Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Doctor

It now seems impossible to imagine anyone other than Robert Picardo as the Doctor. Before January 1995, Picardo didn't, in fact, want the part. In rehearsals for a play at the time, Picardo wasn't 'technically available' for TV either. That didn't stop him from auditioning for the brand new Star Trek show, just not for its EMH.

"I [didn't] get the joke," Picardo admitted on the DVD extra Voyager Time Capsule: The Doctor, noting,

I read the audition scene, and the Doctor character [was] described as colourless, humourless, a computer program of a doctor. That [didn't] sound like much fun. I didn't see how that could be a rewarding experience to play.

Picardo had his eye firmly set on another character — Neelix. Picardo did indeed read for Voyager's cook in chief, but producers turned him down. They were still keen for him to try out for Voyager's misanthropic medic. Picardo managed to sneak in a little improvisation, which he has credited with getting him the job.

'EMH' is an acronym by now as familiar to us as 'EPS' and 'LLAP'. First used in Cathexis, 'EMH' has enjoyed several three-letter spin-offs — from ECH to LMH, EEH to ETH. In the Star Trek: Voyager Series Bible though, the Doctor was an "Experimental Medical Program" or "E.M.P."

'EMP' was then also used in the "'STAR TREK: VOYAGER' Beat Outline by Rick Berman, Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor," dated 13 April 1994. Precisely why the term was dropped in favour of 'EMH' is unclear, though in the real world, 'EMP' also stands for 'electromagnetic pulse'. 'Computer, activate the EMP,' might have been a little confusing!

Speaking of magnetism, the Doctor was always more than a mere "projection of light held in a magnetic containment field," as Tom Paris put it in Phage.

In a series of notes from 1993, published in Star Trek Voyager: A Vision of the Future, Jeri Taylor pointed out that "the new, state-of-the art technology [of the Holo-Doctor] [had] capitalized on the serendipitous incident which created Moriarty".

The Doctor was, of course, never so 'evil,' except when he was. Without ethical subroutines, the Doctor was not Moriarty. He was Mister Hyde.

We're not talking about Leonard, the holographic iguana (also part parrot), or poor Roy, squashed too soon. We're talking about Reginald 'Reg' Barclay, possible acolyte of Doctor Lewis Zimmerman, himself the "father of modern holography," creator of the EMH. For its entry on him, The Star Trek Encyclopedia (3rd ed.) states that,

[Barclay] […] left the Enterprise-D and transferred to the Holoprogramming Center at Starfleet's Jupiter Station. He worked with Dr. Lewis Zimmerman on the engineering team that designed Starfleet's Emergency Medical Hologram.

Outside of the malfunctions in Projections, we don't really know whether Barclay was involved in the creation of the EMH.

Early in the development process for Star Trek: Voyager, writers/producers had considered Barclay not only for designer of the EMH, but also as the face of the program. In her notes from 1993, Jeri Taylor wrote:

A possibility is to consider Dwight Schultz: Barclay would have been working on this program and finally takes a leave to put on the polishing touches (on a TNG episode). He creates the character in his own image.

Had they gone with that option, and if the Ferengi co-opted Holo-Barclay from Inside Man was anything to go by, we'd have got as many impressions, but a lot less golf!

Fun fact alert! This writer first saw Endgame surrounded by a few hundred others at a Star Trek convention in 2001. When the alternate future Doctor announced his choice of name, and with all due respect to Lana's grandfather, everyone laughed. Thirty-three years was a long time to come up with "Joe," but more than good enough to elope on.

The Doctor's quest for a moniker, other than his title, or "Hey you," had been so integral to Star Trek: Voyager, any choice would have proved odd, though not as odd as Van Gogh, or Mozart for that matter. Before the beginning, however, the Doctor already had a name. In the Star Trek: Voyager Series Bible, he was simply called "DOC ZIMMERMAN," in honour of Herman Zimmerman, legendary Star Trek art director and production designer.

'Doc Zimmerman' made it to the script for Caretaker and others throughout season one, though never to dialogue. The name featured in promotional material for Voyager, as well as in the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual. Picardo told The Companion in 2023 that opening credits were even made which read "Doc Zimmerman played by Robert Picardo".

