Exclusive: ‘To The Journey’ Producer Hints At $1M “Surprise,” Says Doc Covers ‘Voyager’ Controversies

On Sunday, the crowdfunding campaign for the documentary To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager passed $1 million, triggering the inclusion of a “surprise” stretch goal. In his exclusive interview with the TrekMovie.com podcast All Access Star Trek, producer and co-director David Zappone dropped some hints about the surprise and offered a lot of new details on what to expect from the doc.

The surprise is new footage

With the crowdfunding campaign passing the $1 million goal with three days left to go, To The Journey has completed the 10th funding stretch goal, which calls for the inclusion of an “exclusive never-before-seen Voyager surprise.”  David Zappone offered the TrekMovie.com podcasters some more detail on this surprise:

“We are planning on doing something never seen before. Something with the actors themselves is all I can say, but because of rights and negotiation, it is premature to get into it.”

When pressed on if this surprise will be something from the CBS archives, past footage that hasn’t been seen, or new footage they plan to shoot, Zappone confirmed it is “something new.”

Given that it’s new footage that requires negotiation over rights indicates this surprise would involve something with Star Trek: Voyager characters, whose rights are controlled by CBS. Like in any documentary, no permission is required to talk to actors about their work on a given show, but to have those actors portray their characters would require permission. There are many possibilities on what could be done with the characters, but they will be constrained by a very limited budget.

According to Zappone, the idea behind this new footage stemmed out of a challenge from Voyager showrunner  Brannon Braga, who asked how they planned to “top” the DS9 season 8 writers’ room component of the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind. While not wanting to copy the DS9 doc by doing another writer’s room, the team still wanted to include something with the same kind of impact.

Interviewing everyone they can from cast and crew and studio

To the Journey started production during Star Trek: The Cruise in 2020, right before the pandemic kicked in. Since then, things have slowed down, but additional interviews have been conducted and more are planned. Zappone tells TrekMovie they will be doing all of their interviews in person. They have already confirmed interviews with the main cast members, with some already done. Zappone said he even wants to get an interview with Geneviève Bujold, who was originally cast as Captain Janeway but left the show during the shooting of the pilot episode, but they haven’t reached out yet.

The one cast member who may be difficult to include is Jennifer Lien, who left the show after the third season and has had some issues with mental health and run-ins with the law in recent years. But Zapponne remains hopeful:

“I wish she were [available]. We have not given up. There are some avenues. I feel she should be represented, because as a fan I thought she was terrific. We are going to do our best to find someone, if it is not her, who can maybe speak for her. But we are delving into her experience already with all the other interviews.”

The producer also said they are planning to reach out to many notable Voyager guest stars, including Michael McKean, Sarah Silverman, Joel Grey, Ed Begley Jr., and Jason Alexander.

Interviews with co-creators Rick Berman and Jeri Taylor are already being arranged. They are also expecting to include many of the writers; in addition to Braga, they have confirmed interviews with Ken Biller, Bryan Fuller, Andre Bormanis, and Lisa Klink.

They will also be speaking to a lot of the other people who worked on the show, including makeup designer Michael Westmore, visual effects supervisor Dan Curry, cinematographer Marvin Rush, and directors David Livingston and Jonathan West. Star Trek: Voyager composer Dennis McCarthy is on board to compose an original score for the doc, as he did with What We Left Behind.

To the Journey will also include discussions with people from the Paramount side. Zappone explains:

“This is the first Star Trek show that was on a network since the original. It was the flagship of UPN. Certainly, it was not the greatest relationship between the studio and the producers, so we want to delve into that.”

Andre Bormanis and Brannon Braga from To The Journey

Exploring the “Janeway Effect”

The doc will also include interviews with notable Voyager fans. Currently on the list,  a number of prominent political figures including Stacy Abrams, Pete Buttigieg, and Cory Booker. They will be speaking to a number of NASA scientists as well.

