Starfleet Academy features not one but two holograms
On the other end of the age spectrum, Robert Picardo returns in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy as the now 900-year-old Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) Trekkies all know and love from the Star Trek universe: The Doctor.
Not unlike Kerrice Brooks, Picardo himself had some difficulties when it came to acting the part of his own hologram, particularly where The Doctor’s mortality so greatly differs from that of a human being. Picardo said in a separate interview featured in the same issue of SFX Magazine:
"For a human actor who is certainly as concerned with the issues of mortality as anyone else my age, it’s a funny leap of faith to try to put those personal concerns aside and imagine what this must be like to have generations of organic colleagues grow old and die around you. It’s got to influence your interest in developing interpersonal relationships in future.”
Picardo, who has confirmed he is playing the original EMH Doctor that appeared in both Voyager and Prodigy, also said during the same sit-down:
“That’s 800 years of digital memory, where the memory of a beloved colleague from 793 years ago is as fresh and clear as someone you saw yesterday. Only science fiction can give an actor a challenge like that to try to wrap your mind around!”
As a lifelong Trekkie, it’s good to know that Starfleet Academy has already done one thing right: ensuring SAM and The Doctor share scenes together. What a waste it would have been not to have the two holograms interacting. Hopefully, their relationship is front and center, rather than being relegated to the, shall I say it, lower decks of the USS Athena.
For more Star Trek content, and to share your thoughts/comments with us, please visit the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy debuts Thursday, Jan. 15, with two episodes on Paramount Plus.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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