Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) has been doing the press rounds... yet again, as I hear you say. This time, however, at least one of them breaks from the standardized responses we've all come to know. First off, there's SciFi.com's interview with the actress, conducted by Melissa J. Perenson.

As the first female Captain for a Star trek series, Mulgrew said that "The first couple of seasons were tough; [she] was highly scrutinized." It seemed to her that "everything was analyzed to an inch of its being, and then when they saw [she] could not only command the ship but do it with a degree of aplomb they began to give [her] some slack." By fourth season though, the character had really come out – in the actresses own words, "she became much looser, much more of a risk-taker", "much less cerebral, and much more visceral."

In the rest of the interview, the actress talks about her character's almost-romance with XO Chakotay (Robert Beltran) – she thinks it needs to be wrapped up, that they need to find out what they mean to each other and if "there [is] a future for them as friends, and if so, what kind of a future" – her favourite episode ('Night') and what she thingks the final episodes of Voyager should be like. To read the full article, please follow this link. Thanks go out to John for the heads up.

In the second interview, however, Mulgrew doesn't talk about her character at all – instead she briefly talks to the January 19th edition of the 'Catholic Explorer' about her view on abortion. In a phrase: "does not compute with [her] philosophy." Mulgrew is certainly in an interesting position to speak on this subject – she herself became pregnant at an early age but carried the girl to term and then put her up for adoption. "Women often don't believe that they can survive nine months of pregnancy and place the child with an adoptive family," she told the Explorer, but she survived it and, around two years ago, was re-united with her daughter.

The full transcript of this article, which includes snippets from Patricia Heaton, Margaret Colin and the late Loretta Young, can be found here at Totally Kate.

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