In his TrekMovie podcast interview, Zappone talked about the influence Voyager has had on a new generation of fans:

“Most of the fans I have spoken to are in their 20s and 30s, so they were really influenced by Kate and this whole ‘Scully Effect,’ which is this proliferation of women now in the sciences and medicine because of Dana Scully in The X-Files, and there is a similar ‘Janeway Effect.’ Her portrayal of Janeway as a leader and a scientist has influenced young women to go into those type of fields.”

Voyager is the first Star Trek series with a woman as co-creator, and that is one of the reasons Zappone notes the importance of including an interview with Jeri Taylor, adding “we need her voice.” In addition to bringing on a more diverse team to help produce the doc, Zappone vowed to ensure the documentary reflects the diversity of the Voyager cast, noting “diversity will come through the interviews themselves, it will be reflected.”

Kate Mulgrew from To The Journey

Breaking up talking heads with animation and Garrett’s set movies

With all those interviews, the documentary could end up being a bit dry with just a lot of footage of people talking, but Zappone says the team is “actively discussing ways to avoid talking heads.” One way to mix things up is to have interviews in interesting locations; for example, Kate Mulgrew was shot on the bridge of the cruise ship at Star Trek: The Cruise.

Another solution to the talking heads problem is the inclusion of rare behind-the-scenes footage. Zappone explains:

“Thanks to Garrett [Wang] he has old mini-DV tapes that he filmed behind the scenes on Voyager that have never been seen and we are getting access to all of that. I don’t think anybody has seen that kind of footage before.”

Zappone also confirmed they are looking at other ways to break up all the interview footage, like possibly adding animation as they did for their Star Trek: The Next Generation documentary Chaos on the Bridge:

“On Chaos on the Bridge, I said we need something here. It is nothing new, I was inspired at the time by things like the Robert Evans doc The Kid Stays in the Picture. There are creative ways to work with photos and drawings, so yes [animation] is very possible. There are just certain things when you are talking about something from 30 years ago, how do you cover it? So animation becomes an option.”

Gene Roddenberry depicted in one of the animations from Chaos on the Bridge

Not avoiding controversy

As noted above, the doc will deal with some of the more tense moments during the making of Voyager. In addition to covering Lien being replaced by Jeri Ryan and the struggles with UPN, Zappone said the team was committed to an honest portrayal, as they had done with the TNG doc:

“Are we going to cover warts and all on Voyager? The answer is  yes. But I would argue like with Chaos on the Bridge, we cover the turmoil [on the first two seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation], but ultimately it is a story of the success and the brilliance of the shift in that show in the third season and how it went on to greatness. But we will be very candid with Voyager.”

Jeri Ryan from To The Journey

Planning theatrical event, hoping for Paramount+

As of now, the plan is to release the documentary in late 2022, with backers getting digital copies or Blu-rays. Backers can also buy tickets to premiere events in Los Angeles and New York. But Zappone is also hoping to replicate what they did with the DS9 documentary and do a theatrical release event with Fathom Events.

Zappone feels that To the Journey will have an even wider appeal to the general public than What We Left Behind and he still is holding out hope that it (and the other Trek docs made by 455 films) will find a streaming home with the rest of the Star Trek Universe:

“Absolutely it’s still possible. That’s the beauty of crowdfunding. Now we get the money to produce this film on our own and to bring it to CBS. So we don’t need a sale yet, but we will. That’s the way the system works is we raised enough through crowdfunding to at least get through to production, but then the licensing fees are enormous on these films, and that’s where you need to have the sale to cover all of that. But yes, the answer is it is absolutely still possible. And it’s still possible they can acquire all of the previous [Star Trek] docs, with the exception of [For the Love of Spock] they are all available. My hope is they all find their eventual home on Paramount+, because where better for them to be?”

The crowdfunding campaign wraps up at the end of March. To support To The Journey visit the Indigogo page.

Visit the official site at voyagerdocumentary.com, or follow VOY Documentary on TwitterInstagram, and Facebook.

 


Find more news and analysis for Star Trek documentaries.

