In the second part of his interview with 1701News writer John Kirk, Robert Picardo talks more about his involvement with independent Star Trek productions and his opinions on their future. Picardo also shares some delightful anecdotes about his time on "Star Trek: Voyager," including his relationships he developed with his castmates and how he landed the role of everyone’s favorite hologram.

Picardo originally sought the role of Neelix on "Voyager" after thinking the character had a larger part, but it was the role of the Doctor that won him another audition and a part in the series.

"I ad-libbed most of the way through my audition and I knew they wanted a laugh at the end, but I wasn’t aware that I had uttered one of the greatest running jokes in Star Trek history," Picardo told 1701News. "At the end of the audition, my last line was: ‘I believe someone has failed to terminate my program.’ I took a long, deadpan look at all 16 people in the audition and added: ‘I’m a doctor, not a night-light,’ which got a huge laugh and I think that’s why they hired me!”

The middle of "Voyager’s" run saw a cast change with the departure of Kes (Jennifer Lien) and the arrival of Borg refugee, Seven of Nine (played by Jeri Ryan). To accommodate the arrival of the new cast member, another of Picardo’s influences took shape in how the Doctor would deal with this departure.

Kes had become the Doctor’s assistant, and in Picardo’s own words, somewhat of an emotional sounding board. How could the Doctor develop as a character if the character who made him more human had disappeared?

“I was obviously sorry to see her go and to see our original cast change, but I was also concerned that Kes had been the Doctor’s confidant," he said. "In fact, I said to Brannon Braga that Kes had been the only character to whom the Doctor reveals a different side of himself; where he is more than just a windbag and he shows his more vulnerable side.

"I said that if we lose the sounding board, he’s going to go back to being a windbag. Brannon said, 'Why don’t you see if you can think of a way to relate to the newest character?'”

With the obvious jokes on how to relate to Seven of Nine’s character out of the way, we moved on to how Picardo actually did that.

“I gave it some thought and I suggested that we take the mentoring role the Doctor had developed with Kes and flip it around," he said. "What if the Doctor thinks that the perfect person to teach Seven of Nine to reclaim her humanity is him? It would play into his overblown sense of self-importance, but also into his mentoring, medical and nurturing side. He liked it and we developed stories around role-playing exercises.”

Picardo had a lot of positive things to say about Ryan.

“Jeri is a really sweet person; a lot of fun and has a terrific sense of humor about the … thrall she casts over men," he said. "She’s very good about the way she looks. Here’s a true story: When she started to work on the show and in that costume, I did NOT want to get caught staring at her derriere. So I would literally -- for the first few weeks of shooting -- I would literally turn my back to her. My fear would be that she would turn away and I’d be staring at her. I once confessed that to her and we started to joke and once I was once over my shyness, the joke became how I actually had the best butt in the cast.”

Turning back to fan productions, PIcardo evinced nothing but the highest regard for the different shows out there. He expressed admiration for Vic Mignogna of "Star Trek Continues," James Cawley and the fact that people are maintaining the spirit of the franchise.

“They’re all very good," he said. "Vic’s a nice fella and he’s extremely proud of the work he’s done. Same with James Cawley.”

But looking at the possibility of another franchise series, I asked what his thoughts would be on the chances of CBS making another Star Trek on television.

“I’m sure they will," he said. "But -- and this is pure rumor that I’m hearing -- I thought they were going to hold off until the next movie was done.”

However, with regards to the adoption of one of the fan-made productions, he was more doubtful.

“I know it’s all very hopeful," he said, "but I don’t see CBS/Paramount saying here’s a $400,000 movie and we’re gonna turn it … what they would happily do is say: You know what? You did a terrific job and make as many as you can -- you put up all the money and we’ll let you sell it if you give us 80 percent or whatever.

"I mean, I could see a web series growing out of it … CBS could allow it to be the web presence of Star Trek -- they might. It could make money that way, but CBS would take the lion’s share. That, to me, is an accessible goal. I’m not trying to insult these productions, but I just don’t think a major studio would want to be told what to do.”

When asked if he would participate in another similar production, Picardo was fully in favor if the idea -- with conditions.

“You can’t go back," he said. "It’s not like I wouldn’t be interested in doing another Star Trek or other science fiction production, but I’d have to play Louis Zimmerman -- or another character. I mean, I’d love to play Capt. Pike, which I’ve said I’ll do; I’ll play a new character.”

Now that was really cool. Picardo was referring to Rigel 7 Productions' “Star Trek: Captain Pike,” which stars Ray Wise, Walter Koenig, Eric Roberts, Linda Park, Bruce Davison and, of course, Picardo as Dr. Lee Parsons. For information, visit startrekcaptainpike.com.

“To me, they’ve got the most impressive cast," Picardo said. "Of the older guard, they’ve got Walter. They have Ray Wise and Bruce Davison … it’s not made yet, but I’d definitely look them up if I were you.”

At this point, it was time to finish. Picardo organized the photo shot and arranged where we should be situated. He drafted his wonderful public relations person to take the picture and, in true creative-input fashion, made sure that it was a good photo before he went back to work.

Out of this conversation, a few things emerged: First, Picardo still knows how to have fun with Trek. Though he may not be playing the Doctor any more, he’s an actor committed to continuing the Trek franchise in whatever its form. Furthermore, he’s a realist about the future of the franchise. He has solid ideas on how it can succeed and is willing to lend his support to supporting this success. After all, the guy who defined the relationship between two iconic Star Trek characters has to know what he’s talking about. Finally, Picardo is a professional in the fullest sense of the word. If there’s a way that a character or a show can be improved, he’s your man to make it happen.

Just make sure you remember to state the nature of your production emergency.

Editor's Note: See Part 1 of this interview here.