Famke Janssen's Star Trek Role Was A TNG Tragedy - And A Prelude To X-Men?
Throughout her prolific career, Dutch model-turned-actor Famke Janssen has touched almost every conceivable franchise, and in one of her earliest roles, she had the impressive distinction of collaborating with Sir Patrick Stewart. Fans now know "Star Trek: The Next Generation" wouldn't be the last time the two would share the screen, which made her "TNG" role feel even more tragic in retrospect.
In Janssen's second-ever credit, she plays Kamala, an empathic metamorph who — like a certain famous mutant she plays later in her career — loses agency in her decisions. But before that can happen, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Stewart) encounters her as cargo. When the two meet, Kamala is being transported as the intended wife for Chancellor Alrik (Mickey Cottrell) to restore peace between planets in an arranged marriage. Her empathic and metamorphic abilities make her the ideal mate for her intended, but when she meets Picard before her fiancé, she imprints on him instead. The two fall in love with each other, which creates a conflict.
Picard holds certain ideals that Kamala absorbs because of her abilities. But because the Enterprise captain can't run away with her, he ultimately supports the marriage because it will unite two planets, and because Kamala is Picard's ideal mate, she shares his ideals. She goes through with the union, even though she and Picard love each other. This is an ending that's tragic enough on its own, but it feels even sadder in retrospect considering what happened when Janssen once again teamed up with Stewart in her most famous role to date.
Jean Grey was just as tragic
When Famke Janssen reunited with Sir Patrick Stewart in the "X-Men" franchise, it was under circumstances that were less romantic but just as tragic. In the first film, Jean Grey is a mutant teacher at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, chafing at the concept of government-decreed Mutant Registration. This gets infinitely more complex in later films with the first live-action attempt at adapting the notoriously divisive Dark Phoenix Saga.
Veering away from the cosmic origins of the Phoenix in the comics, the movies spin a more grounded tale. In the films, Xavier (Stewart) discovers that Jean's telekinesis is so destructive that he feels he has to put safeguards in her mind to stop it from getting out of control. But after her supposed death in "X2," the walls he put into place come tumbling down. She becomes an unstoppable force known as the Phoenix and goes so far as to kill Cyclops (James Marsden) and Xavier. Once again, Janssen plays a character who has no control over her ultimate fate, and Stewart's character is in no position to help her.
Both Kamala and Jean are tragic figures, but Kamala makes out a little better because, at least, she's still alive. Jean's only way out is through death via Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) claws, because not even she can control herself anymore. Though Janssen could not have known when she first got the role in "The Next Generation," Kamala was a strange and tragic precursor of what was to come down the line for her other, more famous role.