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The Magazine October 2000 |
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The Magazine October 2000 |
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Kate Mulgrew shares her views on Captain Kathryn Janeway after six years in the Delta Quadrant, and her hopes for Star Trek: Voyager’s final season. |
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Season
Five’s cliffhanger and sixth-season opener. ‘Equinox, Parts I and II,’
saw the captain of the U.S.S. Voyager NCC-74656 on the edge of taking the
life of another Starfleet captain. It was a situation that disturbed many
viewers, as well as first officer Chakotay, but Kate relished the show.
“I loved it,” she says. “Loved playing it, loved the whole idea: loved
betrayal what that would evoke in Janeway.” Wasn’t she wary of seeing the
character virtually seeking vengeance on a fellow officer? “Oh, not a bit!
I thought that quite compelling. I think after years of being lost in the
Delta Quadrant she’s hard pressed to be completely emotionally disciplined
all the time, and this issue particularly would be incendiary to her since
her trademark is commitment to Starfleet.”
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Another
major Janeway show ‘Fair Haven’ was also controversial. “My love affair
with the hologram!” says Kate. “I found that a bit dubious at first, and
then I decided to commit myself to it. You know, one always struggles with
one’s own humanity in this regard: after six years of this woman toeing
the line in a rather solitary fashion, I had hoped that her first romance
of any significance would be with a person. I think the writers also weighed
that with great seriousness, and decided that it would probably be more
provocative to this particular audience to go with the science fiction
slant. It’s quite understandable that she just allows her fantasy to take
over. She feels that it’s rather benign initially, and then, true to human
nature, it catches up with her. I thought, ‘Well, this is an intriguing
idea; let’s go for it,’ and I just threw myself into it.”
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One
of the enduring issues on the show has been Janeway’s relationship with
Chakotay, and many fans continue to be disappointed that things haven’t
gone further between the two of them. Kate doesn’t think it ever will come
to anything. “I think it’s a bit late in the day for that,” she says. “But
they‘re full of surprises, these people; they may approach it, but if they
do it would be, I think, terribly bittersweet since we don’t really have
the time to fully investigate that. I think it leaves the door open to
a wonderfully poignant goodbye. Maybe even an element of tragedy
- ships truly passing, what could have happened.” Or their future relationship
may revolve around a Starfleet follow-up on the Maquis members of Voyager’s
crew, as hinted in ‘Lifeline.’ “I think there will be a struggle because
of Chakotay’s Maquis background,” Kate says. “Janeway will fight for him;
he may fight for Janeway. I think it’s better that way.”
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“It
is her examination of her flaws, and her determination to not make any
excuses for herself, that I love best. She’s very brave, but she’s
very human, and that I think really is the key to Janeway; that allows
her to do business with aliens of every check. I think a captain of another
stripe might be hard pressed to negotiate the way Janeway negotiates, which
she does generally speaking by instinct and also from her heart. And I
think that her opponents or, in the end, her partners are aware of that:
her humanity.”
As we’ve seen in episodes such as ‘The Haunting
of Deck 12,’ Janeway excels at thinking on the run when she faces those
aliens. “I enjoyed that one enormously. Enormously,” she says. “Sometimes
when I get the scripts they read a bit bizarrely, but when I commit to
them fully they in fact play out. It is after all a different universe,
isn’t it. It’s a different imagination that we’re applying ourselves to.
I get quite excited when I have something good to do: excited, and propelled.”
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Kate
liked last season’s shows. “I thought Season Six was good,” she says. “Six
was kind of a wild ride.” However, her recent marriage to Ohio-based consultant
Tim Hagan reinforced her desire to have more time for her family, and the
producers managed to accommodate her. “It worked out, with the utmost graciousness
on their part and diplomacy on mine. This has been a wonderful job; I’ve
known that from the get-go. And my producers have been very respectful,
I think, of me, and I of them.”
Discussions with the producers have always extended to the character herself something Kate says has paid off handsomely. “I think they understand that my commitment to Janeway is singular, and that this relationship has evolved into something very personal to me. As good writers, they not only recognize that they have to give me that kind of autonomy; I think they understand that the dance is now really in place. I’ve been in the trenches with this broad for six years. I know her.”
