Spoilers VOY DOC: To The Journey | Rating and Review

[Firebird]

They should've just copied the Season 8 roundtable writers discussion from the DS9 documentary, interrupting three or four times with a fantasy breakdown of what being back on Earth had in store for VOY characters .

If they had followed the formula from that, we'd probably be kickstarting a similar ENT one right now, and hearing about that show's Season 5, as a "What if" scenario. It was kind of the centrepiece really, wasn't it? Giving fans a glimpse of the impossible...well, barring the relaunch novels and obviously Prodigy & Picard elements.

There’s no point in making another Enterprise documentary, given the hours of new docs Paramount did for the blu-rays. They’re as extensive as the TNG Blu-ray docs.

As unimpressive as the Voyager doc was, I’m glad they didn’t try to just copy What We Left Behind. That would’ve been boring and derivative.

 

[DonIago]

My memory of TTJ is pretty faded at this point (aside from Garrett Wang Iiiiiiiiiiiiin Spaaaaaace!), but mostly what I remember is that it just didn't seem like the people making it cared as much about VOY as the DS9 folks did about their series.

...which, I guess, would track...

 

[AntonyF]

As unimpressive as the Voyager doc was, I’m glad they didn’t try to just copy What We Left Behind. That would’ve been boring and derivative.

Wanting it to be unimpressive rather than copying something impressive is a bit of an odd choice.


I am curious to watch it. I just looked at the cost. $70 including shipping. That's a no from me. I'd expect Kate Mulgrew to come deliver it for that cost. It's madness.

 

[Firebird]

Wanting it to be unimpressive rather than copying something impressive is a bit of an odd choice.

I'd rather they try and fail at doing something original than try and fail at making a pale copy of something else. Not that odd of a choice.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

They should've just copied the Season 8 roundtable writers discussion from the DS9 documentary, interrupting three or four times with a fantasy breakdown of what being back on Earth had in store for VOY characters .

The DS9 panel worked because those writers were more closely knit. Many of them collaborated after the series ended.

 

[Tosk]

I'd rather they try and fail at doing something original than try and fail at making a pale copy of something else. Not that odd of a choice.

But what if the options are 'try and fail at doing something original' or 'try and succeed at making a pale copy of something else'?

 

[DonIago]

I don't blame them for not doing a writers' roundtable given that VOY had more of a closed story due to the nature of its premise.

But...and I'm going off fragmentary memories here...it might have been nice if there'd been more time spent on the writing of the show in general. What they were proud of, what they felt they could have done better, what they might have liked to have done.

...if only there were things in the documentary that could have been taken out to make some time for something like this...

 

[Tomalak]

I am curious to watch it. I just looked at the cost. $70 including shipping. That's a no from me. I'd expect Kate Mulgrew to come deliver it for that cost. It's madness.

Yeah, I'd just sit tight and wait. It'll be on YouTube for free in a few years. Or sooner!

 

[Tosk]

I got my disc today. Yes, the old footage is still just as poorly-upscaled as it was before, and yes...the zero-g jaunt is still there.

Unlike the DS9 doc, all the extras are on a separate disc. First up is "Actors on Both Sides of the Camera", which is basically extended interview material with Armin Shimerman, Andy Robinson, Jeffrey Combs, and Vaughn Armstrong. Oh, and that guy John de Lancie is there too.

Next is "Paramount Executive Conversation", which despite it's clever title is actually interview material with several execs from Paramount.

Then there's "Tribute at Paramount Premiere", thirteen minutes of people talking about Jeri Taylor on stage at the doc premiere. Lolita Fatjo, David Rossi, Brannon Braga, Rick Berman, Garrett Wang, Robert Picardo, Bryan Fuller.

And "Fan Confidential". Half an hour of fans talking about Voyager on stage at the Trek Cruise.

Three chunks of extended interview material. Thirteen minutes of Jeri Taylor, thirty minutes of Kate Mulgrew (I still can't believe no one told her that her lipstick had run), and thirty minutes of Shawn and Sandra Piller.

No finished deleted scenes like the DS9 disc had, unfortunately.

 

[Firebird]

I got my disc today. Yes, the old footage is still just as poorly-upscaled as it was before, and yes...the zero-g jaunt is still there.

Unlike the DS9 doc, all the extras are on a separate disc. First up is "Actors on Both Sides of the Camera", which is basically extended interview material with Armin Shimerman, Andy Robinson, Jeffrey Combs, and Vaughn Armstrong. Oh, and that guy John de Lancie is there too.

Next is "Paramount Executive Conversation", which despite it's clever title is actually interview material with several execs from Paramount.

Then there's "Tribute at Paramount Premiere", thirteen minutes of people talking about Jeri Taylor on stage at the doc premiere. Lolita Fatjo, David Rossi, Brannon Braga, Rick Berman, Garrett Wang, Robert Picardo, Bryan Fuller.

And "Fan Confidential". Half an hour of fans talking about Voyager on stage at the Trek Cruise.

Three chunks of extended interview material. Thirteen minutes of Jeri Taylor, thirty minutes of Kate Mulgrew (I still can't believe no one told her that her lipstick had run), and thirty minutes of Shawn and Sandra Piller.

