Rick Berman Talks 18 Years of Trek In Extensive Oral History
TMC
Berman on Voyager [1:43:10 - 2:08:20]
* After end of TNG Paramount felt two shows running concurrently
worked and wanted a replacement, but Beman an Piller felt they "were
pushing it" with too much Trek (along with feature films currently in
development)
* Paramount "was adamant" especially about using Trek as anchor for
new UPN
* Without TNG the "could go back to a ship" but wanted woman captain
and new setting (Delta quadrant) to "do something we hadn’t done yet"
* Co-creators Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor "adored" Geneviève
Bujold, originally cast as Capt. Janeway, but Berman felt ”there was
something funny…that didn’t seem right" with her and her ability to
deal with episodic TV
* They told Bujold about "how horrible" it was to work on episode TV
and "painted a very dark picture" but she still wanted to do it, then
quit by 2nd day, which he feels "was a wonderful sense of vindication"
that he was right about Bujold, as Mulgrew was his first choice as she
was "perfect for the part"
* Kate Mulgrew had "most number of hair issues" of all of Trek (due to
others wanting to change her look, not the actress)
* Berman on Robert Beltran "he grew a little bit frustrated that his
part never got quite as big as he hoped it would, but he did a good
job"
* Tim Russ was second choice for Geordi and so Berman was anxious to
hire him
* Berman on character of Kes "it just didn’t work, her character
became superfluous" so she was written out
* Bringing on Jeri Ryan as 7 of 9 in response to studio concern about
ratings slippage and requirement to "spice things up"
* Success of Jeri Ryan "did cause problems" with Kate Mulgrew and
there "was a little antagonism" between the actresses
* High use of Holodeck on Voyager was somewhat due to writers being
"anxious" to use again device after DS9, where Quark’s holosuites were
"whorehouses" with "nasty purposes"
* For final episode they "considered everything" including not
returning to Earth, 7 of 9 dying, Janeway dying and more
* Berman’s final assessment on if the "ship headed home" premise was
right one to do: "It was difficult. I think it was a good idea to go
in that direction, but there is something about venturing outward and
trying to get back home that are dramatically different from one
another. And I think Star Trek, by and large, is a show about
exploration, and Star Trek is about going forth and not trying to find
your way home, so it did hold us back in certain areas…but I think it
was the best of both worlds"