Kate Mulgrew's decision to not have a romance

[RB_Kandy]

I've heard Kate Mulgrew at many conventions/interviews talk about how she was dead set against Captain Janeway having a romance with anyone. She claimed it would be inappropriate to be the captain and have a romance with someone under her command.

What do you all think about that decision?

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

It was awesome.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibVOzPUvtww[/yt]

"I'm glad I didn't sleep with Chakotay."

 

[Violet.Phoenix]

I think that it worked well. Even though there wasn't a romance between her and any (certain) members of her crew, there was still a lot of tension between Janeway and Chakotay, which kept us all asking "Will they...?" for years.

Sure, it would have been nice for there to have been a greater acknowledgement of the attraction between those two characters, but I can respect the decision not to, because it showed the other great aspects of Janeway's character. We saw what a great leader Janeway was as well as her intelligence when it came to strategy.

 

[Lynx]

I think she's right!

Honestly, there have been too many "pairing offs" in too many series (not only Star Trek) between characters who haven't had any chemistry at all, just for the sake of it.

I think that Janeway was right in her statement and I also think that the writers did handle it good. Until the last episode!

However, I wouldn't have objected if they had came up with a "happy ending" between Janeway and Chakotay in the last episode. That's what many fans wanted, there was a chemistry between Janeway and Chakotay and it would have been perfectly OK when the series was about to end.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think we got plenty of overt text in Resolutions and I think it worked well. It's like any office attraction where the parties are already involved with someone or where it's hugely inappropriate for some reason. You know it's there but you don't focus on it. With Janeway and Chakotay you had a much more intense environment with the isolation and need to work closely together all the time. They could have kept ramping up the tension but they chose not to. Instead they both have dalliances with others, even if they were not real. Was the door completely closed for Janeway before C went off with 7? Did Janeway think that perhaps if they got home she might have explored the possibility of a relationship with C? I don't know the answer to any of that, though I tend to see Janeway's shock at the husband word in Endgame as being more about losing 7 than Chak, though that's my personal preference for her.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I think she's right!

Honestly, there have been too many "pairing offs" in too many series (not only Star Trek) between characters who haven't had any chemistry at all, just for the sake of it.

I think that Janeway was right in her statement and I also think that the writers did handle it good. Until the last episode!

However, I wouldn't have objected if they had came up with a "happy ending" between Janeway and Chakotay in the last episode. That's what many fans wanted, there was a chemistry between Janeway and Chakotay and it would have been perfectly OK when the series was about to end.

That's why I am quite thrilled with the ending of The Eternal Tide, that something a sizable chunk of fans wanted (not me, lol) actually took place in TrekLit. I'm happy for them.. and I will just retreat to my J/7 youtubes...

 

[R. Star]

That's the first I heard of this, though it really doesn't surprise me. Kirk sleeps with every alien chick of the week and every crew member willing and the guy's a stud. If Janeway slept with every alien hunk of the week she'd be dubbed a whore. Gotta love societal double standards.

If she had quietly had a relationship with say Chakotay on Voyager I don't think that would be too inappropriate given the circumstances, but that's her decision not to. Plenty of bones for me to pick with the Janeway character to go inventing some over a nothing like this. It's her privledge to chose to or not to have a romance.

 

[Guy Gardener]

It was ridiculous.

If Mulgrew gave up on sex too for 7 years, I wouldn't remark on the hypocrisy.

I can understand if their were no worthwhile suitors.

When it's slim pickings or nothing, nothing is understandable, but even "not her crew" there are plenty of men and women that might have been up to her standards for a first date but for her universal intent of denial.

Hell.

She found a guy to have sex with, lived with him for a while, but as soon as she got her ship back, it's "come with me tot he stars... But we'll have to stop screwing, I mean I really like it when we do it, but I can't let my crew know that I'm human being with needs".

How thin are the walls on Voyager?

