Spoilers VOY DOC: To The Journey | Rating and Review

[Akiraprise]

It's been awhile since we've had a new rating and review thread in the VOY forum but with the digital release of To the Journey this evening for backers that time has come. Spoilers from this point forward.

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"It's been over 25 years since Voyager first got lost in the Delta Quadrant and took us all on an incredible seven-year journey. It is now time to revisit, celebrate, and fully explore To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager the most crowdfunded documentary film to date."

The Star Trek Voyager Documentary

The production team of the DS9 documentary and For the Love of Spock now bring you the Voyager Doc! | Check out 'The Star Trek Voyager Documentary' on Indiegogo.

www.indiegogo.com

To The Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

voyagerdocumentary.com

 

[tomalak301]

Well, the long awaited Documentary is finally here. I'm glad I finally got to see it and we are at the "endgame" of this whole thing, so now we can talk about the quality and if it is good or not.

I think for me, the thought process of this documentary could have been thought better. There were parts of this documentary I enjoyed, and I thought it ended really strong with the toast, but there was a lot of this where I felt like it was left on the cutting room floor of special features that if Voyager ever got a Blu Ray set, stuff from here would appear on. I think for me, my one complaint about it was there wasn't really a narrative in which things could grow off from. It was like a check list of items to talk about, but there wasn't really a theme to bring this documentary together. I think they tried with the To the Journey toast, but I feel like a mention of "To the Journey" at the beginning would have helped, and having someone like Garrett Wang be the main narrator would have added gravitas.

There were also things I wish they had delved into further. For example, at the beginning we got to see archive footage of the launch of UPN, yet that only lasted for 3 minutes. It would have been nice to go back in time to 1995 and maybe see what else was on that helped launch the network. Also, they could have done something about the Introduction to Voyager hosted by Bob Picardo that aired the Saturday before Caretaker. They even could have talked about the network as a whole, and why it failed and turned into the CW.

There were also a lot of missed opportunities to talk about episodes and guest stars themselves. How awesome would it have been to interview The Rock, or the actors who played Ransom and Chaotica, or Ed Bigley Jr? I think they could have focused more on the writing aspects of the series and the decisions they made or didn't make. Ever since the show ended, I would have loved the writers room to address one of the common complaints about the ending, which was what happened to the crew after they got home. We got a taste with Seven and Tuvok thanks to Picard, but what about the Maquis, or Tom and B'Elanna, or 7 trying to adjust on earth (Before Picard). That sometimes it part of the Journey too. I also think the Aerospace stuff should have been cut entirely. That didn't bring anything to the table. Also, as a fan of Prodigy, if they had not mentioned Prodigy, it would have dropped another point, so I'm glad they did.

I hate to sound negative so some things I did like. I appreciated they talked about Kes, and I appreciated Robbie McNeil bringing up Kes at the end. Evidently it was more of a mental health thing for the actress but where did this whole thing with Wang and Time Person of the Year come in? I also liked they showed more archival footage of Bujold, and yeah that part didn't work. I also appreciated more from Michael Pillar, and Jeri Taylor having a big presence here talking about the legacy of Janeway was probably the best part of the entire thing.

I gave the Documentary a 6. I feel like they should have gone in an entirely different, more writing focused, direction with it, but it was nice to finally see it.

 

[Tosk]

It was okay. I think/hope I'll enjoy it more on rewatch, I won't be distracted by the negatives next time.

I'll keep the majority of my complaints about it to myself, except for two...

There's so much upscaled footage in this. I know it can't really be avoided for some of it, but worth noting as a minor gripe. The DS9 doc went back to film elements for most of the footage and on a much smaller budget. The same goes for many of the photos. As with the footage, some of the AI upscaling was okay, and some of it was quite poor. One photo of the co-creator trio had Berman's face altered so much he looked like a different person.

My second note is very minor in the grand scheme, but I did not enjoy spending so much time on Garrett's little zero-g adventure. I found it kind of a poor substitute for the writer's room material in the DS9 doc. (I'm not saying they are remotely the same, but it does feel like it's trying to function similarly within the structure of the doc itself; some now/new material to cut away to periodically.) I personally wish that time could have been devoted to other things. ...though the shots of the Eaglemoss ships in zero-g was fun.

The recreations of VFX shots were all very good, and we even get the bonus of seeing the aeroshuttle disengage.

I also liked they showed more archival footage of Bujold

Did they? It seemed like it was all the stuff already released on DVD...but admittedly I haven't gone back to it in a while.

 

[Cap.T]

I just watched it as well and enjoyed it mostly. It's not as good as the DS9-Doc and not just because there were no remastered HD-Clips apart from the handful of short CGI-Sequences.

Personally I just wanted to hear a lot more from the Crew that worked on the show. The short moments were Michael Westmore, Michael Okuda and Dan Curry were allowed to talk about there work could have been much longer and other crew should have been include as well.

Instead Garrett Wang's Zero-G Flight a few years ago constantly Interrupts the flow of the Doc. I get that they probalby didn't want just "Talking Heads" and clips from the show for an hour and 45 minutes, but that Zero-G Flight stuff pulled me out of the viewing experince every time. That time, at least for me, would have better been spend with more "Talking Heads".

The Interviews we did get, were for the most part pretty honest. And being able to see and hear Jeri Taylor talk about her time on Star Trek a few years before her death was a real gift. I would have loved to hear more of her insides as well.

Again, apart from the above mentioned bizarre editing choice and the disappoinment about the SD-Clips I really enjoyed the doc. Seeing so many Cast and Crew and Studio people talk about the show was great, even though to Hardcore-Trekfans none of the talked about topics will contain anything new.

 

[Tosk]

The DS9 doc Blu-ray had over forty minutes worth of deleted scenes. Hopefully this one will too when it comes out.

 

[tomalak301]

Did they? It seemed like it was all the stuff already released on DVD...but admittedly I haven't gone back to it in a while.

I haven't gone back to the DVDs in years but I thought we only got the scene with Janeway and Tuvok in the ready room. The doc showed more bridge scenes which I don't remember seeing before.

 

[Tosk]

I haven't gone back to the DVDs in years but I thought we only got the scene with Janeway and Tuvok in the ready room. The doc showed more bridge scenes which I don't remember seeing before.

The bridge stuff was on the DVD. Though they also added ambient sounds to the doc version that weren't there for the "raw" version on DVD.

 

[ialfan]

Did we know beforehand they weren’t remastering any footage for the doc? I thought that was one of the mileposts and was one of the things I enjoyed most on the DS9 one.

I hope the special features as as good as the DS9 ones. I felt like the doc itself didn’t break any new ground and would have liked more interviews with BTS crew.

 

[Steve Roby]

Admitting bias up front: I was not a big Voyager fan. I've warmed a bit to it since but it's not close to being in my top five favourite Star Trek series. But after the DS9 documentary, I figured I should support this one.

That was... okay. The DS9 documentary felt like something special, if a bit self-indulgent in certain ways. This feels like something unfinished. It also doesn't have the kind of drama of being the underappreciated show.

I don't think the Garrett Wang zero G flight really tied into the film in any really meaningful way. And what the hell would these guys have done without the Star Trek Cruise? At times it started to feel like a promo reel for the cruise. I really hope there's extra footage on the blu ray. And not just half an hour more of the zero G flight and half an hour more of the cruise.

It's interesting to see how much Janeway meant to so many women, but at the time, she often felt like an inconsistent character the male writers didn't know what to do with, though admittedly I'm a man saying that. Instead the show goes with the usual line about her being a great, strong character all through the show thanks to Mulgrew and Taylor.

On the upside, it was good to see recognition of Jennifer Lien, who was better than the part she played, just as Jeri Ryan was. It was good that it occasionally briefly touched on some of the conflicts behind the scenes, with some shots fired across Berman's bow that don't get mentioned when he's on screen, as well as the Moore/Braga stuff. Probably a must-see for Voyager fans, but I doubt it will be part of a big rediscovery of the show the way What We Left Behind was, because Voyager wasn't the neglected stepchild, it was the central focus of a new network.

 

[Akiraprise]

I rated it a 7/10 and feel that's pretty fair. It was a long road getting from there to here but we finally made it.

It wasn't hard hitting but I guess I really didn't expect that. This was a sentimental look back. For any more hardcore Trekkie there really wasn't much new learned here. I did enjoy hearing from a lot of the BTS folks and their perspective. Probably more than the actors themselves to be honest but I always like to see what goes on behind the scenes because those folks are often neglected when it comes to kudos.

