@MLClark Hi, just watched your podcast on Voyager ... Lots of observations (which I will spare you), but as someone who was working in Trek world at the time I do have one insight.
VOY was a different animal for the studio because, unlike TNG/DS9, it was a network show. It was the first show for UPN, the anchor show.
Mulgrew has talked about the suits who would come on the sets, constantly fretting about her hair, her "femininity," etc ... (1/x)
@MLClark TNG/DS9 didn't have those pressures, so they could be a little more free with story ideas. VOY got forced into a network formula -- "This show is targeting a young adult male demographic, therefore we must do this and this and this ..."
David Gerrold has a phrase, "pissing in the bottle," for network suits who feel they have to interfere to put their imprint on a show and take credit ... (2/x)
It reminds me of the fact that Braga claims a UPN exec wanted a different boy band on Enterprise every week to guest star and perform.
@nblumengarten "Billingsly says knowing the fourth season was the last reduced studio input and gave the writers a greater freedom that improved the series."
Pretty much all you need to know ... although to be honest writers with free rein might focus on the art at the expense of the budget. Harlan Ellison's battle with Gene on the "City on the Edge of Forever" script is a famous example. They couldn't get him to finish it, or cut some scenes that were too expensive to film.
@nblumengarten "Bakula says he was not permitted to take his uniform with him at series end, then years later found himself autographing that very uniform (now somehow owned by a fan)."
Paramount sold off sets, props, costumes etc. sometime around the end of the 2000s, if memory serves. One promoter bought a lot of it and took it on tour. All that was on display at the #KSC Visitor Complex in 2011. I'd just started working there; the props made me feel like I was home. 😍