Before the premiere of Voyager's pilot, Picardo asked if he could choose a name for the EMH. Rick Berman agreed. As such, 'Doc Zimmerman' became simply 'the Doctor'. Picardo concluded to The Companion, "In that moment, I unwittingly ripped off 50 years of British science fiction television. […] I had no idea".

Much to the chagrin of Neelix and company in Demon, the Doctor was a "night owl". Don't snore whilst Puccini is playing! Not content with merely listening to opera, Voyager's EMH was proficient at singing it. One question most often asked of Robert Picardo is 'Did he do his own…?' The answer to which is yes… in the main.

Picardo was, in fact, largely responsible for the Doctor's musical interest in the first place. As the actor noted in Star Trek: Voyager: A Celebration:

I suggested to Jeri Taylor that the Doctor be an opera fan. […] I thought it would be funny that a character with no emotional palette at all would be a fan of the most passionate form of human expression. Why would this machine be listening to opera?

As for the actual singing, only in Virtuoso did a professional tenor — Agostino Castagnola — take over to perform Verdi's distinctly challenging 'Dio, che nell'alma infondere,' and Vincenzo de Crescenzo's 'Rondine al nido'. Picardo did the rest — operatic or otherwise — throughout Voyager's run… synapses blazing…

Most recently, in 2025, Picardo 're-enacted' the Verdi duet alongside operatic tenor Arturo Chacón Cruz at the Vienna Synchron Stage, with live orchestra conducted by composer, and Voyager fan, Steffen Schmidt. The pair also gave a very special performance of 'La Donna è mobile,' including alternate, though not entirely illogical, lyrics.

Platonic, romantic, and Shmullus to Danara Pel, the Doctor has had many loves over the years. His latest was a hint of something between him and Holo-Janeway in Star Trek: Prodigy. There was familial love for him too. In Real Life, he created his own family on the holodeck. Then, in Life Line, he travelled halfway across the galaxy for a paternal connection. Robert Picardo also received a writing credit for Life Line, becoming the first Star Trek cast member to do so in a live-action series, following Walter Koenig's credit for writing The Infinite Vulcan for The Animated Series. Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, and later Brent Spiner and Simon Pegg wrote for live-action scenes, though each of their credits was assigned to the Star Trek movies.

Inspiration for Life Line came from the 1968 play, later film, I Never Sang for My Father, which centres around the conflict and mutual disappointment between a father and son. The Doctor wouldn't sing for Zimmerman on Jupiter Station, but he did eventually earn his creator, his father's, respect.

A stranger to his own subroutines at first, the Doctor found a confidante in Kes. When the Ocampan left Voyager for higher planes, roles were reversed. Seven of Nine was the resistant pupil.

Behind the scenes, Picardo was once more the impetus for the change, this time in the mentor/mentee dynamic. He told StarTrek.com in 2022:

I went to Brannon [Braga] and suggested that we take the relationship that the Doctor had with Kes and we turn it around. So the Doctor thinks that the best person to teach Seven of Nine how to become human again is him. [That] he's a better teacher on how to be a human being than a real human being.

Picardo went on to note that "it would not have been appropriate at all" for the Doctor and Seven to end up together. Picardo did add, jokingly, that he thought it was "a little strange that they paired her with Chakotay at the last minute".

The failure of the Temporal Integrity Commission was a win for Voyager's EMH. With the advanced emitter, the Doctor was permanently "footloose and fancy-free" as of 2373. Though the mobile emitter was a liberation, it was also, at times, a burden, allegorised as a "small shuttlecraft" in Author, Author.

For Robert Picardo, confinement to sickbay wasn't a burden but a bonus. He told StarTrek.com in 2022,

I think it was actually a benefit for me, because it made the character unique and captured the audience's imagination. As an actor, I benefited from the character's limitations, because it set him apart in the audience's mind.

At first, therefore, Picardo thought the introduction of the mobile emitter was quite simply "a bad idea". He soon warmed to the Doctor's newfound liberty:

[Brannon] Braga was right. [The emitter] opened up whole new storytelling vistas and I was the first to tell him that I was wrong.

In the history of Star Trek: Online, the Doctor had to bring legal proceedings against Starfleet in 2382 to prevent his mobile emitter from being confiscated for study. The following year, in game, the 'Soong Foundation,' a group linked to the Daystrom Institute, started its own mobile emitter R&D project.