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Unfortunate to see Chaos on the Bridge being discussed as their one TNG doc to sit alongside What We left Behind and To The Journey. While I enjoyed the in-depth look at the power struggle in the early days there, I’d like to see them eventually (after Enterprise of course, that’s clearly where they intend to go next) circle back to do something more thematically aligned with the other two about TNG, with a broader scope including the narrative of the full production run and the legacy of the show to the cast, crew, and fans. The other Berman era spinoffs certainly don’t get their share of accolades, but to my knowledge, the closest TNG has to a What We Left Behind treatment is the Trekkies series.

There’s really no need. Each season set of TNG Blu-rays has extensive making-of documentaries. At least an hour and a half per season. Towards the end of the series run the main production ones only end up being around an hour each but they add some other stuff like music or the writers round table. Tons of stuff. Worth every penny. The Chaos on the Bridge covers the same stuff as seasons one and two but they had interviews with a couple of people that weren’t on the Blu-ray sets like some of the Paramount executives and Maurice Hurley who was the showrunner for season one.

Agreed; TNG is very well covered. Which is not to say that I wouldn’t love to see another good one.

After Enterprise, they should do the animated series, while some of the people involved are still alive!

That’s a fantastic idea!

Yes definitely need to do a Enterprise documentary! Would love to see that one too.

And I’m about to watch The Animated Series for the first time pretty soon. Been promising a few posters here I would finally give it a shot, so looking forward to it.

I see “Journey’s End” as being the equivalent for TNG. DS9 and Voyager never got a documentary like that when they finished. I originally had that documentary on VHS with All Good Things (still got my numbered limited edition tape) but it’s also on Netflix.

Yes and why is that not on Paramount+ either?? What’s so odd is it’s on Netflix as you mentioned (the last episode listed in season seven after All Good Things….) and yet it’s missing on Paramount+.

Again, this is what is frustrating about that site, they have the chance to bring all those fun extras fans would love to have and yet the only ‘extras’ on P+ for TNG is a one minute trailer of the show and one video introducing the show and cast for new viewers…for an entire 3 minutes.

Agree. It may be a few issues preventing Par+ from adding them. First of all, they are most likely overwhelmed with requests for regular content. They are probably focused on expanding in other markets. In Canada, Bell Media has the broadcast and streaming rights for most things Trek. Many Canadians detest Bell due to its stranglehold on internet and TV broadcasting. (great stock to have in your portfolio, though!) A lot of Trek fans signed up for CBS AA or Par+ only to cancel it when they discovered no Trek or little CBS content.

I am looking forward to this but one thing concerns me. At one point it’s mentioned they will get interviews from prominent political figures, and when the names of the figures are listed they are all Democrats. I am a Conservative / Republican and I know many others who are also Conservative / Republicans and also Star Trek fans. I know the in thing today is to hate on us, and I’m sure I will get much hate for outing myself as a conservative here, but if we are going to politics with this Star Trek documentary, then they should take Star Trek’s message of inclusivity and diversity to heart and include interviews from BOTH side of the isles, reach out to Ted Cruz and other Republicans who have been outed as Star Trek fans. . And if we cannot or will not do that then lets drop the politics all together from this doc I don’t want to watch a doc that only presents one side of the picture.

I don’t think talking to Ted Cruz about inclusivity and diversity would really make sense. Its fine if they want to talk to some Republicans, but I would prefer if they would avoid talking to deplorables like Ted Cruz.

Yeah, when I think of IDIC I definitely think of Republicans. My eyes can’t roll hard enough.

Ted Cruz is basically a poor man’s Gul Dukat.

Given the attempted coup, I’d say he’s more of a dumber Jaro Essa.

Ted Cruz is human garbage. There is no reason to include him in Star Trek since he stands for everything that is its polar opposite.

Oh no , remember what happened to Kirstie Ally..

It seems unlikely that Paramount is going to let them write and film a ‘Voyager reunion’ scene and claim it’s cannon when it could so easily conflict with something they want to show or depict on-screen in Picard or Lower Decks or some other project set in the era. Also, will they be interviewing Ronald Moore on his own brief involvement with Voyager?

