All language subtitles for The Center Seat 55 Years of Star Trek S01E08 Voyager to the Delta Quadrant 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DD+5 1 H 264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

By the mid-1990s,
Trekkies would have not one

but twoStar Trek shows
to give them their fix.

Good luck.

We were a few seasons
into Next Generation when they said,

"Let's get another one going,"
and that was Deep Space Nine.

So I said,
"Man, this is really cool.

"They're gonna do
a whole another series."

One day that's going to be me.

They're chugging out
20-some-odd episodes a year of two different series.

And then there was
the big screen.

When Next Generationended,
it went right into its first feature film.

They say time is the fire
in which we burn.

Prophetic warnings aside...

Paramount said, "Simultaneously,
let's get another show."

...another
Star Trek series?

Everything Star Trek's
is exploding.

But would
the new series blow up...

Welcome aboard Voyager.

...or be more of a bomb?

So beam aboard
and hold on tight

as we boldly go
into the depths ofStar Trek.

And you can see it all
from here inThe Center Seat.

In 1994, development began
on a fifthStar Trek show, adding to a growing family.

We were the baby that came along

when Next Generation
was seven years old

but Deep Space Nine
was only two years old.

We had six stages at Paramount
going at one time.

It was basically
the Star Treklot.

Walking down
Star Trek Street at Paramount,

here's Shatner and the entourage
out in the alley between the buildings.

He's all decked out
in his monster maroon.

And meanwhile, here's TNG.

They're trying to get
their thing wrapped.

Across the street, you've got
the three stages of DS9.

And then in the offices,
you've got the art department.

You've got people
who are planning what's gonna be Voyager.

So you really have
four Star Trekprojects in the works at one time

in this insane summer of 1994.

The patriarch
of this family was a man

who would come to define
theStar Trek of the '90s.

Rick Berman,
as the executive producer of the shows,

he has to carry
the load of all these multiple productions.

So much so that
the era would become known as the Berman era.

It's funny. I have heard it
referred to me.

It was the Westmore years.

Whatever
it was called, there was only one person

who didn't want another show
on his hands.

My feeling was,
"Let's take a break. We're doing it too quickly."

And their feeling was,
"We have ratings. Do it."

But there was
a little more to it

because Paramount's
bold plans forStar Trek

were one part
of a much riskier project.

Paramount and Chris-Craft
United television stations

joined forces to start
the United Paramount Network.

Better known as UPN.

And I went to run that.

Paramount had explored
this territory 20 years earlier

when it tried to launch
a fourth network to challenge the big three.

But armed with wunderkind
executive, Lucy Salhany,

and a newStar Trek show,

Paramount was confident
this time would be different.

Perhaps a little too confident.

We had from September
until January.

The middle of January,
we had promised the stations we would be on the air.

And if launching
a network in four months

wasn't groundbreaking enough,
Voyager would be...

The first time we would see
a female captain leading a show.

...still
a controversial move.

It was, in fact,
whatStar Trek's creator had espoused 30 years earlier.

It's another reflection
of Gene's whole thing about humanity,

encompassing
all of its elements.

Star Trek was
once again ahead of its audience,

but not too far ahead.

The only way the audience
would accept a female captain

is if we made her
as much of a man as possible.

Which sounds like
the male idea of what a female should be.

But producers had a plan
to avoid that.

Rick said to me,
"We're going to do a series about a female captain.

"Do you wanna be a co-creator?"

To which
Jeri responded...

Yes. Yes.

I thought
it was important,

especially because we wanted
to have a female captain

that we had
a female executive producer.

Obviously.

And obviously,
Jeri had some opinions about the female captain.

I was one who felt very strongly

that she should be allowed
to have compassion and sensitivity

and maybe a maternalness.

That she should be
a complete human being.

And most importantly,
a sense of self.

A real sense of self
without apology.

But the creators
ofVoyager knew that

it would take
more than a female captain

to set their show apart
from the crowded slate.

Because,
as previously established...

Every Star Trekbegins with

"How do we make it
exactly like the others, except totally different?"

Rick Berman, Michael Piller
and Jeri Taylor

begin a series
of secret meetings.

Now it was getting
very, very difficult

because there had been
The Original Series,

there had beenNext Gen,
there had beenDeep Space Nine.

So how do you come up
with something that feels fresh?

The answer was simply
to ask fans what they wanted.

Paramount does focus research,

and they ask fans
if they would want another Star Trekshow.

And fans say, "Yes,"
and they prefer a ship-based show.

That meant daring
to chart an unknown course forVoyager.

It was Michael who came up
with the idea of losing them in Deep Space.

When
a displacement wave

knocks theVoyager
clear across the galaxy...

Report.

We're over 70,000 light years
from where we were.

Not much
to worry about.

Just 75 years at maximum warp
and they'd be home.

We had an overall mission.
Get home.

It was radical enough
that it made me a little nervous.

And others
a little disappointed.

I mean, come on. What warp?

Where is the exploration?

Where is the drive
to expand our knowledge?

No. We just wanna go home.

It's a fine crew,
and I've got to get them home.

This is what will make it fresh.
This is what makes it original.