A mobile emitter was used in the Star Trek: Picard episode Imposters, suggesting the technology had been reverse-engineered by the 25th century.

As Voyager edged its way closer to Earth, the Doctor decided to put holographic quill to paper. The result in Author, Author wasn't the literary opus of the century, but then neither was the decidedly "low brow" of a certain Thomas E. Paris. Author, Author was, in essence, Measure of a Man for holographic rights. That wasn't the episode's only inspiration.

Around the time of Star Trek: Voyager's seventh season, Robert Picardo had been approached to write his own Star Trek book, which became 'A Hologram's Handbook'.

"When Brannon Braga […] found out the Doctor was writing a book, he wrote an episode of the Doctor writing a book," Picardo told StarTrek.com in 2024. Author, Author was a writer's in-joke! Braga also provided the introduction for A Hologram's Handbook — a "fascinating insight into a beloved character" or "a hundred-page cry for help," as Braga called it, jokingly.

A Hologram's Handbook does tell us everything we could possibly want to know about the Doctor — from "Initial Activation" to "Anatomical Correctness" and "The Dreaded D's (Deactivation, Decompilation, Deletion)".

"It's quite provocative," said one reprogrammed EMH to another on the Federation Dilithium Processing Facility at the end of Author, Author. As the Federation arbitrator had noted, "the issue of holographic rights isn't going to go away". For the time being in canon, however, it mostly has.

When the Doctor stepped out of the shuttle in Star Trek: Prodigy's Into The Breach, Part I, about six years had passed since Voyager's return to Earth. Now Chief Medical Officer aboard the Voyager-A, the Doctor was outwardly treated as equal to those made of flesh and blood. To a large extent, so was Holo-Janeway.

Beta canon has provided more detail about holographic rights over the years, starting with the 'Voyager relaunch' novels, set directly after Endgame. In the first two of the series — Christie Golden's Homecoming and The Farther Shore — the Doctor inspires, somewhat in spite of himself, a "HoloRevolution," led by the non-holographic Oliver Baines.

In the standalone novel Articles of the Federation, the Doctor was made a citizen of the Federation upon Voyager's return in 2378. The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, as edited by Dr Una McCormack, goes one step further, noting that, once the Doctor was home, he was granted personhood and "promptly resigned from Starfleet" to champion the cause of photonic rights.

Do you often feel you are the only intelligent one in a universe of idiots? Do others fail to recognize your brilliance? Are you as deserving of love as an individual can be […]? If you've responded in the affirmative to these queries, you are probably an advanced Artificial Intelligence.

That wasn't ChatGPT. That was the opener to The Hologram's Handbook (2002), by the Doctor, as told to Robert Picardo.

In 2025, AI in one form or another is now everywhere. Only over the past two years or so, the development of generative models has skyrocketed. Assuming we can arrive at a good definition of 'sentience' in the first place, we're likely not far off the self-aware kind.

Any doomsday scenarios are only as likely as we imagine them to be, or, far more perversely, as we want them to be. On the contrary, Star Trek has taught us, in this case via the Doctor, that AI need not be an existential threat, and that its practical applications can benefit us all.

AI is already revolutionising modern medicine in areas such as disease detection and diagnosis, protein folding predictions and drug development. Voyager's Doctor is also serving as inspiration, and as a point of caution.

For example, the 2021 paper 'Artificial intelligence in medicine,' in the journal Early Human Development, cited the Doctor as an instance of 'Strong AI,' that is "with consciousness and intentionality". 'Weak AI,' by comparison, lacks the range of human cognitive skills and intentionality.

The 2020 paper 'Evil doctor, ethical android: Star Trek's instantiation of conscience in subroutines' (from the same journal) argued, via the EMH (and Data), that "ethical subroutines may be vital to our continued existence, irrespective of whether the machine intelligences constitute Strong or Weak AI".

In 2024, Robert Picardo told Inverse that he had been interviewed "about a year and a half ago [….] by a Harvard medical […] researcher who was writing a book on artificial intelligence in medicine". That doctor was penning an entire chapter on the EMH because he had watched Star Trek: Voyager as a young man.

'Please state the nature of the medical emergency' might still be far off, even far-fetched. Whatever we think of it, AI isn't going anywhere, so we'd better learn the right lessons. Voyager's Doctor has already provided a lot of them. AI is also la vita nuova. Or here begins a new life…