If they do film something, it probably won’t be canon, just like the DS9 scene that the writers wrote in the last documentary isn’t canon.

They can feel free to claim it’s cannon. They just can’t claim it’s canon. Calling it a large projectile weapon is not against the rules.

Or it could just be for fun? If that’s what they are planning, I would LOVE that so much! Canon or not.

Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be cannon actually – they could make the scene an alternate ‘what if’ timeline of the future like Voyager showed us many times.

Exactly. Just like what they did for the DS9 doc and the writer’s room “Season 8” opening episode. Obviously it’s not canon but it’s still very fun to know how the original producers could’ve taken DS9 into another season twenty years later if they got the chance. And that’s more canon to me than “Move Along Home”. ;D

I think this could be the Captain Proton idea that Robert Duncan McNeill was pitching about.

Oh god no. Captain Proton was amusing, and a Captain Proton series of Shorts would be great, but if they’re going to film something for Voyager, please let them film something that’s more inclusive of all of the crew and their journey instead of something so absurdly silly.

I’m not sure 1 million is enough for the elaborate sets, costumes etc. that Captain Proton requires.

Not sure if you’re sarcastic and serious. I’m pretty sure Voyager didn’t pay 1 million for the Captain Proton sets, costumes etc. Their charm was in how cheap they looked.

In the 90s Kate Mulgrew portrayed Janeway in a scene with the Frasier cast(I think it was for the 30th ST anniversary in 1996); that’s not considered canon.

But both were Paramount, so agreements were easy.

Imagine if Nemesis had been a First Contact sized hit I guess the 5th TNG film would’ve incorporated some of the VOY cast (and the USS Voyager itself) to freshen up the Ent E crew.

Yeah, they could’ve went REALLY big for the fifth movie and gave us characters from all the shows. I know that’s what Patrick Stewart wanted and it would’ve been great to see him and Janeway (in the same room this time) and solve a crisis together would’ve been amazing to a lot of us. I always wanted a scene of Worf and B’Elanna together and share their upbringing and personal struggles of living in two cultures and how differently they contrasted. A Seven and Data scene just writes itself. But then Nemesis destroyed all those hopes and dreams being so bad, so it is what it is.

Maybe it’s a possibility we will get some of that with Picard and other TNG era characters show up.

Supposedly the Nemesis sequel was going to focus on bringing the captains together, including Kirk, Sisco, Picard, and Janeway. I think that the Nemesis writer John Logan mentioned this in passing somewhere.

This is what Memory Alpha says about it:

Nemesis follow-up
An eleventh Star Trek film was initially planned during production on the tenth film, Star Trek Nemesis. Nemesis co-writers John Logan and Brent Spiner intended to follow that film with a “crossover” sequel. After Nemesis failed financially, however, this plan was abandoned. [4] Patrick Stewart clarified that the film was intended to be the fifth and final TNG film. He also commented, “It was a very exciting idea for a screenplay. It would have been a real farewell to Next Generation, but it would have involved other historic aspects of Star Trek as well.” [5] Spiner himself explained, ““One of the ideas that John Logan and I had about what the next film would have been was a Justice League of Star Trek. Something would bring all the great Star Trek villains together, from Khan to Shinzon, and Picard is the only person who could stop them and he actually has to go through time and pluck out the people he needs to help him. He goes back to the moment before Data blows up and takes him back to get Kirk and Spock, and go even further back and get Scott Bakula’s character, Archer. The problem with that more than anything is cost – how do you pay for that?” [6]

It sounds abit like that BringBackKirk thing from a decade or so ago mixed with Avengers Endgame (although Brent clearly more of a DC man). Wonder how they were planning to bring back Khan? Maybe Montalban in some capacity and/or recast (Bardem?)..but bringing back Shinzon? What?! Why not just stick to Khan as the big Thanos bad. Ok now I’m imagining the portals Endgame scene with Khans amarda vs Kirk: ‘Enterprise’s..assemble!’

