Picardo: Keeping In Touch
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Even though it has been almost twelve years since Star Trek: Voyager ended, Robert Picardo still maintains contact with his former co-workers.
Every year, the actors get together once or twice for a dinner and this year’s dinner fell on a special date.
“We have our dinner at the Palm (in Los Angeles), and last year I made the reservation on the 16th without realizing that it was our exact anniversary (of the airing of Caretaker),” said Picardo.
Most of the actors make it to these dinners too. “Once in a while it’s all of us, but it usually seems like we’re missing one person, and it’s usually a different missing person each year,” said Picardo. “But I love it. It’s fun that we all stay in touch. I talk to the guys pretty regularly, and I talk to Kate (Mulgrew) pretty regularly.”
Something else that helps the Voyager actors stay in touch is attending Star Trek conventions and appearances. “…We see so much of each other during our personal appearances that we’ve maintained the friendships,” said Picardo. “We have scheduled reunions, in a way, especially with the big show in Vegas every year. It seems that a chunk of us are in Vegas every year, and a couple of us are usually together at other events around the world during the year. So that’s already there, though getting together for dinner is definitely a choice, a social event. We go out of our way to do it, and it’s fun. I’m not in regular contact with Robert Beltran, for example, so it’s great to know I’ll see him at these dinners. I talk to Garrett all the time, but we don’t see each other all that much. So, it’s really important that we do these dinners. Everyone feels like, if they’re in town, they show up.”
Picardo had another cast reunion recently, this time with the cast of China Beach, which is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its premiere next spring with a box set DVD release. “We just had a reunion with the cast and all the creative people,” he said. “It was very fun to see all those people again.” Picardo has written the liner notes for season three of the China Beach release.
Nowadays, Picardo is currently working on The Mentalist, where he plays Jason Cooper, an executive in the Church of Visualize. He can also be found in various television episodes in guest roles, and is looking for roles on the stage as well.
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Seems like a really nice, genuine guy who can play a stuffy prick with the best of them.
But does he stay in touch with his long-estranged hair? I know they didn’t part on the best of terms, but they were a big part of each others’ lives for what, twenty, twenty-two years. I mean I doubt they’ll ever be together again the way they were before, but I do hope they’re at least on speaking terms.