Janeways hair: What's with that?

I LOVE CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY! Don't worry if you didn't absorb that statement, as it will be repeated several times during this article.

So anyway, yeah, I love Captain Janeway and there are a million and one reasons why. This piece focuses on not one or more of those reasons, but instead on a subject which has plagued Janeway and Mulgrew herself for many years, and still does as far as Kate is concerned!

Janeways hair! We've heard Kate Mulgrew talk about this subject many-a time and at conventions it's her most commonly asked question.

''So hey, I'm Cedric from Outer Mongolia, I'm a big fan [wipes runny noes and squints over his jam jars]...What was with the hair?''

As she has explained in the past, the 'Suits' became a little nervous over putting a woman in the Captain's chair in what was ultimately a Boys Club. This could have brought a grinding halt to the franchise as males in their 30s were the biggest demographic. Would they follow a woman? Well, of course, we now know the answer to that question, and Voyager is one of the most loved of the Star Trek spin offs.  So why was Janeway's hair such a concern for the studio bigwigs? ('wigs'....see what I did there?)

A persons hair says a lot about them, and when creating a character, the hair style can denoted many things without them saying a word. It could give an indication of what their job is, how vain they are and how they view themselves, whether it be a practical style or for display, rather like a peacock. Whilst shooting the Pilot of Voyager, Janeway was given a feminine, shoulder-length, natural smooth flat bob, which was quickly dismissed by Paramount - many feel because it was simply too 'girly'. Janeway was quickly given her famous Bun of Steel (which I personally think makes her look like a school dinner lady), and please note: Aunt Bessie sports the same hair style today!

We've all heard of Aunt Kathy, well, here's Aunt Bessie.

The bun was eventually followed by my personal favourite, the volumised bob. There were a few variations of the bob, for example, the 'Year of Hell' bob that I'm sure had a few people going ''ahhhhh, that's why it ain't happening with Chakotay, she's a Les...'' ANYWAY...

Janeway sported several styles through Voyager's seven seasons, and her hair became as legendary as her ship and crew, but did it really make a difference how she wore her hair from episode to episode? Well, let's switch her hair with another Starfleet Captain and see.

PicaJane?

The hair department is clearly a very important piece of the Star Trek production puzzle, yet through bobs, short and long, flat and volumed, buns with varying degrees of firmness, French Twists, hair broaches and Rapunzel-waves that tickled her arse-crack, Janeway was unmistakably in command and anyone under that command knew who the boss was... even her bun used to repair itself between torpedo blasts.  Now THAT'S a diva if ever I saw one.

So what would I have done if I'd have been dressing for the Voyager hair department? Well...

PS. I love Captain Janeway

Orange is the New Trek

I mentioned previously that Voyager is where crazed Star Trek fandom started for me and, as ridiculous as it sounds, Janeway like a mother. My biological mother was working like a Bajoran during the occupation in the pub we owned and so I spent a huge amount of time after school sat in my room watching Star Trek, and Janeway was a nice stand in.

Last year when I heard Kate Mulgrew was returning to episodic television with a new woman's prison drama (playing a Russian to boot) I was concerned that I would only see and hear Capt Janeway in the role, not the actress, and perhaps it would spoil the character of Kathryn Janeway for me.  I put off watching it for a short while and listened to all the Trekkie feedback. The general consensus was that she was amazing in the part of Red, and so I checked it out for myself....

What Mulgrew did was show her skills as an actress.  Janeway to me was as real as any person and so you just assume that Kate is like that at all times, but that is not so.  Janeway was a character wisely written by Pillar and Taylor and molded by the actress, and now she was doing the same with a Russian prison chef. The two couldn't be more different, the only similarity between the two characters is that 'dont f*ck with me' aura that lurks just beneath her authoritative stance.  Mulgrew has infused both Janeway and Red with this quality and it is there whether she's reading out a crew evaluation report or the prison gruel menu.

So, it was the early hours of the morning about two months ago and I was waiting for sunrise as I was off to London for Panto rehearsals.  With a couple of hours to kill, I discovered thatIi had a red spiky wig in my dressing room, a wig which I had previously used when being one of the Cheeky Girls in a double Drag act. Red immediately sprang to mind, but could I do the Russian accent? ...Well, no, but that didn't stop Nana Visitor in 'Our Man Bashir'. The video camera came out. The results are below.

Kate Mulgrew as Red