Robert Picardo is happy to talk about the future of Star Trek, even though Voyager's EMH retired from television when the show went off the air and the actor has recently been more involved in the Stargate franchise.

"I think [J.J. Abrams] is a great guy to re-launch the franchise," Picardo told Star Trek Magazine (via Sci Fi Pulse, saying that Abrams is a "great writer" with a "golden touch" and that Mission: Impossible III was a very well–crafted movie. "I'm sure whatever they choose to do will be good."

Picardo is in favour of revitalizing the franchise, believing that it will be good for Voyager and other previous incarnations to keep it active. "It's good for everybody," he said. "They’ve re-launched the Batman franchise and that worked out. I’ve heard that they may re–launch the [Star Trek] franchise with a story about Kirk and Spock as younger guys, back in the day, but I don’t know whether that’s the way to go because it seems to remove some of the jeopardy to know what happens in the future. On the other hand, they did kill off Spock four times and bring him back to life. I lost count!"

When it first aired, Voyager was criticised for its similarities to The Next Generation, but Picardo notes that in retrospect people are acknowledging that maybe that was not such a flaw. "I think people are maybe thinking, 'Voyager didn’t need that much fixing, Maybe it was a pretty good show to begin with,'" he said. "So maybe they went a little too far in reinventing the wheel with Enterprise.

On the latter show, "they were going to try something different. The feeling in the air was, 'Oh, we’re going to do it right this time. Voyager had its own level of success, but this time we'll reinvent the franchise." The alterations to canon disturbed many long-time fans, which Picardo believes is a risk at well with a prequel movie.

The full interview is in the new issue of Star Trek Magazine. These excerpts are from Sci Fi Pulse.

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