ONCE UPON A TIME: Telling the story

CONTENTS
1. Gathering the production team - SCROLL	2. 'Breaking the story' into acts and scenes	3. Production starts

Meanwhile, [Star Trek Voyager]'s staff and shooting crew were forming. Early in March, Berman asked Merri Howard to begin spending time on [Star Trek Voyager]'s pre-production effort. A preliminary budget had been established. Now schedules needed to be created to allow for a buildup in staffing, set design, and construction, and an orderly transition scheduled to ensure the earliest availability of Stages 8 and 9 on the Paramount lot. As soon as [Star Trek VII: Generations] wrapped (finished filming), both stages had to be cleared to make way for the construction of [Star Trek Voyager]'s standing sets. Plans were made for principal photography to begin on 15th August.

In April 1994, Merri Howard shifted her attention full-time to Voyager. On 6th April, she was joined by Richard James as production designer, Andy Neskoromny as art director, Rick Sternbach as senior illustrator, and two senior set designers. Within a month or so, James' art department would swell to a full-time staff of fifteen.

[Star Trek Voyager]'s pilot episode was a two-hour special (including adverts). That meant ten acts. Because [Star Trek Voyager] was to be a syndicated series, each one-hour episode (including adverts) would be structured in five acts.

Jeri Taylor: "Syndication traditionally has five acts, probably because they can get more commercials in that way and stations need to make their money by selling commercial time. Because this is now part of the UPN Network, the network was anxious for Voyager to look like a network show and not a syndicated show. The traditional structure for one-hour dramas on networks is four acts. We had our choice. It was presented to us, and we decided that we would go to the more traditional network structure and try to act like the big guys."

Before a full draft of the script could be written, the producers needed to break down the story into ten separate acts, and then break each act into its main scenes. This is done during a lengthy meeting, in a process known as 'breaking the story'. The document that comes out of this is called a 'beat outline'. A beat is a very short description of one scene. A beat outline is a list of the major scenes in each act, and covers the entire story. Once they could agree on the beat outline, a draft of the script could be completed. Breaking the [Star Trek Voyager] story required more than one meeting. The usual routine was for Berman, Piller, Taylor and Brannon Braga (who was no longer needed to write episodes for [TNG]) to meet in Taylor's office, where they could use a large whiteboard mounted on one wall near her desk. As they broke the story into acts, Taylor would list them on the whiteboard. Then they would take each act, in order, and break it into its major scenes. It was a long process, and stretched over several weeks. One of the consequences - and advantages - of the process is that the story gets changed. The story break identifies "holes" in the story i.e. places where the story does not work, or is weak, or is incomplete, and so needs changing. This is why the producers do not like to draft a script until the beat outline is finished. The beat-outline meetings continued through March and into April. As changes emerged, they were incorporated into the story. By mid-April the beat outline was more or less firm.

The first three acts of that outline follows:

"STAR TREK: VOYAGER" Beat Outline by Rick Berman, Michael Piller, & Jeri Taylor April 13, 1994 TEASER 1. INT. MAQUIS SHIP On the run from Cardassians. Est. Chakotay B'Elanna and Tuvok -they proceed into Badlands. Run into strange beam-white out. ACT ONE 1. EXT. CONSTRUCTION SITE-PENAL COLONY Paris is working as carpenter. Sex beat with supervisor. Janeway arrives - she makes offer. 2. EXT. PARK Janeway lays out deal. Some back story on Paris - he accepts. 3. EXT. SPACE Shuttle approaches DS9. 4. INT. SHUTTLE Paris and pilot see Voyager for the first time. 5. INT. DS9 Paris enters Quark's-see Kim being scammed by Quark. Rescues him. 6. INT. DS9 AIRLOCK CORRIDOR Paris and Kim exit turbolift chatting about Kim's first posting, but he knows all about this class ship. 7. INT. VOYAGER CORRIDOR Kim directs Paris. 8. INT. SICKBAY Kim and Paris meet the doctor-has attitude toward Paris. 9. INT. READY ROOM Janeway talks to boyfriend on monitor. Paris and Kim enter-she takes them to... 10. INT BRIDGE She assigns Kim to Ops. Set a course. 11. EXT. SPACE Voyager departs. ACT TWO 1. INT. PARIS'QUARTERS He chats with father-exits to... 2. INT. OFFICER'S MESS Paris enters, sees Kim with doctor and others. They leave. Paris tells Kim backstory. Kim says, "I choose my own friends." Call from the bridge-approaching Badlands. 3. INT. BRIDGE They enter Badlands. Follow trace of Maquis maneuver through holes. Get swept up by ion beam. 4. EXT. SPACE Big optical effect. 5. INT. BRIDGE Lots of dead and wounded-Where are we? Reveal array on viewscreen. 6. EXT. SPACE Voyager array and Maquis ship. ACT THREE 1. INT. BRIDGE Est. edge of galaxy. Maquis ship dead in space. Some TECH about array call from engineering - chief dead. Core breach in progress. No response in sickbay. Paris and Kim go there to assist. Janeway heads for engineering. INTERCUT 2. INT. ENGINEERING Janeway coping with crisis. 3. INT. SICKBAY Paris and Kim overwhelmed-doctor is dead. They summon EMP Zimmerman. As crisis ends, optical effect wipes sets. All disappear except Zimmerman. 4. INT. ARRAY ISOLATION CELLS Old man arrives chatting greetings. Janeway demands explanation-he ignores her.

"Sex beat" is reference to a scene with sexual overtones. This beat is important as it helps establish that Paris is a womanizer.

Piller wrote, Taylor rewrote, and Berman made notes when he had time. Periodically all three met, discussed, made more notes, and then Piller did more writing (at his computer). Between early April and mid-May the script went through four drafts, emerging with a name for the pilot episode: [#1 and #2 Caretaker]. With each change, enough details were clarified so that a few more departments could begin their own developmental efforts. Merri Howard continued adjusting her pre-production schedules and began circulating revised production-planner calendars, projected up to and including August, and she carried out much of the organisational effort and departmental co-ordination during April and May.

Brad Yacobian started working for [Star Trek Voyager] on 3rd June. He and Howard began to divide up the growing responsibilities. Al Smutko began planning construction crew schedules based on Howard's calendars and Richard James' emerging design concepts. Robert Blackman began sketching designs for the Maquis' clothing as well as costumes for Neelix and Kes. Michael Westmore began researching designs for the alien makeup for the Gazon (later Kazon), the Ocampa, and of course Neelix and Kes. Suzi Shimizu and Cathy Huling worked with Merri Howard on the budget breakdowns for each department. According to Mazza, the pilot itself was initially budgeted at around $6 million, but this would grow to over $8 million by the time the pilot aired. The reason for the extra $2 million might or might not have been partly or wholly due to the fact that the Studio decided to reshoot certain scenes in which Kate Mulgrew's hair had been down but with her hair up which, because certain sets had been struck (dismantled) by then meant rebuilding them.