In her interviews, she comes across as unbearably self-satisfied and smug. She's so clearly convinced of her own eloquence and intellectual depth -- and yet half the time her comments would earn her a "D" in any Logic 101 class, based as they often are on historical inaccuracies and unsupportable generalizations.

I've never seen her interviewed, but I have the same impression from reading the transcripts or articles. I invariably find myself asking "Does anybody really talk like this?" The written reports remind me of Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole, aged thirteen and three-quarters, and self-proclaimed intellectual. I've always assumed the live interviews must have made more sense than the written transcripts.

I always come away from reading about her or seeing her interviewed with the feeling that if I knew her in person, I wouldn't be able to stand her.

I'm still not sure on that point. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but I have reservations. It's just about impossible to separate public from private personae where actors are concerned. The one thing that always stands out as genuine is her love for Janeway, so I can forgive a lot on the strength of that.