This is what makes it different.
This is what will make it work.

And they were right
to be apprehensive

because there was
a price to pay

for sendingStar Trek
into the unknown...

No Klingons, no Romulans,
no Cardassians, no Trill.

The popularity
ofStar Trek has a lot to do

with the Klingons,
the Romulans.

That area of space
that we all know and love in producing such good stories.

Completely breaking
withStar Trek tradition.

They're setting themselves up
with this incredible challenge.

And that
challenge was...

Is the audience
going to accept that?

Are they going to buy it?
Are they going to resent us?

Let's find out.

As the premier script
came together,

this trio dared to introduce
new alien races.

Ranging from the tragic...

She is Ocampa.

Why would you be interested
in such worthless creatures?

...to the comic.

I must admit,
I haven't had access

to a full
replicator before.

Even the very bones
ofStar Trek were getting a new twist.

Computer, initiate Emergency Medical Holographic program.

That is to say,
the ship's new doctor was now just an app.

Please state the nature
of the medical emergency.

When I read
the character description, it said,

"a computer program
of a doctor, colorless, humorless."

But I'd heard they'd seen,
like, 900 actors,

and they wanted someone funny,
but I didn't think the part was funny on paper.

So in his audition,
Robert ad-libbed a line,

a little something extra
to show his chops.

The last scripted line,

"The doctor has been
left active in sick bay and he has nothing to do."

Doesn't anyone know
how to turn off the program when they leave?

And after that last line,
I took a long, deadpan look at the 16 people watching me

and I said, "I'm a doctor,
not a nightlight."

Bones couldn't have
said it better himself.

I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer.

But even
a computer-generated doctor needed a snappy name.

The doctor was going to be
named Dr. Zimmerman through the entire first season.

Right before we premiered,
they changed my credit

from Doc Zimmerman,
Robert Picardo, to The Doctor.

And suddenly,
Star Trek's new doctor

sounded a bit like a certain
more famous doctor from across the pond.

And in that moment,
unwittingly, I ripped off

fifty years of British
science fiction television.

Other new characters
had problems much bigger than what they were named.

Kes, this is a surprise.

Kes is an Ocampan,
has a very short lifespan.

Living not much longer
than your average pet.

It was a character who gave us
an interesting perspective on mortality.

You know how finite
a human lifespan is.

Producers found
their mayfly in a young actress from Illinois.

Jennifer Lien who played,
uh, Kes,

a very, very good actress.

I thought
Jennifer Lien was wonderful.

Extremely talented.

And I thought,
"Excellent choice for that role."

She played it to the hilt.

And there were plenty
more characters to cast.

We need a Robbie McNeill type
to play Paris.

I'm already doing a job.

It's true.

He'd already
played a small part in theNext Generation.

But not to worry.

Fine. He's another character. Okay.

Well, then I guess I'm yours.

AnotherNext Generation veteran
was Ethan Phillips

who would swap a spiky teeth
for pointy ears and a mohawk.

Neelix.

Eventually,
the initial script suggested something different.

It said he was an android,

and I didn't know what that...

I figured it was a guy who had,
like, an oid hanging from his...

I didn't know
what the hell it was.

Well,
at this point, no one knew what much of anything was

because without
its beloved Klingons,

Star Trek needed a new band
of would-be villains.

Hail the Maquis.

One of the ingredients
was this group of rebels called the Maquis.

These renegades, they are
broken away from the Federation.

They are our antagonists

that we're gonna have
to come to some kind of understanding with.

And leading
these potentially sinister insurgents,

Robert Beltran as Chakotay.

Commander, you and I
have the same problem.

I think it makes sense
to try and solve it together, don't you?

And this
rogue faction soon found itself aboardVoyager.

Watch out, Captain.
They're armed.

That, to me, was the most
interesting part of the pilot.

We are going to have conflict
not only with aliens

and other stuff that we meet
out in the universe,

we are gonna have it
on board the ship.

And although
this could have been the source of a lot of tension...

Didn't go anywhere.

I didn't think this Maquis thing
would last, and I was right.

In fact,
it didn't even survive the first episode.

Permission to speak freely.

I was hoping that
they would play with that a little bit longer.

There's conflict embedded
in the whole situation.

But writers
soon realized the conflict scenario didn't make sense.

Now was it because
I didn't wanna deal with it and I ignored it?

Or is it because they're stuck
on a desert island?

We are not at home.

There is no purpose for them
in the wrong quadrant of the galaxy.

And we are on the lifeboat.

What kind of trouble
are you gonna make on a lifeboat, man?

So instead of conflict,
the Maquis brought the opposite.

Both crews are going
to have to work together if we are to survive.

Diversity
in the Starship's crew was mirrored

by real diversity
inVoyager's cast.

My grandparents are from Mexico.
We are Mestizos.

We are half European,
half native.

I'm Puerto Rican,
and as I was growing up,

I didn't really see anybody
that looked like me on TV.

Star Trek's
infinite diversity

was once again challenging
its audience.

They asked me,
"Well, how could there be an African-American Vulcan?"

