# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/21 "2007-01-14T22:05:20Z")
It’s well known that all citizens of Dubuque harbor a burning hatred toward Kate Mulgrew, for her unfulfilled promise that the new Star Trek franchise would chronicle the adventures of the starship **Dubuque**. On the other hand, Genevieve Bujold has also earned a lot of animosity across the state of Iowa for her habit of showing up at the DemiCon sci-fi convention in Des Moines, claiming to be \*Lois McMaster \* Bujold, and offering to sign copies of the Vorkosigan saga for cash. So it could be either one, I suppose. ---
**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, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/22 "2007-01-14T22:19:13Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] So please clarify the post that gave rise to that discussion in the first place…who do Dubuquers hate and why? [/QUOTE] Kate Mulgrew. Her family has a nifty little cartel here that has historically kept our gas prices much higher than the surrounding area. They said it’s just harder to import oil and gas here, strange since we are the river port for the region. Also, she left Iowa and never looked back. You would think someone like her would try to build some sort of arts program here, invest something into the city where she grew up. Not a chance. She got herself a fancy-schmancy accent and pretends she never even heard of Iowa. (Kind of like when Madonna went to England) Tony Danza has given Dubuque more and he only went to college here. 'Couse, now that I think about it, the “Tony Danza and Kate Mulgrew Center for the Performing Arts” makes me shudder to think about, so perhaps it’s best she’s kept her snoot-ified self away. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/23 "2007-01-14T22:20:30Z")
[QUOTE=Tengu] She sounds so…bored. [/QUOTE] Hey, she knows her audience. 😃 Her accent sounded fine to me, but I’m surrounded by people who talk just like her, tabernac’. It’s the jerky camera work I found upsetting, like it was _The Blair Sorciere Project_, or something. Also I really came to dislike Kate Mulgrew and her pseudo-Hepburn style. Truth be told, I kinda wish Lindsay Wagner had gotten the role (as was rumoured early on). “Gonna take over _my_ ship, are ya? _NANANANANANANANANA_ _CRUNCH_.” ---
**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, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/24 "2007-01-14T22:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] citizens of Dubuque harbor [/QUOTE] Iowa is landlocked. :rolleyes: ---
**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, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/25 "2007-01-14T22:25:24Z")
Okay, clarified. 🙂 Thank you, **Little Bird**. ---
**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, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/26 "2007-01-14T22:30:27Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Iowa is landlocked. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] We have a rather large river running next to us, perhaps you’ve heard of it…the Mississippi? Yes? No? ---
**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, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/27 "2007-01-14T22:31:34Z")
[QUOTE=jayjay] Okay, clarified. 🙂 Thank you, **Little Bird**. [/QUOTE] No problem. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/28 "2007-01-14T22:32:11Z")
'Ey, it’s not so big as the Saint Laurent, estsie… ---
**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, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/29 "2007-01-14T22:33:58Z")
[QUOTE=Little Bird] We have a rather large river running next to us, perhaps you’ve heard of it…the Mississippi? Yes? No? [/QUOTE] No, I never heard of it in Arkansas. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/30 "2007-01-14T22:43:13Z")
Dubuque harbor is one hard-boiled waterfront, I hear. You know about wharf rats? In Dubuque they have wharf cows. Kate Mulgrew used to work summers as a stevedore, you know. That’s where she got those cast-iron shoulders of hers. She could take out a stampeding wharf cow with a single left hook. ‘Meathook Mulgrew’ they called her. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/31 "2007-01-14T22:59:25Z")
I think it would have been an interesting series with Genevieve Bujold. It would have taken her a little while to really get the character down, but when she did she would have been magnificent. Of course, I’ve been in love with Genevieve Bujold since I was ten years old, so you’ll have to take that with a grain of salt. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/32 "2007-01-15T00:36:09Z")
Bujold sounded very disconnected in these clips, with an undercurrent of not-wanting-to-be-doing-this in her tone. I’d always been curious about this footage. Glad someone dug it up, believe it or not. ---
**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 15, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/33 "2007-01-15T00:54:13Z")
I can’t help but point out that we saw only clips w/o special effects or music. One may have come to like her; I didn’t like the new Dr. Who for a while. 🙂 We’re also listening to Rick BErman, who we usually blame for making bad decisions about the various series. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/34 "2007-01-15T00:59:59Z")
Too busty? ---
**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 15, 2007, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/35 "2007-01-15T01:36:08Z")
[QUOTE=Little Bird] …'Couse, now that I think about it, the “Tony Danza and Kate Mulgrew Center for the Performing Arts” makes me shudder to think about… [/QUOTE] “Hold me closer, Tony Danza!” Mulgrew lives 'round these parts nowadays, as it happens. She married one of our county commissioners, Tim Hagan. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/36 "2007-01-15T13:05:10Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] I can’t help but point out that we saw only clips w/o special effects or music. [/QUOTE] That’s what I was thinking. All the performances seemed falt wthout the proper, polished ADR. Meh, I don’t think she was bad at all. She was a bit dour, toherwise I think she was just different. Not better or worse, just different. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/37 "2007-01-15T15:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] “Hold me closer, Tony Danza!” Mulgrew lives 'round these parts nowadays, as it happens. She married one of our county commissioners, Tim Hagan. [/QUOTE] What is it with _Voyager_ actresses and midwestern politicians? ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/38 "2007-01-15T16:32:37Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Mulgrew lives 'round these parts nowadays, as it happens. She married one of our county commissioners, Tim Hagan. [/QUOTE] That may come back to haunt him politically when the press finds out that she had a clutch of salamanders out of wedlock. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/39 "2007-01-15T17:56:03Z")
Bujold’s been a very good actress on the big screen (_Coma, The Moderns, Dead Ringers_), but in the clips here, she conveys gravity but no actual authority. She’s also physically so diminuitive that I think having an actual physical presence is important from a purely visual sense. I think the clips also show how difficult speaking Trek gobbledy-gook techno-speak actually is, even for a seasoned pro. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908/40 "2007-01-15T23:13:30Z")
I liked her. I especially liked her look - as far as I’m concerned, she looks exactly like I would expect a Starship captain to look like - a little older, a little grey, and pretty darned serious. I think she suffers most from comparisons with the acting around her - everyone else is bright, primary colours, and she was doing gritty black-and-white. I think she would have taken “Voyager” in a completely different direction, and I think it would have been brilliant (less “Happy Happy Federation Stories” and more “BSG”). You could also take my opinion with a grain of salt because I hated Kate Mulgrew in this role - my standard for good acting is if they look like they’re acting, they’re not good, and she always looks like she was acting. Pseudo-Kathering Hepburn is a good way of describing it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-g-bujold-didnt-remain-captain-on-star-trek-voyager/387908.md?page=3)