How Jonathan Frakes gave the Voyager doc its start

The campaign for the Star Trek: Voyager documentary, To The Journey, has now easily sailed past the one million dollar mark, completing all ten stretch goals, and there are even three more days to go before the campaign for funding ends. The documentary has the potential to become the highest grossing documentary on Indiegogo. But none of this would have ever gotten started if it hadn’t been for Jonathan Frakes. No, he wasn’t one of the stars of the series, but he had the ear of David Zappone, the co-director for the Deep Space Nine documentary, What We Left Behind.

After What We Left Behind was completed, Zappone had decided he was done with Star Trek and was essentially burned out. He shared his decision with Frakes who was surprised and emphatic about Zappone’s need to continue.

"“I said to Frakes, ‘you know, What We Left Behind was great, but I think I’m done and burned out. It’s enough Star Trek.’ He said WHAT? You’re the guy! You have to do Voyager!” recalled Zappone during the WonderCon panel for the film. “And I listened!”"

And it’s fortunate that Zappone did listen, and so far, the campaign to produce the documentary has amassed 9,597 backers with twelve of those fans donating $10,000 each for an Associate Producer’s credit, which has now officially sold out. Thirty fans will have their picture in the documentary at a cost of $500 each, and almost 200 fans have purchased a Voyager doc swag bag which includes a Janeway coffee mug, a t-shirt, and more.

Thanks to Frakes, all of these fans and more will not only get the chance to see the documentary, they’ll have experiences they might never have gotten, and they’ve been able to show what a mighty fan base can do when it’s energized.