10 MORE Star Trek Moments You Never Knew Were Improvised

You don't have to know your Leonards from your Nimoy to be able to riff on "I'm a doctor, not a…" In fact, the phrase itself predates its usage in The Devil in the Dark ("…not a bricklayer"). McCoy did make it famous, in and out of Star Trek, but the line, through its multiple variations, now equally belongs to Voyager's EMH. Why? Because Robert Picardo (thankfully) decided to do a bit of improv.

When the Doctor is, very inconveniently, left alone aboard ship in Caretaker, he concludes with, "I believe someone has failed to terminate my programme. Please respond". It was whilst reading that scene at his audition that Picardo decided to ad-lib. As the actor recalled in Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration:

At the end of that line, I took a long, deadpan look at the 16 executives, all staring at me, and I said, 'I'm a doctor, not a night light.'

At that point, Picardo didn't realise he was "making a Bones joke and was channelling DeForest Kelley," adding, "I'm delighted I didn't know because if I had, I would never have done it". In a 2024 interview with TVO Today's Steve Paikin, Picardo credited the on-the-spot witticism with getting him the job amongst the "900 actors who had auditioned".

The EMH would go on to appear numerous times throughout Voyager's run and beyond. And, with the Doctor due to feature in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, we'll surely be treated to many more.