Star Trek at 60: What do we value the most? (Part 1)

Sarah Al-Ahmed (0:05)

Star Trek turns 60, this week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah Al-Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. This is part one of a special two-part series celebrating Star Trek's 60th anniversary. On September 8th, 1966, Star Trek premiered in the United States for the first time, though our Canadian friends did get it two days earlier.

Sixty years later, the people who brought that vision to life are still carrying its mission forward. Robert Picardo, who played the Emergency Medical Hologram on Star Trek Voyager and is now starring in Starfleet Academy, is also a member of the Planetary Society's Board of Directors. He joins me today to talk about the deep connection between Star Trek and the Planetary Society and why Star Trek's vision of cooperation in space matters now more than ever. Then we'll check in with Bruce Betts, our chief scientist for What's Up and a conversation about solar sails in Star Trek episodes. If you love Planetary Radio and want to stay informed about the latest space discoveries, make sure you hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcasting platform. By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode filled with new and awe-inspiring ways to know the cosmos and our place within it.

For 60 years, Star Trek has imagined a future where humanity has made it, where we've survived our wars, our divisions and our worst impulses, and come out the other side as people worthy of exploring the stars. It's a science fiction franchise that spans many television series, over a dozen films and generations of fans. At its core, it's always been about one idea, that the best of what we are as humans is enough to carry us into the unknown.

Star Trek premiered five years after Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, but three years before Apollo 11 put the first humans on another world. It landed right in the middle of humanity's first steps off this planet. And what Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator, imagined, wasn't just the technology that it was going to take to get there. The warp drives, the transporters, the tricorders. He imagined who would go, people from every background, every nation, every species, all of them together on a ship exploring the stars. That vision has been pulling people into real world space exploration ever since, including many of the people at the Planetary Society. Our next guest is one of them. Robert or Bob Picardo played the Emergency Medical Hologram, also called the EMH, on all seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager, beginning in 1995 The EMH was a holographic doctor, a computer program designed to run in medical emergencies for short periods of time. But in the story, when Voyager was stranded 70,000 light years from home and the ship's real doctor was killed, the EMH had to stay on permanently. Over seven seasons, what started as a temporary tool with no name, no rights and no bedside manner, grew into one of the most human characters in the franchise. He fought for the right to be recognized as a person. He fell in love. He wrote hollow novels and spent seven seasons searching for an identity. Picardo also directed two episodes of Voyager, including One Small Step, which is a tribute to the pioneers of human space exploration. He appeared as the EMH aboard the Enterprise in the film Star Trek First Contact. He also played the doctor's creator, Louis Zimmerman, on Deep Space Nine. And voiced the doctor in the second season of the animated series Star Trek Prodigy. Bob is currently starring as the doctor, now over 800 years old, in Star Trek, Starfleet Academy. But Bob's connection to space doesn't end on the screen. He sat on the Planetary Society's advisory board while he was still filming Voyager. And he's been on the board of directors since 2015

He's walked the halls of Congress advocating for NASA science. He's stood in the control room at JPL during Mars rover landings. And he's still playing the doctor all of these years later. If anyone has proved that Star Trek's mission doesn't end when the cameras stop rolling, it's Bob.

Hey Bob, thanks for joining us.

Robert Picardo (4:24)

My pleasure. Always, Sarah. Thank you.

Sarah Al-Ahmed (4:26)

I know I've said this to you in person, but the doctor, the EMH, has got to be my favorite character on Voyager. And I think tiny Sarah would lose her mind that I get to talk to you right now.

Robert Picardo (4:38)

That's good to hear. I remember when I first spoke to our producer of Starfleet Academy, Noga Landau, the first thing she said to me was, thank you for helping to raise me.