# Why G. Bujold didn't remain captain on "Star Trek: Voyager" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 14, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908 "2007-01-14T05:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/1 "2007-01-14T05:13:54Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McBmqXredgw) I dunno. Maybe she was just having a bad day on the set. But that… whew. Mulgrew, for all her faults, was 'way better than her, IMHO. I think the producers made the right call. What say you? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/2 "2007-01-14T05:37:25Z")
Damn. I had never seen any footage of Bujold in the role before. She was wretched. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/3 "2007-01-14T05:57:58Z")
I’m afraid to look ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/4 "2007-01-14T06:19:03Z")
She reminds me of Linda Hunt doing a bad impression of Madeline Kahn doing a bad impression of Marlene Dietrich… ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/5 "2007-01-14T06:56:24Z")
So if she got the job why did Mulgrew end up with the role? Marc ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/6 "2007-01-14T07:04:37Z")
I dunno. I kinda like her accent. But Picard was already vaguely French or British or something or other. Still a Kate Mulgrew fan. [QUOTE=MGibson] So if she got the job why did Mulgrew end up with the role? Marc [/QUOTE] It sounded like she’d be okay for a movie on the big screen, but not so hot in a weekly TV show. She did seem a bit serious and grave, which Kate Mulgrew could do, but had a feisty enthusiasm towards her position I enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/7 "2007-01-14T07:06:47Z")
She seems to be trying too hard to act like a man. Mulgrew, had a much better balance. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/8 "2007-01-14T07:11:22Z")
Ok, I watched the whole thing, maybe she was having a bad day. Or maybe she just realized what a stinker this was going to be and decided to give up. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/9 "2007-01-14T07:51:05Z")
Yowza. Maybe English-language acting just isn’t her thing. Two interesting back-to-back bits of trivia in her [IMDb listing](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000991/): -She gave up the demanding job of Captain of the USS Voyager (“Star Trek: Voyager” (1995)) after only one day of filming. Kate Mulgrew followed her into the Captain’s Chair. -Was cast as Baroness Kessler in Roman Polanski’s The Ninth Gate (1999), but became ill at the last moment and had to give up the part. Became ill. Riiiiight. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/10 "2007-01-14T16:53:22Z")
Gawd after only one bit of dialogue, I’m convinced that the only French captain fit for the chair was the one who spoke like a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/11 "2007-01-14T16:58:42Z")
Wow. That was just as weird as I’d always heard it was. She did seem to be having unusual difficulty with the English language, which is very weird, since she’s acted in English plenty of times before. I suspect she just hadn’t learned her lines very well. Her timing was absolutely horrible! “I’ll get you back . . . to them.” OTOH, she played that same scene (the one with Tuvok) with some real emotion underneath her restrained exterior. Of course, the emotions were of someone tired and frustrated with a situation they’d rather not be in, and given the look on her face as soon as the scene cut, maybe she wasn’t acting. Her acting (or non-acting) style really clashed with the other actors in the scene where she starts off discussing the Cardassians with Tom Paris and the XO. She seemed to be whispering her lines compared to the others. I wonder if she’s done any stage work. Star Trek is always a bit stagy, and it could have helped her balance the assertive but unsubtle acting of Robert Duncan McNeil (Tom Paris) and the others. She seemed to be expecting lots of very tight, emotional shots and close miking, instead of broad action shots with everyone barking their lines. Bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/12 "2007-01-14T17:04:06Z")
So, I looked, and the clip crashed about a minute in, right where Janeway, Paris and Kim come onto the bridge. Bujold had nice hair… but that’s all I got. Sounds like I should be grateful. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/13 "2007-01-14T18:13:26Z")
She seemed to be playing the role as a more tortured, responsible soul that Mulgrew. She didn’t seem bad to me. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/14 "2007-01-14T20:30:34Z")
See, I always heard it was because she was asked to pad her bra and she wouldn’t. They asked ol’ Kate and she said “No prob.” We Dubuquers hate her. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/15 "2007-01-14T20:49:07Z")
[QUOTE=Little Bird] We Dubuquers hate her. [/QUOTE] Who? Why? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/16 "2007-01-14T21:01:38Z")
She sounds so…bored. Her and Tuvok talking about the planet without ‘nucleogenics’ in the atmosphere especially had that feeling. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/17 "2007-01-14T21:01:49Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Who? Why? [/QUOTE] Kate Mulgrew was born in Dubuque. I can’t tell whether he’s saying that Dubuquers hate Kate for some reason, or if they hate Mlle. Bujold because she quit and their Kate had to step up and suffer multiple seasons on _Voyager_… ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/18 "2007-01-14T21:03:04Z")
C’mon, when was the last time you first saw a new Trek captain without thinking “Oh God, no way is this gonna fly!”? I’m sure she would’ve made a great Janeway in time. Still, she doesn’t radiate the confidence that Kate Mulgrew does. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/19 "2007-01-14T21:35:37Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] their Kate had to step up and suffer multiple seasons on _Voyager_… [/QUOTE] She suffered all the way to the bank…and through a walk on part in a Trek movie. ^ :dubious: ^ ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/20 "2007-01-14T21:40:50Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] She suffered all the way to the bank…and through a walk on part in a Trek movie. ^ :dubious: ^ [/QUOTE] So please clarify the post that gave rise to that discussion in the first place…who do Dubuquers hate and why? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908.md?page=2)