Interview: Kate Mulgrew Talks Janeway v Janeway On ‘Star Trek: Prodigy’ Plus Hopes For Live-Action Return

At the Star Trek Day event in Los Angeles TrekMovie had a quick purple carpet chat with Star Trek: Voyager star Kate Mulgrew about the brand new Star Trek: Prodigy clip, and her comments at the 56-Year Mission convention about a potential Star Trek: Janeway series.

The new clip makes it look like the second half of Prodigy season one will see Janeway versus Janeway, so are they adversaries?

Janeway versus Janeway. They’re never really adversaries. But a lot of stuff can be played within that conceit. So it’s fun. I think the idea is fun. I think the viewers want to see this juxtaposition. And they want to see the nuances between good and bad Janeways, and how these Janeways are going to work together, or not.

Admiral Janeway on the USS Dauntless

How is it playing these two versions?

It’s very fun for me as an actress, voicing it. It’s just terrific fun.

Do you see them now as two totally different characters? Hasn’t Hologram Janeway changed after what we saw in episode ten?

Yes, she’s evolving. But don’t forget The Doctor did too on Voyager. I mean, we’re always sort of seeking or yearning for sentience, which we are never going to acquire. But I think the Janeways together are wonderful. And I think that I can shift them and work with them so that it’s equally provocative.

Hologram Janeway on the USS Protostar

Picking up on something that you said in Las Vegas, someone asked you about a possible Star Trek: Janeway show and you said it’s up to the fans. Have you put much thought into this, and would you return to live-action Trek even if it weren’t for a Janeway show, possibly for another show?

I think I’d be interested in doing it if it were beautifully done. And if there’s anybody who knows how to do something beautifully, it’s probably Alex Kurtzman. It’s been brought up more and more of late. I don’t know why. So I answered positively because I loved her. I loved her and I’d love to revisit her. But it’s in the hands of the gods. And we know where the gods are, don’t we? In outer space.

More to come

TrekMovie spoke to a number of Trek celebrities and creatives on the purple carpet at Star Trek Day 2022. So check back for more exclusive interviews.

Kate Mulgrew being interviewed by TrekMovie.com at Star Trek Day 2022

Rewatch the Prodigy mid-season clip

The second half of season 1 of Star Trek: Prodigy returns to Paramount+ on Thursday, October 27th for subscribers in the U.S., Latin America, Australia, South Korea, and the U.K. It will air later in the year in South Korea, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland.


Keep up with news for the Star Trek Universe at TrekMovie.com.

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I do love Prodigy, but they’re overdoing the Voyager nostalgia between that show and Picard. It’s time to start revisiting Deep Space Nine, which was a far better show than Voyager and has been too long ignored.

We’ll see some of the DS9 characters on LDS soon and my guess is 1 or 2 will show up in Picard as well. But I definitely want to see DS9 characters since its my favorite show in the franchise. But it will happen. Star Trek is not going away again for probably the next ten years, at least in terms of television, so plenty of time for legacy characters to show up and hopefully more new characters too.

Viewing numbers say that voyager is very popular on streaming. They look very closely at those metrics

I don’t think he’s talking about just popularity, but quality. I think DS9 is a better show by far as well but I love Voyager too. DS9 is my first favorite show, VOY is my third.

But yes VOY popularity could definitely be a reason why there is a surge of those characters returning on the various new shows, but I don’t think that’s the reason alone.

the problem with DS9 cameos is that the show kind of ended on a cliffhanger (Sisko) and there are many galatic politics stuff in play that are ongoing (dominion, cardassia etc.) SO ds9 characters will have to answer those questions and I think showrunners are afraid of committing for fear of stepping on a legit continuation at some point down the road.

I guess, but it’s been over 20 years now. The characters would have just moved on to other things. Sisko is just MIA and nothing more can be done or said about that until a writer changes it or Brooks himself wants to return to the role.

And Matalas already said the Dominion War will be part of Picard season 3. We don’t know how much obviously like will it actually be a story line or just in the background for a different story like the Romulus destruction was in season one. I expect the latter but who knows? Either way it sounds like we will (finally) find out the repercussions of the galaxy since the war ended.

Agreed about DS9. I know Avery Brooks isn’t coming back and Rene and Aron sadly can’t. But it would be great to see Alexander Siddig or Nana Visitor or somehow even Terry Farrell.

There’s so many remaining cast members – primary and secondary – from DS9 who could add to the current PIC era canvas … Visitor, Siddig, Farrell and De Boer, Meaney, Shimmerman, and of course Andrew Robinson as Garak.

Love both Kate Mulgrew and Janeway equally. Can’t wait for her return on Prodigy and it would be great to see her in live action again which feels pretty much inevitable at this point. It seems like its more about appearing on a show or being on her own show full time.

Feel the same, Tiger2. Eagerly waiting for the other half of the Season. :D

Really hope Star Trek: Janeway comes up right after Picard.

There’s coffee in that sequel series.

Yes, she’s evolving. But don’t forget The Doctor did too on Voyager. I mean, we’re always sort of seeking or yearning for sentience, which we are never going to acquire.” The Doctor never achieved sentience? I think it’s pretty well established that he did, and pretty early on at that.

^^^

We all know he did. But according to federation law he was never fully recognized as a sentient being. He was at best afforded the title of author under law.

I’m going to oppose her live action return. I love that Prodigy is her chapter 2. It’s a fresh and unique way to use the Janeway character. However, they want to be careful not to overdo it.

I didn’t know you could perform evasive maneuvers in warp.

I’m not scientist but as I understand the real life mechanics of WARP theory you aren’t supposed to be able to. A ship doesn’t “move” at warp as is depicted in later Trek shows and movies. Space bends in front of the ship and then back again behind it but the ship itself is stationary.

I’m all in for THE WRATH OF TUVIX.

But seriously, VOYAGER has a huge fan following, and I think Mulgrew being motivated to return to the character is a good signal that this is possible. The series finale skimped on a proper coda, so it always felt like there was more story to tell. It’s in the hands of the talent negotiators, I think. Mulgrew is going to ask for parity with Patrick Stewart’s deal if this is really on the table.