All language subtitles for The Center Seat 55 Years s01e08 Voyager to the Delta Quadrant.eng

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

but two Star Trek shows
to give them their fix.

[Picard] 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 'nother series."

One day that's going to be me.

They are 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.

We had six stages
at Paramount going at one time.

It was basically the Star Trek lot.

[Larry] 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.

[Tim] Rick Berman, as
the executive producer of the shows,

he is 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 was 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
Luce Salhany

and a new Star Trek show,

Paramount was confident
this time would be different.

Perhaps a little too confident.

[Lucie] 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.

[Rick] 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 Pillar,
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 been Next Gen,
there had been Deep Space Nine.

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

[narrator] The answer was simply
to ask fans what they wanted.

Paramount does focus research,

and they ask fans if they would want
another Star Trek show.

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

[narrator] That meant daring to chart
an unknown course for Voyager.

[Jeri] 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...

[♪ dramatic music]

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.

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

[narrator]
And others, a little disappointed.

I mean, come on.

What--where, 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 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.

[Jeri] 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 producing such good stories.

[narrator] ...completely breaking
with Star Trek tradition.

[Larry] 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.

[Robert]
I must admit, I haven't had access

to a food rebel--
uh, uh, replicator before.

[narrator] Even the very bones
of Star Trek were getting a new twist.

[man] 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,

"A computer program of a doctor.

Colorless, humorless."

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 adlibbed 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."

[narrator] Bones couldn't have
said it better himself.

I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer.

[narrator]
But even a computer-generated doctor

needed a snappy name.

[Larry] The Doctor was going to be named
Dr. Zimmerman for the entire first season.

Right before we premiered,
they changed my credit

from "Doc Zimmerman,
Robert Picardo" to "The Doctor."

[narrator] 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 50 years
of British science fiction television.

[narrator] Other new characters
had problems much bigger

than what they were named.

Kes, this is a surprise.

Kes, as an Ocampan,
has a very short lifespan.

[narrator] 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.

[narrator] Producers found their mayfly
in a young actress from Illinois.

Jennifer Lien who played Kes,

a very, a very good actress.

[Roxann] 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 Robin 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.

[Ethan] It said he was, um, an android

and, uh, I didn't know what that--

I figured it was a guy who had,
like, an "oid" hanging from his ch--

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.

[Brannon]
One of the ingredients was

this group of rebels
called the Maquis.

The renegades that had broken away
from the Federation.

They're our antagonists

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

[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.

[man] 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're gonna have it onboard the ship.

[narrator] 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.

[narrator] 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.

[narrator] But writers soon realize
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're on a lifeboat.

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

[narrator] So instead of conflict,
the Maquis brought the opposite.

[Kate] 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.

Meaning it's hot.

So 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.

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

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, oh, 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."

[narrator] 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.

[narrator] Leaving no stone unturned
in their search for a captain,

producers considered nearly
every established TV heroine ever.

Erin Grey 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.

[narrator] But this catalogue
of kickass lead to nothing.

They brought in an actress
who had obviously had some success

with Mrs. Columbo,
good 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
Genevieve Bujold was interested in this.

[narrator] 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

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...

[Jeri] 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.

[Rick] 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.

[narrator] Star Trek: Voyager
had landed a genuine marquee star

to be its first female captain.

People know Genevieve 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'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--do we--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.

[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 dialogue
changing every 10 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] Genevieve
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.

The 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.

[narrator] 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.

[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 say,

"Maybe we should give
a second read to some people."

[narrator] And thanks
to a little detective work,

they discovered Ms. 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 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.

[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 producer's 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.

[Robert] 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.

[narrator]
With the fate of a new network

and the entire Star Trek franchise
on her shoulder,

Kate Mulgrew dug deep.

And 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.

[Kate] 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.

[narrator] But there were still plenty
of other things they could get wrong,

like the entire plot for the two-part
premier 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, a hundred degrees,
and I was in that makeup.

[Neelix] They all trade,
and they all kill each other for it.

[Ethan] Everybody was bitching.

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

Oh.

[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.

[Aunt Adah] Come up here.

I have a pitcher of lemonade
and some sugar cookies.

You're being catapulted
to the Delta Quadrant.

We need a little Twilight Zone-ness
going on,

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

[narrator]
But not just your regular banjo man.

He turns out to be
a super powerful dying alien.

[narrator] Who really looks like this

and was responsible for the wellbeing
of the subterranean Ocampas.

We 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 and 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.

[Tim] 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 favorite enemy.

[narrator] Furthermore, since
they're still on a one-way trip home,

that meant there would 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 in 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,
they could 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.

[narrator] Producers were confident
this "lost in space" Star Trek

would find an audience...

We'll find a way back.

[narrator]
...even if they couldn't find home.

And they were right.

And, of course, Voyager
premieres in January 1995

to extraordinary viewership.

