TREKCORE > VOY > EPISODES > CARETAKER > BEHIND THE SCENES > 2

"The feeling was that the best direction for us to go in terms of trying new things to be socially reasonable to represent something Star Trek has always been, which was to go for a female captain. The studio wasn't totally convinced that, and we agreed that we would also look at male actors and be sure that we kept an open mind. When the casting process was over the selection that was made was one wonderful French Canadian actress named Genevieve Bujold. Who got the job.

She's a very very good actor and I am sure that if we had been doing a motion picture she would have been phenomenal but there was enough going on in that first day or two that we realized that for everybody's sake that it was best to go in another direction.

When we went back to the drawing board, and the first runner up had always been Kate Mulgrew. She was always someone I had been very fond of and so had the studio, and Mike and Jeri. And luckily Kate was still available and we struck a deal within a week or so and we were back in production."

From Voyager Season 1 DVD (Bonus DVD Easter Egg)