My Hero: Kathryn Janeway
Fandom: Star Trek VOY
Character: Kathryn Janeway
Author: Rocky
E-mail: roq@iname.com
Web page: http://www.angelfire.com/yt/rockyroad
Spoilers: For all 7 seasons of VOY
Well it was one of those great stories
that you can't put down at night
the hero knew what he had to do
and he wasn't afraid to fight
the villain goes to jail, while the hero goes free
I wish it were that simple for me.
And the reason that she loved him
was the reason I loved him too
and he never wondered what was right or wrong
he just knew - he just knew.
--"Hero" by David Crosby and Phil Collins
I've always gravitated toward the heroic type--strong, bold, utterly fearless, the born leader. No surprise, then, that Star Trek captains always held a special place in my heart, beginning with James T. Kirk. Handsome, smart, with nerves of steel, he was capable of staring down any foe from Klingons to Khan, and struck fear in the hearts of many as a wily and worthy opponent in battle. And in keeping with the legend of every heroic commander, he was possessed of tremendous charisma and not only was willing to go to hell and back for his people but frequently did. The Captain also understood the role required a great deal of sacrifice on his part: giving up of any chance of personal happiness for the sake of his ship and crew. They in turn were well aware of his devotion to them, and the degree of personal loyalty they bore him was phenomenal.
The next ship's captain, Jean-Luc Picard, was a bit of an adjustment for me; it took me a while to realize he was not so much a departure from the archetype of the heroic captain as a variation on a theme. True, Picard was not so much into the physical derring-do (and his shirt never ripped), but he showed there were many different forms of courage, and he certainly did not fall short by any measure.
Then along came Kathryn Janeway.
The first thing that struck me about her was how very reminiscent she was of Kirk--the same bold manner, the nerves of steel coupled with a patented death glare. In "Flashback" Janeway expressed a longing for the old days and the mavericks of that time, the "frontier mentality", but she herself embodied many of the same characteristics. Kirk would have easily recognized and applauded her combination of diplomacy with saber-rattling, understood how the rules are different when Starfleet Command is several thousand light years away. We saw her stalking the corridors armed with her enormous phaser rifle "Big Betsey", we saw her in hand-to-hand combat with her enemies. We saw her give the order to self-destruct her ship--more than once--unflinchingly accept assimilation--twice--and refuse to accept her own death. As Jim Wright said, "Never mess with a redhead."
At the same time, Janeway also was blessed with the intellectual curiosity of Picard (in "Hunters" she exhibited a similar interest in ancient cultures), not to mention a technical knowledge none of her captain forbears had possessed. In "Caretaker" we saw Janeway repairing the warp engines of her ship, moving with the ease of a long familiarity about the engine room. In "Parallex" she once again showed her mastery of warp theory, along with a vast knowledge of quantum physics and celestial phenomena. Kirk would have automatically turned to Spock for any scientific data he needed; Picard to his senior staff. Though neither of them was above getting his hands dirty when necessary, they never looked comfortable, nor seemed to revel in it the way Janeway did.
The earliest indication that Janeway was a different breed of leader, of course, was that she was the first female captain. (Indeed, in "Turnabout Intruder" TOS gave the impression that women could not be starship captains, though this has since been retconned that it was Janice Lester herself who was unstable but not the rest of her gender). Immediately, there was talk of a "role model", an inspiration for little girls (and some not so little) everywhere. Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander, was even referred to by many at NASA as "Janeway." I didn't automatically gravitate to Janeway because she was a woman, can't say I immediately related to her better than to any of the other captains for that reason, and yet, there was something undeniably thrilling about finally seeing a female in the center seat.
And perhaps because she was a woman, TPTB allowed her to display the "feminine" traits of kindness, and compassion as evident early on in the pilot episode. Her determination to bring Harry Kim back to his parents (and her regret over having to turn down his mother's request about getting him his clarinet before departure), her relationship with her fiance, all hinted at a very different side of Kathryn Janeway, softer, more human, more up close and personal than we'd gotten with the other captains. Or the compassion she showed to a poor bereaved old man in "Resistance" when her primary focus was freeing her captured crew members. Indeed, her determination to protect her people and get them home could be seen as an outgrowth of her "maternal instincts."
