Picardo Wants Trek Cameo
2 min read
If Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Picardo has his way, fans will see him in the third J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek movie.
Picardo, best-known to Trek fans for his role as the EMH on Voyager, has met Abrams and he is a big fan of the Abrams’ Star Trek reboot.
“Well, it’s always possible that they’ll use one of us,” said Picardo. “I’ve met J.J., he was very kind and complimentary to me, and I know he watched the show because he’s a fan of Star Trek. Nothing is impossible.”
Picardo is grateful for the reboot of the franchise, believing that new Star Trek fans coming in as a result of Star Trek XI often become curious about previous Trek. “What’s wonderful about Star Trek having been rebooted so successfully by the J.J. Abrams movie franchise is that the corollary effect is that it creates a new generation of fans and they’re interested in all of it,” said Picardo. “They don’t just sit around and wait for the next movie to come out, they’ll go back and re-examine episodes.”
Picardo saw this first-hand at home. “I remember when the first movie came out, my daughter’s friends who were all about seventeen, they’d never paid any attention to the show when it was on the air, they started to go back and watch Voyager and enjoy it, simply because they liked the movie,” he said. “It helps the brand name and I think it’s a good time for a new generation of fans.”
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Huh? Picardo’s misinformed–Abrams is very much on the record as NOT being a Trek fan, and as someone who never watched the various series, so I doubt he saw much of Picardo on Voyager, the weakest of the six series.
Correct. And would they use him, exactly? If he wants to be just a stand in or extra somewhere, I suppose. But does he want to play the EMH? How would that work? Did he come along with Spock Prime? You would see characters from former series that make sense, like Archer or T’Pol, than you would see the EMH.
Weakest? Try strongest. Plus he was the most competent doctor in the entire Star Trek canon.
I think the commenters are putting a little too much faith in Picardo’s comments. I doubt he’s really hanging around the studio lot for a role. He’s just being complimentary that he’d be happy to be involved with it, and really it’s unlikely he’s going to say the opposite.
I don’t agree, I thought Voyager was way better then DS9 for example. I also enjoyed the Doctor Picardo played in Voyager he was one of my favorite characters actually. My wish was for them to continue the Star Trek series after Voyager, I’d like to see the universe we all have come to love grow continue.
Well, I respect your different opinion, but I definitely don’t share it. The show was badly written and horribly acted. Other than Picardo, Russ and Ryan, I found pretty much the entire cast–particularly Mulgrew and Beltran–to be excruciatingly awful. And the villains, especially the Kazon, were often lame.
Well, I can’t say my feelings are as strong as Rich’s, but I’d tend to fall into the “Voyager is the lesser of the species” camp. I would have to wonder if folks like Zander and Ironmetal skew younger and whether, perhaps, Voyager might have been their introduction to Trek. I find the strongest supporters are often those that start out with a particular series. It’s easy to see Voyager as fresh if it’s your first series, but after having seen the others it’s pretty fair to say that they lift a LOT from their predecessors.
Also, Voyager will always be known as having the absolute worst Trek episode of all time in “Threshold.” That is the stinker of stinkers, bar none.
I’m not saying that Voyager was bad, but that it really didn’t advance Trek much. The writing was often cheesy and almost a hackneyed in so many episodes. (I’m currently watching Voyager while I exercise, and find myself jumping entire episodes because of just how much I dislike certain ones in about S3 and S4.)
That said, The Doctor was, perhaps, my favorite character on Voyager. I’m not sure I’d say whether one doctor or another was more “competent” other than the fact that Picardo shone among a number of lackluster supporting castmembers (Paris, Kes, Chakotay, Kim.) The problem, though, is that Picardo’s character is so over-the-top in some ways that he almost calls too much attention to himself. I suppose they could shoe-horn him in, but that would require yet more time travel (or an awkward cameo as someone that is NOT The Doctor), that it just wouldn’t work.
“I remember when the first movie came out, my daughter’s friends who were all about seventeen, they’d never paid any attention to the show when it was on the air, they started to go back and watch Voyager and enjoy it, simply because they liked the movie,” he said. “It helps the brand name and I think it’s a good time for a new generation of fans.”
He’s right about this—there is a new generation watching. Trek of all stripes absolutely BLEW UP on Netflix streaming when it hit last year. All my students were watching it, talking about it.
There were bad actors on all the series – Nurse Chapel was the pits – absolutely horrible. TNG – Dr. Crusher was as stiff as Riker – both really cold fish tho Riker improved tho it took him five years. DSN – Avery Brooks acted a lot like the critics accused Shatner of acting. His acting was so thick, it was like pouring syrup. I felt I was being suffocated by his acting. But I absolutely hated Kira Nerys – abrasive as all hell and somewhat of a tomboy which made her appeal much less when she appeared in a dress or gown on the series. Since I’m not at all religious, the religious slant of DSN turned me completely off for the most part. I felt only the last three years were any good. Voyager? Mulgrew was as abrasive as Kira but she got slightly better while Beltran seemed to not be used well, his character not well defined and thus was as interesting to me as wet cardboard. Ryan seemed interesting at first but his playboy attitude and recklessness got old fast tho he too improved over time. Enterprise? The choice of Captain was terrible. Bakula can do some great acting in the right vehicle but this wasn’t it. I also never liked Keating. Sniveling little character at first but I think with time, he would be great. Montgomery was so little used that I’m amazed he didn’t just up and quit the show out of frustration. His character was too much a ‘yes’ man, all smiley-faced, goodey-two-shoes character. Gag me with a spoon.