Sounds like a mix of “All Good Things…” and “Generations”. And why did Spiner insist on killing off Data if he was fine with Picard saving Data via time travel in the next movie?

Wow, Voyager seriously passed a $1 million in donations?? In less than a month? My god, that’s incredible. It just shows you the love the dedicated fans have for these shows.

But yes why AREN’T these docs on Paramount+??? WWLB is on Youtube and Tubi in America, which you can watch for free now on both sites (with ads). But if that is on those sites, how come they can’t make a deal to put it on Paramount+ as well? This is what gets frustrating because Paramount+ should be aiming to make their site a dedicated to all things Star Trek. They have the shows (but the classic shows are on multiple sites as well) but the movies and documentaries selections are a joke.

There is so much they can do. I mean why not make a special documentary for Star Trek’s 55th anniversary for example? Since they dropped the ball so badly with the 50th, here is their chance to go bigger.

History Channel is making an 8 part series around the anniversary, here is their chance to make their OWN big size documentary with all the players in the past 50 years but they can also use it to promote their own new shows as well. That should’ve been one of the first things they did when they decided to make it Paramount+ because they can include everything again. And since there is sadly no new movie coming out this year for the anniversary, then they could’ve made a two hour documentary special for a few million dollars, promoted it to death all year and then dropped it on September 8th.

Disney+ really shows why it has the legions of subscribers it does. Their Pixar, Star Wars and Marvel sections are phenomenal. Mandalorian got an 8 part in-depth special making of season 1 and an hour long special making of season 2. WandaVision got it’s own behind the scenes special too a week after the finale. These franchises sections gets so much outside of just more shows and films on D+. They also add ew and old documentaries, specials and even short stories they are constantly making on that site.

Paramount+ should be working with the filmmakers of To The Journey or at the very least make a deal with them to have the documentary on the site as an exclusive once it is released. Tons of people will subscribe just to watch it.

I’m obviously glad they are making a dozen shows for the next 20 years but as these other sites are showing, you can still do more. So many past documentaries and TV specials that has been made about Star Trek for decades should be licensed to run there. Fans craze that stuff just as much as the shows and films.

Could be because nobody at CBS/Paramount actually know what they’re doing with Trek. They’ve stumbled into a few successes, but all things considered they are hopeless bumblers with this franchise.

This. So far they’ve just been throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, with mixed results imo. Disney admittedly has made some missteps with the Star Wars sequel trilogy in a lot of fans’ eyes, but with all these new TV series on D+ for both Star Wars and Marvel they seem to have realised that planning out their content beforehand is a far better approach that’s already paying off with Mandalorian and WandaVision.

Sadly have to agree. There seems to be so much tunnel vision over there. Star Wars fans aren’t exactly the easiest bunch to please these days either but at least Disney is really devoting themselves to make Disney+ a special place for their fans. Paramount+ so far doesn’t seem any different from AA, just more Paramount movies and shows, but very little of actually building a truly unique and in-depth site for their franchises like Star Trek.

I could tell you in three words why this will not happen

Sorry, comment was aimed @flaming photon torpedo of truth not @Bryant Burnette

And???

I won’t be surprised if they actually end up breaking the record. If it looks like it might be close, I may have to chip in a few more bucks.

What if it was a ‘documentary inside a documentary’ – interviews with the actors but in character (in Picard-era Starfleet uniforms perhaps) reminiscing about their time on Voyager as if it was a Starfleet production? Just need some good quality costume/hair/cinematography and a small set. Could go down a real rabbit-hole with Janeway musing over the Admiral version of herself that never existed.

That’s very good. I mean, a really, really good idea.

I kid you not, but when All Good Things… was announced and we heard the cast was going to be made up to appear 25 years older, I originally theorized the episode was going to be fake interviews of the characters in the future talking about their last big mission together which would to honor the final episode of the show. And we might see ‘clips’ of the final mission or something.

This is why I never pretend I can write for these shows lol.