Well, I think the phrase is

"infinite diversity
in infinite combinations," isn't it?

And for
the true pedants out there,

it's worth pointing out
that the planet Vulcan has multiple suns.

Meaning it's hot.

So what is the temperature
gonna be like on the equator of that planet?

But the producers
had left their toughest casting decision until last.

And for the captain,
even getting the name right was a challenge.

The first name was Elizabeth.

It turns out there is
a real-life Elizabeth Janeway of high repute.

She is the wife
of economist Eliot Janeway.

So, no, we can't use
a real person's name.

So then it becomes Kathryn.

And then 20 years later,
Jeri Taylor has a chance

to interact with the real-life
Elizabeth Janeway.

And she says, "You know,
we almost named her for you, but we couldn't name..."

And Elizabeth Janeway says,
"Oh, my God,

"I would have been thrilled
if you'd named her Elizabeth."

Instead Elizabeth
was now a Kathryn.

But who best to embody
this new matriarch?

They had to find
this middle ground

of someone
who could show a heart

and be kind of,
in many respects, a mother to her crew,

but also be in charge.

We struggled to find
an actress to do that.

I mean, we read
hundreds of people, literally.

Leaving
no stone unturned in their search for a captain,

producers considered
nearly every established TV heroine ever.

Erin Gray from Buck Rogers.

Attention, alien spacecraft.
Do you read?

Linda Hamilton.

There's Susan Gibney.

We made a good team.

Lindsay Wagner,
The Bionic Woman.

But this catalog
of kick ass led to nothing.

They brought in an actress
who had obviously had some success with Mrs. Columbo.

The working actress,
Kate Mulgrew.

And I know
what you're thinking.

But she didn't get the job.

At least not yet.

We weren't all that taken,

and so didn't even offer her
a second reading.

But then a big name
put her hat in the ring,

albeit a hat that
no one saw coming.

It was made known to us
that Genevieve Bujold was interested in this.

Genevieve Bujold
was an Academy Award nominated actress.

She was a name.

She was more associated
with art films.

Brother, I must fight. I must.

Everybody was excited
beyond belief.

I pushed hard
for Genevieve Bujold.

I was a huge fan of hers.

We asked her to read
and she didn't wanna do that.

I think she felt
it was demeaning to her

that an actress of her stature
and caliber to be asked to read a part.

Not wanting to offend
the Oscar nominated actress...

We made the decision
not to ask her to read,

but to give her the part
convinced that it would be wonderful.

But not everyone
shared the hunch.

And I remember
very, very clearly

telling both Michael Piller
and Jeri Taylor

who were enamored with her
that I didn't think it was gonna work.

Star Trek: Voyager
had landed

a genuine marquee star
to be its first female captain.

People know Genevieve Bujold
is a marketable name.

But not everyone
was quite so excited.

There was a part of me
that knew it wasn't gonna work.

And with
a very expensive pilot on the line,

Voyager needed to hit
the bull's eye.

Voyagerabsolutely
was our premiere show.

Luckily,
they had an A-list cast.

The Cardassians claim
they forced the Maquis ship

into a plasma storm
where it was destroyed,

but our probes haven't
picked up any debris.

After one day's shooting,
we were a little dismayed.

She was very passive.

And I literally can't hear
what she's saying.

That was the first sign.

Excuse me, Captain, is that...

Now? You mean now?

We might be able to disperse it
with a graviton particle field.

Do it. Red alert.

I think this was a very
conscious choice on her part,

that she didn't need
to be strong

or imperious or controlling.

Dramatically, this did not
translate well.

It created the effect
that she didn't care if she was there or not.

The film actress
also struggled to fit

her big screen expectations
into small screen realities.

This was a woman
who had just done feature films.

She had never done television.

She was used to doing
one page a day.

We do seven.

You know, with dialogue changing
every ten minutes.

Day one
of shooting had become a slow-motion train wreck.

And we talked to the director
and said, you know,

we need to have
a little more substance from this woman.

And he said,
I know and I have tried and it's not happening.

Perhaps things
would be better on day two.

It was exactly the same.

Genevieve had
gone down a rabbit hole and she decided to stay there.

She, basically,
went into her trailer and wouldn't come out.

And our shooting schedule
went to hell.

The studio got incredibly upset.

This was
starting to cost Paramount serious money.

Problem is, if you fire her,
you have to pay her for the whole season.

It's a lot of money,
even for Star Trek.

But before
push came to shove,

Genevieve offered
an olive branch.

She summoned the three of us,
Rick, Michael, and I, to her trailer,

and said she just didn't feel
she could go on with this.

This was not
the right choice for her. It was not the right part.

And while sympathetic,
the producers were,

more than anything...

Deeply relieved.

A move that instantly
saved Paramount money,

but landed the production
in choppy waters.

Our Academy Award-winning
actress is going.

Scandal, scandal.
This is the doom ship. This is the ship of the dead.

The Star Trekthat will never
get off the ground.

It was back
to square one. And with time against them...

They go back through the files
and see, maybe, we should give a second read to some people.

And thanks to
a little detective work,

they discovered
Mrs. Columbo, again.

And so Kate came in and read.

...for a second time,
but that didn't mean she was doubly prepared.

I didn't watch any Star Trek.

In fact, somebody once said,
"Oh, Patrick Stewart is here."

I was at a party and I said,
"Who's Patrick Stewart?"

And they all gasped.

Well, in any case,
at the second audition...

I was free in the audition room,
I was able to give my take on Kathryn Janeway.

It was less gasping
and more sighs of relief.

And it was such
a profound difference

between what Genevieve had done
and what Kate was doing.

And I remember
as I left the room, if I didn't do it literally,

I felt that I was winking
at Rick Berman.

So there's
no surprise that...

My first choice
and all of our first choice was Kate.

But Kate had
little time to get accustomed to the chair.

I think I had about a weekend
to pull myself together,

but it felt like I was
being shot out of a cannon. It was so intense.

And if learning
her part overnight wasn't enough...

She was under a tremendous
amount of scrutiny.

With jittery
studio suits hovering, Kate had inherited

the toughest of tough crowds.

I only remember coming onto
the bridge and having to perform that initial monologue.

We're alone...

in an uncharted part
of the galaxy.

With a lot of men in suits
standing at the lip of the bridge, arms folded,

"Is she going to do this
because we've got a wonderful actor in the wings."

Kate was not only
the producers' last chance,

she was turning into
the sisterhoods last stand.

There were all these rumors
that if we didn't find the right woman

to play Captain Janeway,
that the studio might make it a male after all.

Suddenly, Kate wasn't
the only cast member getting nervous.

If Janeway were now a man,
then one of the other characters that was, presently, a man

might be turned into a woman.

So we were all a little nervous
about losing our jobs.

With the fate of
a new network

and the entire
Star Trek franchise on her shoulders,

Kate Mulgrew dug deep.

When that kind of
attention is on you, it's very hard to relax

and inhabit the character
with the kind of grace and confidence

that only comes over time,
so I had to really act.

Let's see what happens.

I had to pull myself together
and I thought,

"Well, this is
what it's going to be like. It's going to be tough."

Kate came on set.
We were filming in the corridors,

and everybody
burst into applause.

"Oh, my gosh,
we can get back to work now."

Kate Mulgrew came in
and just took charge of that role from the beginning,

and she was clearly the captain.

She was in charge.

And you could totally buy
a ship full of people following her orders.

It just felt right.

But there were still
plenty of other things they could get wrong.

Like the entire plot for
the two-part premiere episode called"Caretaker".

They were supposed to be
an advanced race, but they can find any water.

The Kazon
were no substitute for the Klingons.

You know, you've got, like,
warp-capable spacecraft,

but you're thirsty.

I mean,
it just seemed kind of silly.

And incidentally,
it wasn't just the Kazon who were thirsty,

And it was, you know,
100 degrees

and I was in that makeup.

They all trade and they all kill
each other for it.

Everybody was bitching.
Finally, I just got so sick of listening to the bitching

and said, "Listen, guys, I got
a mattress glued to my head, you guys should shut the... up."

My friends,
it's good to see you again!

Well, the script
wasn't quite holding water for Brannon Braga, either.

My only contribution
to the pilot, I think,

was that I thought
the initial drafts were missing

some kind of weirdness.

Well, not for long.

I'm up here,
I have a pitcher of lemonade and some sugar cookies.

You're being catapulted
to the Delta Quadrant.

You need a little
Twilight Zone-nessgoing on.

And I think their answer to that
was this banjo man thing.

But not just
your regular banjo man.

He turns out to be
a super powerful dying alien.

Who really
looks like this.

And was responsible
for the well being of the subterranean Ocampas.

He had no idea
that our technology

would be so destructive
to their atmosphere.

But aside from
a cool banjo, the caretaker also has a very powerful array

that could sendVoyager home.

But in doing so,
it would fall into the hands of the Kazon,

who would use it to steal
the Ocampas water.

And they won't be able
to survive.

Leaving Captain Janeway
with a tough choice.

Either use
the caretaker's array to get home,

or destroy it
and save the Ocampa.

But it means being stranded.

I'm aware everyone has families
and loved ones at homes they want to get back to.

So do I.

But I'm not willing to trade
the lives of the Ocampa for our convenience.

We'll have to find
another way home,

And she carries
that burden with her for the entire series.

But it was very brave
to cut all the moorings loose.

We're like castaways out there.
We are on our own, and we are in unexplored space.

They've taken away
the safety net.

There is no Klingon, Romulan,
Cardassian to fall back on.

What you hope is that by
going into a completely fresh area of space,

you have enough
potential material

that you don't have to have a...
a favorite enemy.

Furthermore,
since they're still on a one way trip home,

that meant there'd be
no doubling back.

Even if we encountered,
you know, a really interesting species, like the Vidiians,

you know, as soon as we were
past somebody's space,

we wouldn't be coming back
and seeing them again.

In a way, it was a little bit
of a drawback.

The fact that Voyager
was constantly moving under,

on a trajectory to get home
was not a drawback.

In terms of encountering species
a second time,

because a species like
the Vidiians, and they can be far spread.

