Robert Picardo influenced a hilarious reveal for the Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager season 4. As a popular member of Voyager's cast of characters, the Doctor got increasingly more interesting and sometimes outlandish storylines as the show progressed. Robert Picardo was also heavily involved in the Doctor's character creation, originating numerous traits, lines, and even story arcs for his character thanks to suggestions he made to Voyager's creative team. In fact, one of the Doctor's biggest episodes of season 4 was heavily influenced by Picardo.
Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 14, "Message in a Bottle," featured the Doctor being sent to the Alpha Quadrant via am alien relay network. Once there, the Doctor was caught up in a misadventure on a prototype ship, the USS Prometheus, which had been taken over by Romulans. Together with the help of the ship's EMH Mark II (Andy Dick), the Doctor helped keep the ship out of Romulan hands and finally informed Starfleet about Voyager's status. The banter between the Doctor and EMH Mark II was the episode's highlight, including a surprising line about the Doctor's sex life.
Robert Picardo Says He Influenced A Sex Joke Reveal For The Doctor In Star Trek: Voyager Season 4
Picardo thinks Voyager's creative team stole the idea from him
During a bragging session about his accomplishments, Star Trek: Voyager's EMH revealed to the EMH Mark II that he had had "sexual relations" before, a line that Robert Picardo was sure he had some indirect influence on. In an interview with Star Trek Monthly, issue 35, around the time of the episode's airing, Picardo revealed that he was certain the Doctor's sexual history was the result of a humorous set he had been doing at conventions about whether holograms were able to have sex. Read Picardo's full quote about "Message in a Bottle" below:
"There are even sex jokes which I insist Brannon Braga stole from my convention material, because I've been doing 10 minutes at conventions for a couple of years now about whether or not the holographic doctor is anatomically correct."
Given how much influence Picardo had over his character, it's almost certain the writer and producer Brannon Braga took inspiration from Picardo's convention material for the line about the Doctor's prior sexual relationship. Indeed, Picardo also revealed that he had more direct involvement with several of the lines in the final episode script, mostly funny banter between the Doctor and Andy Dick's EMH. While the line about the Doctor's prior romantic history was played for laughs, it did establish some important backstory for the character, and also raised the question of who the Doctor's previous sexual partner was.
Who Did The Doctor Sleep With Prior To Star Trek: Voyager’s “Message in a Bottle”?
The Doctor had a few romantic partners in Voyager's early seasons
There are a few possibilities concerning who the Doctor might have slept with before "Message in a Bottle." The most likely is Danara Pel (Susan Diol), a Vidiian woman who the Doctor had a romance with while she briefly stayed on the USS Voyager during the season 2 episode "Lifesigns." The Doctor and Danara were genuinely in love with each other, and even though Darana left Voyager at the end of the episode, their relationship was quite serious in a short amount of time, so it's possible that they were more intimate with each other off-screen.
Danara Pel also gave the Doctor the name "Shmullus" after a beloved uncle, one of the many names the Doctor briefly adapted in his quest to find one that stuck. Despite the search, the Doctor never ended up choosing a permanent name.
The Doctor also had two different holographic partners that he could have slept with but had much shorter and less serious relationships with as well. One was Freya (Marjorie Monaghan), a holographic character in a Beauwolf-inspired program that acted as the Doctor's first away mission on Star Trek: Voyager. The other was Charlene (Wendy Schaal), a holographic wife that the Doctor created for himself to experience family life. Although less likely, it's equally possible that the Doctor could have had sex with either partner.
