Massive Media Attention For Voyager Finale

Though over the past seven years Voyager's viewerships figures have come down dramatically, the recent interest of the press in the series' final episode shows Star Trek is still able to capture the public's imagination. Over a dozen new articles appeared today on the internet, most of them featuring new thoughts from the actors, producers, and even webmasters involved in the Trek phenomenon. Here's a round-up:

• In what is probably the most unexpected news of the day, Zap2It reported that Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan has officially proclaimed May 23 'Star Trek: Voyager Day.' Riordan has always been interest in the entertainment industry, also playing an active role in the recent negotiations between Hollywood writers and producers, but it was not yet known he also had such a large interest in Star Trek.

• Meanwhile, New York Post columnist Linda Stasi wrote about the crisis with her significant other the Voyager finale has caused. "I told him to give up the ghost on this thing, but he just shuts himself up in a room and refuses to come out until Seven of Nine promises not to leave him. We watched the raw cut of the final episode the other night, and it was interesting, if too complicated for my simple brain - especially before the sound effects had been added." To read Stasi's impressions of a sound-lacking 'Endgame,' please follow this link.

• As a hologram, Robert Picardo's Doctor was not supposed to have aged during Voyager's run. Speaking to the Salt Lake Tribune's Ellen Gray, Picardo said this didn't exactly work out as planned.

  "When you compare my face to the pilot, you'll see that gravity has worked its magic on me, too," he told the paper, but added that "one of the great things about going bald in your 20s is that you look the same age for 30 years. It's the only great thing about going bald in your 20s."

  In one other aspect, the Doctor will also have changed after tonight's episode: he'll finally get a name, even if it's only a first name. "I get half a name. I said if a name is a handle, then I get a drawer pull," Picardo joked, before going on to joke about all the usual subjects such as Seven of Nine's costume and his action figure. Click here to read it.

• Over the past month, much of the finale's storyline has of course already leaked out to the internet. Speaking to the Toronto Star, Trek executive producer Rick Berman acknowledged this phenomenon.

  "''Somebody once said that the two things that gave birth to the Internet were pornography and Star Trek," he joked. "We have always had a problem with plots of final episodes, two-hour episodes, pilot episodes and movies getting out on the Internet. It's really been quite extraordinary. All we can do is try to keep the story, the concept and the script in as tight a group of people as we can, and keep our fingers crossed. Because eventually you shoot it, and there's 130 people on the set that know about it, and it will get out eventually."

  A summary of those spoilers, as well as a transcript of a press conference earlier this year where the cast joked about what they thought Series V should be, please read the full article at the Toronto Star.

• Frank Ahrens at the Washington Post wrote a retrospective of the past seven years, which he wasn't particularly positive about - especially not about the series' main star.

  "Center of the show is Voyager's captain, Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew, with her usual monotone graveness and spoilsport seriousness," Ahrens wrote. "She is Trek's first female starship captain. [...] Star Trek, ultimately, is a game of Who's Your Captain? and, for years, I couldn't put my finger on what it was about Mulgrew that bothered me until a month ago, when a certain new game show debuted on television.

  "Since then," he continued, " I couldn't watch 'Voyager' without expecting (and, I suppose, hoping) to hear Mulgrew tell some hostile alien: 'You... aretheweakestlink. G'bye.'" The full article contains several spoilers for the Voyager finale.

• Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) admitted some fans might be ambivalent about the finale. "I think it's a very good ending. I understand that some people find it to be slightly anticlimactic; I do not," she said. "I find the ending very moving in its simplicity. And the two-hour lead-up has just about every element you can wish." The full article contains a comparison with the other two Trek series as well as a review of the finale.

• And Mulgrew also spoke briefly with ABCNews.com, saying she was very impressed by Star Trek fans: "There are very interesting people who watch Star Trek and who are so devoted to it. I have found them to be, upon my little amateur analysis, very intelligent, probably markedly intelligent."

• G.J. Donnelly at TV Guide felt the finale reflected the series at its best and worst. One of the good sides for this reviewer was the strong acting: "The actors outdo themselves in the finale, delivering some of the strongest performances of the entire run. Best of the lot: Tim Russ's debilitated Tuvok; Garrett Wang's maturing Harry Kim; Dwight Schultz's aging, ever-earnest Reg Barkley; and Mulgrew's tour de force as the two Janeways, who spar like a bickering mother-daughter duo."

• Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) told AP that what she would most miss about Voyager would be its cast. "The men on the cast, all of them, are psychopaths," she said. "They're just out of their minds, and that's what makes it so much fun to be there." In the full AP report, she also said the other thing she would be missing would be Trek conventions.

