Ever since it was confirmed that the upcoming Star Trek TV show Starfleet Academy will be set in the 31st century, there’s been chatter about if this means characters from Star Trek: Discovery will show up, as that show was set in that time period for its last three seasons. While there has been casting news over the last few months, including Holly Hunter playing the chancellor of the educational institution and Paul Giamatti playing the main villain, there wasn’t any mention of Discovery talent… until today. Coming straight out of San Diego Comic-Con, three Discovery alums from the recently-concluded Star Trek series are officially confirmed to be involved, and as an exciting bonus, an alum from the science fiction franchise who’s been a fan-favorite for decades will also appear.
On the Discovery front, Tig Notaro, Oded Fehr and Mary Wiseman will reprise their respective roles of Jett Reno, Admiral Charles Vance and Sylvia Tilly. Notaro will participate as a series regular, and Fehr will appear as recurring guest stars. Tilly and Vance’s involvement already makes sense since the former became a Starfleet instructor in Star Trek: Discovery Season 4 and the latter is Starfleet’s commander in chief. As for Jett, since she’s part of the main cast, it’s logical to guess she’s no longer an engineer aboard the USS Discovery and is now a fellow instructor at Starfleet Academy.
But here’s the especially surprising news: Robert Picardo, who played The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager from 1995-2001, will join Tig Notaro as a series regular on Starfleet Academy. This news follows just a few weeks after Picardo was heard vocally reprising his unique version of the Emergency Medical Hologram (EMH) in Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, which can be streamed with a Netflix subscription rather than a Paramount+ subscription like the other Trek shows. Picardo also cameoed as a different EMH in Star Trek: First Contact, as well as played Dr. Lewis Zimmerman, the creator of these holograms, in three Voyager episodes and a Deep Space Nine episode.
Because the USS Voyager’s doctor was killed during the show’s opening two-parter, “Caretaker, Robert Picardo’s Doctor became the ship’s chief medical officer for the entirety of Voyager’s run. As a result of being continually in use while the crew was stranded in the Delta Quadrant for seven years, The Doctor’s programming expanded and he became a complex individual with interests beyond medical science. He was also able to start walking outside of his lab and the holodecks when he obtained a mobile holographic emitter from the 29th century in Season 3.
Given that he’s an artificial intelligence, it makes sense that he’d still be around roughly 800 years after the events of Prodigy, and I can only imagine how much he’s evolved during that time, assuming he’s stayed on for all these centuries. As for how Starfleet Academy will explain why The Doctor looks older since he’s a hologram, it’d be easy enough for Robert Picardo’s character to share it’s among the ways he’s tweaked his programming. Having The Doctor teach students is also a fitting occupation after seeing him try to mentor Prodigy’s main characters in Season 2.
In addition to the aforementioned actors, Starfleet Academy’s main cast includes Kerrice Brooks, Bella Shepard, George Hawkins, Karim Diané and Zoë Steiner, all of whom are playing cadets, and Gina Yashere, who will play an Academy instructor as a recurring guest star. The series will begin production in August, and CinemaBlend will continue passing along key information about the project, including when it will start airing on Paramount+.
