Star Trek legend teases "never-before-seen" side to iconic returning ‘90s character in new spin-off

Star Trek legend Robert Picardo has teased what we can expect from the return of his character, the Doctor, 30 years after his first appearance.

Picardo, who played the Emergency Medical Holographic program serving as chief medical officer in Star Trek: Voyager, will reprise his role for the upcoming school days spin-off Starfleet Academy, which will follow young cadets as they train to become the next generation of officers.

Promising a "deeper" side to the Doctor ahead, Picardo exclusively told RadioTimes.com: "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.

"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, how they respond."

Starfleet Academy rockets ahead to the 32nd century, after the events of Discovery, and a whopping 800 years after we last saw Picardo's Doctor.

"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!"

The new series, which also sees the return of Holly Hunter's Nahla Ake, who takes on a new role as chancellor of Starfleet Academy, is set to be a celebration of Star Trek's history, showrunner Noga Landau has said.

She added to RadioTimes.com: "There's so much texture and there are so many Easter eggs in there for fans of the canon, for people who've been waiting to see stuff with Deep Space Nine, with the Klingons, there's so much in there that's gonna feel really familiar too."

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

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