Banners that were signed by Kate and auctioned for charity
The Official Star Trek Convention East Coast
Creation Entertainment 
Parsippany, New Jersey
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Report & Photos by Chris

Used with permission
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Many Thanks to Chris for sharing her report!

Kate Mulgrew at Star Trek New Jersey Con 

Report by Chris Limbach

As you all know this was my first ST con. Let alone seeing Kate live, I had no idea what to expect. I will only post and talk about things that I can absolutely remember and quote about. I will put quotation marks on anything I can quote Kate on saying.  I arrived early on Saturday and was thrilled that Kate was still on the list to appear for that day.

I must say, when I found my seat, I noticed throughout the morning, there were a lot of empty seats. I thought to myself... I can move up and be that much closer to the stage. 

Richard Arnold came on stage. He was the consultant for all ST shows and movies. He was an interesting guy. He spoke about all the movies and all the shows. One person asked why there weren’t many bloopers out there to see... he said it was because the actors and actresses didn't like clips showing themselves in a bad light - remember this.

After that Adam Malin (co-owner of Creation) came out and did the auction. Proceeds went to a charity that Shatner developed and it raised a lot of money towards it. Kate's banner went for the most money for a single signature: $340. Adam was running out of time. It was time to bring out Kate and he asked if we minded that Kate would be pushed back a bit. We all screamed... YEA! He wrapped it all up quickly and the fans were happy.

It was during the auction time that all the seats started to fill up. I'm thinking everyone came that day to see Kate. I also noticed a lot of people were standing on the sides. Thought to myself, Hmm…they must really want to see the stuff being auctioned off. Boy was I wrong.

The intro video for Kate was shown and we all cheered. It was awesome. Then Kate walked out on stage and we all jumped to our feet and gave her a few minute standing ovation. She said she was delighted to be here, and the last few days were fraught. She said she liked the video but she was crying in most of it.  We all chuckled. She talked about the confusion as to which day she was supposed to be here, she had Sunday. She went into what she was doing the past few months. "About 6 months ago I think, I was in Minneapolis giving a key note address to a bunch of doctors which can be sometimes rather dry... right?" There were about 1500 Dr's and donors there. After the speech, a doctor came up to her and asked if she would have breakfast with her. Doctor Karen Ashe came to her after the dinner and asked her to have breakfast with her. She said certainly. During breakfast the Dr said she is the neurosurgeon who invented the Alzheimer mouse and she believes they have found the road. But they need to put a profile to this cure which is prevention and they are asking for Kate to come on board with a select few neuroscientists to realize this prevention.  She then told us "Before Chicago I was in Minneapolis for two days and was studying what it is exactly they’re doing. I worked with the mice for 3 hours... that's interesting"  At this point she started to laugh and so did we. Then she said "How many people get to work with demented mice, transgenic mice". 

Kate went on to say "Anyway, that is I think probably the most exciting thing in my life. The acting is robust. It's as vital as ever. I was on Broadway for 7 months doing ‘Equus’", to which we all cheered. She said she thoroughly enjoyed it. Then mentioned that a pilot she did just got picked up for a series so she will start back shooting ‘Mercy’ in a couple of weeks.  She also just did a film in Philadelphia called ‘The Best and the Brightest' with Neil Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris and just laughed for two months. 

Kate stated that life has been very good... "But here's the thing, I haven't been this happy in I would say 20 years." Then she pointed out to the audience and exclaimed "I was happy on ‘Voyager’, but for some reason this year of my life has been absolutely splendid, there's no real reason for it" to which a fan yelled out Obama. Her answer... "Of course Obama, but he's gone grey”. We all laughed and cheered.

She continued on with "So everything is great I now go into a year that I think will be full of secrets and revelations and I am absolutely committed to the Alzheimer thing. I'm very committed to Gitmo and at this age I am still madly in love with the craft that I chose when I was 12. It doesn't get much luckier than that in life. So I am blessed and I am happy and I'm delighted to be here in Parsippany because I live in New York now. It's a jump across the river right, and I love New York." To which we all cheered. We New Yorkers were going whoo-hoo. 

Right after that Kate went on to say "I want to take your questions because this always goes so fast and I don't want it to become so completely self absorbed", she pointed to the people standing in the middle aisle asking if this was the line.  It wasn't. That was the mob of people with cameras getting up close to get good shots.

