We’re back with our next interview from October’s New York Comic Con event, continuing our chats with the cast and crew of Star Trek: Prodigy — straight from the convention floor.

Along with a few other outlets, TrekCore had the chance to sit down with Star Trek icon Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway), who told us about playing two versions of her legendary character in the new animated series, thoughts on a rumored live-action return, and what it’s like to have a statue built in her character’s honor.

QUESTION: What’s exciting to you about introducing Janeway to a new generation of viewers?

KATE MULGREW: You can imagine how rewarding it is, right? I get to bring this down to kids in an animated version, but I’ll tell you the truer tale — we’re living in a very strange time. You could say that this is borderline of bleak time; just look at what’s going on in Ukraine and the recent threats and all of that. To bring a character like Janeway to animated television to small children is ennobling and elevating.

And it brings us back to what we always thought was important: hope, promise, comradeship, fidelity, passion, science. All the noble, lofty ideas, right? That’s what Star Trek is, and that’s what Starfleet stands for. So if I can reinject even a modicum of that, even a scintilla, I’m very, very gratified instead of some, you know… it’s not some show about nonsense.

The darkness — if there’s any darkness at all in Star Trek: Prodigy — is the very real darkness of being separated from your survival. You’re having to really learn skills. And I think it’s been invaluable.

TREKCORE: Now that both versions of the character are part of the Prodigy story – the hologram, and the real Vice Admiral Janeway – how do you distinguish between the two when you’re recording for the series?

MULGREW: Well, that’s the fun, and that’s the job. I mean, I have to distinguish them; that delineation must be drawn so that the audience understands that one is a person, and the other is not. And it’s great fun to do it.

I’m alone in a sound booth. I’ve got the producers on Zoom. I’ve got my headset on, and I can just take it where I need to take it. For Hologram Janeway, I’ve had to establish a certain level of soundness. In other words, she can roam, but not too far — whereas Vice Admiral Janeway’s spectrum is broad, very broad, and her temperament can be quite wide.

So I can go wherever I want to go with the sentient being, but with the hologram, I’m trying to endow now some more human characteristics — because she does, after all, have to lead these arguable miscreants away from danger, doesn’t she? And I think in order to get their attention, I’ve given her some levity, not just command.

You know, you see that in a good mother, don’t you? She’s the boss. She has authority, but she makes you laugh. So it sort of heightens your respect, and I’m trying to bring all of this to them both.

QUESTION: How do you prepare to play both versions of the character?

MULGREW: It’s easy to prepare for them. They’re too distinctly different people. Vice Admiral Janeway is very much like the original Captain Janeway. So I just tap into that. She’s always lived inside of me. She’s never far. She comes like that.

Hologram Janeway has to be a little more subtle. You might even argue that she’s less interesting vocally hologram Janeway, but I don’t find that to be the case. I find that to be the challenge. I have to, within this barometer, bring to life all of the things that would be most compelling in her voice. So I work on that. That’s my job and that’s the fun of it.

TREKCORE: The kids see the hologram as their protector and friend, but from their perspective, Admiral Janeway is a threat. She’s the one chasing them, and they can’t explain themselves – they don’t know her the way viewers do. Does that play into your performance at all?

MULGREW: No. Nor can it, because I can’t — that awareness would ruin the story. What it does is draw a wonderful tension and that makes for good television, right? So if you’re watching it, you’re seeing that this very tight band has been drawn in almost every scene — once Vice Admiral Janeway appears — adding great dimension to hologram Janeway and her importance and raising the stakes.

QUESTION: With all the legacy behind this show, where you’re now bringing her to life in two different iterations, has there been a challenge to stay true to the character?

MULGREW: Again, I’d hearken back to the responsibility of it and the privilege of it. And when I recognize that if I lose it even for a second, it’s unfortunate because this has been a great gift. You can argue that it’s geeky and silly and nerdy for Star Trek fans, all that sort of thing. But it is essentially very fun, and its ideals are very lofty.

So when I go into the booth or I walk onto the bridge, I remember that and I remember that this carries with it a great responsibility and that it really helps people. Janeway has helped people, and so she will in this animated version too. And that’s something wonderful, isn’t it?

QUESTION: Having seen evolution of Star Trek as a franchise and as a universe, how do you feel about its continued expansion and growth over the years?

MULGREW: Again, lucky. I think it’s a real privilege. I mean, you can be attached to big things; Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. You can be attached to those things. It’s all fantasy.

But there seems to be a groundedness to this message in Star Trek that surpasses all the others. And it’s simply the message of hope. We are after all, on this planet, lost in space, aren’t we? So it’s how we’re gonna find each other that matters.

QUESTION: If this theoretical live-action Janeway series that’s been discussed ever came to fruition, who would you want to be part of the show with you?

MULGREW: I’ll tell you one thing. Every color, every gender, every disposition will be represented on that bridge if I’m the captain again. And really represented so that we know their backstory.

So that their backstory and who they are, rich, what’s going on on the bridge, a real deep dive into all the changes that our society has made. That’s what I’d like — and if every one of them are cast with brilliant actors, I’d just win, wouldn’t I? [Laughs]

TREKCORE: How do you feel about the new Captain Janeway statue that was unveiled last year in Indiana?

MULGREW: I could hardly say the words because it’s crazy, isn’t it? “I must go and see my statue unveiled!” I mean, what does this mean? [laughs]

I’ll tell you what it means. She’s a big deal, especially to women in STEM. I mean to women, Janeway made a big, big difference. And I, I told you, I just came back from Europe where I met with two groups of women who are just convinced that Janeway is the reason why they could do what they did with the rest of their lives. It’s a real, it’s a funny thing.

I know I’m just an actor. I know I just played a character, but there’s a responsibility when it’s this fast and this significant to so many people. So I take it seriously. I take the fan base seriously. I try to be as reciprocal as possible and I try to enjoy every minute.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Star Trek: Prodigy will return with “Asylum” on Thursday, October 27 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on October 28 in Latin America, Australia, Italy and the U.K. The series is said to air “later in the year” in South Korea, Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland.