Bryan Fuller Q&A Session

The official site has just posted the second half of it's Q&A session with Voyager's co-Producer, Bryan Fuller. This edition, however, is a lot more informative about the show than the previous, revealing a number of spoilers – that Janeway will have a romance with a "flesh and blood he-man" sometime in February sweeps, that we may again see Q and that Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Robert Beltran (Chakotay) are the only two actors who are the only actors who he hasn't really consulted about their chracters, while Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) are two of the most involved.

Tasha R.: I just wanted to know if there are any plans to do an episode in the mirror universe seen in Deep Space Nine [and TOS]?

Bryan Fuller: Being a fan of alternate universes and the "Mirror, Mirror" episodes, I am sad to say that there are no plans right now. Last season I was working on a story that was basically "Who's Killing the Great Voyagers of the Delta Quadrant?" Obviously, it was a spin on "Who's Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?" where we'd follow the crews of several alternate Voyagers. There was a Klingon crew with a "Mistress Jan'toch" - Captain Janeway in Klingon make-up -- that was native to a universe where the Klingon Empire conquered the Federation two hundred years ago, a holographic crew that was essentially the Doctor to the infinite power, and several others. In each of these instances, some unseen force would destroy the alternate Voyager and its crew. Ultimately, the real Captain Janeway and her posse would discover that another alternate Voyager with a twisted Chakotay in command was responsible. He was from a universe where the Maquis overthrew the Starfleet crew. He had a personal vendetta against Janeway and Voyager, and wouldn't stop until he had snuffed each and every one of them out of existence. It was a fun, broad concept and for a brief time there seemed like a possibility that we might do it, but ultimately it never came to pass.

Aaron M.: Why can't Kathryn Janeway have one decent love affair? (And I mean with a real man, not a hologram.)

BF: Captain Janeway will have a romance with a real, live, flesh and blood he-man come February sweeps. Stay tuned.

Kathryn W.: I was wondering how much input the actors have had into the scripts for this season. They mention in interviews what they'd like to see happen, but how much of this comes through onto the screen?

BF: How much we see in the script of the actor's input varies greatly. Sometimes it's none at all, sometimes it's very little, and sometimes it's quite a bit. Bob Picardo, Roxann Dawson, Robbie McNeill, Garret Wang, Tim Russ, Kate Mulgrew are all people I've talked with at length regarding their characters or a specific story element. When I was writing "Barge of the Dead," Roxann and I had several conversations about B'Elanna's background and her state of mind and many of Roxann's suggestions made it into the script. I had a similar experience with Bob when I was writing "Flesh and Blood." And Kate was quite vocal about her dissatisfaction with Janeway sleeping with a hologram and we made a concerted effort to address her concerns, although not too well I'm afraid. I should also note that Roxann was very influential with the fifth season's "Extreme Risk" and Bob often suggests plot elements to the staff and has even gone as far as to sell the story for sixth season's "Lifeline." On the opposite side of the spectrum, Roxann and I talked at length about an element to the Klingon episode "Prophecy." It was a great story point and something that was very close to her, but ultimately there wasn't room for it in the final story. On a smaller scale, we're often called about line changes or additions that one of the actors would like to make, and quite frequently we make those changes because they're good suggestions. But there are times where a dialog suggestion is a little loose or uncharacteristic and we have to say no. We certainly don't dismiss any suggestion out of hand and do our best to consider everything the actors have to say because they play an integral role in the creative process, especially in those instances when they're directing the episode.

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