Beltran: No Tears After 'Endgame'

The actor who has tirelessly played Voyager's stalwart first officer throughout its seven seasons, Robert Beltran, recently aired his feelings about Voyager's final episode, 'Endgame.'

"There were no tears. When its over with its over with, and you just go on," he told TV Guide. "It was a gruelling last 2 episodes, really really hard technical stuff that they threw at us. It wasn't too much fun. Actually, it was so gruelling I was happy that is was over with."

Beltran had little to add about what people could expect to see on the next series. "Well, you won't see me!" he joked. "I wish them the best of luck. I think its going to be hard for them to keep mining this old mine that seems to still give out some gold here and there. I just hope they can keep it going. I'm sure they will."

The actor is sure that the next series will be a success though. "Because there are a lot of people out there that really really love this show: millions of people worldwide. I've tried to figure it out and can't, but its all walks of life, so many different countries. In countries where they're killing each other and eating each other, they will stop and watch Star Trek. Its a strange phenomenon!"

The Voyager star also embarked upon a mini tour of the United Kingdom last week. Katane was at two of the events, and reported her findings to the UK Unofficial Robert Beltran Shrine.

The actor has often been in the headlines for his outspoken criticism of the show. But Beltran insisted that his comments were blown out of proportion. He did not like it when anyone else criticised the show, likening it to hearing someone else critisise family members. "I'm just talking about my own family," he said.

Beltran said that he criticised the show out of a desire to make Voyager worthwhile both for himself and the viewers. He felt there was too much focus on the Janeway, Seven and the Doctor, and wished the writers had taken more risks in their storytelling rather than simply relying on technobabble "If you can replicate things," he said, "If you can transport -- where's the conflict, where's the crisis?"

The final ever episode, 'Endgame,' was a big disappointment to the actor. "'This is what we're going out with?" he said. "I was right, [the writers] are idiots. So I feel vindicated but unfortunately, you're going to have to sit through it'" He felt that there should have been much more of an emotional build-up to the finale, instead of more "[Episodes where the Doctor] got laryngitis and was depressed because he couldn't sing anymore and then we had a Seven of Nine [episode] where she had laryngitis and Seven of Nine can't save the day, what are we going to do?"

Beltran joked about the attitudes of his fellow actors on the final days of filming. Most were happy the series had ended, he claimed, apart from Kate Mulgrew "because she wasn't going to have anyone to boss around." He also provided an amusing impersonation of Mulgrew clinging to the doors of the studio.

As for his own performance throughout seven years of the show, he was pleased, in the main. The Voyager star compared working on Voyager to working on an assembly line making cars; the worker goes to work in the morning and performs a task, the customer buys the car and is happy, and the worker gets up the next morning and does the same thing again. As long as people were happy with the end product, the worker can claim to have done a good job.

The full report on Beltran's UK mini Tour can be found here at The UK Unofficial Robert Beltran Shrine. The video interview with the star can be found here at the TV Guide Channel.

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