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| COMMAND PRESENCE | |||
| 74656 |
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| WHY JANEWAY | SERVICE RECORD | SEVEN COMMAND DECISIONS | KATE MULGREW | COFFEE | J/C |
| WHY JANEWAY |
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My name is Margaret Becker. I'm 46 years old and a civil engineer with the county in
Pittsburgh. For most of my twenty-two years in this line of work I have been the only
woman at the table: at the site meeting, the budget hearing, the bridge inspection at six
in the morning in the rain. You learn to be the most prepared person in the room, you learn
not to raise your voice, and you learn that if you are firm, somebody will call it something
worse than firm.
When Voyager premiered in January of 1995 and a woman walked onto that bridge and took the center seat, I did not expect to care. I'd liked the other Treks well enough. But in the first episode she makes a hard call, a call that costs her crew their way home, because it is the right thing to do for people she barely knows. And then she has to live with it, in front of them, every day. I sat on my couch and said, out loud, "Oh. I know that." Janeway is not perfect, and I don't want her to be. She is stubborn. She bends the rules when it suits her and then quotes them when it doesn't. She has made decisions I would argue with. But she is always, always the one who decides, and she never hands the weight to somebody else. After five seasons (and one very fine season premiere last night) I think she's the best captain in the franchise, and I'm happy to discuss it at length. |
| SERVICE RECORD |
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| KATE MULGREW |
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Janeway is played by Kate Mulgrew, who was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and whom my mother
remembers as Mary Ryan on Ryan's Hope in the seventies. She also had her own series
as Mrs. Columbo. She wasn't the first actress cast as Janeway. The part first went to
Geneviève Bujold, who left after only a day or two of filming, and I can't imagine
anyone else in the chair now. That voice alone could get a crew through the Delta Quadrant.
I have no pictures to show you. My nephew promised to scan a magazine photo for me back in the spring and I am still waiting, Kevin. In the meantime, close your eyes and picture a woman with a raised eyebrow and a cup of coffee. You'll be close. |
| COFFEE |
The woman takes her coffee black and takes it seriously, even when the ship is running low on
everything. I bought a mug at a convention in Harrisburg that says CAPTAIN on it and I use it
every morning at the office. Nobody at work has asked about it. I think they're afraid to.
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| THE J/C QUESTION |
| I get more mail about this than about anything else on the page. For those just joining us: a great many fans would like Janeway and Chakotay to be more than captain and first officer. My position: they're wonderful together, the second season episode where they're stranded on a planet is lovely, and she is the captain of a ship seventy years from home with no one above her in the chain of command. She can't. Not yet. I think the writers understand that, and I respect them for it. You may write to me in protest; many have. |
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