Original subtitles

(Narrator) By the mid-1990s, trekkies would have not one,

but two "Star Trek" shows to give them their fix.

- Good luck, Mr. Sisko.

- 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.

(Narrator) And then there was the big screen.

- When "next generation" ended,

it went right into its first feature film.

- They say time is the fire in which we burn.

(Narrator) Prophetic warnings aside...

- Paramount said, simultaneously,

"let's get another show."

(Narrator) Another "Star Trek" series?

- Everything "Star Trek" is exploding.

(Narrator) But would the new series blow up?

- Welcome aboard voyager.

(Narrator) Or be more of a bomb?

So beam aboard and hold on tight

as we boldly go into the depths of "Star Trek."

♪♪

And you can see it all from here

in "the center seat."

In 1994, development began on a fifth "Star 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.

- 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.

Then, 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 Trek" projects

in the works at one time in this insane summer of 1994.

(Narrator) The patriarch of this family was a man

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

- Rick berman, as the executive producer of the shows,

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

(Narrator) So much so, that the era would become known

as the berman era.

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

as the Westmore years.

(Narrator) 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."

(Narrator) But there was a little more to it,

because Paramount's bold plans for "Star Trek" were one part

of a much riskier project.

- Paramount and Chris-craft united television stations

joined forces to start the united Paramount network.

(Narrator) Better known as upn.

- And I went to run that.

(Narrator) 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 lucie salhany

and a new "Star 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) Still a controversial move,

it was in fact what "Star Trek" 's creator

had espoused 30 years earlier.

- It's another reflection of gene's whole thing

about humanity encompassing all of its elements.

(Narrator) "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.

(Narrator) 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 gonna do a series

about a female captain. Do you wanna be a co-creator?"

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) But the creators of "voyager" 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 Trek" begins with,

"how do we make it exactly like the others,

except totally different?"

- Rick berman, Michael piller,

and jeri Taylor began a series of secret meetings.

(Narrator) Daring to chart an unknown course for "voyager."

- It was Michael who came up with the idea

of losing them in deep space.

(Narrator) When a displacement wave knocks the voyager

clear across the galaxy...

♪♪

- Report!

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

(Narrator) 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,

but everything that Michael said about it

just had that ring of veracity.

- It's a fine crew, and I've gotta get 'em 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.

(Narrator) And they were right to be apprehensive,

because there was a price to pay

for sending "Star Trek" into the unknown.

- No klingons, no romulans, no cardassians, no trill.

- The popularity of "Star Trek" has a lot to do

with the klingons, the romulans,

that area of space that we all know and love

and produced such good stories.

(Narrator) Completely breaking with "Star Trek" tradition.

- They're setting themselves up with this incredible challenge.

(Narrator) And that challenge was...

- Is the audience going to accept that?

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

(Narrator) Let's find out.

As the premiere 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?

(Narrator) ...To the comic.

- I must admit, I haven't had access

to a food rebel... Uh, replicator before.

(Narrator) Even the very bones of "Star Trek"

were getting a new twist.

- Computer, initiate emergency medical holographic program.

(Narrator) 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...

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

and they wanted someone funny,

but I didn't think the part was funny on paper.

(Narrator) 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 the 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 night-light."

(Narrator) Bones couldn't have said it better himself.

- I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer.

(Narrator) But the doctor would need some more shipmates.

- Kes. This is a surprise.

- Jennifer lien, who played 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.

(Narrator) And there were plenty more characters to cast.

- We need a Robbie mcneill type to play Paris.

- I'm already doing a job.

(Narrator) It's true. He'd already played a small part

in "the next generation." But not to worry.

- Fine, he's another character. Okay.

- Well, then, I guess I'm yours.

(Narrator) Another "next generation" veteran

was Ethan Phillips, who would swap spiky teeth

for pointy ears and a mohawk...

- Neelix. - (Narrator) ...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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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?

(Narrator) And this rogue faction

soon found itself aboard voyager.

- 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 onboard the ship.

(Narrator) And although this could've 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. - (Narrator) In fact,

it didn't even survive the first episode.

- Permission to speak freely.

- 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're on the lifeboat.

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

(Narrator) So, instead of conflict,

the maquis brought the opposite.

- Both crews are going to have to work together

if we're to survive.

(Narrator) Diversity in the starship's crew

was mirrored by real diversity in "voyager" '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.

(Narrator) "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 and infinite combinations," isn't it?

(Narrator) And for the true pedants out there,

it's worth pointing out that the planet vulcan

has multiple suns.

- What is the temperature gonna be like

on the equator of that planet?

(Narrator) But the producers had left their toughest

casting decision until last.

- 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.

(Narrator) 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. - (Grunts)

- There's Susan gibney. - We made a good team.

- Lindsay Wagner, "the bionic woman."

(Narrator) But this catalog of kick-ass led to nothing.

- They brought in an actress who had obviously had some success

with "Mrs. Columbo," a working actress, Kate mulgrew.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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 geneviève bujold

was interested in this.

(Narrator) Geneviève 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 geneviève bujold,

because 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) But not everyone shared the hunch.

(Narrator) "Star Trek: Voyager" had landed

a genuine marquee star to be its first female captain.

- People know geneviève bujold is a marketable name.

(Narrator) But not everyone was quite so excited.

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

(Narrator) And with a very expensive pilot

on the line, "voyager" needed to hit the bull's-eye.

- "Voyager" absolutely was... Was our premier show.

(Narrator) 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 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.

- It created the effect that she didn't care

if she was there or not.

(Narrator) 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 dialog changing every ten minutes.

(Narrator) 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."

(Narrator) Perhaps things would be better on day two.

- It was exactly the same. - (Narrator) Geneviève had gone

down a rabbit hole and she decided to stay there.

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

- Then our shooting schedule went to hell.

- The studio got incredibly upset.

(Narrator) This was starting to cost Paramount serious money.

- Problem is, if you fire her,

you have to pay her for the whole season.

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

(Narrator) But before push came to shove,

geneviève 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.

(Narrator) And while sympathetic,

the producers were more than anything...

- Deeply relieved.

(Narrator) 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 Trek" that will never get off the ground!

(Narrator) 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."

(Narrator) And thanks to a little detective work,

they discovered "Mrs. Columbo"... again.

- And so Kate came in and read.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) It was less gasping and more sighs of relief.

- And it was such a profound difference

between what geneviève 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.

(Narrator) So there's no surprise that...

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

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) And if learning her part overnight wasn't enough...

- She was under a tremendous amount of scrutiny.

(Narrator) 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 gonna do this?

Because we've got a wonderful actor in the wings."

(Narrator) Kate was not only the producers' last chance,

she was turning into the sisterhood's 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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 a 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.

- It just felt right.

(Narrator) 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're supposed to be an advanced race,

but they can't find any water?

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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, I said, "listen, guys.

"I gotta mattress glued to my head.

You guys should shut the... up."

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

Whoo!

(Narrator) 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.

- (Narrator) Well, not for long. - Come 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" -ness going on.

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

- (Strumming banjo)

(Narrator) But not just your regular banjo man.

- Turns out to be a super-powerful dying alien.

(Narrator) Who really looks like this.

And was responsible for the well-being

of the subterranean ocampas.

- They had no idea that our technology

would be so destructive to their atmosphere.

(Narrator) But aside from a cool banjo,

the caretaker also has a very powerful array

that could send voyager 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.

(Narrator) 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 wanna 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.

(Narrator) Furthermore, since they're still

on a one-way trip home,

that meant there'd be no doubling back.

- Even if we encountered a really interesting species,

like the vidiians, 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.

(Narrator) Nevertheless, it was a strong

and clear narrative engine...

- We'll find a way back.

(Narrator) ...That would propel them from week to week.

That is, if people liked it.

- And of course "voyager" premieres in January 1995

to extraordinary viewership.

(Narrator) 21.3 million viewers.

- We're the second-highest rated network.

That was big for upn.

(Narrator) But unlike the kazon,

this audience wasn't thirsty for more.

- You never know what an audience is going to do.

(Narrator) Soon after the premiere...

- The numbers diminished,

and that was distressing.

And we weren't certain why.

(Narrator) 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."