Picardo is not the first Prime Trek actor to say things like “JJ-Trek will lead younger fans to the original stuff,” and I see that point. However, with the kind of crowd JJ-Trek brings in, I seriously doubt most of those “new fans” are going to suddenly like everything that came before. From TOS to Enterprise, the real Star Trek is not the kind of thing that everyone is going to get into like a loud summer block buster. You either “get it” or you don’t. Based on past comments, JJ does not seem to “get it.” And it shows in his take on the franchise.
As for “Voyager” being the weakest of the six series, my feeling is this: weak like the “Cars” movies are for Pixar. “Star Trek’s” weakest is still better then most other franchise’s best. I do wish that “Voyager” and “Enterprise” had switched and the former was on for four years with the latter being on for seven, but oh well. I think had Voyager been a set four seasons, it would have been a more focused show and probably better for it. But it is what it is and I still like it, and knowing what I know now that Real Star Trek is dead, am grateful for it!
It was the weakest show by a mile
He needs to be an orderly in sick bay. Two of the principles burst in dragging a wounded third more-important-than-you between them, and Picardo asks them to please state the nature of their medical emergency.
A lot of these “new fans” are not going to like everything about “old Trek”, but many if not most of them will go back and sample it, and given the variety of old Trek, ranging from top-quality dramatic presentations to wrassle-fests with chicks in catsuits, I wager many of them will find something they like. I’m sure a lot of them will also wax nostalgic for that way cool episode of Voyager they saw in grade school, where Janeway turns into a fish-thingy. A few of them might even grow to tolerate their parents’ fondness for that stuffy bald foreign guy and sit down and watch an episode or two.
All in all, JJTrek has brought more and broader attention to Trek overall than anything since Jeri Ryan’s hooters.
They could easily have him be an ancestor – grandfather perhaps? – of Dr. Lewis Zimmerman. Same way they had Brent Spiner as Arik Soong, ancestor of Noonien Soong. That said, if they do a cameo of a previous trek actor as an ancestor like that, I imagine they’ll want to have someone a bit more name-drop-able. Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, one of the other TOS cast. But you never know.
I too have seen the increase in new fans though via the new film. I’m on the fence on liking the new stuff – it’s not “true” trek imho – but it has brought a lot of younger folks, or even just folks who dismissed it before, on board. I see people all the time in different net communities going and watching TOS or TNG for the first time because they liked trek 09. And if that’s what it takes to get them into the club and appreciating the real deal… I suppose it’s worth it.
‘Also, Voyager will always be known as having the absolute worst Trek episode of all time in “Threshold.” That is the stinker of stinkers, bar none.’
Worse than Spocks Brain, Space Hippies, Shades of Grey, Masks, Move Along Home or Profit and Lace?
I agree with you. Man Profit and Lace is truly hideous.
It’s very fashionable to hate Threshold. I watched it again recently, and sure… it’s not great. But there are definitely worse out there – both in terms of lack of any idea, to bad execution.
I mean Tattoo is just HIDEOUS. I find it hard to say anything redeeming about that. With Threshold, at least it gave you some background to Paris, and tried to do something different.
Watch it and weep. The others are Shakespeare by comparison.
Add me to the Voyager was better than DS9 party! However I did really enjoy DS9 aswell. (Way of the Warrior = Awesome)
All of the Trek series have had stinking episodes!.. infact every long running series on TV has really bad episodes! It’s difficult to keep hitting the mark when producing such a large quantity of episodes per series, thats what the skip buttons for on your DVD player 🙂 I think the number of great episodes far outways the real stinkers! What about ‘Blink of an eye’,’Year of Hell’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Message in a bottle’, ‘Equinox’….??
This is true. That, and the fact that Enterpoop had a far, FAR higher stinker-to-watchable ratio caused me to change my opinion about Voyager.
(wrestling)
(Tuvix)
(warp 10 fish thingies)
AAAAIIGHH!!! DON’T MAKE ME CHANGE MY MIND BACK SO SOON!!!!
The only thing better with Voyager was the fact that the warp drive got a lot more use (at least until the war with the Dominion). The acting, storylines, and history were much better on DS9. Sisko was a better captain than Janeway; more grounded, more depth, more connections to his crew. Janeway had her plusses; for one thing, she had a superior first officer. Her overall tech base was superior in many ways, too. But the plotting and storylines and backstories were MUCH better on DS9.
I would have happily served under either captain – but I would have preferred serving with Sisko. I think he embraced what the Federation was all about better than Janeway did.
The appearance of Picardo in a new Star Trek Abrams movie ( possibly as the EMH) could be explained as a bleed-over from the appearance of the Narada and all that came with it; EMH/holographic tech suddenly becomes widespread, along with the Zimmerman Mark I EMH (only this time, the personality subroutine is changed to be better than the original template.) Either that, or he plays a new character.
Excuse me, but I’m becoming tired of this bullshit meme that says that the 2009 movie isn’t ‘real’ Star Trek. It is just as real as the original shows, and the equal of them (in some ways, the better of them.) If you or anybody else have a better person that could have revived the franchise better, please let the rest of us know (and you better hope that they’re good.)
Of course he did. It was the series that was on the air when he was hitting puberty. He probably rushed straight home every afternoon to grab a bottle of olive oil and watch Seven of Catsuit.