First Look: ‘Star Trek: Voyager’ Cast Speaks Frankly In Teaser For ‘To The Journey’ Documentary

The Star Trek: Voyager documentary To the Journey is one of our most-anticipated things for 2022. And today we have an exclusive first look at a teaser video.

To the Journey teaser

The team behind a number of excellent Star Trek documentaries including 2018’s What We Left Behind, all about Deep Space Nine are at it again. This time they are focusing on Star Trek: Voyager and after a record-breaking $1.2 million crowd-funding campaign last year, the team has been hard at work filming more interviews, with production set to wrap up soon.

Recently they showed off a teaser during an online backer event, and we have a first look before it is released later to the general public. The video shows the wide array of cast and creatives they have been interviewing, and it demonstrates how they are not avoiding touchy subjects. Check it out…

Pre-orders closing soon

It’s still possible to become a backer for To The Journey and to pre-order the Blu-Ray/DVD Combo or a Digital Download so you can be sure to be one of the first to see the doc. You can also still get your name in the credits. There is also special To The Journey merchandise including a Janeway coffee mug replica. Most pre-orders close on April 15th. To get your copy of the doc or some merch visit backerkit.com

And to keep updated on the project, visit voyagerdocumentary.com.


Find more news on Star Trek documentaries.

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I could live without that “bum-bum-bum-bum” stuff at the beginning.

Agreed.
If anything, a short song from Picardo would be much better

Man, so much Star Trek coming our way these days! A new documentary and a film on top of all the new shows! Exciting times kids!

While it has never been my favorite show, I always loved Voyager and I always will. I like it more today than when it was on in fact. Just shows the appeal Star Trek shows can still have literally decades later. So I am excited for the documentary. I hope they are able to get it into theaters like they did with “What We Left Behind”. I would happily pay and see that one in the theater too.

I did a complete re-watch of Voyager last year and like you I enjoyed it much more this time around then when I originally saw it in the 90’s. Janeway was a mighty impressive Captain in my opinion and I loved the rest of crew as well.

Yeah I always loved Janeway from the first episode on. It’s not a shock why we have her again in Prodigy. But Voyager as a show, while flawed (but they are all, who are we kidding), delivered a lot of fun and twisty stories. Yes more could’ve been done with its premise for sure but it was still a solid show that really focused on exploration in a way no show ever did. And the cast was great.

I am the only one that is underwhelmed from seeing this given the huge budget they had (especially as compared to the really awesome and great production values DS9 doc)?

This looks like this was done with fake house bluescreens as background and that that actors didn’t even care enough to get themselves looking good for the interviews. I realize that sounds harsh, but man, that’s how it looks.

Weird?

It’s pretty weird to go out of your way to criticise the way people look after 25+ years.

Is a big budget required? We’re listening to people talk about the past, so how fancy does it need to be? I’ve been watching The Center Seat on IMDBTv over the last couple of weeks, have largely enjoyed it, and not once have I sat there thinking ‘They needed to spend more money on this.’

That’s for One Lion of course.

Please see my follow-up response above. I just don’t get why they couldn’t look a little more presentable, which certainly wasn’t an issue with the DS9 doc.

My opinion only. YMMV

Except that I’m not doing that. What I am criticizing is the unprofessional look of a lot of them — hair, makeup and clothing choices — that were done properly on the DS9 doc. One guy is even wearing shorts, and a couple others look like they just rolled out of bed and threw on some old clothes.

I did a job interview on Zoom during COVID, and I wore my Sunday best and got a haircut. What’s the big deal for them taking the time to look professional like the DS9 group did (and why didn’t the Producers set some professional appearance prep standards for them)? Like I said, it just looks weird how unkempt some of them are.

I can’t help what my eyes see here, dude. I mean, they are career actors — if anyone should know how to prepare to be seen in front of a camera, they should, right? I just find it weird that some of them look so disheveled…my opinion though…everyone can have their own opinion. No worries.

PS: Look how professional George Takei and Robert Picardo look on this…they get it!

It was particularly jarring to see Ethan Phillips speak while chewing gum.

I just want to see them tell their stories. As long as the soundtrack is in sync, I’m good. (I hope that didn’t cost them millions.)

I agree with your point on the actors clothing.
For a tribute, even if these actors are not getting paid, it would be nice to see them dress up decently. Some were professional, some were not.

