,” spotlights one of Star Trek’s most beloved characters in the best way possible. After losing his holographic daughter 800 years ago in Voyager, and watching his friends die over the years, The Doctor finally sheds his facade of not wanting to be involved in the lives of others.
When the holographic cadet Series Acclimation Mil’s (SAM) life is threatened, The Doctor steps up and becomes SAM’S father in order to complete her new programming and save the Starfleet cadet from the clutches of death. It’s a heartwarming ending and a pivotal full-circle moment, which gives Picardo the character arc that must obviously enticed him to return to the role.
I love that Picardo reprised his role in Starfleet Academy. Did you enjoy seeing him become a father again in “The Life of the Stars,” too? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. And Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is now streaming on Paramount+.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!