I am confused why season 1 episodes ‘Projections’, ‘Elogium’, ‘Twisted’ and ‘The 37’s’ were held over from season one and made a part of season 2 instead of actually being a part of season one. In the UK, these episodes were distributed as intended as season one episodes, with ‘The 37’s’ being the season one finalé. Why was this *not* the case in America? This has haunted me for many years. Are there any more production order anomalies or inconsistencies that anybody can point out and explain?
It was made short on purpose by holding back episodes for season 2, let’s investigate *why*… I’m guessing a writer’s strike?
Because UPN stupidly didn't understand that the series actually had a serialized structure to it despite appearing to be episodic.
They talked about this on the Delta Flyers but I can't remember which episode they spoke about it in (sorry! - could have been end of season 1, start of season 2, or Sacred Ground because they talked about a lot of production-related stuff in that one like why Sacred Ground was the first episode Robert Duncan McNeill directed). It was something to do with wanting to show the first episode of the second season a week earlier than other shows had their first episode of the season. @Sakonna - I think you have a background in casting actors/actresses for tv. Do you know whether all the scenes with a guest star who is in two episodes would be filmed at the same time if one of the episodes was at the end of a season and the other was at the start of the next season? Sorry in advance if I've got you mixed up with someone else!
UPN wanted to start airing new episodes a month before the other Big 4 broadcast networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) for the fall schedule. U.S. fall schedule usually started, at that time, early to mid September, but UPN wanted to start in August. Holding back 4 already fully produced episodes was the network's solution. Remember, VOYAGER literally launched the network itself when it premiered, so the series was looked upon as the flagship show of UPN. (Indeed, except for MOESHA, SEVEN DAYS and THE SENTINEL, I think every single original series that aired on UPN during the first 5 years of its existence didn't get past a first or second season.) I think UPN caught the producers by surprise the first time, but found out UPN was going to do it again the next season, which is why "SACRED GROUND", "FALSE PROFITS", "FLASHBACK", and "BASICS, PART II" (produced in this exact order after "BASICS, PART I") were also held over but produced in season 2. Season 3 only had 22 episodes produced instead of the usual 26, which is why their total episode count is 4 short of DS9's. As for guest stars in season finales appearing in the season premiere, I am virtually certain none of the premiere scenes were filmed during the season finale because the new season premiere wasn't written yet. Once a season was done filming, I think the writers had about a month off and then went back to the offices to write the premiere and break stories for the coming season. As for other production and airing inconsistencies, season 1 aired exactly as produced up to "LEARNING CURVE", season 2 was mostly in order except for those holdovers from season 1 and the later season 2 holdovers (and "INVESTIGATIONS" and "LIFESIGNS" was swapped to keep the Jonas arc correct), the beginning of season 3 combined the season 2 holdovers and the middle of season 3 was shuffled around a bit, season 4 aired exactly in order of production (except "WAKING MOMENTS" and "MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE" were swapped, presumably to keep the Hirogen flowing as a three straight week threat) seasons 5 and 6 were all over the place, and season 7 aired mostly in production order with a few exceptions in the first third of the season.
Four episodes were meant to be season 1 episodes but they were postponed for season 2. Those episodes are: Projections, Elogium, Twisted and The 37's. Their stardates indicate that they are season 1 episodes meant to take place ins 2371. In Europe, those episodes were aired as season 1 episodes. The best watching order of the season 1 and season 2 episodes are: Season 1 Caretaker Parallax Time And Again Phage The Cloud Eye Of The Needle Ex Post Facto Emanations Prime Factors State Of Flux Heroes And Demons Cathexis Faces Jetrel Learning Curve Projections Elogium Twisted The 37’s Season 2 Initiations Non Sequitur Parturition Persistence Of Vision Tattoo Cold Fire Maneuvers Resistance Prototype Death Wish Alliances Threshold Meld Dreadnought Lifesigns Investigations Deadlock Innocence The Thaw Tuvix Resolutions Basics #1 A more detailed list with Stardates, Earth Time dates and also the Voyager books published during seasons 1 and 2 is to be found on The Kes Website under the link Voyager Timeline
That is me! It's funny, I was thinking about this recently listening to the Delta Flyers on the "Equinox" two-parter. Robbie was absolutely certain that they had produced both halves together at the end of season 5, because the big guest stars wouldn't have come back months later. He kept saying versions of "you can't trust that actors like this will still be available!" And I'm listening to it and thinking, how does he not know you can book them for both episodes at the same time? I've cast guest leads in season finales and simultaneously made the deal for them to come back a few months later to shoot the next seasons premiere. (Though you do need to already have the pickup for next season to do this -- if you're just hoping for a renewal, you talk about it with the agent so they know you want their client back if all goes well, and then you hope like hell they don't get a better offer in the meantime) But you can also do it out-of-sequence, if that helps you in some other way. I once did a show with a one-season series regular who did her entire seasons worth of shooting in a couple days. We did 3 days with her in the middle of the season and then brought her back for 2 more days at the end, and aside from her scenes we shot everything one episode at a time, the classic way. Creative scheduling is MUCH more common these days than it was in Voyager's era, because TV has become such a different beast in recent years, and exploding production makes it all so competitive that now shows are forced to do this to get better talent. There's also series now that are so technically ambitious that you have to basically toss out an episodic shoot structure and block shoot according to locations or whatever in order to make it happen at all (Picard season 2 seemed to be doing a mini-version of this, looks like it was shot in 5 blocks of 2 episodes each) But, generally speaking, the more you can keep the production of an episode within the days allotted for it, and the more you can do it one-at-a-time, the more smoothly things will run logistically, since that's the model TV was built on. The more you wander outside of it, the more union rules will start to trip you up. In the example of the series regular with the condensed schedule above, you have to offer the director of each episode the option of coming in to direct any material for it, so on those shooting days with her we had multiple directors running around, all of them directing different scenes. Bringing all these directors back increases expenses for production, but they were willing to incur it because it was the only way we could get this actress, who otherwise was too big for our show. Berman Trek was such a machine, and productions had so much more leverage against the actors back then, I have to imagine instances of twisting the production schedule to accommodate guest actors were rare to nonexistent. Let me know if that answers it fully.
I remember the Voyager VHS tapes where the held back season one episodes were released here as season one videos and not on the season two sets! JB
On the latest 'Flyers episode for Imperfection they talk at length about how it and Drive were swapped around, causing obvious continuity problems.
Interesting but production order is a thing I love dipping into after I've watched the series as is on the discs. followed by the occasional odd channel screenings which never make much sense! JB