They can live on other worlds.
They have warp ships, too.

Like, and so what, by the way,
it forces you to come up with new stuff.

Producers were confident this lost in space

Star Trek would find
an audience.

We'll find a way back.

Even if
they couldn't find home.

And they were right.

And, of course, Voyagerpremieres
in January, 1995.

to extraordinary viewership.

21.3 million viewers.

We were the second highest-rated
network and that was big for UPN.

But unlike
the Kazon, this audience wasn't thirsty for more.

You never know
what an audience is going to do.

Soon after
the premiere...

The numbers diminished
and that was...

distressing,
and we weren't certain why

And neither was UPN
but they forged ahead.

They had really left themselves
with no other option.

And depending on one show,
to launch an entire network.

It seemed to me.
"Well, I guess they know what they're doing."

There was
at least one place where they could find out

what the audience
really thought ofVoyager and Captain Janeway.

In March of 1995,
there is the first Star Trekconvention

since the show came out,

And they opened it up
for a question and answer time.

So, this middle-aged man
gets up and he says,

"The jury is still out on you
as captain of Voyager.

"As a woman
leading a Star Trekseries.

"And as you as an actress."

And you could have heard
a pin drop in that room.

If memory serves,
she responded, "Well, I'm sorry. You think that way."

How many Star Trekfans
does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Four.

One to screw it in
and then three to argue about

how much better they did it
on the original series.

Within
a few episodes,

Voyager's voyage
appeared doomed.

If you don't have viewers,
then you don't have a show that's going to continue.

For now,
Paramount had a show,

but they barely had
a network to run it on.

We called ourselves a network,
but we only had a few nights. We only had six hours.

We weren't a legitimate network
at that time.

United Paramount Network had a credibility issue.

And it was, you know,
universally called the "you pretend network."

"Let's pretend we're a network."
Okay.

And the other
science fiction on it

wasn't looking
terribly legitimate, either.

Give us one good reason
why we'd be in business with you again.

That's two good reasons.

There was no sense
of what the brand was.

Voyager'sthe biggest
thing there and they all have high hopes

that it's going to bust UPN
into the stratosphere.

Well, it hadn't,
but UPN doubled down.

The feeling was that something
needed to give some oomph to the show.

And it's not like
they could rely on Captain Janeway's love life

to spice things up.

They were extremely mindful
of writing for a woman.

There was a little less
of the bravado of Kirk or the daring-do of Picard.

And a little more of
the humanity and warmth that we so often think,

in this culture,
belongs to the female gender.

It may have been
a noble approach,

but it left the writers
backed into a corner

when it came to
adding a little bit of on-screen sizzle.

I'd given up any hope
of a marriage,

any hope of having
a child of my own.

Well, I guess that's what we get
for having a woman in the captain's seat.

Because what really
unnerved the producers

was the prospect of
a female captain with desires.

Get out.

They were so concerned
that the audience might think

that Janeway has a thing for Q,
that they took that, kind of,

color off of our palette.

But so she wouldn't
be completely sexless,

they designed a safe,
romantic companion for her.

An interesting
and intriguing man...

who could challenge her
and yet be compassionate with her.

There was only
one man who fit the bill.

I loved all
the Leonardo da Vinci stuff.

Welcome!

That's right.
The 16th century Italian Renaissance man.

Or at least a holographic
projection of him.

There was a group of very,
sort of, strident women,

who were infuriated
that we would have her

have a relationship
with a mock person, rather than a real person.

That somehow that lessened her
or denigrated her.

This is Leonardo da Vinci
we're talking about.

Simulation or not,

he's one of
the greatest creative minds in Earth's history.

In my mind,
it was the perfect solution

because it was the place
she could go when she needed to talk about something

and have a friend
who would talk about it with her.

But during
the years adrift in space,

other relationships
had blossomed.

The Doctor had
a very unique relationship with Kes

because, ostensibly,
he was mentoring her as his medical assistant.

What are the bones
of the middle ear?

Malleus, incus and stapes.

But she really was
mentoring him in his developing sense of entitlement.

as a...
as an artificial intelligence.

Doctor, did you notice
how rudely that officer treated you?

Not more so than most.

Kes and the Doctor
were doing their part to keepVoyager on the air.

She was, uh,
an extraordinary actor,

um, absolutely unedited
and present.

Despite some
gripping performances, it became clear the actress

was in the grip
of something else.

She began to become
distracted, inattentive.

There was just something off.

Well, if you say hello,
"Hey, Jenny. How you doing?"

You don't, you're not sure
what kind of response

you're going to
get back from her.

Jennifer was extremely quiet
and private.

Really monosyllabic.

We don't know
what was going on in her life.

But whatever it was,
it didn't allow her to perform her duties on set.

The previously
focused actress

was turning into
a multi-take factory.

One more time, please.

And you have to take two,
take three, take four.

I asked her to
come into my office and probed gently

to see if there was
something going on in her life,

if there's anything
I could help her with,

and she simply
wouldn't speak at all.

She completely shut down.

I don't think anyone knows
what was going on,

but clearly there was
something emotionally upset,

And, I think, all of us were
kind of getting the...

the feeling
that Jennifer, maybe, really didn't want to be there.

I think, maybe,
the grind was starting to get to her.

Sadly,
the producers never got to the bottom

of whatever was troubling
the actress.

She would not, um,
open up about it.

She would not consider
getting any help for it.

It was more powerful
than she was,

and she was, simply,
unable to continue.

With one of
the most popular characters in trouble

and ratings still sliding,

by the end of season three,
it was obvious.

You have a network
that's demanding changes.

And resistance
was futile.

Due to actress,
Jennifer Lien's personal crisis,

Star Trek: Voyager
was set to lose a crew member in season four.

Jeri Taylor fought the network

who wanted to
just cut things off, you know, "Oh, she's gone."

And Jeri's like,
"No, she deserves the dignity of a farewell as a character."

So Kes got
a glowing goodbye.

The way that we wrote her out
was, kind of,

like killing her off,
in that, she sort of evolved

into a greater form of energy.

With the departure
of a popular character

and ratings
in a downward spiral,

Voyager would live or die
by season four.

And so,
producers came up with a plan best summed up in four words.

Bring back the Borg.

My God!

Everybody was really excited
to be able to use the Borg.

Star Trek
was returning to the tried and true.

The Borg,
a villainous alien species fromThe Next Generation,

would be imported as a way
to introduce some danger.

The Borg are
going to be our Klingons in the Delta Quadrant.

They're going to be
our recurring villain.

Because, you know, obviously,
it had been established in The Next Generation

that Borg was in
the Delta Quadrant, and here we were,

in the Delta Quadrant.

Their space appears to be vast.

It includes thousands
of solar systems, all Borg.

But the return
of the Borg was only half the story.

We had the first
all digital villain, I believe,

in all of Star Trek,
which I called 9-0-2-1-0.

Point 2-3-4.

6-7-5-3-0-9.

It's actually...

Species 8-4-7-2.

Species 8-4-7-2 was designed
to be like

the scariest aliens that we had
encountered yet.

With a scary price tag.

This was in the early days
of CGI

and having a CG character
was expensive and difficult.

You know, we only were able
to see that creature

fifteen-eighteen seconds
worth of film, maybe.

But not even
the power of 1990s computing

could outmatch
what they had planned next.

What if there was
a Borg crew member?

The answer to
that question became a character,

that would pose
all sorts of challenges for theVoyager crew.

Her original name
was Para,

in the meetings that they had.

But they always knew
that her name was going to be a number.

Seven of Nine.

Numbers destined
to become the bane of Captain Janeway's life.

And this is Janeway
who's about to take the biggest risk...

a captain has ever taken.

Where Janeway wants
to make a deal with a Borg.

The present situation requires
that we consider your plan.

We had treated the Borg
just as this mass,

you know,
that they specifically did not have individuality.

And yet, we had to develop
this individual character

who had been,
you know, assimilated when she was a child.

And so, had not grown up
as an individual herself.

And so, once we
kind of freed her from the collective,

you know, against her will,

then it was like
she almost had to go back

to being a child again in a way

to define her own personality
and her own voice.

Seven of Nine gave us
the opportunity to show

the struggle of somebody
who's been as badly broken as a human can be

and watch her journey
back to humanity.

And that's not something
that had been done before.

The inspiration
for casting was to move as far away

from the traditionally Borg
as possible.

And maybe
it's a very statuesque,

you know, we talked about
kind of a Grace Kelly, cool demeanor.

Or put another way...

- A babe.
-A Borg babe.

We had lots of casting sessions

because we needed a good actor.

Producers considered
a number of actors.

But in the end...

Michael, Jerry and I
all agreed on Miss Ryan.

That's, Jeri Ryan.

It truly was not
Jeri Ryan's appearance that got her the job.

She read it the best of anyone.

I wanted Seven of Nine
to come on

and freshen up each
and every character

and have her own relationship
with each character.

This was
a case of being careful what you wish for.

All of a sudden,
a new woman arrives,

who is part alien
and who is stunning.

And the press put a lot
of focus on to her.

Which was music
to UPN's ears.

She became very popular.

Please welcome
the lovely Jeri Ryan.

Which was exactly
what producers had wanted.

I think people that weren't
in the Star Trekworld,

or fans of Star Trek
were made aware of this.

This new character coming on,

I mean, there was a huge
amount of publicity.

So we had a lot
of new eyes on Voyager that we didn't have before.

-However...
- It upset the cast.

Some people were really
bothered by this.

The issue that I had
with Seven of Nine's character

is that she sounded
a lot like I did, which is redundant.

You are erratic, conflicted, disorganized.

Every decision is debated,
every action questioned.

If you have a diverse cast,

and every cast member
plays off the other.

If you have two characters
that are too similar,

then you don't get that dynamic.

So,
onscreen conflict was mirrored by offscreen tension.

I'd prefer not
to discuss Seven of Nine.

And I think that I was
startled by her presence,

and I think the tension
and the electricity between us

was quite palpable.

You could come in
and do all this work

and carry the show
as the lead character

and then to have
to take a backseat.

