Michael Piller's Memorable Moment

The official site has posted the latest installment in their 'Memorable Moments' series, looking at the favourite Voyager moments of the cast and crew. This time, stepping up to the microphone is Michael Piller, Voyager’s Co-creator, former Executive Producer and now Creative Consultant.

"I have to say," he begins, "the casting process of Voyager provided the most memorable moments. I think the commitment that Rick and Jeri and I had to cast a female Captain created an interesting challenge to find an actress who could hold her own as a worthy successor to the other Captains in Star Trek history." While they were impressed with Susan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms in the Next Generation, Captain Erika Benteen on Deep Space Nine), Geneviève Bujold became availible and they jumped at the chance to hire her.

"...Obviously, she would have brought a stature to the franchise, not to mention a new accent." However, as we all know, things didn't exactly work out as planned with the famous actress. "Unfortunately," Piller recalls, "after she started shooting, she quickly realized that a television schedule was nothing like she'd experienced before. But before she decided to exit, she had also filmed Janeway's first big scene in the pilot. Now we had two versions. So we finally found Kate, and she brought her natural authority to the role. Now, we had three filmed versions of Janeway's big scene."

Piller also fondly recalls another moment from casting - convincing Robert Picardo (the Doctor) that he actally wanted the wrong part. "I also remember the joy that I felt at finally convincing Bob Picardo to accept the role of the Doctor even though he was adamant about being Neelix," he told the site, "I always felt the Doctor had the potential to be a breakout character, and Picardo made that happen.

The full run-down on his memorable moment, plus those of his co-creator, Jeri Taylorp, actress Roxann Dawson (Torres) and numerous others can be found by following this link to the official site.

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