Patrick Stewart Had One Piece Of Advice For Fellow Star Trek Captain Kate Mulgrew

"Star Trek: Voyager" does not exist without the success of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," that's an incontrovertible fact. "Voyager" premiered in 1995, months after "Next Generation" ended with Season 7, and there was a spiritual baton passing. "Voyager" used the syndication-friendly storytelling of "Next Generation" as its model, compared to the darker, more serialized style of their overlapping contemporary, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

But "Voyager" did change the formula in one key way: It was the first "Star Trek" show with a woman as the captain. That would be Captain Kathryn Janeway, played by the supremely talented Kate Mulgrew (stepping after original Janeway actor Geneviève Bujold swiftly exited).

Mulgrew recently appeared on RTÉ Radio 1's "The Oliver Callan Show" promoting her new series "The Galway Bay Murders" (incidentally, featuring another "Trek" alum, Colm Meaney). Sadly, her appearance coincided with the news of the passing of Patrick Stewart, i.e. Captain Jean-Luc Picard on "Next Generation." So, during her RTÉ appearance, Mulgrew eulogized Stewart, including sharing some crucial advice that Stewart gave her about leading a "Star Trek" show.

As Mulgrew told it, Stewart visited the "Voyager" set during her second week of shooting. (Picard and Janeway, though, only shared a scene via video call in the 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis"). It was a "nerve-wracking" experience to become Captain Janeway, Mulgrew said, and she had one question for Stewart: "How the hell did you do this?"

Stewart offered this answer in his "gorgeous baritone" (as Mulgrew put it, a description I don't think anyone will disagree with): "Now listen to me, and listen to me very clearly. If you invest yourself deeply, for seven years, as I did, you will be deeply rewarded. So, just give it everything you've got."

"And that's exactly what I did," Mulgrew added.

"What [Patrick Stewart] was saying was you've just got to take a deep breath and dive," Kate Mulgrew continued. "This is an abyss and you're not going to have a lot of control. But just get yourself into the character, and you will do it, and he was right." 

As Mulgrew noted, Stewart was in a unique position to give her advice on preparing to play Janeway for the long haul. He hadn't just led a "Star Trek" show, he'd done it for seven seasons straight. 

"Bill [Shatner], whom I knew better than I knew Patrick, his tour of duty was much less," Mulgrew explained. To this day, Stewart, Mulgrew, and Avery Brooks (Captain Ben Sisko) on "Deep Space Nine" are the only "Star Trek" leads whose shows spanned seven seasons. A commitment like that "will test you," Mulgrew noted, and it did for her as a single mother raising two sons.

But the rewarding part of such a long tenure is clear in how Trekkies everywhere still revere Picard and Janeway to this day. In Shatner's 2011 documentary "The Captains", featuring interviews with then four other actors who'd played "Star Trek" captains (Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew, and Scott Bakula), Stewart mused that, "If it were all to end, this evening, I would be largely known for my work on 'Star Trek' [...] and I'm absolutely fine with that."

Mulgrew is one of the millions who now remembers Stewart. She also shared the following eulogy on social media:

"Goodnight, sweet Prince, and know that you take with you the love and loyalty of millions who knew you as a complex, fascinating man, a gifted actor, and a great Captain. May you rest in peace."