Movies & TV Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: Robert Picardo Talks Opera and Hand Props “I have to be honest, I wish I had more hand props.” By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on January 16, 2026 Photo Credit: Miller Mobley/Paramount+ Comment 0 Share New Share Photo Credit: Miller Mobley/Paramount+ “I love Voyager. I was so excited to meet Robert Picardo. I was embarrassed with how excited I was. It was embarrassing. So I’ve been in lifelong fan [of Star Trek and also Robert Picardo].” That quote comes from award-winning actor Paul Giamatti when asked at the press conference for members of the Television Critics Association (TCA) what his relationship was to Star Trek. Giamatti isn’t alone: Many a Trek fan adore Voyager’s Doctor, an AI manifesting as a holographic projection who adores opera and is still his cantankerous self after being alive for centuries, as we see in the first season of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. I had the chance to talk with Picardo in the lead up to the show’s series premiere and asked the actor what he thought The Doctor was up to for all those centuries since Voyager: “I think he was waiting for the San Francisco Opera to ask him to be a guest performer. And it never happened, right? Hundreds of years of disappointment there, he probably took some voice classes, he certainly taught at the old Starfleet Academy as well. He probably was on a few other spaceships, and annoyed the captain too much they asked him to leave. So I think teaching was a natural way for him, a natural conclusion to his brilliant career, although, in theory, his brilliant career will never end.” Picardo is, of course, correct in how The Doctor would likely have faced the 900 or so years since Voyager. He also said, that he, the actor, missed the “very cool props” on his first Trek show. “There were an amazing variety of blinking devices that I could select from in order to cure whatever the problem was,” he said. “Now we just sort of have one device that you program, but I miss some of the other props… I have to be honest, I wish I had more hand props.” Photo Credit: Brooke Palmer/Paramount+ If you’ve seen the second episode of Starfleet Academy, you’ve seen The Doctor get his opera on. Trekkies know that The Doctor has sung opera since his Voyager days, something that Picardo said in the TCA press conference initially stemmed from a miscommunication. “The producers of Voyager misunderstood my suggestion that I listen to opera in sickbay while I was working, because I thought it was funny that a character with no emotion would choose incredibly emotional human art to listen to. And then they wrote a show where I’m singing and I went, ‘No, guys. No, you misunderstood me.’ But it was too late.” Picardo, however, was “was shocked and delighted” to sing in Starfleet’s second episode. “It was fun,” he added. “And our music director, Mark Russo [was] incredibly patient with me. And we really did it. I mean, I’ve heard it and I am delighted with how I sound.” In my interview with him, Picardo also gave a pitch to why Starfleet Academy is worth a watch. “[The show has] the most spectacular sets I’ve ever worked on, in anything, Star Trek or otherwise,” he said. “The atrium set for Starfleet Academy is the biggest set ever built for anything Star Trek. It’s on the largest sound stage in all of North America. It is just visually stunning to be in it, and then when you see it on film, it looks even more amazing because of the way it’s lit. “So I encourage anyone, even if you’ve never liked science fiction, just tune in to the pilot. And if you don’t like Star Trek, watch the set! You will still love this show—it’s unbelievably cool and futuristic. And I think that some of our performances, maybe even all of them, will captivate you once you’ve tuned in for the set. All right, is that fair?” New episodes of Star Trek: Starfleet Academy premiere on Paramount+ on Thursdays.[end-mark] The post <i>Star Trek: Starfleet Academy</i>: Robert Picardo Talks Opera and Hand Props appeared first on Reactor.