No finished deleted scenes like the DS9 disc had, unfortunately.

Looking forward to seeing the extra material… if my copy ever gets shipped.

 

[Tosk]

I rewatched the doc.

It was always my intent to give it an extra fair shake second time around.
I'm sorry to say (for me!) that my opinion on it didn't shift much. It miiiight have gone down slightly.

I didn't get much out of the extras either unfortunately. My own stupid delusional thinking had me looking forward to what the execs might share in their extra but it's mostly them just jerking themselves off over how big Trek was at a certain point and forming a new network, etc.

 

[DonIago]

Sorry to hear you had that experience. Glad you gave it another try in principle, but it sounds like overall it was at best disappointing for you.

It sounds as though you'd kind of advise others who've already seen it not to bother with the disc if they're hoping for anything substantive that they didn't already get?

 

[Tosk]

It sounds as though you'd kind of advise others who've already seen it not to bother with the disc if they're hoping for anything substantive that they didn't already get?

I can only speak to my own experience. I'm sure some others might find they like the doc more than before, or get something out of the bonus interview footage that I did not.

But I would advise they temper any potential remaining expectations.

 

[DonIago]

Could be interesting to poll folks who saw the digital release and ask whether seeing the discs improves, weakens, or doesn't meaningfully change their opinion of this whole thing.

 

[Akiraprise]

I added a few more poll choices but we can't have multiple question in polls unfortunately.

 

[DonIago]

Updated my vote(s). No physical discs yet, did not purchase the extra special features.

 

[firehawk12]

Watching the documentary now. I did pop in the extra interview bonus disc and there's interviews with the rest of the cast (I assume the Kate Mulgrey extended stuff is on the main bonus disc). I mainly got it for the interview with George - I watched about 15 minutes of it and he goes through his familiar story talking about the concentration camp experience and not understanding how wrong it was as a child, but I'm just glad to have some more recent permanent footage of him.

Oh the extra disc comes in a cardboard sleeve that is just slightly too big to fit comfortably into the case which is a bit annoying but it is what it is.

I know people's opinions of the documentary itself arefairly mixed, so I'm curious to see what it's like and if they kept all the Garret Wang vomit comet stuff.

 

[firehawk12]

I rewatched the doc.

It was always my intent to give it an extra fair shake second time around.
I'm sorry to say (for me!) that my opinion on it didn't shift much. It miiiight have gone down slightly.

I didn't get much out of the extras either unfortunately. My own stupid delusional thinking had me looking forward to what the execs might share in their extra but it's mostly them just jerking themselves off over how big Trek was at a certain point and forming a new network, etc.

I think to be fair the DS9 documentary was basically the same and kind of papered over what happened to Terry Farrell.

I watched a bit of Jeri Ryan's interview on the extra disc and she at least mentions the "difficulties" she had with the four years on the show. But I assume they went into more detail about her relationship with Mulgrew on the main documentary?

 

[firehawk12]

Just finished it... I think it's okay. It got into the Ron Moore/Brannon Braga stuff quite a bit more than I expected and I can see how they've seemed to mellow/mature since then. I think anyone around during that era would have remembered that fiery and extremely long essay Moore wrote excoriating the show and its writing when he left at least.

Berman is as pointless as he was in the DS9 documentary because he didn't want to talk about anything, so his excuse is that he can't remember any major incident or controversy they wanted to talk about.

They got more into the Garrett Wang stuff that I didn't know about (or maybe I did but forgot). No mention of being on the cover of some magazine saving him though, so maybe that's just apocryphal.

The brief section about Jennifer Lien was odd namely because they didn't have her and also talked about her in the past tense (which several of them do with the other actors too). But it made me check if she had passed or something. I knew about her various legal troubles at least, but I guess for whatever reason she wasn't able or willing to participate.

They did paper over the Ryan/Mulgrew stuff other than mentioning it and saying they did make up, so I'd say that was kind of on par with how the DS9 doc handled the stuff with Farrell.

They did talk about some of the cultural aspects of the show as it happened, namely the Janeway/Chakotay stuff. But they didn't mention having an imposter on as a consultant or anything really about Chakotay as an Indigenous/Native character come to think of it.

Perhaps one big issue I have is that they had any people together in the same room like they did in the DS9 doc. I guess maybe they don't do conventions together like the DS9 cast, there wasn't really an opportunity (they say that the cruise was the only time the cast was together), but it loses a lot from having very little back and forth.

The other is that they couldn't license the theme song for some reason, so there's like a musak version of the theme that plays at the end that is obviously evoking the theme but isn't the them. lol

I dunno, not really groundbreaking by any means but I'm happy to have bought and watched it. I have no idea why it was delayed, but I suppose the fact that it's complete is a miracle itself.

Also one point of feedback if anyone there may be reading this... I know the focus is on fulfilling preorders since I'm sure there's a lot of people to make whole, but it's not really clear where you would go if you wanted to buy this as a new customer. The BackerKit page is still up, but obviously you're not preordering anymore...

 

[Tomalak]

I think with Lien it's clear that the person they knew thirty years ago is long gone.