Kate Mulgrew is familiar to science fiction fans as the actress who played Capt. Kathryn Janeway in Star Trek: Voyager. This video suggests that she'll soon be haunting players of Dragon Age: Origins as the voice of Flemeth, the Witch of the Wilds, in the upcoming role-playing game from BioWare (out on Xbox 360 and PCs Nov. 3 and later in November for PlayStation 3).

The studio, responsible for such games as Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, released this video with Mulgrew and Tim Curry (who voices the character Arl Howe) in the recording studio working on the game. Mulgrew also recently did a telephone interview with Game Hunters. Here's how it went.

How did you become involved with Dragon Age: Origins?

Mulgrew: I was just offered the part and I thought she was so splendid. Flemeth is a really interesting character and a very unusual kind of character for me. And I love to use my voice in that way, that sort of harmonic way. I also thought the people at BioWare were particularly professional. I love their approach. They gave me great license and they gave me great freedom in the booth. And they gave me guidance. It's an actress dream just to shut the door, be in a little cave, turn on a dim light and have the script in front of you, which lends itself to instant relaxation, and then the imagination just soars. To be given the backstory of this creature who is a witch ... a mysterious Witch of the Wilds, she is a powerful witch and she plays a pivotal role in the player's survival in game. The stakes are very high when Flemeth is present. When I read that she had once loved deeply and that that love had been taken from her and this is her personal story of revenge and despair, of course, I was in heaven. Taking all of that into consideration, this is a dream. It's great fun.

I know you have done voiceovers for some other video games in the past (including Star Trek: Legacy, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force) ...

Mulgrew: I've done a lot of voiceovers in my life. I've done a lot of cartoons. I don't know how many games, but this is certainly the most sophisticated game I have done done. This is a kind of epic, dark, brutal, fantastic game that I probably would play. I don't think it's traditional. There's nothing conventional about it. It's asking anyone who engages in this game to go a step further. The challenges are both visceral and intellectual and also emotional. That is the BioWare trademark, I think. They are a bit famous for producing this kind of excellence. One imagines immediately people playing it and how they are going to respond to this voice.

How is doing a part for a video game different than other performances?

Mulgrew: I don't have to get dressed (in costume), learn a script or wear makeup. It's very, very immediate. I liken it to telling a story to an extremely clever and advanced child who is demanding that I tell them an epic story on the spot. One that will alter their lives. So it is instant. So I am calling on everything in my imagination, everything in my creative powers. And the second that I am along in the booth with the engineer, it is very strange and hard to explain this, it's a flight but a different flight.

Do you play video games?

Mulgrew: I don't play them myself, which is why I think my providing the voice for them is more appropriate in a way. I don't think a gamer could actually create a creature in a game. It has to be different level, a professional, artistic mind, I think, at work.

Do you and other actors talk about how video games have changed entertainment landscape?Mulgrew: I talk a lot to my sons who are of this age, far more than I am. But, yes, actors talk about it. I don't think anything can replace or alter the rudimentary human need to see other human beings recreate for them what they themselves have felt. This is a fundamental thing, the Greeks understood it and we will die as a species understanding this. Video games are a marriage of technological advancement and storytelling. It's as if technology himself is a genius and he is just exercising this capacity to make wonderful video games as his right. ... The reason I think the BioWare people are particularly smart is that they are trying to enhance it. They understand that it is about telling a story and getting engaged in the telling of the story. So, no it is not going to change the nature of theater, but it is going to change the nature of, probably, technology.

Mulgrew can be seen on the new NBC TV series Mercy (Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET). She is also supporting the drive for an Alzheimer's disease cure. "I'm working with a small group of very advanced neuroscientists out of the University of Minnesota (Medical Center) Hospital," she said. "This is galvanizing work and very challenging, very demanding."

An acting teacher at Fordham University and a regular performer on stage, She says that "I would love to do more games. It's like the frosting on the cake of a career."

Find out more about Kate Mulgrew on her web site here.

By Mike Snider