• Today's edition of USA Today featured a review of 'Endgame,' which Robert Bianco awarded just 2 out of 4 stars. But despite that, he felt the finale would still be interesting to watch for a large audience. "[Oddly] enough, there's good news for non-Trekkers as well. Casual viewers will find that the show works better as a two-hour movie - one with a clear-cut mission and resolution - than it did as a series. You won't know all the details about all the characters, but you'll get enough information from the movie itself to follow the plot."

• John Druckenmiller at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote a slightly more positive review, awarding 'Endgame' a B-. "Sad to say but tonight's finale of Star Trek: Voyager' has a too-familiar theme to it, even as the show goes out with an almost-satisfying smile," he wrote. "How familiar? Well, perhaps 'variation of a theme' is the better way to package the two-hour conclusion. You kind of saw it done a season or two ago. And a series or two ago."

• Entertainment Tonight featured another interview with Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway), in which she again spoke about the "poignancy" of the finale. But she also talked a bit about her plans for the next few years.

  "I hope that I can decompress with some real reflection and grace," she said. "I think it's very important to stand back after something like this and reassess one's life. And again, I would have to say it would have to do with the people I love, probably very little to do with the next step. I've been an actress for almost 30 years. There's not much I haven't tried. There are great challenges ahead I hope. But I hope that they are noble challenges, and I hope that they are challenges of love."

  In the full article, she also revealed that one thing at least won't be changing anymore from now on: her hair. "My husband likes it like this," she laughed. "He's the boss. I really don't like being touched. For an actress it's quite an odd thing. So, I think I will do absolutely nothing. I don't think I'll wash my hair, let alone cut it."

• One thing that is not included in Mulgrew's plans for the future is visiting Star Trek conventions.

  "If it comes to that, I'll shoot myself ... (because) that's not a life," she told Eric Deggans at the St. Petersburg Times. "Those who aren't lucky enough to get work on a constant basis can tap into that perk. But if an actor wants to separate himself from a stigma, he has to make choices."

  For the full article, which also awards the finale a 'B+' rating and even contains some quotes from TrekToday editor Christian, please click here.

• Your TrekToday editor is also quoted in retrospective article that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and features the thoughts of several fans on Voyager's ending. In addition, the article features executive producer Kenneth Biller's thoughts on why the show wasn't that successful in the ratings.

  "The science-fiction audience was very fragmented," he said. "Add to that a second Star Trek, and you have an over-saturation of sci-fi. We had to compete in an extremely competitive market for a finite number of viewers." At the same time, Biller felt that "our show had a lot of action and distinguished itself by the stories we told. Creatively, it has been a success."

  Also available at the Journal Sentinel is an article on Enterprise, again containing some quotes from Biller: "They're just about to go into production on the new series. They are just about finished casting, the sets are all built. [...] I have read the pilot script. It's big and exciting."

• Melanie McFarland at the Seattle Times rather liked to the finale, drawing a comparison with the equally successful series premiere. Unfortunately, she felt the episodes in between were rather disappointing.

  "In terms of quality and appeal among the original Star Trek's three spinoffs, Voyager is a distant third behind Deep Space Nine, which was itself a far cry from Star Trek: The Next Generation, a syndication success," McFarland wrote in her review. "Only a sand-grain-sized core of faithful viewers watch Voyager religiously, partly due to UPN's limited national market penetration, mostly because of weak scripts that borrowed heavily from TNG's best story lines."

• Downright negative was Rick Kushman in his review for the Sacramento Bee. "In the end, Voyager finishes as it has lived for seven seasons, with twists of time and space, the increasingly unfrightening Borg, a solid moral dilemma and, ultimately, no big deal. It is fitting that Voyager, the blandest of the four TV Star Treks, goes out leaving us unthrilled; we've spent a lot of years feeling that way about this series."

• Bill Brioux at the Toronto Sun wrote more about the Star Trek franchise in general than just tonight's Voyager finale. "As far as I am concerned, the warp drive on the whole Star Trek franchise went bust a long time ago. The original Star Trek premiered 35 years ago, back when the Leafs still won Stanley Cups. Three more series sailed through the '80s and '90s. I'll miss my Plymouth Voyager, also rusting into oblivion after seven years, much more than this clunky Star Trek Voyager." Read more here.

• And finally, in what may be the day's most improbable comparison, Tony Atherton at the Ottawa Citizen wrote about the similarites between 3rd Rock From The Sun, Irish writer James Joyce and Star Trek: Voyager. "[Both] series understand," Atherton wrote, "what James Joyce learned, writing in Paris about Dublin: One good way to get at the truth about your race is to put yourself at some distance from it. When seeking the truth about the human race, then, it might be best to head for another galaxy." Click here for more.

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