Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Doctor Is In

Normally when I babble about "the Doctor" I'm referring to a certain Time Lord, but this time the news is about the holographic sawbones from the Trek franchise - or the actor who played him anyway.

The organizers of VCon were spreading the word today that Robert Picardo will be doing a signing at Imperial Hobbies, here in Richmond, BC on #3 Road across from the Lansdown Mall this Saturday starting at noon.

I'm tempted to go, but I don't really have anything for him to sign (except for an old VHS tape of Star Trek First Contact, where he appeared briefly in a funny little cameo), and since I haven't been following his more recent fare, like the Stargate franchise, I don't really have any worthwhile questions to ask.

I'll give Picardo his due: he was pretty funny back in the 80s as "the Cowboy" in Innerspace, and did a solid job as the afore-mentioned Doctor in Star Trek Voyager (Which I've been rewatching a lot of lately in reruns on Space. Does anyone remember what other aliases that character went by? I remember EMH Mark I, of course, and Schweitzer in one episode, but did he take on any other names? Not counting the name of his holo-programmer, of course.). I think my favourite Doctor episodes were the one where he was first transmitted back to the Alpha Quadrant and had to retake a hijacked Starfleet prototype warship with the help of an even more prissy EMH Mark II (a very fun epi), and the one where he gave romantic advice to Seven and developed a crush on her over the course of the lessons. I really had to feel for the character when she foisted the "friend" label on him in the end, 'cause how many of us have been saddled with that crushing, if well-meaning, emotional roadblock at least once in our lives? Picardo aced that quiet, sad accepting expression, and for all the big, flashy singing numbers that the character did over the course of the series, his melancholy rendition of "Someone to Watch Over Me" was probably the Doctor's best performance.

Anyhow, if you're in the area and you're a fan of Picardo's, be sure to drop by Imperial Hobbies.


Sent from my iPhone

No comments: