All language subtitles for The.Center.Seat.55.Years.Of.Star.Trek.S01E07.Voyage.r.To.The.Delta.Quadrant.720p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-squalor[eztv.re]

(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.