[narrator] 21.3 million viewers.

We're the second highest-rated network.

And it 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,

is--it, it seemed to be--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 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 Trek series,
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 Trek fans
does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Four.

One to screw it in,
and then three to argue

about how much better they did it
on The Original Series.

[narrator] Within a few episodes,
Voyager's voyage appeared doomed.

[Jeri] If you don't have viewers,

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

[narrator]
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.

[narrator] United Paramount Network
had a credibility issue.

And it was, you know, universally
called the "U Pretend" Network.

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

[narrator]
And the other science fiction on it

wasn't looking terribly legitimate either.

Give us one good reason
why we be in business with you again?

That's two good reasons.

There was no sense of what the brand was.

Voyager's 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 derring-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.

[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 onscreen sizzle.

I had 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 in foreign language]

...who could challenge her
and yet be compassionate with her.

[narrator] There was only one man
who fit the bill.

And I loved all
the Leonardo De Vinci stuff.

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 De 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 a--as an artificial intelligence.

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

No more so than most.

[narrator] Kes and The Doctor
were doing their part

to keep Voyager on the air.

She was an extraordinary actor.

Um, 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.

When you say hello,
"Hey, Jenny, how are you doing,"

she--you don't--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.

[man] One more time, please.

And you'd have to do take two,
take three, take four.

[Jeri] 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 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 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 crewmember 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 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.

[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 the 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.

The Borg are gonna be our Klingons
in the Delta Quadrant.

They're gonna 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.

[narrator] 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 90210.

- 1234. Yeah. Yes.
- Yeah. 675309.

[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, 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.

[Maria] Her original name was Phira
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.

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 the Borg.

The present situation
requires that we consider your plan.

[Lisa] We had treated the Borg
just as this...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,

to go back
to being a child again in a way,

to, to find her own personality
and her own voice.

Seven of Nine gave us the opportunity
to show the struggle

of somebody who's...you know,

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.

[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, a, a good actor.

[narrator]
Producers considered a number of actors.

All right.

[narrator] But in the end...

[Rick] Michael, Jeri, and I
all agreed on Ms. 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.

[Rick] 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.

I think people that weren't in
the Star Trek world 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,
on Voyager that we didn't have before.

[narrator] 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 onscreen conflict
was mirrored by off-screen tension.

I'd, uh...

prefer not to discuss Seven of Nine.

And I think that I was startled
by, uh, her presence.

And I think the tension
and the electricity

between us was quite palpable.

To come in and,
and, and do all this work

and carry the show as the lead character

and then to have to, 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.

[David] 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--what are you talking about?"

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

and, 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,
Voyager went on the air

as a, as a feminist statement.

Yeah, we really embraced her looks.

We did. I mean, that outfit was,
was something else.

[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 this 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, uh, 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 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.

And it ends up being a completely
effective addition to the cast

and also her performance
was extraordinary.

Jeri is... was incredibly talented.

And for any lingering thoughts of,
"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.

[Rick] She just got better and better,

so we, we, 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.

[Mark] 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 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 wanna be in,

the flagship show for UPN.

God help them.

[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.

I 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 I...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, 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 were all really, really fatigued.

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 the 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 have been
the story that, you know,

everybody expected them to write.

I had always envisioned
the last shot of the series

with Voyager landing,

and the families all being there,

and the crew getting off of the ship
and their home.

- Then Janeway's dog runs up.
- And, and, yes, Janeway's dog runs up.

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...

Yeah.

[narrator]
...slyly jumping 26 years into the future.

[Janeway]
Computer, end display.

[Tim]
We only did a flash of it in the episode.

You could see the Voyager
coming through.

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

I was not satisfied with the way it ended.

I, I really... I 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 impostor.

[narrator] ...and with Chakotay
and Seven of Nine dead,

it was up to Voyager's captain,

now an admiral, to right her wrongs.

But 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...

You 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 goodbye
or anything like that.

I think our cast had the, uh,

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

The 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.

Uh, I have the feeling that Voyager

was done when it was done.

There was not anything left to mine in it.

[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, for a show.

[narrator] And that's where this story
might well have ended.

[Larry]
But years after it's got first run,

I am thrilled and amazed that streaming
has been so kind to Voyager.

[narrator] It's enabled
a whole generation of young fans

to discover
and appreciate Captain Janeway.

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

[woman] Admiral?

[Kate] ...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."

[Larry] You've had
this whole generation of fans,

especially the girls--

I call 'em 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,
of 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,
seventy-nine Original Series episodes,

twenty-two animated episodes,
six original cast movies,

four Next Generation movies,
seven seasons of The Next Generation,

seven more of Deep Space Nine,
seven of Voyager,

four of Star Trek: Enterprise,

four seasons of Discovery,
two 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.

[voice echoes]

[theme music playing]

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