(Narrator) There was at least one place where they could

find out what the audience really thought of "voyager"

and captain janeway.

- In march of 1995, there is the first

"Star Trek" convention since the show came out.

And they open 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 Trek' series,

and as you as an actress."

And you could've heard a pin drop in that room.

If memory serves, she responded,

"well, I'm sorry you think that way."

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) But "voyager" would continue.

They did have a mission after all, and so did upn.

But that mission wasn't going well either.

- 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. - (Narrator) 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.

(Audience laughter)

- That's two good reasons.

- There was no sense of what the brand was.

- "Voyager" is the biggest thing there, and they all have

high hopes that it's gonna bust upn into the stratosphere.

(Narrator) Well, it hadn't. But upn doubled down.

- The feeling was that something needed

to give some oomph to the show.

(Narrator) 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 little more of the humanity and warmth

that we so often think in this culture

belongs to the female gender.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) But so she wouldn't be completely sexless,

they designed a safe romantic companion for her.

- An interesting and intriguing man.

- (Speaking native language)

- Who could challenge her and yet be compassionate with her.

(Narrator) There was only one man who fit the bill.

- I loved all the Leonardo da Vinci stuff.

- Mwah! Welcome! - (Narrator) 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 a place she could go when she needed

to talk about something and have a friend

who would talk about it with her.

(Narrator) 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 an artificial intelligence.

- Doctor, did you notice how rudely

that officer treated you?

- Not more so than most.

(Narrator) Kes and the doctor were doing their part

to keep "voyager" on the air.

- She was an extraordinary actor.

Absolutely unedited and present.

(Narrator) 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.

- If you say hello, "hey, jennie, how you doing?"

You're not sure what kind of response

you're gonna 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.

(Narrator) The previously focused actress

was turning into a multi-take factory.

- One more time, please.

- And you would have to do 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 was 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 didn't really wanna be there.

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

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) And resistance was futile.

(Narrator) 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."

(Narrator) So kes got a glowing good-bye.

- 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.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) "Star Trek" was returning

to the tried and true: The borg,

a villainous alien species from "the next generation,"

would be imported as a way to introduce some danger.

- And because, you know, obviously it had been

established in "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 of thousands of solar systems, all borg.

(Narrator) But the return of the borg

was only half the story.

- (Grunts)

- We had the first all-digital villain,

I believe, in all of "Star Trek,"

which I called "90210."

- 1-2-3-4. - 867-5309.

(Narrator) It's actually... - Species 8472.

- Species 8472 was designed to be

like the scariest aliens that we had encountered yet.

(Narrator) With a scary price tag.

- This is in the early days of cg, and having

a cg character was expensive and difficult.

- You know, we only were able to see that creature

15, 18 seconds worth of film maybe.

(Narrator) But not even the power of 1990's computing

could outmatch what they had planned next.

- What if there was a borg crew member?

(Narrator) The answer to that question became a character

that would pose all sorts of challenges for the voyager crew.

- Her original name was pera in the meetings that they had,

but they always knew that her name was gonna be a number.

- Seven of nine. - (Narrator) Numbers destined

to become the bane of captain janeway's life.

- This is janeway, who's about to take

the biggest risk a captain has ever taken,

where janeway wants to make a deal with the 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 assimilated when she was a child,

and so had not grown up as an individual herself.

- (Screams) - And so once we kinda freed her

from the collective, you know, against her will,

then it was like she almost had to...

To go back to being a child again in a way

to find her own personality and her own voice.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) Or put another way...

- A babe. - (Narrator) A borg babe.

- We had lots of casting sessions

because we needed a good actor.

(Narrator) Producers considered a number of actors.

- All right. - (Narrator) But in the end...

- Michael, jeri, and I all agreed on miss Ryan.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) 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 onto her.

(Narrator) Which was music to upn's ears.

- She became very popular.

- Please welcome the lovely jeri Ryan.

(Narrator) Which was exactly what producers had wanted.

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.

(Narrator) So on-screen conflict was mirrored

by off-screen 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.

- To come in and do all this work and carry the show

as the lead character and then to have to take a backseat.

(Narrator) Producers had introduced

a breath of fresh air, only to find

the core cast gasping for oxygen.

