And this Critics Choice winner should know because she is one.
Few actors can say they’ve portrayed a Starfleet captain in the Star Trek franchise. Certainly, fans have their own personal favorites, but Critics Choice award winner (Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series | Orange Is the New Black) Kate Mulgrew has the distinction of being the first female commander to lead a Trek show — and she knows “it is a huge plum.”
Mulgrew discussed being a member of Star Trek’s elite captains club in an interview with TV Insider by also saying: “I loved the captains who came before me and knew them best — Avery Brooks [Benjamin Sisko | Deep Space Nine], Bill Shatner [James T. Kirk | The Original Series], Patrick Stewart [Jean-Luc Picard | The Next Generation and Picard]. I honored what they did.”
Mulgrew, who portrayed Kathryn Janeway during all seven seasons of Voyager and then reprised the role in the must-see animated series Prodigy, continued during the same sit-down by saying:
“I’m less interested in those who came after because I’m only human. It’s an extremely territorial thing, a Star Trek captaincy. It is a huge plum, and to carry the banner for as many years as I have makes me feel that what came after could only come after what we did.”
I always loved Mulgrew’s portrayal of Captain Janeway on Voyager, and I think it’s a real feather in the commander’s cap that she interacted with Q (John de Lancie) more than any other Star Trek captain other than Jean-Luc Picard. I believe that relationship is what helped win me over as a Janeway fan when I first discovered the series.
However, I can’t stress this enough to those Voyager fans who haven’t seen Prodigy yet: check out the animated show. Season 2 is particularly special because both Robert Beltran’s Captain Chakotay and Robert Picardo’s The Doctor reunite with Admiral Janeway (Mulgrew) for a lovely reunion that Star Trek fans will thoroughly enjoy.
Are you a fan of Kate Mulgrew and Captain Kathryn Janeway, too? Who is your favorite Star Trek captain of all time? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages.
Live long and prosper, Trekkies!
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