Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’s most exciting legacy character is The Doctor (Robert Picardo) from Star Trek: Voyager. Currently in production, Starfleet Academy is the next Star Trek series targeted for a 2026 premiere on Paramount+. Executive produced by Alex Kurtzman and Noga Landau, Starfleet Academy is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery set in the late 32nd century. Encouragingly, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy has already been renewed for season 2 by Paramount+, which will film back-to-back with season 1.
Rounding out its new cast of young Starfleet Cadets, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is headlined by Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter as the Academy’s Chancellor, and Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti as Starfleet Academy season 1’s recurring villain.
However, Starfleet Academy also brings back a handful of Star Trek legacy characters: Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman), Commander Jett Reno (Tig Notaro), and Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) from Star Trek: Discovery, and, best of all, The Doctor from Star 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 from Star Trek: Voyager is an unexpected and thrilling surprise addition to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In an interview with TVO Today: The Agenda, Robert Picardo confirmed that he is playing the same Emergency Medical Hologram as in Star Trek: Voyager, noting that the Doctor is “now several hundred years old, maybe 900 years old.” This eliminates concerns that Starfleet Academy is reinventing the EMH. Rather, he is indeed The Doctor Star Trek fans 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 that Star Trek: Discovery propelled 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 joining Starfleet Academy means The Doctor singlehandedly represents Star 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 from Star Trek: The Original Series’ 23rd century time frame. Star Trek: Discovery seasons 3-5 lacked a steady influence from the popular TNG era. But now, The Doctor gets to bridge the gap and embody TNG’s and Voyager’s values in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy while 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: Prodigy season 2 revealed that Admiral Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) tasked The Doctor with overseeing the young crew of the USS Protostar, who were potential Starfleet Academy cadets when Prodigy season 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.
Of course, The Doctor has a brilliant holographic mind and has made great strides with his own humanity. It will be fascinating to see how Star Trek: Voyager’s EMH has evolved nearly a thousand years later in Starfleet Academy. Unlike in Star 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 joining Star Trek: Starfleet Academy.