Star Trek: Starfleet Academy could happen centuries after the occasions of Star Trek: Voyager, however that’s not stopping one of many characters from the latter present from showing within the former. Robert Picardo will reprise The Physician within the upcoming Star Trek TV present, with the hologram now instructing on the title establishment. Evidently that residing by means of almost a millennia would change somebody, even an EMH. After having spoke with Starfleet Academy author Kirsten Beyer, I’m excited to listen to in regards to the “very totally different place” The Physician’s in once we reunite with him within the new collection.
Though Beyer by no means wrote for Star Trek: Voyager throughout its seven-season run, she has written 11 Voyager tie-in novels stretching again to 2005. So as a result of she’s goes means again with this nook of the Star Trek franchise, I inquired with Beyer throughout my interview along with her in regards to the new narrative podcast collection Star Trek: Khan (which she co-wrote and govt produced) about getting to write down for The Physician on a TV present. She began off by sharing with me:
Properly I am within the author’s room all day on Academy. So we’re always speaking about his character, and I am always offering info that I’ve in my mind about him. But additionally, his character is now in a really totally different place than I ever wrote him. So it isn’t as a lot an train in, ‘Properly, this can be a factor that occurred to The Physician’ as ‘That is who he is perhaps now.’ He is existed for 900 years. That is rather a lot.
That’s rather a lot certainly! The Physician’s time with the Voyager crew is now a blip on his lengthy lifespan, with him now having met and misplaced so many different individuals since then. That’s rather a lot to deal with, so after all The Physician could have considerably developed by the point we reunite with him in Starfleet Academy, together with altering the best way he speaks within the thirty second century. He made notable progress “being” human on Voyager, and I sit up for seeing how far he’s come since then.
It stays to be seen how a lot Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will delve into what’s occurred to The Physician post-Voyager, each on this first season and the already-greenlit Season 2. Nevertheless, Kirsten Beyer additionally mentioned this about how she reacted when she discovered The Physician can be included within the collection:
I used to be delighted when the choice was made to incorporate him. It’s humorous as a result of lots of instances these tales… it helps when you will have characters that may bridge the hole, however this was an enormous one from the final time we noticed the universe and our heroes and the place we are actually, However understanding that it was gonna be useful, however that additionally you’ll have this character who would have been on a 900-year journey, most of which you do not get to inform proper up entrance. Solely over time will a few of these experiences be revealed. It is simply actually thrilling for storytellers, to be sincere with you.
Whereas Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will mark Robert Picardo’s first time taking part in The Physician onscreen since Star Trek: Voyager went off the air in 2001, he did voice the character in Star Trek: Prodigy (which sadly can’t be streamed with a Netflix subscription anymore). That animated collection noticed him appearing as a mentor of types to these foremost characters whereas they have been aboard the USS Dauntless. Now we’ll see how he does as an teacher to members of the primary new class of Starfleet cadets in over a century following the occasions of Star Trek: Discovery.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is predicted to premiere on Paramount+ someday in early 2026. Along with Robert Picardo, Discovery alums Tig Notaro and Oded Fehr will respectively reprise Jett Reno and Admiral Charles Vance as collection regulars, and Mary Wiseman is reprising Sylvia Tilly as a visitor star.