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One Star Trek: Voyager Character Took 10 Years To Get Home (Not Seven Of Nine)

   

One character in Star Trek: Voyager took ten years to get home, instead of seven. After arriving in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Kathryn Janeway's (Kate Mulgrew) crew estimated getting back to the Alpha Quadrant would take 75 years, even at maximum warp. That time was cut down considerably with technologies like the quantum slipstream drive, Borg transwarp conduits, and a telekinetic parting gift from Kes (Jennifer Lien) that shaved 9,500 light years off the trip's original 70,000 light year distance. Ultimately, a future version of Admiral Janeway helped whittle the USS Voyager's journey down to a mere seven years.

The USS Voyager also encountered delays that added time to their trip home. Besides routing around dangerous anomalies and space governed by hostile Delta Quadrant aliens, Captain Janeway also upheld Starfleet's mission to explore and contact strange new worlds. One such delay came in the form of the USS Voyager getting stuck in the gravimetric gradient generated by a planet with a tachyon core in Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 12, "Blink of an Eye". The USS Voyager is only stuck there for a few days, but the planet's time differential means centuries pass for those on the surface.

Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor Spent 10 Years In The Delta Quadrant (Not 7)

The Doctor's 3-Day Away Mission Became A 3-Year Stay

The Doctor (Robert Picardo) in civilian clothing tells Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) about his 3 year away mission Voyager Blink of an Eye

Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor (Robert Picardo) spent ten years in the Delta Quadrant, and not seven years, like USS Voyager's other original crew members. The drastic time differential created by the planet's tachyon core in Star Trek: Voyager season 6, episode 12, "Blink of an Eye" means that one day on the planet is equal to 1.03 seconds on Voyager. The Doctor's investigative 3-day away mission should have lasted only three seconds, but the EMH's signal is lost for several minutes, so by the time the Doctor returns, three years have passed for him.

In Star Trek: Voyager's very next episode, "Virtuoso", the Doctor discovers that an alien race values his singing talent, so he attempts to retire to their planet. If Voyager employed more serialized storytelling, this could be interpreted as the Doctor trying to recreate the life he had away from the USS Voyager in "Blink of an Eye".

As a hologram, the Doctor easily adapts to the time differential, which also—unfortunately—means the Doctor bounces back to life on Voyager relatively easily. The Doctor briefly reports that he built a whole new life while waiting for the mission's end, with a singing career, new friends, a long-term girlfriend, and even a son. This planet's people were clearly important to the Doctor, and they helped him in his overall character arc of becoming a person. Instead, Star Trek: Voyager's frequent return to status quo means the storytelling potential of the Doctor's extra three years goes unexplored.

 

Robert Picardo's USS Voyager Doctor Exists In Star Trek's 32nd Century

Will Star Trek: Starfleet Academy's Version Of The Doctor Have Centuries To Catch Up on?

The Doctor (Robert Picardo) in Star Trek- Voyager and Starfleet Academy's logo

The announcement of Star Trek legacy characters in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy reveals that Robert Picardo's USS Voyager Doctor exists in Star Trek's 32nd century. That doesn't necessarily mean that the Doctor has been actively operational for all 800 years between Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Starfleet Academy's Doctor could be a backup copy like the 31st-century version from Star Trek: Voyager season 4, episode 23, "Living Witness", but if not, the Doctor's ability to adjust easily to the planet's time differential in "Blink of an Eye" could point to another explanation.

As part of the USS Voyager-A crew in Star Trek: Prodigy, the Doctor would return to the Delta Quadrant to fix Voyager's mistakes. Voyager left the "Blink of an Eye" planet hoping they would learn to stabilize the time differential. The Doctor would still be the ideal crew member to beam down and check in. If the time-dilated society accidentally overshot stabilizing the differential so it became inverted in the intervening years, a brief mission for Star Trek: Voyager's Doctor would add up to far more than just ten years in the Delta Quadrant ... maybe even centuries.

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