(Narrator) Seven of nine had made a splash with viewers,

but now found herself navigating troubled waters

on an increasingly rancorous set.

- "Voyager" becomes 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 onto 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."

(Laughing) I didn't know how 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.

(Narrator) 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 gotta fight for yourself!

You gotta fight for your lines! You gotta fight for your scenes!

You gotta fight for your publicity!

All you have is your name!

- It's just fear. All that comes from fear.

(Narrator) 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, um... Trying to do her job.

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

(Narrator) 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 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 being a 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 w-w-we kind of hit a home run with her.

(Narrator) 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 won't give up on us so soon.

(Narrator) But even with seven of nine

and a spike in ratings, you might start wondering

whether the problem wasn't "voyager" '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 were some bad uhf channels.

- Upn you can get with a pair of, you know,

rabbit ears on a TV.

- It was like the worst situation you would wanna be in.

(Narrator) 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, uh, it was time. I was ready.

(Narrator) Into the void stepped brannon Braga

as co-executive producer and showrunner.

- Brannon was the person who had sort of risen

and the one who seemed like he had the chops.

- Was completely caught off guard by it,

but got excited at the idea.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) The furor 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 'cause 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.

(Narrator) 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'll never happen

because brannon would get jealous."

- Uh...

- And she laughs, "oh, my god!

"I'm gonna tell him what you said!

That is so funny!"

And I said, "yeah, tell him that I don't think

he has the balls to write a scene like that."

(Narrator) Oh, brannon had the balls all right.

- Remain still.

(Narrator) 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 used to get our revisions and sides

at 12:00 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.

(Narrator) And the schedule was overwhelming,

not least for the showrunner himself.

- I remember one day in my backyard,

thinking about a story.

And I remember it was like walking into a brick wall.

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

I think I have to move on from this show."

Like I was getting burned out.

(Narrator) Brannon stayed with "Star Trek,"

but beamed over to a new series, "enterprise,"

leaving Kenneth biller in charge

of "voyager" 's climactic final season.

- A lot of people wanted to see us come home.

And that would've been the story that, you know,

everybody expected them to write.

And in fact, I tell everybody

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

(Narrator) But for the series finale,

"voyager" suddenly came home,

which indeed took fans by surprise.

- (Laughs) Yeah.

(Narrator) Slyly jumping 26 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 was watching.

- I was not satisfied with the way it ended.

I really... Really didn't like it.

(Narrator) After seven long seasons,

voyager had completed its mission,

but at grave cost.

- I'm your friend, Kathryn janeway, remember?

(Narrator) Lieutenant tuvok lost his mind.

- You're an imposter.

(Narrator) And with chakotay and seven of nine dead,

it was up to voyager's captain, now an admiral,

to right her wrongs.

- When I'm through, things might be better for all of us.

(Narrator) 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 déjà 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.

(Narrator) In a tour De force performance,

Kate mulgrew does it all.

- Kate filled that role in every way imaginable.

- Now, Mr. Tuvok!

(Narrator) As admiral janeway sacrifices herself,

defeating the borg,

while captain janeway brings the crew home safe and sound.

♪♪

- We did it. - (Narrator) 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 "enterprise" set 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 I know Rick berman didn't come down to the set

to say thank you and good-bye or anything like that.

- I think our cast had the, uh,

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

- The good-bye wasn't ever really a good-bye.

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) And that's where this story might well have ended.

- But years after it got first run,

I am thrilled and amazed that streaming

has been so kind to "voyager."

(Narrator) 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 wanna 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.

(Narrator) "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 from "voyager."

(Narrator) 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.

(Narrator) To be precise, 79 original series episodes,

22 animated episodes, 6 original cast movies,

4 "next generation" movies,

7 seasons of "the next generation,"

7 more of "deep space nine," 7 of "voyager,"

4 of "Star Trek: Enterprise," 4 seasons of "discovery,"

2 of "picard," along with "lower decks,"

not to mention the movies from the Kelvin timeline,

and much more to come,

including the return of captain janeway

in "Star Trek: Prodigy."

- That's what I mean about "Star Trek."

It's just the reverberations are... are endless.