Gary Graham described the Star Trek: Voyager set as "tense"

Gary Graham, who passed away in January at the age of 73, began his time with Star Trek playing an Ocampan on Star Trek: Voyager in the series' second season. He would go on to play Ambassador Soval on Star Trek: Enterprise. And though the cast of Voyager seem to have a good time together, and there is no shortage of laughs when they're all together, that wasn't the feeling Graham had when he was on set for his role as Tanis in the season two episode "Cold Fire."

According to a quote in Captains' Logs Supplemental - The Unauthorized Guide to the New Trek Voyages by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman [via Screenrant], while Graham's time on Voyager was rewarding, he wasn't too thrilled about the tone of the set, even going so far as to compare working there to taking a midterm.

"Though I enjoyed most of the cast members on Voyager, the tone on the set was tense, they're very tightly wound over there. That's not to say it wasn't a rewarding experience, but it was about as fun as taking a midterm when you really, really have to make a good grade. I wanted to change two words at Star Trek and it took thirty minutes to get script approval on that back from the Ivory Tower."

- Gary Graham

Voyager was only in its second season when Graham guest-starred so one can imagine there was some pressure on the cast and the crew as there were no guarantees of renewals year after year. And with Kate Mulgrew as the very first female captain of a Star Trek starship, there had to have been some who weren't sure the series would make it. Fortunately, the entire cast of Voyager not only made the show a success, they created a legacy that will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year.