(October 29, 2000)
Kenneth Biller
Only a handful of people have sat in the executive producer's chair on STAR TREK. This year they are joined by Kenneth Biller, who will be running the writing staff during STAR TREK: VOYAGER's final year. As he reveals, he already has plans for most of the season, including some interest twists and turns.
As STAR TREK: VOYAGER enters its seventh season, there's a new man in charge. Executive producer Kenneth Biller is well qualified for the job; he's been on the writing staff since the first season, and last year he co-ran the show with Brannon Braga before taking over in May.
Closing out the series
VOYAGER's final year, Ken says that he has been given a rather different brief than his predecessors. "I've been sort of charged with closing out this series, so I've had to look at continuity issues. We've decided to see how we can resolve certain long-standing arcs for various characters. We're certainly not doing a soap opera for this seventh season, but there is going to be a slightly more serialized quality to it. We're doing a little bit more of that."
What this means in practice is that some storylines will run throughout the year. In order to make sure this approach works smoothly, Ken says that he and his staff mapped out a good part of the season at an early stage.
Plans in Place
"I know pretty definitely exactly what the first 13 episodes are, and I know, although I won't tell you, pretty definitely what the last four or five episodes are. I have a sense of where the season is going to go, and where I want the characters to go, but we're trying to leave a little room, as always, for some last-minute inspiration."
He goes on to say that, although the U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 is a lot nearer home than it was six years ago, it still isn't that close to Earth. As a result, this year's shows won't see them devoting any more attention to the Alpha Quadrant than usual.
I think it's a mistake for us as writers, or for the viewers, to say 'Oh they're really getting incrementally closer, and, yeah, we've had a few jumps along the way, but the science guys tell me that at maximum speed, assuming the ship can stay in one piece indefinitely, which is a very big question (and one we'll be dealing with this season), and assuming somebody, or somebodies, don't want to stop them (which is something else we'll be dealing with), it will still take them 30 years to get home. So I think the audience should not assume that the crew is going to simply keep flying the way that they are going and get themselves back to the Alpha Quadrant."
In fact, many of the stories will focus on how the crew will cope with the prospect of spending a good part of their lives on Voyager. The major continuing storyline will deal with Tom and B'Elanna life as newlyweds.
"We will see that relationship grow and evolve over the course of the season. One of the things that interests me, as somebody who has married within the last few years, is how B'Elanna and Paris are going to live their lives on this starship.
In it for the long haul
"It could be years before the ship gets home, and we have sort of ignored their relationship for the last couple of seasons. We realized that there was an opportunity this season, which we know will be the last, to really explore the evolution of that relationship. There'll probably be three or four episodes that specifically deal with it. That isn't to say that the audience is going to be seeing 'Melrose Place'; we'll be dealing with that relationship in the context of STAR TREK stories."
Other characters won't have continuing storylines as such, but Ken says the writers have placed all of them under the microscope and thought long and hard about exactly what makes them tick. "We've asked ourselves for each character, 'What has the growth of this character been? Where did the character start? What have the character's goals been?
"For Janeway, clearly, her ongoing arc is her desire to get the crew home. Will it become an obsession? How far will she go to do it? For Harry Kim, he's been six or seven years on this ship as an ensign, and I'm sure he figured he'd have really risen through the ranks of Starfleet by now. He always dreamed of being the captain of a starship, and he realizes now that he many never get that opportunity. What will he do if he is given the opportunity to command an alien starship?
"Neelix joined our crew a long time ago, but as we get further and further toward our goal of getting home, he's getting further and further away from his home. What would happen if he were to run into a colony of Talaxians who are trying to rebuild their world? Where would his heart lie? These are the kinds of questions that we're trying to ask about the crew. Not that we'll wrap everything up in a neat little bow, but we will be addressing them."
Holographic rights
This approach yielded particularly good results for the Doctor, who will be the focus of several stories, including a two-hour telefilm that will air in November.
"That's called 'Flesh and Blood.' For the Doctor, clearly his goal has been to be seen as any other -- and hence the title -- flesh-and-blood member of the crew. To have the same kind of rights and privileges as anybody else; to expand beyond his original programming."
The story also sees the return of the Hirogen, who have been experimenting with the holographic technology Janeway gave them at the end of 'The Killing Game' and now have to face a holographic rebellion.
"It's a story about the Doctor quite literally fighting for the rights and freedoms of holograms. We ask ourselves how far the Doctor will go. It's pretty big, and pretty epic."
Fans of continuity will be delighted to hear that Ken also wants to see how the characters deal with the consequences of their actions and that whatever decisions the Doctor makes won't simply be forgotten the next week. He's equally interested in dealing with the consequences of actions our characters took in the past, and adds that the story is also about how Janeway copes with finding out what the Hirogen have done with the technology she gave them.