There was some serious tension between Kathryn and Amelia Earhart too, even if she was already fooling around with Tacklberry.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

The Earhart subtext was all over the episode.

I dunno.. how do we know what she was denying herself? Certainly she denied herself a relationship but perhaps she had a whole harem of holodeck lovers we never saw. She's a scientist, she knows it's straight biology to not deny physical needs.

 

[Guy Gardener]

EMH: I understand your trepidation, but you're the Captain. You can't have a relationship with a member of your crew. They're all your subordinates. So, where does that leave you? The occasional dalliance with a passing alien? Voyager could be in the Delta quadrant for a very long time. A hologram may be the only logical alternative.

Before Janeway can have sex with one of these passing Aliens, the doctor has to sign off on compatibility issues that there isn't some health risk even if everything goes exactly right.

Also birth control is a monthly shot given by the Doctor, if he wasn't giving Janeway her monthly shot, then she was irresponsible or celibate.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

EMH: I understand your trepidation, but you're the Captain. You can't have a relationship with a member of your crew. They're all your subordinates. So, where does that leave you? The occasional dalliance with a passing alien? Voyager could be in the Delta quadrant for a very long time. A hologram may be the only logical alternative.

Before Janeway can have sex with one of these passing Aliens, the doctor has to sign off on compatibility issues that there isn't some health risk even if everything goes exactly right.

Also birth control is a monthly shot given by the Doctor, if he wasn't giving Janeway her monthly shot, then she was irresponsible or celibate.

Or shagging in the holodeck. Which neatly sidesteps every one of these issues.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Fairhaven is season 6 which is when it would seem from the pressure applied by the Doctor, was the first time that she indulged in holograms. So half of season 6 and all of season 7, yes kathy boffed holograms in secret.... But the first and a half years?

Cobwebs down there are called coochwebs.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

No in season 6 she first fell for a hologram. That was the problem, not the boffing. Perhaps she had been creating much less real and more Big Vibrators with Bodies in the holodeck before this and had no reason to discuss as much with the EMH.

Or do you just want her to be repressed?

 

[Guy Gardener]

I don't want her repressed.

She is repressed.

In Night, she stayed in her room for three months rocking back in fourth eating her own hair.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

She can be tightly wound. Control, she's her hardest taskmaster. I suppose that's part of the appeal, unwinding her..

 

[R. Star]

That was actually one of my favorite Janeway scenes where she's reprograming that Fair Haven hologram to her specifications, all while she's slowly stalking around it like a preditor.

"Delete the wife."

 

[Sadara]

I think if you're looking at a 70 year trip home then it's okay to relax the rules a little bit. I understand why she didn't, but I don't think anyone would have looked badly on it if she had given the circumstances.

 

[Violet.Phoenix]

If they had been in the Delta Quadrant for a longer period of time I would think that something would have given in, either the rules or Janeway. I highly doubt that she would keep going back to her Irish pub boy whenever she needed to release a little tension.

Of course, we all know that a relationship between her and Chuckles would have gone down the drain if they had remained in the DQ.

 

[purplebookworm]

I haven't finished watching season 7 yet, but it seems to me that part of it is that Janeway is punishing herself by staying alone. Starfleet really should send Voyager a counselor hologram.

 

[Madzilla]

I'm a huge J/C shipper, but I don't know that I'd have wanted it to happen in, I don't know, season 4 or something (although I would have LOVED to see something along the lines of Isabo's Shirt that at least acknowledged and 'resolved' it rather than just letting it hang for seven years and then trolling everybody at the end). I would have preferred it either happen right at the end (either in the last handful of episodes or in the very last ep), or to leave it completely open. (ANYTHING but what we got, lol.)

I've seen relationships happen on shows between couples that previously had a lot of UST and it often ruins the dynamic and the show - a case of 'be careful what you wish for', I guess. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to seeing how their relationship will work in the novels, so maybe it would have been handled well - I doubt it, though, to be honest.