Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s most exciting legacy character is The Doctor (Robert Picardo) fromStar Trek: Voyager.Currently in production,Starfleet Academyis the nextStar Trekseries targeted for a 2026 premiere on Paramount+. Executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau,Starfleet Academyis a spinoff ofStar Trek: Discoveryset in the late 32nd century. Encouragingly,Star Trek: Starfleet Academyhas already been renewed for season 2by Paramount+, which will film back-to-back with season 1.
Rounding out its new cast of young Starfleet Cadets,Star Trek: Starfleet Academyis headlined by Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter as the Academy’s Chancellor, and Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti asStarfleet Academyseason 1’s recurring villain. However,Starfleet Academyalso brings back a handful ofStar Treklegacy characters: Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), and Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) fromStar Trek: Discovery, and,best of all, The Doctor fromStar Trek: Voyager.
Why Star Trek: Voyager’s Doctor Is Starfleet Academy’s Most Exciting Legacy Character
The Doctor Brings Star Trek’s TNG Era To Starfleet Academy’s 32nd Century
The Doctor fromStar Trek: Voyageris an unexpected and thrilling surprise addition toStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.In an interview withTVO Today: The Agenda,Robert Picardo confirmed that he is playing the same Emergency Medical Hologram as inStar Trek: Voyager,noting that the Doctor is"now several hundred years old, maybe 900 years old.“This eliminates concerns thatStarfleet Academyis reinventing the EMH. Rather, he is indeed The DoctorStar Trekfans know and love. Read Picardo’s quote below:
They’ve taken me out of holographic mothballs. The character is an artificial intelligence. He’s now several hundred years old, but it is set in the more distant future thatStar Trek: Discoverypropelled itself into. So, in that future, my character is now several hundred years old, maybe 900 years old. Remarkably, I don’t look that much older. But I’m having a ball working on it, revisiting the character.
Star Trek: Voyager’s EMH officially joiningStarfleet AcademymeansThe Doctor singlehandedly representsStar Trek: The Next Generation’s beloved 24th-century era in the 32nd century.Star Trek: Discovery’s legacy characters Tilly and Jett Reno technically originate fromStar Trek: The Original Series' 23rd century time frame.Star Trek: Discoveryseasons 3-5 lacked a steady influence from the popularTNGera. But now, The Doctor gets to bridge the gap and embodyTNG’s andVoyager’s values inStar Trek: Starfleet Academywhile Robert Picardo banters with an all-new cast.
The Doctor Is Part Of Two Versions Of Star Trek’s Starfleet Academy
Star Trek: Prodigy Also Has The Doctor
The Doctor will become a positive influence on the cadets from two eras of Starfleet Academy.Star Trek: Prodigyseason 2revealed that Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) tasked The Doctor with overseeing the young crew of the USS Protostar, who were potential Starfleet Academy cadets whenProdigyseason 2 began. The Doctor guided Dal R’El (Brett Gray) and his friends onto the brand-new USS Voyager-A, and he looked after the kids while musing about writing his latest holo novel.
Where You’ve Seen Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s Cast Before
Star Trek’s next series, Starfleet Academy, counts Academy Award-caliber actors and a crew of new faces in its growing cast.
Of course, The Doctor has a brilliant holographic mind and has made great strides with his own humanity.It will be fascinating to see howStar Trek: Voyager’s EMH has evolved nearly a thousand years later inStarfleet Academy. Unlike inStar Trek: Prodigy, The Doctor will be working with older cadets in a more collegiate setting, but if the EMH is 24th-century technology brought back online in the 32nd century, the Doctor will have a lot of catching up to do. The Doctor adjusting to a new learning curve in a brand-new era is yet another exciting aspect of his joiningStar Trek: Starfleet Academy.
