Kathryn Janeway
Janeway redirects here. For other uses, see
Janeway (disambiguation).
In 2371, Captain Janeway took command of the
Intrepid class starship USS Voyager. Their first mission was to locate a missing Maquis vessel last seen in the area of space known as the
Badlands. While in the Badlands, the Maquis ship and Voyager were engulfed by a compressed tetryon beam that hurled the ships to the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light-years away. The Maquis ship was destroyed while fighting the Kazon, and although Voyager survived the ordeal, there were numerous casualties. Captain Janeway was now committed to returning her ship and remaining crew to Federation space.
Her first major task was integrating the surviving crew of the
Maquis ship into
Voyager.
Chakotay, captain of the Maquis ship, became second-in-command to Captain Janeway, as her original first officer Cavit was killed when Voyager was catapulted into the Delta Quadrant.
Some other important interactions Captain Janeway had with her crew:
* Helped
Seven of Nine, an ex-
Borg drone, claim back her individuality and humanity.
* Took
Tom Paris (the son of her friend and former commanding officer, Admiral Owen Paris) under her wing, granting him a field commission of Lieutenant and making him her helmsman when her existing one (Lieutenant Stadi) was killed in the first episode.
* Helped
the Doctor through many difficulties, and advocated his status as a sentient, living being.
In the film
Star Trek: Nemesis, Janeway is shown as a
Vice Admiral circa
stardate 56844.9. However, in the Star Trek Encyclopedia it was said that Janeway was a
Rear Admiral. Also in
Star Trek: Nemesis, she had three pips in her collar, which is probably an error. Some books have stated that, thanks to her extensive first-hand knowledge of the
Borg, she was promoted to
Rear Admiral to gain the proper security clearances to be able to access all available information on the Borg; however, these books are not considered canon. Others suggest her actions during the series final episode "
Endgame" (destroying the Borg
transwarp hub), coupled with Voyager's successful return to Earth having most of the ship's crew intact, in addition to collecting an enormous amount of data from the Delta Quadrant, made her a likely candidate for promotion.
Controversy
Capt. Janeway was a controversial character among many fans throughout much of the
Voyager series' run.
An example of this controversy can be seen in the episode "
Tuvix", in which a transporter malfunction merged
Tuvok and
Neelix into the form of an individual, sentient male being. Given the name
Tuvix, and looking physically like a combination of Tuvok and Neelix, he soon began to interact with the crew, form friendships, and pursued a romantic relationship with
Kes. Meanwhile, after Capt. Janeway weighed the need of having her two merged officers back as separate individuals against the emerging individuality of Tuvix, the Doctor and Chief Engineer
B'Elanna Torres were ordered to find a way to separate Tuvix back into his two original forms.
When Janeway asked Tuvix if he was willing to undergo the procedure, he refused. He was an established individual being, of which Janeway knew and was not unsympathetic toward, and would not give up his life for two individuals whom he had in a sense never known. But after lengthy, emotional, heavily weighed discussions by both Janeway and Tuvix; Capt. Janeway stuck by her decision to do what she considered best for the majority, and forced the separation procedure on Tuvix against his will. Many fans felt that Janeway "murdered" Tuvix while others considered Janeway justified in doing what she thought was best for the majority.
Although female captains had been featured as guest characters in each of the previous Star Trek series, as well as in several of the films, Janeway was the first female character to star in a Star Trek series in the role of captain. Some female viewers of the show claimed Captain Janeway as a role model, and many male viewers also admired her. Other fans, including short term writer
Ronald D. Moore criticized what they considered to be an inconsistent command style of Captain Janeway. While
Kate Mulgrew's acting on the show was often regarded as superb and generated much critical acclaim, there were those who felt that her regal mannerisms too closely paralleled those of
Jean-Luc Picard, lending credence to assertions that Voyager became little more than a TNG knock-off during its final three seasons.
Mulgrew has also pointed out the rather sexist nature of some of the fan criticism; for instance, fans were rather fixated on her hairstyles, yet the hairstyles of male
Trek captains were rarely commented on (
Patrick Stewart's distinctive
baldness being a notable exception). While a female captain was a logical progression for the franchise, the move was met with criticism from some of the more sexist elements of fandom, who resented the series' strong female characters and the emphasis on "feminine" values like cooperation over more aggressive, action-oriented storylines. While Janeway was generally a more democratic and empathetic captain than the
Trek norm, she was also quite capable of aggression when the occasion demanded and was very defininite about maintaining her authority when other characters overstepped their bounds. It should be worth noting that Janeway preferred to be called "captain" (or "ma'am" in a crunch) even though Starfleet officers, regardless of their gender, are generally addressed as "sir" by their subordinates.
Episodes in which Janeway's character is expanded or takes a key role:
*
Caretaker - introduction to character; gets stranded in the Delta Quadrant
*
Alliances - attempts to form an alliance with the Kazon
*
Deadlock - meets a duplicate of herself
*
Tuvix - faced with dilemma whether to kill a newly-formed lifeform to save two crewmembers
*
Resolutions - after contracting a disease, must remain on a planet with Chakotay
*
Basics - forced to survive on an unstable planet with no technology with her crew
*
Future's End - must prevent a time paradox from destroying the Earth's solar system
*
The Q and the Grey - Q asks her to be his mate
*
Macrocosm - fights giant viruses single-handed
*
Coda - appears to be caught in a time loop, each ending in her death
*
Pathfinder - Starfleet makes contact with Voyager.
*
Scorpion - makes a pact with the Borg when the Voyager crew enter their space; helps fight
Species 8472*
Year of Hell - fights a temporal ship which tries to erase Voyager from history
*
Killing Game - Janeway shares holographic technology with the Hirogen
*
The Omega Directive - reveals classified information to the crew when they encounter a dangerous particle
*
Endgame - returns the Voyager crew home
*
Star Trek*
Star Trek: Voyager*
Kathryn (name)*