People yelled out "here." "Where? Is that you?" she moved to the left of the stage, to which people said "And that side." She looked to her right and went.... "Oh double fisted are we, ok."     And we all howled with laughter.  It was at this point I felt that she owned this crowd.  The woman has charisma and presence, extremely quick witted and very funny. And that was when the people standing on the sides for a half hour made sense. I will be one of them at my next convention because I would have loved to ask her a question.


During the Q&A she answered a lot of questions that broached on a broad range of topics, not just about Voyager. We had politics, health care, ‘meet my son’, Voyager’s propulsion system, favorite episode, Alzheimer and a whole slew of others.

In no specific order here are some of the questions and answers. 

One woman asked two questions. The first was about the episode concerning suicide, sorry don’t know the name of it, but Kate said it was provocative, great stuff. “Janeway was very torn because her ethical center says no. The scientist must say no, first do no harm, but by the end of that, I think it was a 2 part of 2. I had come around. Why should he be forced to a life of eternal anxiety? So ultimately I think I came around in an extraordinary way. Even for Star Trek. Don’t you?” Then the woman asked Kate what she thought of the episode Tuvix because it really bothered her. Kate replied that “It was alright, but I didn’t really like that actor.” To which the woman said, oh ok, and something else, but I couldn’t really hear because the audience was like ooooo and chuckling. To which Kate clarified, “No I mean he was always upset, you know.” (She waved her arm around) “Get over it”. To which we all cracked up.  She looks to the woman: “Thank you, thank you.”  This is what I meant about being honest. 

Next up a woman asked about the novel Kate had mentioned she was going to write. A memoir about her 7 yrs on Voyager and was wondering what happened to it. She gave a great answer to this question.  “That’s nice, I know I did, didn’t I. But life interrupts, life intervenes, I think I want to write about that. I think a memoir is a tricky thing, because it’s very revealing. And I think it’s maybe it’s a little too soon. I want to write judiciously and kindly about all of the people who affected my life. Star Trek was a huge chapter and I really want to be honest about it. I don’t want to be cute about it and I don’t want to make a million bucks about it. I don’t want to sell it. I want to tell the story of this amazing thing that happened to me. This actress that I was, and theretofore I had no idea about Star Trek let alone the magnitude of science fiction and it changed my life completely. And forever. So I will write it, but later. Later. Let me do the series, let me take care of the Alzheimer thing, gotta get… gotta get to Guantanamo, THEN.”  She said this last line like she was reading a list of things she really wants to do, to which she cracked herself up and laughed. 

Next up was a woman who was an Alzheimer nurse for 10 yrs until she became disabled and retired and said Kate is a wonderful representative for Alzheimer’s. Kate’s response was very powerful. 
 “Thanks, thanks, I don’t know that I’m a good representative, I just don’t want anyone to die like my mother died. It’s so horrible you know. My theory about Alzheimer’s is we are funneling a lot of the funds now the NIH and everybody else into the respective chapters throughout the country, but not enough is going to the research. You know, clinical studies, millions of dollars. Millions of dollars are shut down immediately. The FDA shuts it down immediately if there’s one hiccup. So we got to find a way to get this money to my darling Doctor Ashe. And find out. We have to get people to pony up. In 2050 a hundred million people globally will be afflicted. In 2050 a hundred million will have this disease.  It’s extraordinary when you think about it. And it’s not what you think. You don’t suddenly become, you know, oblivious to everything. I think you live and die in mortal terror. I think it’s just an absolute vortex of shit.... Excuse me”.  To which quite a few people chuckled to release the tension within their selves. 

“And we must find a way to get around it. We need to really get into your communities and fight, fight,  fight...” She turned to the woman on the side, “I’m sorry, you wanted to ask me a question I’m sure”. She started to laugh as did we all. 
 
Another woman asked her what it felt like to be the first woman captain. “It was absolutely extraordinary, because I broke the mold.” To which the crowd went wild. “You can’t imagine how that feels, to know that Paramount and Rick Berman were willing to gamble on billions of dollars by putting a woman in the seat, right? Because it’s all about money really in the end. You can’t run if there’s not enough money”. A woman yelled out something, Kate turned to her and said “What” to which the woman repeated, “It had to be the right woman. There’s no gamble with you.” Kate went on with “I often use the word privilege but that’s not the right word because this was the hardest work imaginable. I’m just so proud of the work. I’m proud of proving a woman can do that. But there’s a reason why they have men, it’s very hard to stand on your feet for 18 hours a day. That language is very difficult. It takes stamina it takes guts. I just think to have assumed that mantel, was of course going to be the seminal chapter probably of my life”. The woman went on to explain that it was very inspiring to her, the average Joe, that maybe there could be a position like that for the average woman. Kate told us a great story about her experience at the White House.  “It did open those doors. Mrs. Clinton had me to the White House at the end of the first season to speak to women in science. A group of women were being acclaimed in their respective fields. They asked me. Out of a pool of candidates I was chosen because obviously these women are smart enough to realize that if Paramount had the prescience to put a woman in the seat this would have bearing on their active fields. So I had young girls coming up to me from MIT afterwards saying ‘I was going into research but now I’m going to NASA, I’m going up’.” We all cheered and clapped with this.

