Geneviève Bujold, literally, never.
Thirty years ago today, Star Trek: Voyager began its journey to the Delta Quadrant with the introduction of its pilot, “Caretaker.” Famously, VoyagerGeneviève Bujold’s production got off to a bad start: it lost its already strong female lead, Geneviève Bujold, a few days into filming. But Bujold’s loss was Star TrekBenefit from the arrival of Kate Mulgrew to enter Voyagercaptain’s chair, coffee cup in hand–and what made him fit Star Trek it was clear from the beginning.
There are many weird and wonderful things in “The Caretaker”. There are big, bold ideas, like cutting a ship tens of thousands of lightyears from Federation space, or how the destruction of its crew during the first crash required Janeway’s Starfleet officers to contact new rebel supporters from the Maquis who were after them. There are small ones, like how beautiful Roxann Dawson’s B’Ellana Torres hair is before she’s tragically directed the second she becomes part of Starfleet (crime!), or the look on Kate Mulgrew’s face when she has to answer the line. “You haven’t lived until you’ve tasted someone’s angla’bosque” (30 years on and we’ve never learned what angla’bosque was, so we must obviously be living empty lives).
Much of the excitement in what makes “The Caretaker” work as a pilot centers on Mulgrew. Her immediate understanding of who Janeway is—and how the episode itself has never lowered itself to grappling with the idea of ​​having a female captain leading the show—gives Voyager momentum and power that the program itself was arguably unable to harness consistently over the next seven seasons. Sometimes he’s a tough ass, sometimes he’s a caring leader; we see him pushed and going through this strange situation given to a normal mission that turns into a war for him and his team when they face an unknown force, and they face it with this endless sense of justice and compassion. It’s almost absurd to think that Mulgrew wasn’t there in the first place: it feels like Janeway was made for him. Yet despite all of this, one line read by him from “The Caretaker” has been burned into my mind since I first saw it.
It’s completely absurd, one of many among them VoyagerNotable quotes. Scene: Voyager he recently met the Talaxian trader Neelix, who helps guide him to the strange new place they find themselves trading water. But first, he leads them to a world where the team believes several Maquis and Starfleet officers have been kidnapped, so Neelix quickly admits he’s misleading them: they help him make a deal with the local species, the Kazon. Or more specifically, one of their subdivisions, Kazon-Ogla.
“The Kazon-Ogla,” Janeway asked, scratching her face in the bright light of the desert world they shone on. “Who is the Kazon-Ogla!?”
It’s not a funny line. A perfectly normal line. A perfectly normal reaction for Janeway to see that Neelix had played them. But Mulgrew sells this absurd nonchalance in the moment in such a way that I can’t help but laugh every time I watch “The Guardian” for the rest of my life as an actor. A journey a follower. The anger, the confusion, the rise and fall of his voice as he emphasized “Kazon-Ogla.” He doesn’t make fun of the line or the weird wording and technobabble, though; what nails is the complete and utter sincerity behind it all, dripping from every word of the sentence. Kazon-Ogla? WHO it’s Kazon-Ogla! I can’t explain why it speaks to me in a certain way, beyond Mulgrew’s conviction as he says. Meanwhile, Kazon-Ogla, whoever he is, is a real thing in the world to him, and he makes you believe it, no matter how strange it seems.
Janeway and the rest of the team will continue to have many iconic moments, with many sweeping, honest, funny, brave, inspiring speeches and exchanges throughout. Voyager‘s seven seasons. But at all times Voyager beyond it, from all the times I have seen it now that I have watched it Star Trek the best part of my life, the one that pops into my head randomly like a mental tic—the one I still think about, and laugh at, 30 years later.
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