Robert Picardo’s children have a gas theory as to why he was so successful as Star Trek Doctor

Robert Picardo is in town for Dublin Comic Con and is already sharing stories from his time on the hit TV series, Star Trek Voyager.

Picardo is famed for playing The Doctor (the Emergency Medical Hologram) in the hit Star Trek series from 1995-2001, and dropped by Ireland AM to chat about the upcoming convention and his time on the show.

Superfan Elaine Crowley shared how she was surprised to hear that he had oiginally auditioned for the role of Neelix, and he admitted that he just didn’t understand why people saw him more as the Doctor than Neelix.

That is until his children got older and hit the nail on the head by telling their dad their theory as to why he was so successful in the role: it was the power of his ‘resting bitch face’.

He explained: ‘My children, who grew up watching me have said, now that they’re adults, they said, “Dad, the key to your success as the Doctor is your resting bitch face”. My own children said [to me], when my face is at rest. I look unhappy.

‘Now [when they were] growing up, I smiled all the time in front of them, but then when they watched me on television, they thought, “This guy doesn’t look happy at all.” And you know, they were right, but it took me that long to figure it out. I had to have them grow up and explain it to me.’

While he has some time in Dublin for the Comic Con weekend, and a little jaunt over to the Wild Atlantic Way to look forward to, when he’s back in the US, he’ll be back to work on the latest Star Trek series, Starfleet Academy.

‘As soon as I’m through this wonderful trip here in Ireland, after I leave Dublin and see the Wild Atlantic coast and other points of interest, I will fly back to New York for 12 hours, then onto Toronto, and I will start shooting Starfleet Academy,’ he shared.

‘I’m the next legacy actor after Patrick Stewart to be put in the original cast of a new show. It features Holly Hunter, the great Academy Award winning actress, as the Chancellor of Starfleet Academy.

‘The season one villain is Paul Giamatti, which couldn’t be more exciting. He is a spectacular actor and a delightful human being.

‘And then there’s this incredible cast of young actors, all of whom I’ve met, all of whom I’ve read through the first couple shows with, that are just extraordinary talents and very diverse because one of Star Trek’s key core messages is diversity and inclusion in the future, and this is just a wonderful group of young actors that that are all extraordinarily talented.

‘So I’m very excited to start, and that’s the first thing I’ll do as soon as I’m back in the States.’