By MARK DAWIDZIAK
LOS ANGELES - You meet the strangest people on the bridge of the
starship Voyager - Klingons, Vulcans, Borgs, Talaxians, Cardassians, Maquis
resistance fighters, aliens dropping in from every corner of the galaxy.
This week, you might have bumped into a refugee from the universe known as
Cleveland. His name is Tim Hagan. The former Cuyahoga County commissioner
was standing on Paramount Pictures' soundstage 9, home of the
sprawling starship set. He watched with a wistful smile as television
critics crowded around his wife, Kate Mulgrew, who plays Capt.Kathryn
Janeway on UPN's "Star Trek: Voyager."
"For years, I was the one with reporters mobbed around me, firing
questions," said Hagan, who splits his time between Cleveland and Los
Angeles. "The truth is that this takes some getting used to. After being
involved in public life for 25 years, it's a hell of an adjustment to be the
secondary figure.
"You think you're
making a contribution
to the public welfare
for all those years,
and then, all of a
sudden, wherever you
go, you're Capt.
Janeway's husband. But
I chose to leave
public life after 16
years as county
commissioner, so it's
not something I can
dwell on."
He was still smiling.
"This is her world,"
he said with a glance
at the captain's
chair. "I used to stay
in the trailer
[Mulgrew's place of
solitude on the studio
lot] and not get
involved with these
events, but she would
say, "Well, there
might be some people
from Ohio who will
want to talk to you.'
And here you are."
Staying in character
"An even bigger
adjustment for me is
to realize that when I
accompany my wife to
work, she has to
become a character,"
he said. "She has to
be totally focused on
that and nothing else
because so many people
are counting on her.
And she's a dedicated
artist. This is her
life, and I have to
honor that, just as
she has honored my
life. I'm very proud
of her."
When in Cleveland,
Hagan serves as a
consultant to the
Mandel Foundation and
MetroHealth System. He
married the "Star
Trek" star about a
year and a half ago.
Mulgrew, who got her
TV start playing Mary
Ryan on the ABC soap
opera "Ryan's Hope,"
has been in command of
the Starfleet vessel
since the 1993
premiere of "Voyager,"
Paramount's fourth
"Star Trek" series
(following the 1966-69
original, the
syndicated "Next
Generation" and "Deep
Space Nine").
"It's tough for Kate
to get away and I have
the flexibility to
come out here
regularly," Hagan
said. "So I get on a
plane every eight days
or so, stay out here
for five days, then go
back to Cleveland. I
logged more than
100,000 air miles last
year, and it wasn't
that tough to do. It
was getting so they
were asking me if I
wanted to fly the
plane.
"It's tough, but we
make time. At
Christmas, we were
together for two
weeks. At
Thanksgiving, we got
seven days. She gets
one week off in
October and a little
hiatus in March, so we
work it out."
Currently in the
middle of its sixth
season, "Voyager"
definitely will return
for a seventh.
"It has gone by with
blazing speed," said
Mulgrew, whose
previous prime-time
series include "Kate
Columbo" (aka "Kate
Loves a Mystery" and
"Mrs. Columbo"),
"Heartbeat" and "Man
of the People."
"And I've never tired
of it, largely because
I really love this
character and working
with this happy
company. One really
can't ask for much
more than that. Each
week, this show does
what science fiction
can really do best,
which is to tell a
story with moral
significance, dramatic
value and insight into
who we are."
Another Ohio
connection
Hagan isn't the only
Northeast Ohio
connection on the
bridge of this
starship. The series'
executive producer,
Brannon Braga, is a
Canton native who
attended Kent State
University. He began
his "Star" trek as a
writer on the "Next
Generation" series.
Braga has written more
than 50 "Star Trek" TV
episodes and
co-authored two of the
nine "Star Trek"
movies, "Generations"
(1994) and "First
Contact" (1996).
Sitting in the
captain's chair, he
confirmed that
Paramount has given
the green light to the
development of both a
fifth "Star Trek"
series and a 10th
film.
"There's a concept,
but it's in the very
preliminary stages,"
said the 1983 graduate
of Canton McKinley
High School. "It's
just way too early to
talk about, because
there are so many
ideas on the table.
We're all in agreement
that it needs to be
"Star Trek' - it needs
to embody the "Star
Trek' philosophy, but
it also needs to be a
little bit different.
"It can't just be
another group of
people on a ship with
a different name. It
has to have something
about it that will
give people a
compelling reason to
watch, without
straying too far away
from the core
elements. How exactly
that will develop is
hard to say at this
point, so I couldn't
imagine anything
getting on the air
before January or fall
2001."