Kate
may understand Janeway very well, but she doesn’t think her own personality
has impinged too heavily. “Not so much that it’s ever overwhelmed the essence
of the character. Janeway is not Mulgrew, but I hope that she’s been enhanced
by Mulgrew. And I again would return to the note of humanity, which to
me was going to be her strong suit, even above and beyond the authority
of her captaincy. I thought if I could really find the nobility in her
nature and reveal it through a kind of brokenness as well as nobility,
then I would have succeeded.”
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“Janeway’s
heroism is now so well established that I’m always asking them to, you
know, rock the boat a little bit. I’d like to take some personal risks
with her. It seems that when we do that, though, it’s controversial. ‘Night’
[the Season Five opener] got really mixed reviews because people get uncomfortable
watching a captain’s depression, but I thought it was just such a wonderful
thing to explore. Six years of this loneliness, of this absolute solitariness:
how would she feel at this point, how would she manifest this great sadness?
But people really want to see the captain punch through, so it’s a double-edged
sword most of the time, and I try to play it like that.
“I think the only thing she’s perfect in is, as I’ve said, her complete commitment: to the ship and the crew. And I think it’s ever deepening as far as the crew are concerned - Janeway has really fallen in love.” ‘Good Shepherd,’ where Janeway led a bunch of misfits on an away mission, really showed the captain’s concern for those serving under her. “I loved that show,” says Kate. “You could put a big asterisk on that one; that was my favorite. I loved ‘Equinox, Parts I and II’ for the sheer power and principle of what it was trying to share, but ‘Good Shepherd’ was really Janeway at her best. That’s exactly what I mean when I talk about brokenness. She just tries. She keeps trying. She never gives up her heart in any situation, and she is always prepared to go down first.”
In
the show Janeway was an inspiration to her reluctant team members, and
we saw some very moving scenes. “I loved those scenes,” Kate says. “Especially
with the girl; that was heartbreaking. I want to move people always, because
I’m an actress, so that’s always my essential compulsion; but beyond that
I think they’ve really let Janeway do it more than any of the other captains.
I think they’ve learned to trust that I can get away with it, and that
I will still maintain absolute command.”
Does Kate think the writers have come up with
storylines that would only have worked with a female captain? “Well, there
are certain things that we’re culturally predisposed to accept more readily
with a woman. Women are emotionally empowered over and above men in this
culture, and the fact that I can exercise that through a model of authority
is great, great fun to play”
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If
she could look into Janeway’s future, Kate thinks some friendships forged
aboard Voyager will endure through the years. “I think she would
always seek out Chakotay,” she says. “And Tom Paris, and her beloved Neelix,
and B’Elanna.” What about Seven of Nine, whom Janeway has nurtured from
Borgdom toward humanity? “I think that could continue to evolve very nicely
in a sort of student-mentor way” she says. “Seven will have so many difficulties
in Federation space, I think. She’ll need to find a different kind of sea
legs, and an even more provocative way to show her humanity will be when
this ship finally lands: who will Seven be when she has to finally and
quite deliberately confront her humanity?”
Right
now Kate would like to see a little more of the captain with B’Elanna Torres
a twosome that created a real spark when the series began. “They’re wonderfully
juxtaposed personalities,” she says. “First of all, I adore Roxann Dawson;
she’s a dear friend of mine. I don’t know why they don’t put us together
more often. I suppose they think that we each have so much intensity that
they need to spread it around more carefully.”
Kate will face the ending of the series with
mixed emotions. “I’m very much looking forward to closing this chapter,
all the while knowing very well that it will have reverberations for me
of probably epic proportions for a long time to come. The sheer energy,
the sheer intimacy, the secret world that I have shared with those people
for so long: it will be devastating to have it withdrawn so abruptly
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“It’s
going to be awful, those last 10 shows; I know it. It’s going to be unbearable
for me. When you’re in the trenches with people this long, it’s hard to
say goodbye. But it’s very crucial that I get back to my life, and get
back to the theater. I adore my children, and I’m crazy about my husband.
He’s made huge sacrifices to accommodate my schedule, and it’s time for
me to turn the light on him. He does all the commuting, so that’s going
to have to change a bit. We’re building a house in Cleveland, getting my
boys through the rest of high school, and trying to relax a little bit.
I think it’s going to be hard for me to relearn that.”
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Copyright © 2000 Star Trek: The Magazine
Photos Copyright © Paramount Pictures
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