Moral problems
"Flesh and Blood" isn't simply about the Doctor; it's also about Janeway being forced to deal with the repercussions of the choices she's made in the Delta Quadrant. What has she done to survive? She's traded technology. Is she therefore responsible for this technology? We have the wonderful phrase that the NRA use: 'Guns don't kill people; people kill people.' Well, Janeway has to ask herself, did she give the people guns, or was she trying to give them a database? Those are all big issues we'll be dealing with."
Ken is very keen to emphasize that, although he will be dealing with long-running themes and returning to old storylines, you won't need an exhaustive knowledge of the show's history to understand what's going on.
"Our research tells us that most people watch STAR TREK like they watch any other television show. They like it, and if they're home when it's on, they tune it in. We've never wanted to do a show where, as I feel sometimes happens with the'X-Files,' it could be very difficult for a viewer to tune in to one of the shows and have any idea what's going on. We've always tried to tell stories where the viewer can tune in and see a story play out: beginning, middle, and end. We'll still do that, but I personally like to leave the characters affected by whatever it is they've been through in a given episode, and that's absolutely something that I think you'll see more of this season."
Time fractured
Plans for Chakotay and Tuvok are still at an early stage, but Ken is willing to reveal a little bit of his thinking, and adds that he is interesting [interested] in putting these two characters together to see how their different approaches to life play off of one another.
"Chakotay has a little bit of first officer syndrome which is whatever you give to him, you're sort of taking away from Janeway. I will tell you, however, that we are making an effort to get him a little more front and center. We are planning a really fun off-kilter time travel episode that puts Janeway and Chakotay together. Time shatters, and Chakotay from Voyager's present basically meets a Janeway who doesn't know him and thinks of him as a terrorist. He ends up taking her through a journey of what will be her future. That very much explores that relationship.
"Chakotay and Tuvok we dealt with in 'Repression.' There's another episode that's still in the early stages of development that may put them together again, exploring a kind of archaeological puzzle that turns out to be a lot more than either of them thinks it is. It's kind of a game -- it may change considerably by the time it actually becomes an episode; Paris acquires a sort of alien holodeck program, a game which is theoretically based on some mythology of an alien culture. It has to do with finding an icon of some sort in a maze of tunnels. It's a big logic problem; Chakotay has an interest in the game because it's a way to explore the anthropology of this culture. For Tuvok it's a challenge of logic. The two of them end up working on the puzzle together, and it turns out that the game is much more than they realized.
Vulcan family
"We may see one of Tuvok's adult daughters, in a concept which again is in the early stages of development. There may be a brief period where Voyager gets some live communication with Earth instead of these monthly transmissions. Tuvok may get a call from his daughter, from whom he is somewhat estranged. She's a little rebellious for a Vulcan, and she needs his help solving a mystery."
In the third episode of the season, 'Repression,' we saw two members of the crew, Chell and Tabor, who had made fleeting appearances in the past. Ken admits that this wasn't part of a great plan; he simply had the chance to reuse actors he had been pleased with, and took the opportunity to reinforce the show's continuity at the same time. When he stops to think about it, he agrees that there are several other crewmen on board Voyager who would be worth revisiting.
Familiar faces
"I like the actor who plays Carey a lot. If there were a reason to use him for something specific, we would bring him back. He's on the ship and he's obviously been assigned to some station that we don't get to see very much.
"I don't have any specific plans to return to the Equinox crewmen, but it's possible that we may see some of them in the same way that we saw Chell."
There's also a chance that we'll see more aliens from Voyager's past. "We will, over the course of the last season, revisit some of Voyager's own adventures and the people that Voyager has run into along the way. We'll be revisiting some of our own mythology. You may see a couple of familiar, unexpected faces from the first couple of seasons."
When asked, Ken says it's possible that those faces will include Kes, but he wouldn't want anyone to hold their breath. "There's always a chance we'll see her. If I'm being somewhat elusive, it's because I don't have the answer! It is occasionally discussed; it is possible."
No plans for Q
A visit from one of STAR TREK's other superbeings, the ever-popular Q, is less likely. "There's always the possibility that we would do a Q episode, although frankly my attitude, as much as I think John DeLancie is a wonderful actor and a much beloved character, I really want to keep the focus on Voyager. To me there's something firmly STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION about Q, although he has been in all the series. I really want to give the audience a season of VOYAGER, so if we're going to see familiar faces, they'll be Voyager faces. Having said that, if we came up with a great idea for Q, we would do it."
It's equally unlikely that we'll see any characters from STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, but one or two TNG characters will definitely be making appearances. "Lieutenant Barclay [played by Dwight Schultz] became a kind of honorary member of our crew last year, and he's continuing to work for the Pathfinder project. You will see him at least once early in the season, and probably two or more times toward the end of the season. He'll be continuing to work on his end to try to get Voyager home. You will see Deanna Troi help him do that at least the first time you see him; we've hired Marina Sirtis for one episode now, and we may hire her for another episode later in the season. She likes doing the show, the cast loves her, the audience seems to really enjoy having her back."
Greatest villains
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