I think the “filmed” part of the Documentary might be something about Captain Proton that Robert Duncan McNeill was pitching about. Remember Kate Mulgrew was also very interested in that idea so the reunion might just be a new segment of “Captain Proton”. I also don’t think doing that will require an extensive budget.

That would have to be CBS/Paramount for a Short Trek, though. Wouldn’t it?

Until now most fans probably assumed that – if anything Captain Proton were to happen at all – it would probably be as a Short Trek. I don’t know if Robbie McNeill is actually hoping for something bigger (like a mini series).

I don’t think McNeill’s pitch for Captain Proton was related to this documentary. I think he was hoping for a separate production (either a Short Trek or a (mini) series).

Yeah, I get that but I think if Paramount doesn’t accept his pitch, this documentary might be the only way he gets to make it.

I here beg to ask Jennifer Lien back on the stage, she is in an awful moment of her life mainly because of the brutal eviction from the series. She deserves to re-emerge from where she has been plunged in, no matter her physical appearence nor her bizarre problems with justice as many people and famous actors have had. She has a splendid personality and is a wonderful actress when she feels the positivity of people around her. And all the public is absolutely positive towards her, thousands still want her to stand up and get back in acting, or just communicating through diffferent channels of communication, as youtube (like ‘The Doctor’ Robert Picardo has done).

Actually, she needs to feel no pressure at all to re-emerge, as you put it. If her journey towards wellness requires her to seek her own path out of the spotlight, then I’d encourage everyone to wish her well, and respect those wishes.

Hear, hear.

I’d LOVE to hear from Lien about the series, but only if she’s interested in doing it. If she’s not, I hope she can avoid it for the rest of time.

I don’t know what caused her to go into her downward spiral. Maybe a bad relationship, maybe like you said the way she left Voyager has something to do with it, but whatever it is, let’s not find excuses for what she has become. From what I read her behavior has been quite reprehensible and I find it very difficult to be empathetic. I hope she finds her way out of her plight but it has to come from her.

Unfortunately, one of the failings of the social safety net in the US is that when an individual does start to unwind, for whatever reason, that frequently the situation will deteriorate to the point where the first professional help they get comes from an interaction with law enforcement. I’ll stop there to avoid having this conversation go in a direction it shouldn’t on this board. My wife works in mental health, I sit on a police review commission where law enforcement grapples with the mentally ill daily. I don’t discourage empathy, few wake up one morning deciding that todays the day to begin the long slide into a mental illness – but to the broader point, I agree that assuming responsibility for what happened while mentally ill is part of the recovery process.

Good point.

Totally agree Phil. Unfortunately, our system doesn’t have laws, programs, or resources to help citizens who begin developing mental illnesses.

When I was younger, I was one of those people who quickly judge some who were struggling. Without knowing someone with an illness or not personally having mental issues, it is not easy to understand what she is/was really going thru. Really really hope we can see her on the Documentar. If not possible, having the producers or the Voyager crew highlighting her accomplishments during her time on the show. Something to make her feel good and proud.

Participating or not, I wish her the very best. Hope she is already feeling better.

I’ll take Tone-Deaf Comments for $1000, Alex.

We need Jennifer back. It sounds as though the producers are already readying their excuses. Do the doc right or don’t do it all.

She’s perhaps not in the correct frame of mind to be able to do such a thing. Grow up; the world does not revolve around you.

We. Need?? She owes you not a god d**m thing, buddy. If’s entitled fans like you that give @$$holes a bad name.

Be careful! Anthony P has never taken kindly to fans trolling other fans here.

possibly the thing they’d have to get the rights for might be any Bujold footage?

We’ve seen some of that already, officially released, so that wouldn’t really be a surprise.

He hinted that they want to shoot something new that they’d have to get permission for. So that rules out Bujold – unless they want to get Bujold to shoot something new with her and the rest of the cast.
I don’t think many fans are that interested in seeing what could have been if Bujold hadn’t left. Most fans seem to be quite happy with what Mulgrew did in the role. Hopefully, the big surprise will be something that fans will actually appreciate.

