Villordsutch interviews Tilly and Susan Bridges, the writers of Star Trek: Voyager – Homecoming…
Star Trek: Voyager – Homecoming isn’t just a return—it’s a bold continuation that hits all the right emotional and narrative beats. Written by longtime Trek devotees Tilly and Susan Bridges, the comic delivers a thrilling, heartfelt reunion for Janeway and her crew. After awarding it a well-earned 9/10 in my review, I spoke with the writers for an exclusive interview, right here at Flickering Myth, to explore their creative process, their deep connection to Voyager, and the passion driving this landmark release…
Right, not to beat around the bush—and sorry to be so short—but what kept you so long!? It’s been nearly twenty-five years since Star Trek: Voyager finished! In all seriousness, why now, after nearly a quarter of a century, did you both consider it the right time to return to the moment Voyager finished with Endgame?
Also, how did you approach IDW Publishing with the idea of Homecoming? Or was it the other way around; as IDW have long been the home for Star Trek comic books, did they come to you and say, “We’d like a Voyager comic, do you have anything cool?”
We can answer these two questions together! Most folks probably don’t know, but the license holder (in this case, Paramount) fully controls the entire property and has final say over every show, novel, comic, game, or anything else. We’d already been talking with IDW’s Star Trek lead editor, Heather Antos, about possible Trek comic pitches and places where we could hopefully contribute, because we’re huge Trek fans and writing for it is the literal dream. And what Heather’s been doing with the Trek books is really extraordinary, and we hoped we could be part of it.
It was during those discussions that Paramount came to IDW and said they’d like a Voyager-centric comic to help celebrate its 30th anniversary. Heather asked us if we’d like to pitch some story ideas for it, and we jumped at the chance. We sent in five different story pitches, and the one Heather, IDW, and Paramount liked most was what became Homecoming (yes, we know there’s a Voyager book with the same title. No, they’re not related. Also, we did not pick the title, so please don’t be mad at us for that).
Tilly and Susan Bridges
Was there any concern from IDW Publishing that launching a Voyager comic book right after Endgame might be a challenge for newcomers? Even with the quick recap in the pages, did you worry that fresh readers might feel a little lost?
That was definitely on our mind when writing it. Not just because we wanted the story to be accessible to everyone, but that’s been part of Heather’s goal with the entire line. She definitely wants them to appeal to more than just Trek fans, which is how it should be, so we worked to make sure there was a clear synopsis of what had happened so far to start. Every show, or book, or game, or comic, could be someone’s first exposure to that universe. So you try to make it as accessible as you can, so you hopefully make new Trekkies along the way.
We’d love it if people new to Voyager dug Homecoming and then went to watch the show after, that’d be amazing.
When you went back to put pen to paper was it easy to recall the key Voyager events from their travels in the Delta Quadrant, as you lightly scattered them throughout the pages? Did you find yourselves rewinding old episodes or diving into Memory Alpha? Or, like the rest of us, did you just get pulled back in whenever Voyager popped up on TV?
We’ve seen all of the show multiple times — actually, we’ve seen all of every Star Trek show multiple times. We’ve done chronological (in release order) rewatches of all 900-some hours of Trek. Multiple times! We truly just love it that much. So we were intimately familiar with the show and characters.
That being said, 900+ hours of stories are impossible to keep entirely straight in your head, especially down to the minute details. So once we knew Homecoming was the pitch we were officially going with, we rewatched Endgame just to have it fresh in our minds, and look for any story cues or dangling plot threads we could pick up on. We did the same with the three (how was it only three?!) episodes that Species 8472 appeared in, to be sure we were up on exactly what was (and wasn’t) known about them.
You can see us reference a dangling plot thread from one of those episodes right in Homecoming issue #1, with the blood sample they took from Chakotay in “In the Flesh.” We really wanted to make Homecoming feel like it was part of the Voyager tapestry, so we loved finding things like that, which we could build off of while forming the story.
You’ll see more instances like that throughout the following issues. And one really great thing about choosing Species 8472 as the adversary for this story is that very little was actually ever revealed about them! So we got to deepen and develop them a lot for Homecoming, to create what their culture and existence is like, which was amazing. We love getting to add to the universe like that.
I understand this is only a five-issue series. Would you both like to see the further adventures of Star Trek: Voyager continue over at IDW Publishing, or are you happy enough that (for now) you can concentrate on giving everything to these five issues?
Homecoming is a complete story, and it’s hopefully going to give a little more closure to the crew’s seven-year journey home (you will see reunions with loved ones!). We’d be happy to keep writing Trek until the day we die, so if you like Homecoming and want to see more from us in Trek comics, adding Homecoming to your pull list and buying the book (and, hopefully, a collected trade paperback somewhere down the line) is the best way!
With so many new Trek series shaping the universe, what were the creative choices behind making Homecoming feel authentically Voyager while still aligning with the wider canon? I know that Prodigy, Picard, and Lower Decks are set after Voyager, and the fanbase for these newer shows is massive—was there ever a concern about stepping on their timelines or tone?
