Longtime Star Trek writer discusses “snobbery” behind the scenes of Voyager

Bryan Fuller knows his way around the Star Trek Universe. The prolific television writer got his start on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and went on to work on several other Trek projects as well as popular series like Hannibal, Heroes and American Gods. Fuller co-created Star Trek: Discovery, which brought the franchise back to TV after a long absence. He definitely understands Star Trek and how its universe works.

In a recent interview on the Postmortem with Rick Garris podcast, Fuller opened up on his many attempts to submit scripts to Star Trek shows through their open submission policy. He was eventually successful and was excited to potentially work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine when a call for writers came through, but instead he ended up at Star Trek: Voyager for four years.

As a Star Trek fan, Fuller’s dreams of writing for the franchise had been fulfilled, but he soon became aware of some internal tensions.

Bryan Fuller says Star Trek: Voyager’s writers room was different than DS9’s

Star Trek: The Next Generation (1986-1994) marked the franchise’s return to television after close to 20 years away. It was a massive hit with veteran fans and new fans alike, so naturally Trek executives planned a spin-off set in the same universe.

Deep Space Nine (1993-1999) was very different from its predecessors because it was set on a space station that didn’t move. Voyager (1995-2001) featured a ship whisked away by a wormhole to distant and uncharted territories. Both shows were set in the same universe but were vastly different in tone, so naturally the vibes in the writers room were different. But According to Fuller, that doesn’t quite cover it:

"The difference was essentially that the Deep Space Nine people had no shame about their love for the genre, and there was a little bit of snobbery in the Voyager room. So, I was like, ‘please, please pick me, Deep Space Nine. Please, please.’ Then they went with other writers, and I got a job on Voyager which I was thrilled for, but I had to tamp down my enthusiasm because it was frowned upon in the writers room. They discouraged you from being the geek in the room, and so it was always like looking over the fence at the public school when you were in Catholic school and saying, ‘they look like they’re having more fun.’"

It would have made more sense to me if Fuller said that DS9 had the more serious writers room, given the complexities of its themes. Fuller’s comments paint Voyager in a new light, and it happens that he’s not alone in hinting that things were tense around that set. Jeri Ryan, who is currently bringing her Voyager character Seven of Nine back to life on Star Trek: Picard, also mentioned that she’s happier on Picard than Voyager.

Fuller’s time on Discovery was short-lived after he departed the show over creative differences, but he’s still happy about his return to Star Trek. “I was sad for a week and then I salute the ship and compartmentalize my experience.”

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h/t Den of Geek