Producers had introduced
a breath of fresh air,

only to find the core cast
gasping for oxygen.

Seven of Nine
had made a splash with viewers,

but now found
herself navigating

troubled waters on
an increasingly rancorous set.

Voyagerbecomes a more
unpleasant place to work.

I get so many close ups,
if she gets a close up, I get a close up.

There was times
where one wouldn't come out of the trailer,

until the other one
came out of the trailer.

I remember one day,
I was coming on to the set in the morning,

Kate comes storming up to me

and she said, "Why do you
shoot her that way?"

And I said,
"What are you talking about?"

She said, "Well, you do
these shots along her body

"and you do this
and you do that."

I didn't know what to tell her

because it was true
that I was doing that.

But also it's because

you can't help,
but show her physicality.

I felt she was
objectified a bit.

Because you have to remember
Voyagerwent on the air

as a feminist statement.

Yeah. We really
embraced her looks.

We did.

I mean, that outfit
was, was something else.

And for the show's star, it seemed like the arrival

of Jeri Ryan wasn't
exactly welcomed.

I can definitely see Kate
being threatened.

Kate is human,
I've worked with her a lot.

But that's something
actors are taught.

No, you've got to fight
for yourself.

You've got to fight
for your lines.

You got to fight
for your scenes.

You got to fight
for your publicity.

All you have is your name.

It's just fear,
and all that comes from fear.

The battle lines
had been drawn,

and cast members
found themselves

having to choose a side.

I stepped away, I stepped back
and just allowed things to settle.

I felt terrible for Kate

because it was, I think,
very difficult for her.

Jeri was just trying
to do her job.

Why screw it up
with these stupid, uh, ego things.

But whatever
friction was going on behind the scenes,

it was somehow creating
real electricity on screen.

In the end, that
relationship between Janeway and Seven of Nine

was not only classic,
but essential,

I think, to the growth
and the movement of Voyager.

It only served the relationship

and Jeri Ryan did
a wonderful job.

There was depth
to the character.

The wild child coming in
and discovering humanity

turned out to be really
the heart of the show.

You're experiencing
difficult emotions.

Guilt, shame, remorse.

Then you haven't lost
your humanity.

I think it ends up a being
completely effective

addition to the cast,
and also her performance was extraordinary.

Jeri was incredibly talented
and for any lingering thoughts

that, "Oh, they've just
hired a bimbo here."

I mean, that was
quickly put to rest.

Just the person
I was looking for.

She brought that
miraculous nuance.

She's both kind of
invulnerable and vulnerable at the same time.

She just got
better and better.

So, we kind of hit
a home run with her.

As real life traumas
reduced cast morale to a new low,

the show reached a new high.

The introduction of Jeri Ryan
briefly did help the ratings.

People don't give up
on us so soon.

But even
with Seven of Nine and a spike in ratings,

you might start wondering
whether the problem wasn'tVoyager's at all.

We were at a disadvantage
in terms of outreach.

Some regions didn't carry UPN.

- Plain and simple.
- In a lot of cases,

where some bad UHF channels.

UPN even get with
a pair of rabbit ears on a TV.

It was, like,
the worst situation you want to be in,

the flagship show for UPN.

God help him.

With the producers
doing everything right,

UPN just couldn't
attract viewers,

but it got even worse.

I had made the decision
before season four started

that I was going to retire
at the end of it,

and it was time, I was ready.

Into the void stepped
Brannon Braga

as co-executive producer
and show runner.

Brannon was the person
who had, sort of, risen

and the one who seemed
like he had the chops

I was completely
caught off-guard by it,

but got excited at the idea.

Braga's involvement
in the show was about to go much deeper

than his predecessors
might have liked.

Jeri Ryan and I became
involved in season five.

And they started
living together.

The furore of
Seven of Nine's arrival

and unexpected rise
had only just started to die down.

I'm sure that actually just
added fuel to the fire.

How is it ever fair?

You're dating somebody
who you have the ear of all the time.

You know, you write
for your girlfriend

and it was a very difficult
situation for everybody.

I remember the day I had to
go to Kate Mulgrew's trailer to tell her

because I knew
that Jeri and I were becoming more serious

and I told Kate
and she was absolutely wonderful,

and she said, "Are you in love?"

I said, "Yes,"
and she said, "I'm happy for you."

Kate was amazing,
but I like to think

it didn't affect my job
being the boss at that point.

Robert Beltran
decided to test that.

Jeri and I were sitting
in the makeup table getting ready

and I said, "You know, Jeri,
I would like to have a scene

"where Chakotay kisses you,
but it will never happen.

"Because Brannon
would get jealous,"

and she laughs.

"Oh, my God, I'm going to tell him what you said.

"That is so funny."

And I said, "Yeah, tell him
I don't think he has the balls to write a scene like that."

Oh, Brannon
had the balls all right.

Remain still?

And he was juggling them. A lot of balls actually.

As the season goes on,

it is, like, running as fast
as you can to keep up with production.

We were all really,
really fatigued.

We used to get
our revisions insights

at 12 o'clock at night,
for the next day,

so we would be
in the makeup chair

trying to learn whatever
the revisions were for that day.