Like I said, she’s very honest and you know when she answers a question you are getting a real answer. I found Kate to be ‘real’. What I mean is the actors before her, were funny, witty, and outgoing. But I felt like I was watching an act, like they were performing for us. Whereas when Kate was on stage... it was Kate Mulgrew. I hope this makes sense to you all.
A few more Q&A’s.

A gentleman asked Kate if all 5 captains were stuck in a room and they got in a fight, "where would you come in? On top?"  To which she looked out to the audience and said .. “That’s a rhetorical question. All five, I always get this wrong, There’s Shatner, Picard, Avery, oh, me, (to which she started laughing) the last one Scott, Scott Bakula, I don’t know him. Who would win? Why are you asking such a question?” The guy said his wife thinks she would win because the men would be too honorable to beat Janeway up. Again another great answer. “No no no.” He went on to say something else, but she went on. “ No no no no. No they wouldn’t nor were they for seven years. No, but I would take care of them with my great wit and style.” This got a resounding applause and cheer.  While we were all cheering she quipped “Bring them to their knees.” 
 
Then there was the guy who brought up a long techno babbled question about Voyager getting back sooner if the ship had hyper drive. Well everyone was cracking up and Kate had a fabulous response. “Wait a minute, wait a minute ladies and gentlemen”. We all quieted down. She turned to the guy and goes “Who sent you?” We all started to laugh again. "Hyper drive! I thought my stick-shift was just fine, thank you.”

Two little girls came up to ask a question and it looked like Kate had a great time with them. She asked if they were sisters. Yes. She asked their names and then asked if they were twins. Next their age. “How old are you? You’re 11 and she’s  8? And you’re sisters?”  She looked at them for a bit and then goes, “That’s very interesting. You’re the same height, aren’t you." She paused for a bit looking at them... “Who’s stronger?” We all laughed. There was no vocal answer to this, not sure if one pointed.


Their question was favorite episode.  “Oooh, you know how many I did? Did you ever even see one?”  They saw almost all of them. Kate asked them what they thought of them. They loved them. To which Kate turned the tables on the cute little girls. “I think the question is; what was your favorite episode?”   To which they responded “The Year of Hell!!  Kate held up her hand to stop our cheers and says “I’m checking her out, I’m checking her out. Part one or part two?” The little girl was just as quick. “BOTH” To which Kate complimented her by saying she's pretty and smart.  She stated after doing so many episodes it’s hard to pick just one, there were so many good ones. She paused for a second and then went on to answer.  “I always say Death Wish. What was the other thing I always say?” The audience shouted out a lot of titles. But she was looking for a specific one. “Do I say Deadlock? No, somebody kissed me, I loved that one. And he wasn’t a hologram he was real. That was such heaven after seven years. I was always making up crazy men.”  Everyone started to shout out ‘Counterpoint’. That was it. “Wasn’t he handsome! Ah, I loved that episode. I never wanted it to end“. She looks over to the little girls and goes. “I’m sorry girls”.  Again much laughter, she walked back over to them and said she had a lot of favorites. She was gracious and asked if her sister had a question. I guess she shook her head no because Kate asked “You don’t” The little girl got up to the mike and emphatically goes no. Kate just cracked up. 

What was so great about this specific moment was, it was a great segue into the next question, which was , if there were any episodes that she felt uncomfortable about or didn’t feel it pertained to the character. 

“Yea, but that’s a difficult one, because there were several. Do you know.. Uh, I think... there was one. I go back in time because this one just haunts me. It continues to visit me at night. I think I produced lizards with Lt. Paris. I mean Capt. Janeway had a sick sex life didn’t she. If I wasn’t on the holodeck making up some weird guy, I was having lizards on a turbo lift with Lt. Paris. I mean I picked up the phone and said, Rick. Surely, you’re jesting me. But every now and then they do what they call bottle shows to save a couple of bucks ‘cause FX shows are so expensive 1 ½ to 2 million dollars. So they have to tighten the financial screws and do something in turbo lifts and inevitably they were a little less then premium standard I had aspired to. Right." She started to cross the stage and looks at us... "Cute little lizards, with little red hair."

