A new spinoff just turned your favorite Star Trek character into a complete parody
Author: Chris Snelgrove Published
when starfleet academy After the announcement, many old-school fans were worried that the new show – which was tonally somewhere between a Saturday morning cartoon and a CW teen drama – wouldn’t have an authentic Star Trek feel. To ease those concerns, Paramount is bringing back one of the series’ most familiar characters: Robert Picardo’s beloved holographic doctor, who was always a source of dry humor and gentle wisdom. Voyager. Unfortunately, the show turned him into a complete parody of itself, embodying all of the character’s most egregious qualities while turning this once demure character into a poop joke teller.
In its own way, the doctor’s poop joke was the first thing that really shocked me starfleet academyalthough the current situation is relatively mild. During a scan of new trainee Keller, doctors found lung maggots in his internal organs. Doctors cured the young man and then told him to “keep a close eye on your bowel movements for the next three days.” That was bad enough, but then he sneered: “Call me if anything happens.”
Star Trek turned into crap (literally)
Now, I’m not someone who hates potty humor. I often watch programs like this Beavis and Butt-head (Revival is indeed, real Well, y’all), gross-out jokes are the norm. It could even work with the right character in Star Trek, like when Vance told the visiting Orion bad guys in Star Trek. Discover She’s eating replicated feces (“It’s bad, you know”). It’s an unintentionally funny moment that actually serves the plot by establishing that Vance really wants to shock his worst enemy, and she’s unfazed by the revelation that he (and hers, after taking a few bites of the replicated food) is a literal potty mouth.
exist Star Trek: VoyagerHowever, neither the Doctor nor anyone else has ever made such a dirty joke, so this forced attempt at humor feels really out of character. Why introduce a beloved ’90s Star Trek character just to have him talk like a vulgar Zoomer? I know I’m turning a mole mountain into a mountain (or should that be a turd mountain?), but when you consider all the other ways Robert Picardo’s doctor behaves differently than himself, this bad comedy gets even worse.
The doctor is abnormal (abnormal personality)
For example, he flatly refuses to be a mentor to a brave young hologram, saying, “I’m no one’s mentor;” and when she rightfully points out that he’s been a mentor before (like on Voyager and Prodigy), his “sensitivity calibration” starts to spike. She tells him this and he strangely insists “I’m not afraid of anything.” It seems like starfleet academy There’s some sort of dark backstory being set up for the Doctor, which is very strange. For this stoic and sarcastic voyager character, not only does this seem out of character; wilderness Do it with a guy whose first few scenes were making cheesy poop jokes.
The early nausea continues in the second episode, “Beta Test” (the title is really just begging person making fun of starfleet academy On multiple levels), the Doctor takes great pleasure in telling his students how they will use “self-replicating slime.” Quickly, he describes how “romantic slime is” and how if any trainee gets it, they will have to move in with the slime and “go on vacation with its parents.” I’m really shocked by this… Like, this is bad enough VoyagerMost dignified character turned into body function joke guy, but now they have Robert Picardo sexualized nasal discharge?
Robert Picardo sings for his dinner
The Doctor’s only other contribution in the same episode is to sing… specifically, Amadeus Mozart’s “Pa-Pa-Pa Papagena.” Apparently the brave hologram continues to sing Voyagerso it’s not like that (even having him become a faculty sponsor of the opera club) is completely out of character. However, while early Star Trek shows had only brief, occasional singing moments, this starfleet academy The song is painfully Very long, just an excuse for Robert Picardo to make faces in front of the camera.
It’s proof that the writers don’t know what to do with this classic 90s Star Trek character… he’s like a Frankenstein monster made up of the worst parts of old Star Trek and NuTrek. Sometimes he’s obsessed with snot and poop like an idiot teenage cadet, and other times he acts like his Flemish version Voyager A character someone copied from bad fan fiction. In fact, this formerly reserved character is now filled with downright manic energy Way Too often, it’s obvious that the Doctor has become a complete imitation of himself.
It’s a shame, because Robert Picardo is an incredibly talented actor who (like Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti) is doing his best to write some of the worst stuff in Star Trek history. But his beloved Voyager role (a role he had previously reprized in the film to critical acclaim) child prodigy) now feels hollow rather than holographic: a completely hollow imitation of his former glory. The once smart, wisecracking mentor is now a poop joke teller, but maybe that’s fitting…after all, starfleet academy is the biggest piece of trash since the series Article 31 Movie!
