Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s tender and touching tribute to Voyager, particularly The Doctor, is undoubtedly one of the highpoints of the streaming show’s first season. SFA’s eighth episode, “The Life of the Stars,” honors Voyager’s classic episode “Real Life,” and brings a heartbreaking storyline 800 years in the making full circle as the EMH Doctor (Robert Picardo) finally confronts the haunting pain of losing his daughter Belle (Lindsey Haun).
After attempting to keep the photonic cadet SAM (Kerrice Brooks) at arm's length most of the season, for fear of getting too close to her and experiencing such pain again, The Doctor was forced to confront his demons because it was the only way to save SAM’s life. Starfleet Academy creator addressed the must-see story’s origins in a new interview, which includes a significant Easter egg, too. Gaia Violo said via TrekMovie.com:
“It was there from the beginning, the idea of The Doctor having lived 800 years, for so long, and the experience of loss, and what that means for someone that experienced life — I like to think of it — like a flowing river. It is just constant, and what that means for him [...] the idea that there was just one other holographic student there who was looking at him for that level of mentorship and his inability to connect, because it is too painful when you’re living life again as a flowing river and everybody’s passing you by and you’re still there. That was always intriguing.”
Violo continued by saying:
“And then I think the specificity of how are we going to handle that story and bring it full circle with SAM? How are we going to address ‘Real Life’ and what happened in season 3 of Voyager. And rewatching that episode and the how gut wrenching that ending is; there were so many – in many of the many drafts that Jane [Maggs] and I did, there were so many Easter eggs to that episode, like the blanket that he holds. So, we really leaned in and really wanted to honor that storyline. And then as, obviously, the writing process goes on, we simplified, we streamlined the episode. But I would say that we wanted to honor that story at the very beginning with the pilot, but it really came full circle. And we really delved into it in episode 8.” (Continued on page 2...)