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At New York Comic Con, TrekMovie joined a group press interview with cast members and producers from Star Trek: Wonder. This includes Kate Mulgrew talking about what we can expect from both the Janeway hologram and Vice Admiral Janeway in the upcoming second half of season one.
Note: The interview contains some minor spoilers and has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Is there a moment coming up in the second half of the season that’s really nice to voice? Something you’re really proud of?
Well, it’s a spoiler if I just say so. Let me just offer this: there are several iterations of Janeway. And some of them are shocking, dark and unexpected. And then the journey takes a harrowing turn. And that was really fun.
So Janeway has experience working with a developing holographic program. But what will the dynamic be when she deals with a hologram of herself?
Vice Admiral Janeway has matured deeply and is very experienced at this stage of the game. She would be slightly dismissive of a hologram, wouldn’t she? Until this hologram convinces you it must be otherwise.
Janeway has always had a strong commitment to personal relationships as well as the mission, and it’s hard to say which is stronger. In Admiral Janeway’s search for Chakotay, how much of it is personal? Or is there a greater mission?
Well, that is already very insightful of you. Because that’s the essence of Janeway. They are inseparable. Her investment is always personal, even if it is Species 8472, whom she loathed. In the end, he kind of felt sorry for them. Look at Seven of Nine, how deeply personal this has become in a short time. So if I’m trying to find Chakotay, you better believe the investment is going to be huge. And the payoff will be—after many bumps and many twists and many, many hard turns—rewarding.
A clip of Admiral Janeway from Star Trek Day
Did you work with Robert Beltran and if so/what was it?
I haven’t worked with him. I can’t even hear his voice. No, it’s just cues and then I do mine. I have not seen him. And one can only hope that those old days—it’s like old Hollywood, the golden days when they would go into the recording booths and there were two or three of us—those days are over. COVID made sure of that. Maybe there will be an opportunity when Robert and I can get together, which I would love because I love him. But now it is. And it is enough to remember. It’s certainly enough. Everything is written. And the writing is exquisite. Thank God for the Hageman brothers.
Do you record alone at home or in a studio?
I have to go to the studio. I demand it and so do they. The quality of this show is so high. I don’t do any of that domestic stuff. This is for the birds. I want the fine calibration of the engineer in the other room. I want to know that every tone I aim for, every note, every intention is perfectly recorded. And I just don’t believe it would have the same effect in my bathroom with cardboard on the wall and taped to the windows. I don’t like any of these things at home. I think we should go to work. You know what I mean? I’m going to work! Okay, now that I understand that. [laughs]
How do you approach voice acting as opposed to your time in film and television?
Oh, it’s much easier. Much, much easier. It’s very freeing, very freeing. And I collaborate with Kevin and Dan Hageman, who are not only genius-level creators and writers. But they are so nice. They are such decent men that when I work with them I just feel like I can do anything and that we are in this together. And I’ve rarely felt this level of collaboration. Because live is very intense. Even in Orange is the new black where there was a lot going on, it hit your mark, cut, print, move on. We would take, twice at most. Here we work, play, “Can I have another one? I would like to try this.” They never say no. And they always say, “Try this, let’s go here.” And that just makes it a great session.
You’re playing Janeway, so during the process were there things that you changed or changed for Janeway Prodigy?
Of course. The Hagemans are fully cooperating. They know I created Katherine Janeway, so they won’t tell me how to bring this hologram to life. But I think after I finished setting up the animatics – here a physical being, I played a big part in that too. The humor. Not softness, not tenderness, but sympathy. This hologram empathizes with these children. I mean, they’re all in trouble, especially Dahl, who’s been hurt, maybe more than all of them put together. Hologram Janeway will have to really exercise her diplomacy and wisdom when dealing with someone like Dahl, who is so sure he’s going to die that he’ll do anything to turn him around. Again, this is a personal investment. But it should always be based on the fact that I’m there to teach them the skills of Starfleet. Prime directive. Hold hands and let’s go. I can’t do this alone. If only we knew this as a species, but we don’t, right? We can’t do this alone.
Hologram Janeway with Dahl in the Star Trek Day clip
How do you feel about being the character to help introduce a new generation of fans to the Star Trek universe?
But of course, who else could it be? She is a great choice. They were smart. Alex Kurtzman was smart to ask me. Because I think he realized something that even I couldn’t see, which is why he’s the dreamer now and he’s taken over the mantle of the entire franchise. I think he knew the mother would say to the child, “We’ll watch Star Trek Prodigy and I will tell you who this man is. The child will understand it as a Janeway hologram, but the mother will back it up with her knowledge of who Captain Janeway is. I think that was the intention, to make it a passionate conversation between generations. And that would be quite an achievement, wouldn’t it?
How did you approach Janeway’s transition from captain mentor to child mentor?
It took some adjusting, of course. This is a hologram we’re talking about, so the challenge was how to give this hologram interesting features without making it a cardboard copy of what it once was. So very slowly, but subtly, I tried to inject humor, warmth, and even a degree of insight. He likes some, he doesn’t believe much in the opinion of others. And I developed it, slowly. But I tried to ground her. She gets this barometer, a Janeway hologram. The vice admiral understands that. So I just ran the gamut when given the opportunity. And I often have scenes where they are back to back. So I can switch on and off, which is really challenging and really fun. The Janeway hologram is a bit lighter in tone so the kids can listen to me with some degree of comfort. Because I think if you dig into it and go to the admiral, you’re going to turn them off. But if you lighten it up, even in your command, and say, “Do it again, you’re going to pay a price for that.” So I have to go with what’s going on in my imagination, but it’s fun. You will be surprised at the freedom in the booth. Lots of freedom.
Prodigy has now been picked up for another season of twenty more episodes. What do you owe your success to? Prodigy to be?
Philosophy. We live in very strange times. Did you watch the news? This is the first time since the Cold War that the president has said that we are truly in danger. The whole thing can go up. I said at a dinner in Prague last week, next to a famous Czech physicist. And you know what he told me? “Any moment and it will happen.” I said, “Oh, you’ve had too much whiskey now.” He said, “I’m not sick, and neither are you.” So what was your question? [laughs]
Embedding by Getty Images
More Star Trek from NYCC
We have a few more interviews coming up from New York Comic Con, so keep coming back to TrekMovie.com for the latest news from NYCC 2022. Check out more of our NYCC coverage here.
Prodigy midseason trailer
In case you missed it, here it is again with the mid-season trailer released at NYCC. [international version at startrek.com]
Prodigy will return on Thursday, October 27 exclusively for Paramount+ subscribers in the US, and on Friday, October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the UK. After the premiere, new episodes from the 10-episode second half will be available to stream every week on Thursdays. The series will air later in the year in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news about the Star Trek universe at TrekMovie.com.
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