or seven years, Star Trek: Voyager has traveled through the Delta Quadrant, slowly making its way home. With the series' two-hour finale upon us, Science Fiction Weekly asked five of the ensemble's cast members to share their thoughts as this journey comes to an end.
Robert Picardo played the holographic Doctor, a character that later transcended its original boundaries to become a core member of the crew.
In the last regular episode of the series, "Renaissance Man," it sounds as if you had a chance to do what you had hoped to do--namely, have closure to the relationship between the Doctor and Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew).
Robert Picardo: In "Renaissance Man," the captain and the Doctor are on an Away mission, and the captain is put in mortal jeopardy. The Doctor has to go back and steal technology on a very short time frame or else the captain is going to be killed. The audience doesn't know right away that the Doctor is doing something good. They think someone has taken [him] over, or that he has been re-programmed by someone.
The coolest thing about the story, I think, is how they reveal it to the audience in stages. That makes it even more fun than it would have otherwise if the audience knew from the very beginning what was going on. [In] the opening and closing scene which I have with the captain ... the Doctor bemoans the fact that she socializes with other crew members, but not with him, and through this experience together, Janeway basically says if you want to get to know me better, let's start.
Was that a fulfilling note to end the regular episodes on?
Picardo: I think so. So many of my scenes with Janeway had just been getting dressed down for having screwed up. And this is a whole different color between the two of us. And because Kate and I have become such good friends over the course of the show, it was really a lot of fun to have an episode the theme of which was Janeway and the Doctor discovering a friendship, and not just a mutually respectful working relationship.
How does it feel now that the end is here?
Picardo: It feels kind of sobering, because you have to grieve on two fronts--the extended family that's breaking up, and the whole emotional complex. I've had this group of people that I love that I work with that extends, obviously, beyond the actors, who I'm terribly fond of, but to our crew, all the production people in the production offices--writers and producers, everybody. Simultaneously, with the emotional breakup of family, you have in the background the notion that your livelihood, as you've known it, is changing as well.
Roxann Dawson's B'Elanna Torres spent the past seven years as Voyager's chief engineer. She's since evolved from Maquis rebel to a green Starfleet officer to a seasoned professional juggling family life with work.
Did you know about the writers' plans to take the relationship between B'Elanna and Tom Paris to the next level?
Roxann Dawson: : Every once in a while, you'll hear a rumor. But from week to week, you don't know the details of what's going to happen. Sometimes [the relationship] was on the back burner, sometimes it was addressed. I think sometimes they were able to address the relationship in a creative, new way, and sometimes they missed opportunities to really redefine a 24th-century relationship between two really strong-willed people. The episode "Lineage," though, was a wonderful way to look at how B'Elanna was torn about her own pregnancy. You really sensed her two sides warring in that. She really had a hard time coming to terms with her pregnancy. That episode was very well written and had a lot of layers; it could be appreciated on [many] levels.
Are you satisfied with where your character ended her journey in the finale?
Dawson: I think that's what's wonderful about it, is characters don't end life. You meet somebody and then you walk away from them, and you know they've got a future and that they'll be moving on and living their life and doing something else. The sense that we have here is, there's really nothing to tie up. These lives hopefully existed before these seven years, and will exist beyond these seven years. There's a sense of having captured and eavesdropped on the lives of this crew for seven years. But it doesn't really end. It doesn't get wrapped up into a nice, neat little package--which I'm very grateful for.
Star Trek's often neatly-tied-up endings were often a fault of the series.
Dawson: In general, the goal of the series is to have each episode to be able to stand on its own, so it sometimes will require the false feeling kind of ending in order to wrap up the story. But I think it's part of the problem and the challenge in telling a story every week that occurs in one hour. And that's going to happen. Occasionally, we were able to wrap it up and leave enough open ends that, if the writing is really good, will leave the audience questioning and wanting more--but still satisfied that this was one story that was told. But this is hard to do every week.
Are you glad that you can finally cast off B'Elanna's makeup?
Dawson: That's the only thing I will not miss from this show--the makeup was very uncomfortable and restricting. I will miss B'Elanna, I will miss working with the actors and the crew. I still adore this job, but the makeup is something that I never want to have to deal with again.
What do you think the legacy of Voyager will be?
Dawson: I hope that people will watch the reruns and will discover it later on and fall in love with these characters that we've fallen in love with. Our stories are very human and universal, and the struggle is very identifiable, and when you have those elements, something can endure.
Robert Duncan McNeill's wisecracking Lt. Tom Paris is Voyager's ace pilot and resident holodeck enthusiast.
At what point did you start realizing this season was it for Voyager?
