To the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager

This is an excellent piece of documentary filmmaking. I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the best aspects of this documentary is that it presents a warts and all look at the making of the series. They do not shy away from some of the negative things that went on. It is nostalgic and emotional and wonderful. The interviews are very interesting and it's great to look back at this wonderful series again. It was a lot deeper than I expected it to be. This thing's got some meat on the bones. For Star Trek geeks like me, it is like catnip. You get the usual behind-the-scenes stuff but oh so much more. Don't miss it!

I watched it and felt like there was no depth to it. It's hard to put solely into words but watching it felt like a very surface level quick overview of the making of the series. I don't think they explored the character creation enough or the cast. The Zero-G stuff was pure padding and boring, and I felt that they discarded those segments we could have had a more thoughtful look at each seasons creation, making, and reaction. Ira Steven Behr really found the right angle for the DS9 doc. As co-director Ira was the defining voice on What We Left Behind and I don't think they had a voice like that for this documentary. This documentary felt like a colossal waste of time. Saying that is disappointing because I did a massive rewatch of Voyager on Paramount Plus and looked forward to having another engrossing Trek documentary, but it felt like it was just going through the motions and ran out of ideas.

I had the chance to watch the documentary in the star trek cruise. And To The Journey: A Star Trek Voyager Documentary is a truly heartwarming and beautifully crafted tribute to a beloved series. This documentary goes beyond nostalgia-it captures the genuine passion that both the cast and the fans continue to hold for Voyager. From behind-the-scenes stories to emotional reflections, it offers a rare and touching look into the relationships formed on and off the set. The interviews are honest, often funny, and sometimes deeply moving, showcasing just how much this show meant to everyone involved. The fan contributions throughout the film highlight the profound impact Voyager had on people's lives across generations. It's clear that this series wasn't just entertainment-it was a source of inspiration, comfort, and representation. To The Journey is more than a celebration of a TV show; it's a love letter to the community it built. Any Voyager fan will walk away feeling proud, seen, and grateful for the journey they've shared.

'What We Left Behind' was the DS9 lookback which preceded this one. Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko) declined to participate, but encouraged the filmmakers to move beyond a purely "talking heads" format, which led to a really interesting insightful approach (for example what 'Season 8' might look like).

Clearly the producers of this one tossed that thinking out of the window and went for what is tantamount to a DVD extra. There is nothing that hasn't been seen already, with lazy excerpts from conventions that you can find on YouTube. The Zero G stuff was useless padding. As a backer of this documentary and the previous one I was sorely disappointed with the output that seemed to be delayed for a long time (even if we allow for COVID related production issues). There was also poor communication during the production. Months of radio silence. The DS9 production team did this far better with guerilla social media campaigning. As the title says, missed opportunity. Some casual thoughts on what might could have been explored a bit more

• Exploring the overall arcs per season comparing where the show started to where it ended.

• Things that they would have liked to done on the show or considered but couldnt
• Maybe sub-segment on the Borg, how they evolved across Next Gen, First Contact and Voyager
• Evolution from practical to completely CGI by the end
• any discussion on making it more serialised vs the next gen format it adopted. E.g would have been interesting if by S7 the ship was basically a mish mash of whatever they could find in the delta quadrant vs the pristine condition it was in.

I was one of the original backers and was eagerly looking forward to the documentary. Then the endless delays and poor communication tempered my enthusiasm.

When I finally got the link to watch the documentary I was disappointed with what I saw. One aspect I was so excited to see was remastered HD footage from the scanned 35mm original camera negatives, which was one of the goals quickly reached by fans' $1 million contributions. What we got was DVD quality clips peppered throughout the documentary.

There was some new CGI space/ship shots but they felt very clinical and somehow didn't capture the look of the artistry of the original VFX.

There was no "Never Before Seen Voyager Surprise" in the documentary either which was also disappointing. I think many fans were expecting something like the hypothetical season 8 writers room that the DS9 documentary did or maybe some exclusive deleted scenes or behind the scenes footage from Voyager.

There was a lot of time wasted on Garrett Wang doing a ZeroG space flight, which was no doubt a real treat for the actor, whom I loved in the role of Harry Kim, but it had nothing really to do with Voyager and didn't really fit into the documentary, in fact it broke up any attempt at creating a narrative.

Which brings me onto the documentary and it's very piecemeal approach. There was no strong narrative or focus, just what felt like a lot of hastily cobbled together clips.

All of the actors were together for the 2020 Cruise yet this opportunity was squandered and the actors weren't interviewed together. Instead we got a lot of disjointed talking head clips.

Any diehard Voyager fan would have heard a lot of what was actually discussed.

Seeing Jeri Taylor talk about her work on creating and influencing the development of Janeway was a huge bonus, as was the very quick back and forth series of clips featuring Brandon Braga and Ron Moore discussing their unfortunate split as writing partners.

Kate talking about the impact on her family as the lead in a 26 episode a season flagship TV show was an interesting.

Michael Westmore gets about 2 minutes to contribute as does Dan Curry. For some reason one of the Discovery actors chips in with views on Janeway, but she had nothing to do with the production of Voyager so I'm not sure why she was in there.

It felt like a lot of time was given to Paramount execs to talk about the genesis of the show and UPN.

There was huge potential with this documentary but, and I'm sorry to say this, it was disappointing.

If you want a true celebration of Voyager I think Ben Robinson's book does a better job covering the whole series.