Star Trek legend reveals improvised callback to 30-year-old episode in new spin-off

Star Trek legend Robert Picardo has revealed that fans are in for a callback that has been 30 years in the making in new spin-off Starfleet Academy.

The actor is reprising his role as the Doctor in the new spin-off, three decades after he originated the role on Star Trek: Voyager. And for him, it was crucial to give fans of the '90s series some Easter eggs to find.

"I had the [greatest] Easter egg of all time," Picardo exclusively told RadioTimes.com.

"I repeated the same first laugh that I got in Voyager when I say the line 'Medical Tricorder' with withering sarcasm. It's exactly my first scene in Voyager, when they hand me the wrong instrument and [it's like] ‘You're the biggest idiot I've ever seen.’

"So I asked if I could do that again as a surprise for the fans who've watched the old pilot 30 times."

The new spin-off is set in the 32nd century, after the events of Discovery and a whopping 800 years after we last saw the Doctor.

Now, we're set to see him dispensing wisdom (and sharing his love of opera) with cadets at Starfleet Academy as a teacher, with the spin-off following the next generation of officers as they try to save the world while grappling with school pranks, classmate rivalry and first loves.

Picardo has also teased that we're set to see a completely new side to the Doctor in the new series.

"Late in the season, you'll see a side of the character that you've never seen before, as far as the emotionality. So that was a challenge to do," he told us. "There's a sort of a surprise event that happens late in the episode for my character. I'm anxious to see how longtime fans who know the character respond."

"It's hard to say what he's been doing for the last 800 years!" Picardo added.

"Now the Star Trek canon sort of acts as a whole, and there's a reference in the pilot to my having taught young cadets on Star Trek: Prodigy, so the Doctor has a history of teaching... In that respect, he has been teaching before and he's a natural teacher, if not an easy one, because he's full of himself. He likes to pontificate!"

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is coming to Paramount+ on 15th January.

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