Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 29, 1995 TAG: 9508290016
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: FRAZIER MOORE ASSOCIATE D PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Of these, many are raised anew by ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' which is the fourth ``Star Trek'' to boldly roam (and to boldly split infinitives) in the vast recesses of the cosmos. The flagship of the UPN mini-network since its launch last January, ``Voyager'' began a new season this week.
But someone answer us this: How could there be so much square footage on those ``Star Trek'' spaceships? Even with the stripped-down USS Voyager (capacity: just 200), you feel like you're on a Carnival Cruise.
Another question. Why are crew members so stiff and formal with each other? How about once in a while a high-five, a playful wedgie, the occasional ``Yo, Neelix, hiya doon?'' Dude, this is just space travel, not an audience with the queen!
One final thing: Does playing a Starfleet captain loosen an actor's grip on reality?
``It's a way of life, it's a responsibility, it's a role model,'' says Kate Mulgrew, who seems to have merged a bit too thoroughly with Capt. Kathryn Janeway, the first female to command a Star Trek spacecraft.
Star date: 1995. Mulgrew is sitting in the lounge of her Manhattan hotel. Her hair is down, not pulled back in Janeway's sensible 'do. She is wearing a cranberry pantsuit. She is smoking a cigarette. She looks pretty glamorous.
Yet she sounds disconcertingly like Janeway - a woman not so much on a TV show as on a mission.
``Command is a given thing, not learned, and it is part of my nature, part of what I am as an actor,'' says Mulgrew in an authoritative purr delivered through clenched jaws. ``The rest of it I will continue to work on. And it is the hardest work I've ever done in my life.''
Surely the whole galaxy - well, a portion of it anyway - recalls how a year ago Genevieve Bujold signed on as the Voyager's commanding officer, then, two Earth-days later, beamed out.
Mulgrew, who had done ``Mrs. Columbo'' on TV and Shakespeare and Ibsen on stage, was commissioned to take over the Voyager, soon to be stranded in a distant corner of the universe more than 70,000 light-years from home.
``You can imagine my level of excitement,'' says Mulgrew, transformed by recollections of her first day as the Great Bunned One.
Here she was, about to meet her ``crew,'' played by actors ``to whom I would be exposed under intimate circumstances for possibly the next five or six years of my life.''
``The atmosphere of expectation was pervasive,'' she goes on, the cadence of her voice growing more and more pronounced. ``The stakes were now high: They must have been thinking, Bujold had quit, now this one -'' she means herself - ``what's she gonna do?
``And I walked on the bridge ... and they all stood up ... the company, the crew on deck, everybody ... and they saluted me ... and they said, `Captain on board!'
``It was great! It was splendid! I saw nothing but a sea of faces, all of which I now know and love ... and there was hope ... and I think there was respect. And we just went! It was an 18-hour day, and it was a good one. And it's been like that ever since.''
Good, especially considering the alternative. Mulgrew has made no secret of how, in pre-Janeway civilian life, roles had dried up and she was nearly broke.
``I'm not every man's idea of a -'' She pauses, then starts over. ``I wouldn't say I fit any type in Hollywood that would be provocative or interesting to the men in power. I'm not overtly sexy, sometimes I'm a little too smart for my own good, and I'm not good at playing victims.''
Which would limit her options, all right.
``I had my house on the market,'' she says. ``I could always scrape up work, but I never wanted to take it just for the money. I was trying to figure something else out.''
Janeway figured it out for her, and Mulgrew has since become Janeway's greatest disciple.
``When you love a character as much as I love this woman, you even fall in love with what she loves,'' Mulgrew says. ``She is a passionate scientist, and while science had never really piqued my interest before, I now find it provocative.
``Janeway,'' she sums up, ``is the greatest challenge I could have as an actress.''
Still, questions persist. ...
Will the Voyager find its way back to Federation space?
Will Mulgrew ever come back down to earth?
by CNB