Thanks! I was beginning to worry that I was the only one who had this reaction.

I am with you Lion, I have great hopes for the Doc as I loved the DS9 doc, (this is coming from a documentary filmmaker). However this trailer way be a slight red flag, not that their stories aren’t good, but they skipped a bit on production value and let things slide. Hopefully since they are in production, insight like this gives them time to re-do some stuff or use other takes that may not be as messy. Shaky Camera, chewing gum, its one thing if the project was released for free but they have a budget and are selling, so who knows luckily again they are still in production.

Couldn’t disagree more. It was genuine and honest. Makes me really want to see the completed project. The actors look like the real people they are.

For all the praises about a show having a woman as a captain, three women are missing in this clip so far. Where are Jennifer, Jeri, and Roxane?

Jeri Ryan and Roxane Dawson are definitely in the documentary, but yeah odd they weren’t shown here.

I don’t think Jennifer Lien is involved at all given her issues. But it’s nice they at least mentioned her and over her being fired. Sometimes it feels like she was never on the show at all.

It’s possible they haven’t filmed their segments yet since this is an ongoing production.

I know they were all filmed a year ago for some Voyager cruise. All the actors participated there. But it looks like they don’t want to show much right now and maybe they haven’t sat down for that yet.

Jennifer has been in trouble with the law.

Jennifer is, last I heard, deeply in a mental illness that would make her appearing a nonstarter. It has been discussed/disclosed before that the beginnings of that issue are why she was let go, so maybe that will be in this doc.
I hope someday she’s doing better and can give her side of things, but IDK. It’s a hard disease.

Last I heard, Jennifer was suffering from a mental illness that would, no doubt, make her appearing a nonstarter. It’s also been said that the beginnings of that issue was why she was let go in the first place; maybe that will be discussed in the doc… And I hope someday she’s doing well enough to give her side of the story, but it’s a hard disease…

I looked at the link with the sound off and it struck me that Neelix and the Doc seem like they are ready to Jack Lemmon/Ed Asner scenes from JFK, or perhaps a new version of THE ODD COUPLE. I wonder if they ‘rehearsed’ … then again, Picardo can do improv so maybe not necessary. He was apparently so funny as a couple of the aliens on EXPLORERS that the set was busting up all day long, as he’s deliver faux versions of the alien’s lines, like ‘YOU’RE MAKING ME MISS DYNASTY!”
(kind of a THE DEADLY YEARS vibe with the visuals.)

i like the casual, conversational approach they seem to be taking with the interviews. It gives the impression we’re hearing from people and not actors. I like that it appears to be an honest, warts and all, conversation about the show. We know we’re going to hear about Bujold, Beltran’s unhappiness with the development of his character, the Lien firing and Jeri Ryan taking over the show. I hope we hear more than negativity though. Doing seven years on a beloved TV franchise can’t be all bad for an actor.

Why haven’t they done one of these for TNG? The cast isn’t getting any younger. Now that Picard has finished production someone should make a doc on the show that started the rejuvenated Trek TV universe.

This has been mentioned in the past and others have pointed the TNG cast has been given tons of things like DVD/Blu Ray interviews etc.

And I think this is the same company that also did Chaos on the Bridge for TNG. It’s not a ‘traditional’ documentary, but it did get one.

I felt the TNG Blu-ray special features were reunion enough… they even had a 50-min panel with the cast on the Season 2 set.

Fair enough. That was my thought on a potential Enterprise documentary. They kind of covered the ups and down on the home video release and the audience for a documentary on the series would be very, very small.

I give it 7 stars out of nine

I hope to learn something new from this documentary. I didn’t learn anything new from the DS9 doc. It was a documentary full of fluff. I don’t want fluff. I want to learn new things about the production, cast, and some juicy stories.

C’mon Garrett, you were not the only male asian series regular on a show in the ’90s. There were way too few, but you weren’t the only one. (Daniel Dae Kim, Sammo Hung, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, and Russell Wong to name a few.)

I look for ward to the documentary, I loved the previous ones by 455.

Not that I know much about this, but I figured I would check out those actors’ credits from the 90s and see what regular roles they had. See for myself how far off Garrett might be (ala the whole “TOS had the first interracial kiss on TV” claim).

Here’s what I see.