They touched on everything I wanted. The Bujold awkwardness in the beginning. Scott MacDonald's comments on that were new to me. Hearing from some of the TV and production execs besides Berman and Braga was interesting. It was nice to hear from so many women that were inspired by Janeway to go into STEM careers and science related fields because for all of the show's faults that is one thing that can't be overstated. We have to consider that strong female characters were not the norm back in the mid 90s and earlier, especially in command type roles, so there was a lot of pressure on the female cast and Jeri Taylor to make it work. Hearing from Taylor was great in this as well.

They were kind to Jennifer Lien and acknowledged her absence and firing. I feel like we finally got most of the truth. The cast was large and they had to make room for Jeri; it comes down to money. Jen was quiet, insular, and Jeri Taylor even acknowledged calling her into her office offering help. Plus they weren't quite sure what to do with her character. I would have liked to hear from Jennifer herself but of course we know from history she may not be in the right state to even do interviews any more.

They hit on Garret being a bit of a wild child and pain for the production at times. Acknowledging that Neelix was kind of annoying. That Kate was not pleased with Jeri or the Seven character when she was brought on board and treated her unfairly. But they've since hashed that out. How does Tuvix get a mention but not Threshold? Two of VOY's most notorious episodes.

The Brannon Braga and Ron Moore rift was mentioned and Braga pretty much took the blame for that. "Ron took all his good fucking ideas to Battlestar Galactica," got a chuckle.

The ZeroG stuff felt like a waste of valuable screen time. I appreciated that they were trying to break up some of the monotonous interviews but I don't feel like it really gelled with the rest of the documentary. Plus as was mentioned before they did spend a lot of time on the Cruise and I'm not quite sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Bottom line: I'm glad we finally made it to the finsh line with this documentary and I'm pleased enough with what we got. I can't compare it to any of their other work as I've not watched any, not even WWLB, yet. Maybe I should do that now...

 

[Steve Roby]

The main difference between To the Journey and What We Leave Behind is that only the latter really has a point to make -- that DS9 was unfairly underappreciated. To the Journey is, basically, let's talk about Voyager. There isn't anything really driving it in the same way, so it doesn't have much of a focus.

 

[David cgc]

When did Kenneth Biller turn into Ron Moore? And speaking of RDM, which BSG dog-tag was he wearing as a necklace? B. somebody, which I guess makes it Hotdog, one of the dead guys from "Scar," a custom one (maybe "B. S. G."?). I tried googling it and found a couple more pictures, but nothing legible.

The recreations of VFX shots were all very good, and we even get the bonus of seeing the aeroshuttle disengage.

I recognized Dave Clark's work in some of the shots, though most of it was new to me, especially the "Timeless" crash.

The main difference between To the Journey and What We Leave Behind is that only the latter really has a point to make -- that DS9 was unfairly underappreciated. To the Journey is, basically, let's talk about Voyager. There isn't anything really driving it in the same way, so it doesn't have much of a focus.

I feel like the Docs reflected the difference between DS9 and Voyager in a nutshell; one has a big, building, overarching story, and the other is a series of disconnected, hopefully entertaining and enlightening anecdotes.

Funnily enough, I hadn't gotten backer link yet, but I found it by following the last update I got to the web version and finding the emails from the archive listing on that site... and then I got the email just as the credits rolled. I guess their mailing list was working in chunks instead of everyone getting it at once.

 

[Firebird]

After finally getting to see the doc and evaluate it on its own terms, it certainly doesn't reach the heights of What We Left Behind. However, I think the DS9 doc was a very special case because of Ira's involvement, so the deck was always stacked against Voyager's favor from the jump. I'd agree with giving it a 6.5/7 out of 10

The overwhelming sense I get from it is that there's a lack of focus. Garrett's zero-g flight subplot doesn't really fit the narrative. Some scenes feel like an ad for the Cruise rather than a focus on Voyager itself. I feel more like I'm watching a series of loose vignettes rather than a documentary with a clear narrative.

I appreciate their addressing the Jennifer Lien situation, the Kate/Jerry feud, and the Ron/Brannon split. That degree of candor was worth watching. Always love seeing the writers and crew get their time in the sun as well. I like the - presumably unintentional - funny runner of everyone making Rick Berman's recollections look inaccurate and stupid.