Behind The Scenes of 'Author Author'

With the last regular season of Voyager once again underway, UPN 9 News has resumed its Voyager segment, this week going behind the scenes at the film on next week’s Voyager episode, ‘Author Author’. Thanks to P/K All The Way, the clip is now online and available for download. As usual, for those without the bandwidth to spare, we’ve provided a full transcript below.

Pat Collins: Tonight in L.A. the Voyager cast is partying for the last time. It is bittersweet event, this cast party. There are a few scenes left to shoot but production on the seven-year series officially wrapped on Monday. The final episode is under wraps but we have pried some information from the C.I.A.-like stars and we have a preview of next week's episode.

[‘Author Author’ scene - in a recreation of Sickbay. The Doctor in command uniform watches a recreation of himself interact with one of Seven - she sounds ‘ditzy’]

[‘Seven’ rolls her shoulder]

’Seven’: It hurts when I do this.

[The Doctor looks on in horror as his counterpart responds]

’The Doctor’: Then don't do it.

[The false Doctor laughs and then slaps ‘Seven’ on the shoulder]

’Seven’: Ow!

’The Doctor’: Don't be a baby.

Pat Collins: This moment dramatizes a scene from a new novel. The characters resemble the Doc's colleagues with a major difference. The book's characters are nasty, crude, unfaithful and violent. The real crew is outraged.

[Fade to the real EMH writing on the holodeck]

[Cut to the holonovel - ‘Chakotay’, with Bajoran nose ridges, helps an unconscious man to Sickbay to be met by ‘Janeway’]

[B’Elanna meets her counterpart, then walks in on ‘Paris’ and a female ensign in Sickbay]

[In the Ready Room, ‘Janeway’ points an antique handgun/pistol at a blue-uniformed ‘Neelix’]

[Cut to the real Doctor and Paris arguing in a corridor]

Paris You want everyone back home to think of you as a brilliant author.

Doc: I'm not doing this for my ego and if you could see past yours, maybe you'd see that.

Pat Collins: In the same episode, airing next Wednesday, a lottery determines who will make the first phone call to Earth.

[Neelix walks around the messhall carrying a bag of tokens for the lottery] [Harry looks at his small chip] [The Doctor steps out of line and holds up the longest chip]

Doc: Apparently the line forms here.

Neelix: Congratulations.

Kim: How about a trade? Come on, I need to call my mother. [Cut to during rehearsals - several scripts are in evidence]

Doc: I wish I could help, but I have a very important call to make. [The Doctor walks off]

Pat Collins: The mood on this set is more raucous than usual.

[Garret Wang then the rest of the cast laughing]

Picardo: You guys are wondering how we stayed on the air for seven years with rehearsals like this. {unintelligible}

Pat Collins:The tight-knit cast is tight-lipped about the contents that have final episode. This, we did learn

[rehearsals continue - Mulgrew, Beltran, Ryan and Russ on the bridge while the crew moves equipment into position]

Robert Duncan McNeill: I really do like the final episode. It's very bittersweet, you know. It's not all kind of cheering and happiness and success and everything. There's a real bittersweet quality to it. And I think it's going to be great. I think the fans are going to love it.

Tim Russ: Something happens to Tuvok. I can't exactly say what it is, but it's something that we haven't seen before and it's something that's very, very unusual and very different for what you might consider a finale.

[more rehearsal shots on the bridge]

Garrett Wang: Usually what happens Before every episode, everyone gets a copy of the script. That means all the crew guys, everyone gets to see what's going on. This time, the actors have the script and that's it.

Pat Collins: The set soon will be history. Get those souvenirs now.

[rehearsals for a Briefing room scene - Janeway and Torres and others (not visible)]

[more rehearsal shots on the bridge ]

Robert Beltran: Maybe my very comfortable chair on the bridge. They're ripping down the sets and we're old news. We're like the old shoes that nobody wants to wear anymore and they're getting a new cast. I think we'll see series 5, so yeah, it's time to go.

Pat Collins: For you, it will be a cheery good-bye, or terrible? Kate Mulgrew: I can't even talk to you now. There's an immediacy to that emotion. I've been here seven years with these guys. That's being in the trenches. I know everything about them. It's going to be tougher than hell to say good-bye to these guys.

[The cast standing in a line for the previous ‘lottery’ scene]

Pat Collins: The network has announced its plans for a Voyager retrospective have been cancelled. The show would have aired on May 22, the night before the final two-hour episode.

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