Star Trek Voyager

Star Trek Voyager

BBC America is having a marathon of the mid- to late-90s Star Trek spinoff New Year’s Day and today. I grew to appreciate Kate Mulgrew’s work back in my college days in her acting debut on the soap opera Ryan’s Hope. Seemed I mostly had the midday hour when it aired free of classes and watched while eating lunch in my college’s commuter lounge. The show was obviously popular since no one objected to that channel being on every day.

Ms. Mulgrew was the first starring female captain of a Federation ship and did a masterful job, in my opinion, of finding the line between a tough, strong authority figure and an intuitive female, closer to and more comfortable with her emotions, able to show compassion in a more empathic manner.

The Star Trek Family

In interviews with the cast of Star Trek, The Next Generation, the actors said their show was cancelled to better launch Voyager, which they regretted since they felt the show had at least a few more seasons worth of stories and character development to give.

Star Trek, Deep Space Nine aired while The Next Generation was still going but didn’t pull in equal ratings, though many considered it the superior show. With two Star Trek shows already airing, Voyager may well have been overlooked, though having a female captain and being set in a different quadrant with different species and problems may have offset that.

The Next Generation crew got to do several feature films, which I’m sure gave them more exposure and opportunities than the TV show alone would have.

Acting Futures after Star Trek

Patrick Stewart and William Shatner still have ongoing careers. I saw many of the men in various shows in the following years, not so much recently. Few of the women have done more than an occasional guest spot in a TV series or movie, nothing recent, except for Whoopi Goldberg, who was famous before her Next Generation stint, and Kate Mulgrew.

Often compared to Katherine Hepburn, Kate Mulgrew played the older actress on stage in a one-woman performance that received good reviews. She now plays a Russian prisoner on the cable TV show Orange is the New Black. Seems being captain of a Star Fleet vessel is good for the career.