Robert Picardo is only human.
The actor who plays the cantankerous holographic Doctor on “Voyager” sounds exhausted. While he’s been back on the “Trek” set just a couple of weeks, Picardo spent much of the summer traversing the country attending numerous “Trek” conventions.
He even flew to Germany for one, and now it’s all hitting him.
“It’s as if a month’s worth of jet lag hit me at once,” Picardo says by phone from his trailer on the Paramount lot. “I guess I overdid it the last couple of months.”
Though he’s as friendly as ever, Picardo’s not cracking jokes at his usual rapid-fire pace.
“I owe you a funny interview,” he says.
Fortunately, this conversation’s main subject is a serious matter, namely “Basics, Part II,” which is scheduled to kick off “Voyager’s” third season on Sept. 4.
When last seen, most of the Voyager crew members were left to fend for themselves on a primitive planet as Seska (Martha Hackett) and her Kazon cohorts made off with the Voyager.
The Doctor and the imprisoned Lt. Suder (Brad Dourif) remained aboard the ship, with the Doctor having turned off his program and Suder hiding in an air duct. Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) had absconded with a shuttle.
” `Basics II’ picks up where the first show left off,” Picardo says. “Essentially, Suder and I, the psychopath and the hologram, join forces to sabotage the Kazon takeover of Voyager.
“My action is largely to be a counselor to Mr. Suder, to support him emotionally. Suder realizes that in order to save the crew and, in effect, pay back his debt to society for murdering a Voyager crewman, he must kill again.
“After working so hard to control his violent impulses, he needs to actually release them. It’s a very interesting moral and psychological battle he must fight. The Doctor is placed in a position he’s entirely unsuited for, which is counseling and emotional support.”
The episode resolves the Seska-Chakotay (Robert Beltran) baby plot line, sends the never fully realized Kazon a-packing and sets up what promises to be a more action-packed year for “Voyager.”
Upcoming episodes welcome “Trek”-classic’s Sulu (George Takei), find the Voyager crew on Venice Beach, Calif., circa 1996, and herald the return of Q (John de Lancie).
Doctor-related developments include his discovering the joys of singing opera and an appearance from the Doctor’s creator, Dr. Lewis Zimmerman (Picardo).
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One episode, “The Swarm,” carries allusions to Alzheimer’s disease. In it, the Doctor’s circuitry overloads, causing him to crash. Everything he has learned, and the memories of the relationships he has formed, are erased.
“We haven’t shot that one yet, but it sounds intriguing to me because it may mean starting the character over from scratch,” Picardo says. “The episodes that work best for the Doctor are those in which he tries to succeed in an area that he’s not suited to or developed for.
“In `Heroes and Demons,’ he tried to be a hero on an Away Team mission, and in `Lifesigns’ he explored his first romance. When he clearly has no clue as to what to do in a situation, it offers me a lot of fun challenges as an actor.
“I get to be sarcastic, funny, sad and arrogant. So, I hope they come up with more of those kinds of episodes and scenes this season.”
As for his extracurricular activities, Picardo recently shot a small part in an upcoming film he politely declines to discuss. He also puts in a cameo appearance as a bad guy in Showtime’s “Menno’s Mind,” a sci-fi film.
Beaming back to “Voyager,” Picardo explains that he looks forward to the new season.
“I’m excited,” he says. “I’ll be directing the ninth episode, and that’s a challenge I’m eager to meet.”
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