CONVENTIONS AND PEOPLE:

ROBERT PICARDO 

Thanks to Andy Mangels, Michael A.

Matrin and Star Trek Monthly Magazine,
March 2000 Issue.
Part One of Two  

Robert Picardo never intended to become the holographic Doctor. In fact, he never intended to become an actor at all, nor a television director. But fate intervened in the early Seventies, when Picardo was a pre-med student at the prestigious Yale University : "I was pre-med through the end of my sophomore year at Yale," says Picardo, "so I never had to suffer the embarrassment of organic chemistry. I never got that far. I wasn't even very good at calculus... But I loved biology courses, and physiology, and physiological psychology. I took a lot of that. But then I was seduced away from my medical aspirations by my burgeoning theatre career at Yale."   Although the role of the Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager is Picardo's highest-profile character turn to date, he's still recognised by fans for these earlier roles : "I went to [the Netherlands] about two-and-a- half weeks ago to open the STAR TREK: Federation Science museum exhibit in Rotterdam, I was in line, waiting to change money at the airport and there was this little hubbub when they saw me. A gentlemen said, 'You are the doctor... on China Beach!' And I said, 'Yes, I am.' And he said [indicating a woman near him], 'Oh, she didn't believe me. She thought you were just the man who trained us here 10 years ago.' Everyone thinks I'm somebody they know, but [these two] had no idea that I had done anything other than play the doctor on China Beach.?  ?I get that reaction still from The Wonder Years, because that plays a lot in re-runs. And then, curiously, I will get recognised for being in Innerspace, and they have no idea about any other credit I have, but I get recognised for playing the Cowboy. So that's another one that always strikes me as just being bizarre.?   The EMH Collection :   "Nothing Human" : "I liked that show very much. Ironically, I don't know that I agree with the Doctor's argument. That was a very morally ambiguous show. Is knowledge tainted by the way in which it is gotten? And once you have knowledge, because it was gotten in a despicable way, does that mean that it should not be used? Or does knowledge itself have no moral component? Obviously, if B'Elanna Torres felt strongly enough to reject being treated by this doctor's discoveries - because he was Cardassian, because of the way the knowledge was gained - that's her prerogative as a patient, and I don't think the Doctor really has any right to override that.?  ?So I had a lot of mixed feelings about doing that show. But to me, it's classic science fiction at its best, because you're examining this great moral dilemma.?  So as a person, does Picardo agree with B'Elanna's feelings? "I basically agreed that B'Elanna should be left alone. If she felt that strongly about it, then she shouldn't be treated. Of course, we had to treat her because we had to save her.?   "Latent Image" : ?....probably my proudest episode of season five...where the Doctor develops his Human soul. He is forced to make a Sophie's Choice decision between two equally-injured patients, and the one who dies because of his decision to treat the other basically tortures his conscious mind. That was, I thought, a really, really strong episode.?   "Bride of Chaotica!" : ?That was a fun one," says Picardo with a big grin. "I also got in my ad lib, 'My performance was unimpeachable', too, which I didn't expect to make it to air. That was a lot of fun. I look very good in those Forties hats, too. I would have done well in the Forties!?   "Someone to watch over Me" : Picardo recalls that this episode, ?Was a very romantic show. It was the logical conclusion of the Doctor teaching Seven of Nine social lessons, which was a story arc I had suggested to [Executive Producer] Brannon [Braga] during Jeri's [Ryan] first year on the show.?  ?I was looking for an opportunity for the Doctor to develop Seven as a confidante since, with Kes' departure, the Doctor had no one really to unburden himself [on] in an intimate way, to treat differently than the rest of the crew. I suggested that the Doctor take it upon himself to teach Seven all the wonderful social graces that he's mastered [laughs] in his own mind. Someone to Watch Over Me was the 'dating show', and that was a lot of fun to do, and a very popular show. And romantic!?  It was one of the few times where I had to utter something on the show that I almost couldn't say. It was that silly. [laughs] But you know what? You watch the scene, and I say it with a straight face, and you kind of go, "Yeah, okay. I'll buy it." But I remember Roxanne [Dawson] laughing in my face in rehearsal!     "Warhead" : "I hated Warhead!" Picardo exclaims. "I hate the shows where I have to scream all the time! Up until three or four days before we started shooting Warhead, I had the Harry Kim part, and the bomb - the holographic matrix - was a guest star. And then they decided to make me the bomb! I had to go from presenting lucid and interesting arguments about why the bomb should disarm itself, and then suddenly I was just the hothead who was screaming the same stuff over and over again!?  ?So, I did not like playing the bomb, but the show turned out pretty well. It's just no fun playing a bomb. You've got to blow up all the time! That's what people want. So that was not one of my favourites to tell you the truth!?  ?I also had one of the stupidest lines I've ever uttered on the show in that one. We had a briefing room scene, and when they point out that we've brought a bomb on board Voyager, I say, 'All the more reason we should try to reason with it.' It was sort of a New Age 'reform the bomb' scene. [Like] 'Give the bomb a hug.' It was one of the few times where I had to utter something on the show that I almost couldn't say. It was that silly. [laughs] But you know what? You watch the scene, and I say it with a straight face, and you kind of go, "Yeah, okay. I'll buy it." But I remember Roxanne [Dawson] laughing in my face in rehearsal!?   In 1994, when casting began for Star Trek: Voyager, Picardo read the script in preparation for an audition. Although the producers wanted to see him for the role of the Emergency Medical Hologram, as the actor has said many times, he wasn't interested in playing the Doctor. "I didn't think the Doctor was funny...I didn't get the joke. I wanted to play Neelix. I read the script, and Neelix was the part for me. So I had my agent call and tum down the part.?  Picardo went in for the producers and auditioned for the Neelix role. ?I read very well. I played Neelix like a guy in a 12-step recovery programme. Kind of a weak guy who had a better side. I did hammy things for Neelix, incredibly hammy. I mean real no-nos for an audition. I used props. When Neelix first comes on Voyager, he's trying to spruce himself up, remember? He lives on a very dirty little shuttle. I took out a handful of baby powder, so when I brushed myself off I raised a cloud of dust around myself.?  The producers laughed at the performance, and the role of Neelix came down to a choice between three actors: Picardo, Ethan Phillips and a British actor. But as hopeful as he was, Picardo was about to get let down. ?I did not get the part. I was sitting outside with my wife when the phone call came in and my agent said, `You didn't get the part."'  My last scripted line was, 'Someone has failed to terminate my program.' I gave a long, droll look to all the people in the room, and then I said `I'm a doctor, not a night-light.' I think that's what got me the job.    Thankfully, the producers had asked Picardo to reconsider auditioning for the role of the Doctor. ?And at that point, I had really fallen in love with the character," Picardo says, before joking, ?and my wife had really fallen in love with the idea of my having a steady job. So, we talked it over, and decided I was going to read for the Doctor. I read for the Doctor only once. I knew they wanted me to be funny, so I ad-libbed - I must have been channelling DeForest Kelley - because I ad-libbed a joke that probably got me the job. My last scripted line was, 'Someone has failed to terminate my program.' I gave a long, droll look to all the people in the room, and then I said `I'm a doctor, not a night-light.' I think that's what got me the job."   Now into his sixth season playing the Doctor, Picardo jokes that the elements of himself that he brings into the character include, "my sex appeal. It had to be written in. It was just too powerful to discount! I think I have a reasonably dry sense of humour, and I think they've written the Doctor to my strengths, comedy-wise."   But the humour wasn't always present, as early episodes had a much crankier Emergency Medical Hologram than the more modern episodes. "When I was first cast on the show my daughters both said, 'Why are you so mad, Daddy? Why are you so mad all the time?'," he recalls. "I said, `Because they pay me to act mad.' They didn't understand why I looked so cranky because I smile a lot at home, and I don't smile very often as the Doctor.?  I realised it was time to visit the set when my older daughter said, 'Daddy, why do you have to drive to the studio? Why don't you get them to just fly overhead and beam you up onto the ship?' And I had no good answer for that. I said, 'Honey, it's time to come see that the starship Voyager is actually this big    "They've grown up, basically, watching the show. They're now eight and 10 years old. They were quite small when the show first went on the ait over five years ago. The episode right after the pilot [Parallax], when the Doctor was shrunk down because there was a malfunction in the program - they were fascinated by that. 'Oh, Daddy get small! Daddy get small! Do it, Daddy, do it! Do it! Do it!' [They thought that] anything I did in the show, I could do at home! I realised it was time to visit the set when my older daughter said, 'Daddy, why do you have to drive to the studio? Why don't you get them to just fly overhead and beam you up onto the ship?' And I had no good answer for that. I said, 'Honey, it's time to come see that the starship Voyager is actually this big."'   Picardo has also changed his approach to playing the Doctor, Humanising him as he learns more with each story. "Early on, I was very careful about making the Doctor not quite successfully Human in a lot of ways. The way I move is a little machine-like. Also, my phrasing. I learn lines differently than I ever have before. I speak the Doctor's lines in paragraphs. My notion was that in a medical situation, I answer cold. I spew information as if it's down-loading from a computer database. So I'm rigorous about learning my lines."   Although he notes that the Doctor has progressed in his social skills - partially due to his tutoring of Kes and Seven of Nine - Picardo also notes that there are some basic differences to playing a hologram that might not be immediately obvious. "What's it like being a hologram? You don't eat. Everyone else has champagne, you don't have any. You don't, have to go to the bathroom. Otherwise, playing a hologram's been nice because I don't have to be 'Starfleet'. I don't have to be courageous. To have to be a traditional Starfleet officer and to have to be unafraid in the face of danger all the time, that would really get old. So I like the fact that the Doctor can react in a unique way to any new situation. He ultimately rises to the occasion."