Russel Wong – Vanishing Son (1995), 13 episodes (1 season), not renewed
Sammo Hung – Martial Law (1998-1999), 44 episodes (2 seasons), ended after 2 season
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa – Nash Bridges (1996-1997), 13 episodes, a “main” character according to Wikipedia, who left the show in season 2
Daniel Dae Kim – Crusade (1999), 13 episodes (1 season), not renewed

Russel and Daniel were cast as leads/ensemble mains in shows that didn’t even get a full season order. Cary-Hiroyuki was a “main” character who was in parts of 2 (out of 6) seasons, then was written out. Out of all these, Sammo was the only one to get a lead role in a series to go more than 1 season and that ended after only 2. The rest of their roles were one-offs, guest starring, or similar.

So, I would say that Martial Law is the only other success story for an Asian actor as a main character out of those listed. Obviously this is only a small subset of the potential careers to check for the 90s, but for “successful” TV shows with an Asian main character, so far, Garrett is the only one (on this list). So, even only this far it seems a little bit of an exaggeration on Garrett’s part, but not the best track record for the industry.

I wonder if Garrett will bring up his whole criticizing Berman in public and wondering why he never got to direct an episode thing.

Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa was also a regular in a science-fiction series called “Space Rangers” in the 90’s that I believe lasted for something like 6 episodes before being cancelled.

Wow that pot really was dry back then. It’s pretty sad.

Joel de la Fuente Space Above and Beyond.

It feels like Beltran is throwing shade at Mulgrew because he wanted to work with Bujold, am I reading that wrong? I know he was unhappy on the show, but I was unaware of any issues with Mulgrew.

I wouldn’t put too much credence to what Beltran says, he likes to take any opportunity to stir the pot.

No Beltran has said this many times in the past. And he always includes once Mulgrew came aboard, they got along with each right away and became good working partners. He also said in the past that Bujold wasn’t a good fit to do a TV show and it was a good decision she left the show.

Is Tim Russ ok? He’s always been thin and I know he’s 65 now but he looks as though his clothes are too big for him

Looks great! I didn’t see the DS9 one, and now I want to!

It does look like they deal squarely with all the good and the bad with Voyager. The bad including Bujold’s and Lien’s departures and Beltran’s frustration with the lack of development of the Janeway-Chakotay relationship. The latter is what I had an issue with with Voyager, the way that interesting storylines and developments were introduced and then casually discarded. Also, I just felt they never fully exploited their premise, i.e. being in dangerous space with no Starfleet support. I always thought it should have been more like Battlestar Galactica, with the ship scarred and damaged over time, maybe with components visibly replaced and with some characters replaced or killed off (instead of Kes). It was, after all, supposed to be a 75 year voyage back home.

Apparently, Ron Moore felt the same way and, after DS9 wrapped, argued with Brannon Braga about it. Braga was apparently tasked by Rick Berman to keep the show more like TNG and didn’t want it to be too dark so he rebuffed Moore’s suggestions and Moore ended up quitting the franchise and then doing BSG later.

Despite these qualms, I did really like Voyager. I don’t think it was as great as TOS, TNG, and DS9, but it was wonderful to have the first featured woman captain in ST and I really liked the Janeway, Tuvok, EMH, and Seven characters, and Paris and Torres were enjoyable too. Mulgrew was the definitely the right actress for the job. She is really great. I’m excited to show my daughter Voyager once we wrap up TNG. She likes TNG more while I think my boy likes TOS more so far.

I hope they discuss the missed oportunity to make the “year of hell” an entire Season.
One of the biggest mistakes Berman and Braga made to refusing it, like they did on DS9. Sadly VOY had no Ira Steven Behr who justi did it in ds9 against Berman and Bragas orders. The two wanted the entire Dominion-Action carrying within one season. Thanks to Ira it went different.

Hopefully Jennifer Lein, Jeri Ryan, and Roxanne Dawson appear.

I suspect though that Lein will be staying away for legal reasons. Ryan and Dawson both are involved in current Star Trek productions on opposite sides of the camera so there may be a contractural reason why they can’t appear.

I hope they at least are able to say a few words If only so Ethan and the Roberts dont continually mug the camera. Looks like they interviewed Picardo multiple times, LOL.

Picardo is the most interesting, so that’s fine with me. Lien is too busy fighting with cops and exposing herself to children.