There’s specifically a person to keep an eye out for these things as our scripts go through the revisions process. We do our best, but again, keeping track of a universe that’s as expansive as Trek is tough, especially when you’re already working with eight main characters, and thread the plot, and have twists and reveals, and nice character moments, and everything else that goes into crafting a story. So to have a sort of failsafe person has been fabulous, just in case X character can’t appear for some reason, or if we accidentally do something that contradicts established canon, etc. And then we can quickly adjust.
That being said, we are also writing toward some of those things, to some degree. We know Seven, for example, is a very different person when we see her pop up in Picard. So we had the opportunity to sort of push her along the path. What happens that affects her so deeply and changes her so much? You’ll find out what started her… awakening, if you will. And there will be a Prodigy tie-in before the book is done! Not a huge one, because this is a Voyager story, and very specifically one that is sort of a “second finale” to the show itself, but there’s a nod to something Prodigy established. Which was particularly cool for us, since our consulting on season two of that show was so important to us.
Obviously, the world has changed considerably since Voyager left the air back in 2001, and Star Trek’s audience stretches across generations now—from those who grew up with Voyager to newer fans discovering the universe through Prodigy or Strange New Worlds. When crafting Homecoming, how did you strike that balance between honouring the legacy and inviting fresh eyes into the story?
I think it’s just by doing what we mentioned before… trying to make good Trek that fans will hopefully love, and that will bring new people in too. Even if you’ve never seen or read or heard a thing about Trek, Homecoming is just going to be a really great sci-fi adventure.
And in the grand Trek tradition, it’ll also maybe have some things to say about the world we’re presently living in.
Voyager’s crew went through profound changes during their journey home. In Homecoming, were there particular arcs—Janeway’s leadership, Seven’s humanity, Chakotay and Seven’s relationship, Harry’s Promotion —that you felt needed revisiting or resolving in a new light? I know there may be spoilers here, so if you don’t want to share too much, we can happily accept, “Oh we do!”.
Our first question to Heather was asking if we could promote Harry! Unfortunately, he had already appeared in other stories that take place after Homecoming, and he was still an ensign there. So that’s one of those things that, for universe continuity reasons, we could do. It’s not our fault! We tried!
We talked about Seven a bit before, but Chakotay’s and Seven’s relationship is a running throughline for the two of them in this book, and it doesn’t stay the same (what does that mean? You gotta read the book to find out). Tom and B’Elanna are going to deal with being absolutely brand-new parents in the middle of a crisis. And Captain Janeway’s going to be put to the test. There are moral dilemmas waiting. Are there lines she still won’t cross? What lengths is she willing to go to get her people home? By the time the book is done, you’ll find out exactly what Starfleet and the Federation now mean to her.
You’re both probably more than aware of the Star Trek: Voyager book series that followed Endgame. Starting with Homecoming by Christie Golden and running all the way to To Lose Earth by Kirsten Beyer, those novels tackled many unresolved arcs. How did you navigate that existing narrative space when crafting your version of Homecoming—was it a challenge to honour those stories while building something new?
As far as we know, the continuity of the old novels and the present TV/comic/novel continuity don’t intersect. There was a point a few years back where the old novel continuity “ended,” sort of, so those do not have any impact on the story we’re telling.
We were already working on outlining the story before we even knew it was going to be called Homecoming, so we definitely did not intentionally reference the novel of the same name. It wasn’t on our radar at all, since our story hadn’t been titled yet.
If you enjoy the novel, that’s great! If you enjoy the comic, that’s great! You can prefer one over the other, or you can like them both! They’re very different stories, and there’s a false dichotomy at play when people try to pit stories against each other. You can like them both, truly! Even if they contradict each other! Trek has many alternate timelines and universe offshoots. One went this way, another went the other way. Nothing says you can’t enjoy them both.
Finally, what’s next for you both? Do you have any long-burning Star Trek stories you’ve been itching to get onto paper, or are you off exploring new galaxies entirely?
We’ve got a YA queer trans romcom graphic novel with Mad Cave, which should be released in 2026. And there’s another graphic novel with a big publisher that just got pushed to 2027, but it’s on the way.
We also just wrote an episode for an upcoming animated series, and we’ll hopefully get to do more of those. And the trans sci-fi short film about love, connection, and hope that we wrote and directed, Long Away, is presently playing film festivals around the world. Its festival run will likely take it through most of 2026. So keep an eye on film festivals in your area (or follow us on social media for updates!) and it might play in a theatre near you!
Outside of that, we’ve got multiple other comic pitches in with other publishers, and hopefully some of those will get picked up, too.
But we’d love to keep writing Trek for as long as they’ll have us. There’s a thousand more stories we’d love to tell!
Thank you to both Tilly and Susan for taking the time for this interview.
Star Trek: Voyager “Homecoming” from IDW Publishing is currently on sale. You can keep up with all of Tilly and Susan’s writing news (including screenings of their short film) by signing up for the free newsletter at their website here. A complete list of their credits and links can be found here. To read Tilly’s essays on trans life (and listen to the companion podcast hosted by both of them), go here. To find them both writers on Bluesky go here, Tilly’s Bluesky and Susan’s Bluesky.
@Villordsutch
