Erin Gray is best known to science-fiction fans as Colonel Wilma Deering from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, where she starred opposite Gil Gerard’s Buck Rogers. But the actress once had the chance to take on another major sci-fi role, one that could have put her at the center of a major Star Trek series.
Gray auditioned to play Captain Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager, a role that ultimately went to Kate Mulgrew. Years later, Gray has opened up about the audition and the circumstances surrounding it, describing the experience as difficult at the time but ultimately something she believes worked out for the best.
Erin Gray Really Wanted to Play Captain Janeway
Gray told Woman’s World that she immediately understood the significance of the Janeway role. Unlike many of the parts she had been offered throughout her career, this was an opportunity to lead a television series and carry a story as its central character.
“I knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime. I really wanted to be in charge,” Gray recalled.
Getting the audition itself proved surprisingly difficult. According to Gray, the production initially did not want to see her, forcing her to repeatedly ask her agent to pursue another opportunity.
Eventually, she was allowed to audition and prepared extensively for the role. Memorising the material was particularly challenging for her because she tends to become nervous during auditions and can lose her train of thought.
She arrived prepared to deliver the opening monologue, but an unexpected interruption completely disrupted her concentration.
Gray heard someone beside her say, “So you don’t remember me, huh? We only spent three weeks together in Hawaii.”
She did not recognise the person immediately and began wondering which of the three movies she had filmed in Hawaii the man might have been involved with.
The unexpected encounter threw her off before she could even begin the audition properly.
“I got through it, but not to that place as an actor where you know you nailed it,” Gray said. “This was not that. I did it, but it wasn’t the best.”
Voyager Needed an Actor Who Could Handle the Pace
The situation was particularly frustrating because Gray understood exactly what the production was looking for.
Star Trek: Voyager had initially cast French actress Geneviève Bujold as Janeway. Bujold filmed material for the pilot before leaving the production, reportedly finding the demanding schedule and pace of episodic television overwhelming.
The producers, therefore, needed someone capable of handling extensive dialogue, memorising large amounts of material and delivering it quickly during a television production schedule.
Gray knew those requirements going into her audition, making the experience even more disappointing.
She also did not realize beforehand that the director involved was the same person who had worked on Magnum, P.I., a connection that added another layer of discomfort to the audition for her.
“I was so humiliated,” Gray recalled.
Despite the disappointment, Gray eventually came to view losing the role differently.
Her father had told her that “all things conform to the right way,” and Gray now believes the experience ultimately led her where she was supposed to go.
Gray Wanted More Than to Be the Beautiful Female Lead
The Janeway audition was also connected to a broader ambition Gray had developed during her career.
Although Wilma Deering became an important female character in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and reportedly inspired some women to pursue military careers, Gray felt that television offered relatively few opportunities for women to occupy the central role in a story.
She often found herself cast primarily as the attractive female character positioned around the male lead.
“There were very few roles for women to star in, period,” Gray explained.
One exception came with the Buck Rogers episode “Vampire in Space,” in which the storyline centered on her character. Gray said that experience showed her how appealing it was to have a role that was genuinely pivotal to the narrative.
She also pointed to the movie Born Beautiful, in which she had a leading role, as another particularly rewarding experience.
“I didn’t want it to be all about being goo-goo eyes at the leading man kind of thing,” she said.
Gray acknowledged that she had done plenty of those roles during the 1980s and did not regret them. But as an actress, she wanted opportunities that gave her more substantial material to explore.
“There’s something as an actor, as a talent, that you just want something you can sink your teeth into,” she said.
Erin Gray Has Yet to Enter Official Star Trek Canon
Although Gray never became Janeway, her connection to Star Trek did not end completely.
She appeared in the fan-produced series Star Trek Continues, giving her an on-screen connection to the franchise. However, she has never officially appeared as a character within Paramount’s main Star Trek canon.
For now, Kate Mulgrew remains inseparably associated with Captain Janeway, who became one of the franchise’s most prominent female captains.
Gray, meanwhile, continues to be remembered by science-fiction audiences for her work as Wilma Deering and for the career she built beyond Buck Rogers.
Her failed Voyager audition remains an interesting example of how a single difficult casting experience can lead to an entirely different career path. What felt humiliating to Gray at the time eventually became something she could look back on with acceptance, particularly given how strongly she valued finding roles that allowed her to be more than simply the female lead standing beside a male star.
