The universe has a funny way of making things come together in ways we never anticipated. Famously, “Star Trek: The Original Series” only became the show we know and love after receiving a rare second chance to improve upon its failed pilot episode. In its totality, not even Gene Roddenberry could’ve anticipated what a phenomenon the franchise would become over its 60 years of highs and (occasional) lows. But there’s something to be said for how this manifests in the micro, as “Star Trek: Voyager” actor Robert Picardo came to understand over the course of his run as the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) known as the Doctor.
Few “Trek” stars can rival Picardo in terms of his zig-zagging journey to where he ended up. For one thing, as he admitted to me during an interview that took place at this year’s New York Comic Con, he did all he could not to play the Doctor in the first place. Instead choosing to read for the makeup-heavy alien Neelix (“because I thought it was funnier,” he wryly remarked), Picardo explained that it took a stroke of luck — and some very persistent producers — to arrive at the character he was meant to play all along:
“The thing that impressed me first about the producers is they came back to me after that and said, ‘Would you read for the part [the Doctor] we originally were interested in you for? There’s something about your voice.’ And I literally said to my agent, ‘I don’t get the joke. I know they want him to be funny. There’s no lines. He’s described as colorless and humorless. I don’t know how to make that funny.’ But apparently I did.”
The real secret behind his success, however? “My resting b**** face,” as he colorfully describes.
Robert Picardo credits his resting b**** face for helping him play the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager
Of course, “Voyager” wasn’t the last time that we’d see Robert Picardo reprise his role as the Doctor in “Star Trek,” as his nostalgic (and ever-so-grumpy) return in “Starfleet Academy” most recently proved. As it turns out, fans couldn’t get enough of the straight-laced doctor-turned-professor, even while he found an entirely new generation of Starfleet officers to annoy him to no end. More than anything else, that could be why the character has proved to be such a fan-favorite figure over the years. It’s certainly what Picardo thinks, thanks to an insightful observation by his kids.
Later in our interview, Picardo touched on the difficulty he had wrapping his mind around exactly what the producers and writers behind “Voyager” wanted from the Doctor — and specifically from his performance. Throw on any given episode of the show and it’s obvious why the character is such a consistent highlight. On paper, though, it took some time for Picardo to fully grasp the character’s particular sense of lived-in charm. Fortunately, he pinpointed the exact mannerism that kept him afloat from one episode to the next until he could make that connection for himself:
“According to my children, the key to my success on ‘Voyager’ is my resting b**** face. Until I could understand what my role was about, that got me through.”
Absolutely no lies detected. Like Spock in his more short-fused moments, much of the humor of “Voyager” and “Starfleet Academy” comes from seeing how much (or, more accurately, how little) nonsense the Doctor could tolerate. Picardo has brought all sorts of warmth and nuance to the role over the years, but there’s no denying how much Trekkies love that scowl.