Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Picardo shared his memories of joining Voyager and of the first episode, Caretaker. Picardo was the last actor to work on the pilot which was a bit daunting. “I was the last guy to come in, and everybody else had already established relationships,” he said. “So I come in and say [...] More...
Well he was the best actor on that show, they pretty much had to make him one of the central characters.
Agreed, with a less good actor cast as the Doctor the show might not have survived seven seasons. I stopped watching SG: Atlantis during season 3, I didn't realize Picardo became a main in the last season. Maybe I should watch the rest of it...
He's less lively in SG:A. But here's a funny tale.. I was watching SG:A for the first time and was keeping myself absolutely spoiler free. Didn't look at the Stargate forum here, didn't look anything up online to go with the episodes I watched (very difficult to keep from doing, LOL), and I would skim/skip any post anywhere that mentioned anything about any stargate at all. So I was in about season 3 of SG:A when I went to a convention and got to hear Robert Picardo speak. Picardo: "Now when I took over command of Stargate Atlantis for season 5.." I was spoiled by Picardo about Picardo!
I think what also worked well for Picardo was his ability to work well with other great actors in the cast. Mulgrew, Ryan, Philips, Russ, Dawson, Lien & McNiel all had great moments in Voyager when paired up with him be it a scene or the entire ep. He was also one of the few actors on the series like Mulgrew, Dawson & Ryan that could carry an ep. all by themselves. I think it shows great skill as an actor to be in a scene by yourself and you're supposed to be talking to the computer or CGI image and act or react like there is actually something there talking back to you.
Puh-lease. The best? I'm sure that Teacake would rather be spoiled by Kate Mulgrew in a Princess Leia Slave Girl Bikini.
He was great for about half the series, but started getting super annoying later on, with all the episodes about his rampant imagination, his "sexuality" and his fight for "holographic rights" etc etc.
I don't think the philosophical question of whether artificial intelligence can be considered to have what we consider a 'soul' is preposterous. But I do think they were more elegant about discussing it in TNG.
I am so surprised that Picardo felt (initially) that he got the short end. His portrayal of the Doctor stole the show. The Doctor and Seven were my favorite characters.