And those days
were typically really long.

They averaged 15 hours,
16 hours.

And the schedule
was overwhelming,

not least for
the show runner himself.

I remember one day
in my backyard

thinking about a story,

and I remember it was like
walking to a brick wall.

And I went, "Oh,
I think I'm done.

"I think I have to move on
from the show,"

like, I was getting burned out.

Brannon stayed
withStar Trek,

but beamed over
to a new series, Enterprise.

Leaving Kenneth Biller
in-charge ofVoyager's climactic final season.

A lot of people wanted
to see us come home,

and that would have been
the story

that, you know, everybody
expected them to write.

I had always envisioned
the last shot of the series

with Voyagerlanding
and the families all being there,

and the crew getting off
of the ship and they're home.

- And Janeway's dog runs out.
- And, yes, Janeway's dog runs up.

And, in fact, I tell everybody

that they're not going to do
what you expect them to do.

But for the series finale,

Voyager suddenly came home.

Which, indeed,
took fans by surprise.

Yeah.

Slyly jumping
twenty-six years into the future.

Computer, end display.

We only did a flash of it
in the episode.

You could see the Voyager
coming through.

There was just
a newsreel playback or something she's watching.

I was not satisfied
with the way it ended.

I really, really didn't like it.

After seven long seasons,

Voyager had
completed its mission, but at grave cost.

I'm your friend,
Kathryn Janeway, remember?

Lieutenant Tuvok
lost his mind.

You're an impostor.

And with Chakotay
and Seven of Nine dead,

it was up toVoyager's captain,

now an admiral,
to right her wrongs.

But when I'm through,
things might be better for all of us.

Because
it could all be fixed with a little time travel.

I thought it was
a great showcase for Kate Mulgrew

because she had to play
two different versions of herself.

Am I the only one
experiencing deja vu here?

It was the captain's
responsibility to get us back home,

and that's why they wrote it
the way they did.

And they focused it on Kate,
it's Kate's story.

In a tour de force performance,

Kate Mulgrew does it all.

Kate filled that role
in every way imaginable.

Now, Mr. Tuvok.

As Admiral Janeway,
sacrifices herself,

defeating the Borg,

while Captain Janeway
brings the crew home.

Safe and sound.

We did it.

The last episode ended
with a bang.

But on set, the bang
was more of a whimper.

They were taking
the briefing room set apart

the moment we uttered
the last line,

the walls were coming down,

so that they could build
the new Enterpriseset in its place.

That kind of bothered me.

You're just watching,
literally, watching the show

disintegrate in front
of your eyes.

We were all
a little bit upset,

the fact that there wasn't
more thought about making the last day,

perhaps, a group scene
that we could all be together.

And, no, Rick Berman
didn't come down to the set

to say thank you and goodbye
or anything like that.

I think our cast had the, uh,

"don't let the door hit you
in the ass" feeling.

That goodbye wasn't
ever really a goodbye.

There are some series
that quit when they're ahead

and you feel like
they could have gone on for a little longer.

I have the feeling
that Voyagerwas done,

when it was done.

There was not anything
left to mine in it.

UPN would limp on
for a few more years,

before also going
quietly off the air.

Despite all of
Voyager's struggles,

you cannot deny
the fact that...

Seven years is
a good run for a show.

...and that's where
this story might well have ended.

But years after
it's got first run,

I am thrilled and amazed

that streaming has been
so kind of Voyager.

It's enabled
a whole new generation

of young fans to discover
and appreciate Captain Janeway.

I saw what it meant
to these young women...

-Admiral.
-...to have a woman in command.

And I'll never forget
one girl, she said,

"You know, my father and I
watched Janeway

"and these were
in the early days of my education,

"when I really thought I was
going to go into research,

"and by the end
of the first season, I turned to my father

"and I said, I'm not going
to stay in an office.

"I want to go up."

You've had
this whole generation of fans, especially the girls,

I call the "Janeway's Army,"

that have taken to heart
everything about Voyager.

What an extraordinary opportunity

as an actress
to drive this forward.

And because I was the first,
there's a kind of terrific pride in this.

So, I hope that they take
from that pride,

their own sense of pride.

Find out who you are,
have the courage

to be who you are and own it.

Voyager has proven
to be as popular

as it has been inspirational.

I think it's amazing
that the top ten

streaming shows
of all the Star Treks,

six of them of the top ten
are fromVoyager.

No small feat
given the competition

from well over half a century
of science fiction.

If you stand back and look
at the entire franchise

from the original to today,
it's huge.

It's just unbelievable.

To be precise,
79 original series episodes,

twenty-two animated episodes,

six original cast movies,
fourNext Generation movies,

seven seasons
of theNext Generation,

seven more ofDeep Space Nine,

seven ofVoyager,
four ofStar Trek: Enterprise,

four seasons ofDiscovery,
two ofPicard, along withLower Decks,

Not to mention, the movies
from theKelvin Timeline

and much more to come,

including the return
of Captain Janeway inStar Trek: Prodigy.

That's what I mean
about Star Trek,

it's just the reverberations
are endless.