Starfleet Captain Role A Triumph For Mulgrew

After a hard day on the bridge set of “Star Trek: Voyager,” Kate Mulgrew lights a cigarette and sits back on her couch. She’s been averaging 18-hour work days. When asked if her trailer is her home away from home, she says with a wry smile, “No, it is my home.”

Bridge days are particularly grueling, Mulgrew says, because they involve complex scenes. And then there’s all that “Star Trek” techno-babble.

“It’s a huge challenge,” she says, comparing it to the medical language she used as a doctor on the ABC drama “Heartbeat” in 1988. “The same kind of fidelity applies here. We’re in the operating room.”

Such are the challenges of playing a Starfleet captain. Mulgrew, 39, is not complaining. She attributes her natural presence on set to being the oldest, bossy girl in a family of eight from Dubuque, Iowa. Her entire career, she believes, has led to this role, one that she considers a triumph.

“The captain has to have very clearly delineated characteristics that perhaps I wouldn’t have had even three or four years ago,” she says thoughtfully.

“Kate simply had an ineffable quality that put her ahead of the pack,” says executive producer Jeri Taylor. “She has proven to be a remarkably accurate choice.”