KATE GOES FOURTH
 

CULT TIMES  #33
JUNE 1998
by Mike Thomas

Kate Mulgrew, Voyager's sturdy Captain Janeway, explains why the latest season is anything but a year of hell
 

KATE MULGREW has absolutely no doubt that Star Trek: Voyager's fourth season will be remembered as the season in which the once- troubled Space Opera finally proved its worth. “It's going to be the watershed year," the actress promises. "I feel this very strongly and I feel it primitively - in my bones, if you will. I feel that it's taken a long time to find the trust factor: the marriage between writing, actor [and] person. We finally are there and it's taking wing.

"Sometimes it takes as long as three seasons to liberate yourself from the clay of a franchise of this kind of importance," she continues. "And we started that at the end of last season. I did, certainly. Mulgrew sort of came into possession of Janeway. It was a very happy union. The writing staff, I think, perceived this, so they began to give me my voice. And I've just had so much fun."

Kate doesn't seem all that far removed from Captain Janeway. A commanding and captivating presence, the actress instantly fills the room with her eloquence, intelligence and wit, as well as a highly infectious enthusiasm for all things Trek.

 Despite her obvious passion for her work, however, Kate remains completely candid about Voyager's past disappointments and failings. In fact, she even goes as far as to admit that she herself didn't feel completely comfortable in the role of Captain Janeway until surprisingly recently.

"I think it was as late as last season - the latter part of last season," she explains. "I was so busy, I was so myopic in my approach to Janeway... Just getting her and executing this performance every week was such a challenge that it took almost that long to be able to relax and to see what was actually going on around me. And to realize that there were other responsibilities: that Janeway was a role model; that there was a phenomenon out there and it was called Star Trek."

 Voyager's fourth season certainly provides Kate with plenty of scope to refine and develop her portrayal of the good Captain. The new season continues to explore Janeway's growing obsession with reaching the Alpha Quadrant and presents her with a number of surprises, one of which is a new sparring partner, in the shapely form of Seven of Nine, played by Jeri Ryan.

 "Seven of Nine is a human being who has been intensely Borgified through the last 18 years," Kate elaborates. "I find her on a Borg cube and, for various reasons, the Borg cube is destroyed and I save her life. Or rather, I elect to take her with me back to my ship. Therefore, I assume the mantle of responsibility for this creature.

 "This introduces the element of tension, unpredictability, surprise and terror onto Voyager, which I think is [the writers'] intention and I think it's a good one. There's a delicate balance here. If Seven resorts to her Borg nature, she threatens to annihilate us. However, if I, as her mentor, can prove to be compelling enough a human teacher to seduce her back into the bosom of humanity, as it were, she could very well lend herself and her extreme intelligence to the enhancement of Voyager.

"So at every juncture, it's a toss of the dice with Seven of Nine," the actress grins. "And I think that's what we need. What's she going to do this week? How is she going to get along with this character? What is this relationship going to do versus that relationship. So we have that to play with all season."

 This year Janeway and company find themselves up against a series of new and deadly opponents, including the Time- travelling Krenim, the telepathic Mari and, perhaps best of all, the Hirogen - an alien species who hunt for sport and set their sights on Voyager's crew.

"There are a lot of new species coming in," Kate reveals, "and they're all horrifying and they're all diabolical and they're all extremely intelligent - and they all view Voyager as an obstacle."

When asked to select a highlight of working on the new season, Kate immediately points to the sweeping two-parter, Year of Hell. "I think it was more fun to shoot than just about anything heretofore because it's about Time travel, which is a difficult concept, and if you're not a Trekker it's an almost impossible one to explain. And even as a scientist, I could not articulate this very well.

 "But Voyager goes through a Time warp - a loop. We don't know if it's real or it's not real, but it threatens to [result in the crew's] final demise. And Janeway finally says goodbye to her senior staff, she's left alone on the bridge and she's going to kamikaze."

Widely hailed as one of the finest outings in the history of the Star Trek franchise, Year of Hell follows Janeway and crew through the 12 most difficult months of their lives. By pitting them against seemingly impossible odds and refusing to offer any easy or feel-good answers, the two-part adventure seems indicative of the show's move towards darker and more powerful storylines.

 "You could call it darker, but I would like to say that I find it more substantive," Kate asserts. "It's taking risks. It's bolder. It's taking the human nature and sort of throwing it into a scientific venue and it's really working. And I think it's working because it has taken this long for all variables to come to this level."

 In much the same way that its new season has taken Voyager to a higher level, the series has blasted Kate Mulgrew's career into the stratosphere. Previously best known as the star of the short-lived Columbo spin-off series, Kate Loves a Mystery, and for playing one of Ted Danson's numerous love interests in Cheers, Kate has become one of America's most widely-recognizable and most beloved actresses thanks to her sterling portrayal of Captain Kathryn Janeway.

 The role has also established Kate as something of a TV icon. The actress is delighted to be a member of Star Trek's elite `Captain's Club', and is pleased to report that she has met all three of her illustrious predecessors.

 "As you could imagine, it was intriguing," she recalls. "You want very much to meet the other Captains. Patrick Stewart probably more importantly, because he was so successful as Picard.

 "There's something funny and territorial and isolating that happens when you meet these men because I, after all, have to be the Captain myself, don't I? So we kept a kind of distance but at the same time, it was very mirthful, very funny. This is a shared thing, but it has to be funny - it's an absurd thing, and yet it is fraught with all kinds of pressures and responsibilities; it's quite serious, it's a franchise and it's noble."

 And did Messrs Shatner and Stewart have any words of wisdom to impart to Star Trek's first female Captain?

 "They have both given me different pieces of advice," Kate reveals, "which I felt were indispensable as time has gone on. Patrick Stewart said, `Trust as soon as you can and as deeply as you can, and it becomes easier.' He means trust your- self with the character, because it's overwhelming to have this kind of authority. And I think Shatner said, `Laugh as much as you can.' So very wise, sage advice from both of them, and I've taken it all."

As a key player in the Star Trek franchise, Kate has featured in everything from books and magazines to T-shirts, trading cards and mugs. And then, of course, there's the requisite Captain Janeway action figure. "Have you seen her?" the actress laughs. "You wouldn't want to meet her down a dark alley."

Kate continues on the subject of merchandise. "That part of [the job] is amusing. The role model aspect is not so amusing. I think it's taken quite seriously by young girls and so I try to rise to that occasion."

 Captain Janeway's status as an international role model is clearly a subject which is close to Kate Mulgrew's heart. The actress feels that the Prime Directive of her tour of duty aboard the Starship Voyager is to inspire viewers to reach for the stars and explore new frontiers in their lives and careers. And she is always touched to learn that her mission is having the desired effect.

 "I was asked to visit the White House, where women in science were being honoured," she recalls, "and a group of young scientists, who I think were foremost in their class, were asked to attend, and there was a young girl there from MIT. And she turned to me and she said, `You know, I switched majors because of you. I used to think it was English literature and I started to watch [Voyager] and I thought, physics. So I'm in physics now in MIT and I'm going to be a physicist - and I have you to thank for that now.'

 "That really brought tears to my eyes. But more importantly, I was sort of alarmed -I thought, "I have to do this well."'

 Obviously, Captain Janeway isn't the only person on an epic quest.

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