Bringing it back to part one for a bit, remember when I said Richard Arnold said bloopers rarely get shown because the stars don’t like being shown in a bad light.  The next bit Kate blows this theory out of the water. Well, at least for her. It’s a long quote but well worth it, a very fascinating peek behind the making of the show.

“There is no work, I know especially to the men this sounds like I’m pandering, or... I don’t know what the right word would be but. It’s bone crunchingly hard work. But bone crunching. I mean” To which she started to bite her wrist. “Let me go hoooome. I can’t say another line. There was a day or two where I would have to do 7 pages of dialogue. 7 pages of techno babble and I carried a camera which was on a crane, a loose crane from mark to mark to mark to mark, right.” For this she walked around a circle pointing at 'marks' on the floor. “We worked, we rehearsed it, we... every time I’d get to the end of it. I would just, then I would hear this beep, I would hear this (she mumbles into the microphone) I guess mimicking a producer. Then she continues in a louder voice with “Ah Kate, we’re sorry” She puts her hand on her forehead and drops her head. 

She goes on to tell us another blooper story.

“I had a scene once in the briefing room. The ever treacherous briefing room. Very hard to get a camera in there. Very hard to make that space interesting, that table. Very difficult monologue about how I got to get everybody out of there right? Again me reading 3 pages but intensely difficult and I studied the Okuda(sp) bible just to get it right too. I spent days trying to get this language under my belt, knowing, now this is the theater that if I don’t understand it, you’re not going to buy it. But meanwhile you gotta do it. You got a bing, a bang, you’re on a thing, you got a split screen, you got a green screen, you gotta bump and bop. (She rapid fired this all out.) “And I did all of it. The camera’s following, I got a green screen, and a thing, I got it all right, and I would get to the window... Here she starts to laugh. Then goes: “To this day it makes me just want to shoot myself, I would get to the window and I would finish the last line... ‘And I promise I will return this ship to the Alpha Quadrant’ (she stretches her right hand out) ‘and I would put my hand on the window, but it would go across the pane. Every bleeping time! It was as if my hand was an alien species. It would go and it would go over! And everybody would go oooh noooo she did it again! That kind of diabolical stuff, do y’know... seven years you guys seven years. And every time I had to fight with an alien species, do you think I had an alien species? Try a stick with a tennis ball!"

 We exploded with laughter, “For hours, hours. Within like inches I had to keep within inches, and I mean that was work, real work. The joy, the easy stuff, the gravy were the dialogue scenes where you’re talking and you’re actually sharing it, all the rest of it.. Tough. Unlike anything else I have ever had to do and that’s why I’m proud of it.” 

We were told it was her idea for the DaVinci character. How she understood a lot of people wanted Janeway to hook up with Chakotay, but she didn't really agree with it. That the time had passed and would give a whole new meaning to ready room and warp drive.

She told us about how she got up at 3:30am every morning, had a cup of coffee, grabbed her stuff and was out the door by 4:15 to make the hour drive to Paramount. How she was worried because one kid had a fever, the other was misbehaving and she had to figure out how to do the scenes. 

And this is what I meant about Kate being ‘real’ on stage.  She's very honest and very open about herself. 

After she was done on stage, the photo op took place. I swear it would have been much easier to count the people who didn’t get a pic taken with her (or an autograph) then to count the ones who did. She was very gracious. I was waiting off to the side where the volunteer told me to wait. Before I could move, Kate actually started to walk over to me, ( I quickly hustled over) she initiated a handshake and said hi nice to meet you. What's your name?

Just a last quick side note. The autograph session. I was thrilled that she was personalizing things. I thought that was just for the Gold people. I had brought an extra item because I couldn’t make up my mind which picture I wanted signed. When I got to the table, I told her how many tix I bought and was allowed to get signed, but I would like one of these mags signed. I can’t make up my mind so you pick which one you want to sign.  She smiled and then shushed me. So I quickly tapered off my speech, well... She grabbed both mags, and signed everything I had laid out on the table!! That’s not only class, but a genuine moment of appreciation to a fan. 

So.. thanks Kate for a most unforgettable afternoon. Thanks for all the laughter, but most of all thanks for giving up your personal time and space to your fans.


 
 
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