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Flashback Friday: Star Trek: Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew reveals fans had issues with her voice

By Chad Porto

386838 12: Actress Kate Mulgrew (Left) Stars As (Captain Kathryn Janeway) And Susanna Thompson Stars As (The Borg Queen) In United Paramount Network's Sci-Fi Television Series "Star Trek: Voyager." Episode: "Unimatrix Zero, Part Two." (Photo By Getty Images)
386838 12: Actress Kate Mulgrew (Left) Stars As (Captain Kathryn Janeway) And Susanna Thompson Stars As (The Borg Queen) In United Paramount Network's Sci-Fi Television Series "Star Trek: Voyager." Episode: "Unimatrix Zero, Part Two." (Photo By Getty Images) /
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Star Trek: Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew charms audiences in 1995 on the Conan O’Brien Show.

Star Trek: Voyager first set sail in January of 1995, serving as the flagship program for the recently launched UPN channel. Voyager featured two crews, one Starfleet, and one Maquis, stranded aboard the Voyager deep in the heart of the Delta Quadrant. The ship only had one option, travel the seven or so decades back to the Alpha Quadrant. It was a novel idea, and it had a lot of hype around it.

Partly due to the fact that it would be the first Star Trek show featuring a woman as captain. Kate Mulgrew made her Star Trek debut as Kathryne Janway, the first female captain of a Star Trek show.

Her turn as the captain didn’t start well with everyone, but that didn’t stop her from putting her best foot forward. She appeared on the May 16, 1995, edition of Late Night With Conan O’Brien show, which coincided with the show’s then-upcoming first season finale.

Star Trek: Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew Irish Jigs her way into our hearts

Mulgrew’s turn on the show was wild. She and O’Brien spoke openly about being Irish Catholics and how that just meant there were huge families of 8+ kids, before pivoting to talking about complaints about her voice on Voyager.

Apparently, a huge sticking point among some of the burgeoning online communities was that Mulgrew’s voice was odd. As she explained on the show, there were some who described her voice as a mix between a “munchkin” and “Katheryrne Hepern on speed”. O’Brien chimed in rather quickly, calling those fans “vicious nerds”. A truer sentiment spoke.

Her voice is one of her most iconic parts, it resonates in a way that a captain would need in order to command respect. It’s one of her best attributes as a captain, and many would now agree with that today.

After some more light-hearted banter, O’Brien gets up to do a terrible Irish Jig, prompting Mulgrew to show him how it’s done.

The whole thing is peak 1995 and a rather interesting look at events from nearly 30 years ago.

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