Extensive Voyager Wrap Party Report

"We've done the tears, we've done the emotional part. This is going to be fun. This is celebrating with a lot of our fans." So Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) described the massive Voyager wrap party, which took place yesterday evening at the W Hotel in Westwood, California.

According to a report on TrekWeb, well over 500 guests attended the event, including of course the entire main cast and many of the writers, producers, procuction crew and studio executives. Also present were guest stars such as John De Lancie (Q) and Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman), DS9 people such as René Auberjoinois (Odo), Armin Shimerman (Quark) and producer Ira Steven Behr, as well as 'Star Trek X' writers John Logan and Brent Spiner (Data).

Of course, also present was a large amount of press, including a reporter from the official Star Trek site, which has already been updated with six video clips featuring interviews with the main cast. Not only did they talk about what the end of Voyager meant to them, in some cases they also talked about what the end will bring for the viewers.

"I'm much happier with this ending than anything I could have devised by myself," Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) said, when asked about her earlier media statements about how she would like to see the show end. "There's no question about it. Unless people are absolutely hardened to Star Trek, every single viewer would be satisfied with this finale. I can't see it otherwise."

Like all the other actors, Mulgrew felt it would be strange to see the show end. "Seven years is a long time. And there are very few parallels that I can draw, it's a first for me. And in great likelihood it will be a last for me. I think I have experienced such a weird thing, under such extraordinary circumstances. I realise that I'm closing a chapter that I will review and reassess for many years to come. I've been consummate in my devotion to Janeway, I love this company, I love this crew. It's been hard work, it's been rewarding work. I understand the rigours of good work now in a way I didn't before. So I'm ready. I'm ready to move on, and I'm sure I will find moving on very difficult."

Mulgrew also explained why she thought Voyager was so attractive to fans. "It's a family lost under extraordinary circumstances. It's about courage. It's about hope. It's about an epic gesture, both of the imagination and of science. It's about humanity. And it's about the future. And this is very very compelling to a certain contingent. And they are, I have noticed in the last seven years, very intelligent."

Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) spoke briefly about how his character has changed over the past seven years. "I think he's changed probably - he's changed a lot," he said. "I was going to say more than any other character, because he really has been changed dramatically over the last seven years. He came on as this lone rebel and he's gone from that in the first season, the bad boy, to being a role model and he's married and he is about to have - to be a father. So he's really changed dramatically. It's been great. Every year he seemed to grow and change a lot."

"He's about to become a father, I would like to see what that's like for him," he continued, talking about how he would still like to see his character develop. "You know, with the show ending and Tom and B'Elanna having a baby, I think the audience is going to be dying to know, and I would be dying to know..." At this point a look of realisation appeared on his face, and he turned to explain to the camera, "I didn't, you know, I said she is gonna be having a baby, I didn't say, if, or, yes, or no. I think she's - she's pregnant, so that means she is going to have a baby, right? It's Star Trek, you never know. I would love to see him be a father, I would love to see what that does to him, being a father, I'd love to explore that."

Finally, McNeill joked about the one thing that he had learned from Tom Paris. "I've learned not to fly past Warp 10, you'll turn into a lizard, that's one thing I've learned, everyone should know that."

McNeill's wife on the show, Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), echoed many of his feelings. "I think [B'Elanna] was an unruly teenager who grew into a woman in seven years, and still with a lot of growth left. And I think what's so interesting is that even in our finale none of our characters are completely resolved. There's still room for growth, there's still room for the imagination even after that. There's so much, but it would be hard to say [how the character could still develop] without revealing the ending. And I'm sworn to secrecy."

Ethan Phillips (Neelix) spoke in a bit more detail about the aspects of his character that he would have liked to see explored. "More his sexuality probably, in more ways, and also, I would have liked to see him tested more in battle. Although he got a fair share of that, I guess. I'm pretty happy with what they gave me. Less was more with Neelix, he was like a spice, you know."

Two of the other actors interviewed by the official site talked about how they felt about the show ending. "It is definitely bittersweet," said Tim Russ (Tuvok). "I'm going to miss working with the people I worked with so long - the cast and the crew. I think I spent more time at the studio than I did at home, and really, I'm going to miss those guys. We had a lot of fun times, a lot of laughs. I won't miss the five-o-clock in the morning calls, that's not going to be a problem, but yeah, I think I'm going to miss that, and we had some very special moments."

For Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), there was one good thing about the show ending. "I'm happy because I don't have to wear that darn spacesuit, it always stitches at the wrong places," he said. Still, he would have liked to be able to take the spacesuit with him. "They don't give that to me! That's locked in, that's sitting there! I wish I could take that outfit, eBay would pay a hefty sum for that one, I'll tell you that right now, but no, we don't get that."

For the rest, he agreed the ending was bittersweet. "It feels odd, because, if you think about it, if you're in school with somebody for seven years - it's almost as if we've all been together since sixth grade, because that's basically what it is. We're all seniors now, we've graduated from high school, and now we're off and we're going to different colleges, basically, so it's very odd in that respect."

So what will the Voyager cast be doing now that the show has ended? Some of the actors already have new projects lined up. McNeill will start shooting a movie two days from now, while Garrett Wang revealed he's in the process of researching and writing for a film about an all-Asian-American combat unit sent to fight in Germany in World War Two. Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips will both be heading to the stage - as previously reported, Phillips will appear in 'Side Man', a play about jazz musicians, while Russ said he will be doing a play in Austin, Texas, for three weeks. After that he was planning to work on his house and do some travelling. Roxann Dawson said her own immediate future mostly depends on whether there will be a strike or not, but for the next week she was planning on just spending some time with her children.

Many more reports on the wrap party can now be found on the internet. The official Star Trek site has posted the aforementioned six video interviews, MediaTrek.com has posted a 38-second clip from the Entertainment Tonigh visit to the Wrap party, TrekWeb has posted a report from one of the people who attended it.

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