Brilliant, neurotic, irascible, funny, brave...musical. These are all characteristics embodied in the performances of Robert Picardo. What's amazing, however, is that the actor brought each of these traits to a single character—that of Star Trek Voyager's holographic doctor (EMH), whom Picardo played every week for seven seasons between 1995 and 2001. This versatility caught the eyes of Vancouver's Stargate producers, who in 2004 hired Picardo to play the recurring role of International Oversight Advisory (IOA) member Richard Woolsey on both SG-1 and Atlantis, ultimately leading him to take command of Atlantis in the series' fifth (and now final) season.

Yet despite his extraordinary versatility, Picardo is about as relaxed and disarming on set as any journalist could hope for, in some ways belying the true range of his acting ability. During a recent press day, CinemaSpy had an opportunity to sit and chat with him about a variety of topics, from contrasting Voyager and Atlantis, to playing a rather weird cross between Mr. Rogers and Hannibal Lecter in his latest film, Sensored.

Question: You're doing a singularly bad job of establishing your dominance over the people on the Atlantis station.

Robert Picardo: I know. But isn't that cool? I think it's terrific that I'm not meant to be a leader. You've got all these science fictions shows where the boss [intentionally lowers voice] has to be brave and stalwart and true...and have the courageous thing to do all the time. Now we get a guy who's not cut out for it. I think it's very interesting. It not only gives comic possibilities, but for all those people across the country who had their seventh career change — since George Bush has exported all of our jobs to the rest of the world they're busing juggling trying to start a new life — they see me trying to do the same thing at my age. I think it's a good theme. Also, how successful has it been putting a bureaucrat in charge of the military? I think we all know the answer to that. I think we can get a little comic mileage out of that. You probably wouldn't want to go on a hunting expedition with Mr. Woolsey...and Mr. Cheney at the same time [laughter].

CinemaSpy: What does it mean to Woolsey that he's gotten his wish, and that he's actually in charge now?

Robert Picardo: Well, frankly, when they hired me, I thought, "oh god, that's interesting"... I love working here ... I love the company ... I'm treated beautifully up here ... I love coming to Vancouver ... all the 'outside' things were like, "yes, yes, of course I want to do it." Then there was the little voice that said, "wait a minute, we've set this guy up as kind of an annoyance, as a bit of a prig — I come in and evaluate 'you', so you better all be on your best behavior 'cause I'm going to find out who screwed up — and now suddenly he's the guy in charge. And he's a briefing room guy, a 'think tank' personality. He's not a leader, he evaluates other leaders. He's got a terrific legal mind, he knows the military rule book; he knows all the rules about protocol, and limiting collateral damage, and acceptable losses and all that stuff. But he doesn't make decisions, he just comes in and tells you how you screwed up. It's an interesting dilemma for a character who thinks he knows the the right way to do everything, and suddenly is put to the test...and does not have great people skills.

So I found it interesting, but then we'd also set it up that he's not terribly courageous; we had great comic mileage in the SG-1 episode "The Swarm", where Woolsey is running away faster than everybody else—so we had set up precedents that I was a little concerned about, because I didn't want to suddenly become a different character. But on the other hand, I thought if the writers were choosing to do this, it's for the exact reason that it's to put someone in charge who's not a born leader. And to see what happens, and how he develops, and how he's accepted. So from the very first episode that I'm featured in, Woolsey learns that he cannot simply go by the rule book—in the crisis that happens in "The Seed", he, by his own admission — in a scene with Colonel Sheppard at the end — says, "I've basically violated five different protocols already in my first crisis. And I think that's where Sheppard first begins to respect him, because he realizes that in a real situation he will depart from the rule book and make what he thinks is the best choice.

In each subsequent episode I think Woolsey's learning a different lesson. We've had some fun comic mileage with him not understanding where anything is on the base; he doesn't understand the ancient technology, so he's the guy who can't figure out how the doors open and close, he can't quite remember where the cafeteria is ... so there's a little fish out of water fun for a guy who's used to being in a business suit, and now suddenly is millions of light-years away wearing a different outfit on a whole new world, doing a whole new job. So we've had that kind of fun. And then in an episode called "Ghost in the Machine" we get to see Woolsey take his first major steps forward, courage-wise as a leader—where he bluffs his way out of imminent disaster. It's kind of a page he learned out of a book of Colonel Carter's in Season 4, when he comes to evaluate her, is convinced she's making a mistake, tires to wrest control and assume command from her — which he thinks he has the authority to do — and she turns out to have made the right call, and then with great embarrassment he retires to a corner and realizes he's made a terrible error trying to usurp her control. So I made a connection with that very same situation in an episode. I said to the director, "Why don't I go to exactly the same place on the set I went to, AFTER I was wrong, as a way of visually reminding our regular viewers that Woolsey had been in exactly this situation except he wasn't making the judgement call, and this time he was—and by doing exactly the same action I'd done in the other one, I thought, this will probably jolt the memory of our clever viewer and reference the other show from a previous season. Because it was the exact same situation, except this time HE had the responsibility and HE took the risk...and HE had the success.