Robert Duncan McNeill: I think there were a couple of big moments at the beginning of this last season where it kind of hit everybody. And then we went on cruise control, as usual. Not cruise control, but we're back into production, and we have a whole season ahead of us, and it seems like it's so far in the future that [the end] wasn't really talked about a whole lot for months and months.
I think Christmas got very sentimental for everyone. We have a lot of traditions that we do around here, and this year the nine of us in the cast threw a big Christmas party for the company, for the crew and the production staff, and that was a really sentimental time. I think that's when it hit everybody that we're almost at the end, and this is kind of it, because by the time we get to the end of the show, everybody is going to be running off in different directions, and this is the last chance for us to really enjoy each other's company and all be together.
How did you find out what was in store for your character?
McNeill: This year, I think they decided to take advantage of having these characters together, and say, "Look, what would happen?" I mean, they're finishing up this voyage, they've all come back different people from this trip, and what if we really dramatically manifested this idea in these characters getting married, and having a baby.
Was the pairing of B'Elanna and Tom a tricky one, in the context of the series?
McNeill: Initially, when they hooked the two characters up together, that was a very bold step in the writers' minds. Just even hooking them up romantically on some sort of a formal basis is a big step. Once you've got two series regulars together that way, it's hard to unconnect them, and it can lead to very soap-opera storylines. So they were very nervous to even begin that storyline. Once they did, I think they were kind of used when they needed to. And otherwise they really ignored it. One week, we'd have a couple of scenes about our relationship and about our romance, and the next couple of episodes, we wouldn't even talk to each other on the show. So they really just used it when it was helpful to a particular story.
Are you still taken aback by what it means to be in a Star Trek series?
McNeill: Now, getting towards the end of it, I go to a Star Trek convention, or I meet fans on the streets, and there are so many people who have come to Star Trek because of our show--people who've never watched Next Generation or Deep Space Nine, or the original series, even. But somehow, the characters, the journeys they took, the premise of our show and all of those things brought them into Star Trek, and into appreciating it through our show. It's nice, now that we're finishing this up, to see that and see so much of that. We kind of built a fan base. We took over the torch of Star Trek, and I think we really succeeded, and brought in a lot of new fans, and satisfied a lot of the old fans, who were skeptical earlier on. And we've carved our own place in the legacy of it all, as opposed to just riding on the coattails [of the previous series' successes].
The consummate Vulcan, Tim Russ's Tuvok is Voyager's security officer, and Captain Janeway's trusted confidante.
Are you satisfied with your character's arc in the finale?
Tim Russ: All I can say about it is my character's involvement in the last two stories is completely and totally unexpected. It's very much a surprise what happens to this character--and atypical to what they've done [with him] up until this point. It is also very interesting, for me, because the character has some interesting things to do.
What was the atmosphere like on set in the final days of shooting the series?
Russ: I think everybody is sort of realizing those moments where we won't be shooting in engineering anymore, and that that set may come down even before we're finished. So that's the last scene in engineering, or that's the last scene over here, or that's the last time you and I will be playing together alone. That was the attitude--we're sort of marking those moments as they come by.
What do you take away from your Trek experience, personally?
Russ: It's given me a chance to produce a feature film, and [allowed] me to finance my record projects and the couple of projects I'm working on now. So to me, it's really been very beneficial, and given me outside opportunities. I've had the chance to direct a television episodic, which I wouldn't have had the chance to do at all without this show.
Ethan Phillips plays Neelix, Voyager's Talaxian chef, morale officer and ambassador to the Delta Quadrant.
What do you take away with you from your seven years on Voyager?
Ethan Phillips: A certain amount of financial security, which is no small thing in this business. But I think I've come away with a feeling of, the thing I've gotten as an actor, is the realization of working in front of camera over and over again, so I don't feel intimidated by the camera, as I ofttimes did before, because my work was sporadic. Now I feel like the camera is more my friend, and it's a collaborator with me.
Was it fun being a part of another ensemble cast, after having been a part of the ensemble in the sitcom Benson all those years ago?
Phillips: It was fun to have different people to play with. I was very happy I got to play a lot with Tim Russ, because I think our characters worked great together. But I do regret I didn't have more to do with Bob Picardo, though, because we didn't have a big plot together. Neelix was like a spice, you know? They threw him in to liven it up every now and then, you know. Other than a few big shows, I didn't have many B-plots, you know? I wasn't on the bridge, I was in the kitchen--I was kind of like Quark, you know?
Is it strange to reflect on the series now, as you finish shooting the finale?
Phillips: Part of me has already left the show, and in my head I'm moving on. So it's strange to revisit these thoughts. I've made my peace with it. We're a huge family, and it's sad to leave it all. But everything ends, right?
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