Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor Finds Closure In Starfleet Academy

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Season 1, Episode 8 - "The Life of the Stars"Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's executive producer and creator explains how episode 8 gives The Doctor (Robert Picardo) closure to his 29-year-old Star Trek: Voyager story. Written by Gaia Violo & Jane Maggs, and directed by Andi Armaganian, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 8 sees The Doctor become the father of Series Acclimation Mil aka SAM (Kerrice Brooks).

When ScreenRant's Liam Crowley spoke to Robert Picardo at Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's press junket, the legendary Star Trek: Voyager actor said he signed on to reprise The Doctor because co-showrunners Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau "pitched me this wonderful arc that was different, that you'll see by the end of the first season. You'll see the character in a way you've never seen him before, in all 800 years."

In an exclusive interview with ScreenRant's John Orquiola about Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 8, series creator Gaia Violo dove into how The Doctor's story with SAM lets the Emergency Medical Hologram move forward from his trauma of losing his holographic daughter in Star Trek: Voyager season 3. Violo also reveals how The Doctor relates to episode 8's "Our Town" story. Read Gaia's quote below:

ScreenRant: Tell me about The Doctor finally becoming more than a mentor, but a parent to SAM, and how it gives closure to his story on Voyager about how he lost his holographic daughter in season three.

Gaia Violo: We always wanted to explore this. Even in the pilot, you do see shades of that. You do see that he's really staying away [from SAM]. So we always knew that SAM's story and The Doctor's story will come together at some point over the course of the season, being the only two holographic beings that we see and we experience in Starfleet Academy. We didn't really quite know how exactly. We just knew that that was an important story to tell.

As we were exploring episode eight, The Doctor really represents the stage manager, and he's sort of this narrator at the beginning, and then passes the baton to Nahla, who closes the episode. It just gave us an opportunity to explore him and his story more, and to go back in time. We sort did a deep dive as a room into his journey on Voyager and the one episode that we really gravitated to was “Real Life,” which is season 3, episode 22. It's such an intense, emotional moment that it felt like it needed closure, and we needed to address and give him a second chance at fatherhood.

In Star Trek: Voyager season 3, episode 22, "Real Life," The Doctor experimented with being the father of a holographic family. Against the EMH's wishes, his daughter, Belle (Lindsay Haun), participated in a dangerous sport. Belle received an inoperable brain injury and died, with the Doctor unable to save his virtual child.

The Doctor has been online for over 800 years, since Star Trek: Voyager began. Tragically, the EMH's digital memory means his trauma from Belle's death is as fresh as if it just happened. The pain that The Doctor still feels is why he pushed SAM away, often cruelly, and refused to be the mentor of the effervescent, 17-year-old holographic cadet.

After watching Star Trek: Starfleet Academy episode 8, it's easy to understand why Robert Picardo was so excited by the opportunity to evolve The Doctor with this meaty, dramatic story. Nearly 30 years after Star Trek: Voyager briefly made him a parent, the EMH profoundly grows as a character and as a person by becoming SAM's father at the urging of Captain Nahla Ake (Holly Hunter).

The Doctor and SAM are now a holographic family going forward in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, and this feels like a welcome and long-awaited reward for the EMH. The Doctor feared the pain of growing close to an organic, who will inevitably die. With SAM, The Doctor can love his daughter for as long as both holograms are online, which is potentially forever.