Star Trek: Voyager’s “Jekyll & Hyde” Doctor Episode Was Originally Much More “Perverse”, Says Writer

Star Trek: Voyager's Joe Menosky explained the original premise for season 3's "Jekyll and Hyde" episode focusing on the Doctor (Robert Picardo). The Doctor was one of the most popular members of Voyager's cast of characters, and during season 3, his storyline began to reach new heights as the character's humanity emerged. The introduction of the Doctor's mobile emitter allowed for a greater depth of storylines for him, and many of these episodes were focused on the Doctor expanding his program to encompass more aspects of humanity in his quest to gain full sentience.

However, not all of the Doctor's experiments with humanity turned out well. In Voyager season 3, episode 18, "Darkling," the Doctor attempted to add new layers to his personality by incorporating the personality traits of several well-known historical figures into his program. Rather than having the intended effect, the additions combined to create a dark personality that took over the Doctor and attempted to hurt members of Voyager's crew, including abducting Kes (Jennifer Lien) during the episode's climax. The Doctor's Jekyll-and-Hyde-like double personality was sinister enough during "Darkling," but the episode's plan for him was originally much darker.

Joe Menosky Explained The "Perverse" Doctor In Star Trek: Voyager’s “Jekyll & Hyde” Episode

The Doctor originally had a much darker alternate personality

In an extended interview with Cinefantastique around the time that "Darkling" aired, Voyager writer Joe Menosky revealed that the creative team's original intention was the make the Doctor's "Hyde" personality much more sadistic. Menosky stated that they had written scenes that showed the extent of the Doctor's dark personality and his obsession with Kes to such a horrifying extent that "Darkling" would have felt very different from a typical Star Trek episode, as the franchise generally likes to keep the tone lighter and more optimistic. Read Menosky's full quote below:

"We originally made The Doctor perversely sexual and sadistic. There was a sense that his attachment to Kes was weirdly kind of psychosexual, and we took it to its limit. In the screenplay first draft that I wrote, I had a scene when Kes walks into the holodeck and sees The Doctor doing an experiment. There are Keses everywhere, and he's got one of them on the operating table, and he has some flip line about, 'Just trying to get to know you better.' It's very perverse."

"Darkling" still had the seeds of the Doctor that Menosky described. His clear obsession with Kes and his interactions with some of the other female crew members, such as B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) and an unnamed Ensign in the turbolift, implied the degree of perversion that had taken over his personality. However, the episode was significantly toned down from its original premise, only hinting at what the "dark" Doctor is capable of rather than showing it outright. This was apparently thanks to a specific request made by another member of Voyager's creative team before the episode went into production.

Why Star Trek: Voyager Significantly Changed The Doctor’s Actions In “Darkling”

Another Voyager writer stopped "Darkling" from going down such an irredeemable path

According to Menosky in the same interview with Cinefantastique, Voyager's executive producer Michael Piller threatened to take his name off of "Darkling" if the script was submitted the way it was originally written. Piller felt the episode went too far in showing the Doctor's alternate personality, and that the level of depravity the episode displayed would irrevocably change the way audiences saw the Doctor going forward, making them less likely to look upon him sympathetically. Read Menosky's quote about Piller's opinion below:

"It made us reconsider doubts that we'd had. Michael's argument was that you got a sense, after the episode was done and The Doctor was back to normal, that somewhere in The Doctor was this horrible, dirty old man who was just waiting to get his hands on Kes. There was almost no way to erase that. That's probably why Picardo was so disappointed when we ended up not going that route, because he really loved the 'S and M Doctor,' as he liked to call it."

Although it sounds like Robert Picardo would have been interested in taking the Doctor's dark personality to its limit, it is ultimately a good thing that Piller stopped "Darkling" from going any further than it did. Menosky and Piller are both right that the episode would likely have changed how everyone saw the Doctor, and even though Kes did not stick around on Star Trek: Voyager, "Darkling" would almost certainly have colored the Doctor's interactions with other characters. Despite making the episode slightly less interesting, removing the Doctor's worst actions from "Darkling" was the right call.