Bujold is best left to whatever footage is currently available – If I were Mulgrew I’d be hugely upset with anything suggesting what might have been.. I’d expect some sort of “end credits” scene in real time, maybe having the Voyager being decommissioned….

The DS9 doc avoided most controversy. It was largely coming from the POV of Behr wanted to celebrate the show’s achievements and be a love letter to an under appreciated show. Which was lovely. But there was little hint of much strife beyond what we knew about studio anxiety, and they didn’t delve very deeply into what happened with Terry Farrell either, nor Brooks’ telling the producers they could kill him off. Was it necessary to do this? No.

But going into the conflict we know was bubbling under and sometimes spilling out on Voyager with Bujold, Lien, Ryan+Mulgrew, Beltran, Wang, Ron Moore, Bryan Fuller… It would be interesting to touch on in addition to the inevitable badmouthing of the suits at a defunct network.

“Most of the fans I have spoken to are in their 20s and 30s, so they were really influenced by Kate and this whole ‘Scully Effect,’ which is this proliferation of women now in the sciences and medicine because of Dana Scully in The X-Files, and there is a similar ‘Janeway Effect.’ Her portrayal of Janeway as a leader and a scientist has influenced young women to go into those type of fields.”

This doesn’t get said enough.

This doesn’t get said enough. We all know how TOS famously influenced a lot of fans go into the science fields because of how popular it was, but it’s not talked about how much Janeway influenced so many women scientists at the time since even for Star Trek, you didn’t see many women scientists. They were definitely there obviously, but they would nonfamily show up for an episode in TOS or TNG and then disappear. Dax is a scientist on DS9 but her background is….different lol.

But what made Janeway so awesome was not only was she the first full time woman Captain, she was also the first full time woman scientist on the show too. She was the only Captain who was a scientist period in ALL of the shows, even now to this day.

The current science advisor on Discovery, Dr. Erin Macdonald, said she became a scientist because of Dana Scully and Janeway. I really hope they go into that more, because it’s rarely discussed. And also prove why Voyager was a trailblazer on it’s own even if it wasn’t always an amazing show.

Isn’t Captain Burnham a xenobiologist?

But will it discuss the show’s failings including its aversion to character development and the dreaded ‘re set’?

Some of these documentaries are fantastic and I’m happy to see this production receive such a massive backing. Bizarre to me that CBS/Paramount won’t fund these clearly in-demand productions. You have fans happily handing over $1 million for a documentary with pure ease. That’s tip money for CBS/Viacom.

If CBS funded the documentary they would probably also ask for a lot more editorial control and you would end up with a less candid look at the show.

This should be fun. We really enjoyed the DS9 doc and looked forwarded to it when we got the sneak peak at STLV19. Any time you can get more details, I am all for it.

1.1MM, and counting….

Officially the most funded doc campaign on Indiegogo to date. Most impressive.

There’s a shot at 1.2MM at the end. I’m wondering if there’s one last stretch goal left….

…and 1.2MM, with about ten hours to go.

I mean, fans in 2005 raised what? $3-4 million to jumpstart an Enterprise Season 5? If that was possible, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Good on them!

I made a comment addressing this documentary’s statement that it would be covering Voyager’s controversy. Specifically I stated that if so they need to cover the known fraud that was hired in senior advisory capacity by the show. My comment was for some reason removed, despite this all being very publicly know information.

I am really looking forward to this. I can’t wait to see the cast and crew talk about the show. I do hope that it will be respectful to the series but will address some of the controversies during the series run.
Jennifer Lien is one. The 25th Anniversary book mentioned it and was very respectful about it so I hope this Docu will be the same – but hopefully will address it.
Kate/Jeri – I know a lot has been said about their relationship. I know they respected each other with the work and that Kate wasn’t very welcoming and I don’t think it was as bad as every sites writes about. I would love to see the two sit down and talk about it. They have resolved their differences which is great.
Garrett/Beltran – They have spoken about being unhappy with aspects of the show but they have both spoken so highly of the show but I would love to see them and those high up talk about these differences and issues they had with the show.