Mulgrew's idea regarding Janeway as a mother

[Caprica_Six]

I'm sure most of you have seen the latest Trek Today article talking to Kate about her new play, but I thought I'd post the link here just in case, as she had something interesting to say about the Janeway's character.

Link to the article

Linking her latest character- Clytemnestra's loss of her child to Janeway she ponders what it would have been like if Janeway had a child that she had left behind in the Alpha Quadrant and how that may have effected her decision making and desire to get home.

Kate says;

"I wonder if I would have given Janeway a child...whom she had left behind. With the promise that she would be back very quickly." The actress thought that would have "informed every relationship" that Janeway had on the series: "The stakes would have been unbearably high, and it would have been the big secret...it would have been very poignant to have replayed that again and again over those seven years," possibly making Janeway more reckless in her impulse to get them home.

So what do you think about the possibilities Kate has presented and how do you think that may have changed some of the storylines in Voyager?

 

[KiraDax]

Has she been reading cliche fan fiction?



That aside, it would have given her sometimes crazed determination to get home a little more perspective.

 

[Caprica_Six]

KiraDax said:
Has she been reading cliche fan fiction?



That aside, it would have given her sometimes crazed determination to get home a little more perspective.

It's not really a cliche, what other trek or scifi show would have had that setup? Plus it would have been a lot more interesting then the Mark angle they went for. If the show is really about the journey then what better way of paralleling a journey then by comparing it to a child's journey of independence from their mother? The forced separation of child from mother has direct parallels to the forced separation of one crew from the federation. Both have to learn independence, form their own set of rules, go through stages of growth etc.

 

[erastus25]

Sounds like a soap opera to me.

 

[Huntingdon]

More reckless?

 

[Malcom]

KiraDax said:
That aside, it would have given her sometimes crazed determination to get home a little more perspective.

But she's been criticized for having Voyager stop and sniff every flower along the way and to explore every little stellar phenomenon....

As it was, we were spared yet another program/ movie/ novel/self-help book about a woman torn between her family and duty and the costs that her career to her family.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

erastus25 said:
Sounds like a soap opera to me.

Soap Opera is having someone's evil twin brother pop up that the brother didn't even know existed ("Datelore") or have a twin try to take his girlfriend ("Second Chances"). Having a family or child doesn't necessarily have to be a "soap opera" character motivation unless they wrote it like Dallas.

Apart from Sisko, Trek captains seldom have any attachments . They are the old standard hero who must walk the universe alone (Kirk, Picard, Archer and Janeway). I think that having her believe that she abandoned her child would have given her an additional dimension not seen in the other Trek captains.

It would have made her spades more interesting.

 

[Computer]

If we could have made Janeway a tad bit older I would have had her have a daughter but by the time she left was already 11 or 12 making her 18 or 19 by the time Voyager came to an end.

I would have replaced Barcleys role (as much as I adore him) with her daughter.