Janeway also had a sense of humor, as indicated by her statement, "At ease before you sprain something" to a very eager and officious ensign. But at the same time, none of that took anything away from her strength--both physical and mental--as a captain and her daring, as exemplified by the scene in "Caretaker" when Chakotay beamed over to Voyager for the first time, spotted Tom Paris, and immediately advanced upon him threateningly. Janeway got physically in between them despite her size, and forced the Maquis leader to back down. She stood up to the Kazon ("I don't like threats, I don't like bullies and I don't like you") and all the other enemies in the DQ, never once acknowledging any sense of weakness or inferiority, not letting her being female (apparently chauvinistic and male-oriented societies are as plentiful there as they are in our part of the galaxy) and a small one at that limit or slow her down in any way.
Janeway's dual nature, the captain as leader and as a private individual, was endlessly fascinating. This dichotomy was beautifully symbolized by her hair, which in the early years she wore in the "bun of steel" on duty, and then literally and figuratively letting her hair down in the privacy of her own quarters. Like Picard, Janeway was an amateur painter. She was also a mountain climber, skier, champion tennis player and shot a mean game of pool. She worshipped the memory of her father the Admiral, spoke lovingly of a mother and sister back home, and worried over the welfare of the pregnant dog she left behind.
Raised almost from birth for a career in Starfleet, Janeway started out as very much a "by the book" officer. There are indications in canon that Voyager was not her first command, yet even if it wasn't, she was suddenly confronted with challenges she had never faced before. Ordering the destruction of the Caretaker's array left Voyager effectively stranded 70,000 light years from home, alone, essentially friendless and with bitter enemies both internal and external. Originally sent to arrest the Maquis, she made the decision to extend the hand of friendship, make them part of her crew, in order to ensure the survival of all. It could not have been easy, trying to blend together such disparate elements, and while she had the willing assistance of the Maquis leader, the major burden fell on her shoulders alone. Many of the original Voyager crew were young and inexperienced, and understandably feeling very lost. Janeway had to set about forging new relationships with all the members of her crew, function as mentor and parent substitute as well as leader. She also developed new friendships, as seen in the scene in "Parallex" where she and B'Elanna Torres exchanged technobabble at warp speed, practically speaking their own private language, while the rest of the senior staff watched in stunned amazement.
Conscious of her rank, Janeway may have held herself aloof from her crew, but she wasn't above shooting a game of pool on the holodeck. In later seasons, we saw her repeatedly reach out to "lost" or wayward crew members ("Ashes to Ashes", "Good Shepherd"). In the early years, we saw the way she would listen to her officers, wasn't afraid to concede that she might be wrong, that another approach might be better while at the same time holding fast to her principles as best she could. She was determined to run her ship according to Starfleet regulations and standards, but she was not above taking Chakotay's suggestions under advisement. The earliest and perhaps most important example of this was her selection of the Maquis Torres as chief engineer over the Starfleet Carey.
Not only did TPTB show her willingness to entertain other opinions, other views, they weren't afraid to show her making mistakes, either. Not all of Janeway's encounters with the Kazon were handled well, and she was duped by the Trabe, by Seska, by the Ferengi. Each time, she licked her wounds, pulled herself and her ship together (sometimes more easily than others) and proceeded on her way. She was a survivor, who acknowledged that you can't win 'em all but she was damned if anyone or anything was going to permanently take her down. I think it was Janeway's attitude of pulling herself up by her bootstraps, of never acknowledging defeat, that made me love her most of all.
The daughter of one admiral and protégé of another, Janeway often erred on the side of being too rigid, but at the same time would show a surprising flexibility, a willingness to meet her adversary half-way, and of course the inestimable ability to think outside the box. When confronted with a no-win scenario in "Scorpion", she refused to accept either option and plunged ahead with the bold (some might say reckless) plan of forming an alliance with the Borg against what she deemed to be the more dangerous enemy. At the same time, she was clear-sighted enough to know it wouldn't be easy, but she was determined to make it work as well and as long as she could. She didn't cut and run at the first sign of difficulty, and it was this trait more than any other that made her come out on top on each of her encounters with the Collective.
Janeway wasn't perfect, like an officer in the TNG mold, and if she didn't quite have the gritty edges of the DS9 cast, she still presented a well-rounded portrait of a human being, someone you could relate to as well as admire. The one time she came dangerously close to crossing the line was in "Equinox", when confronted with a rogue Starfleet captain and crew who were using sentient beings for fuel. Horrified, Janeway tried to stop the slaughter, and then when the Equinox's Captain Ransom turned on Voyager and abandoned them to attack, her anger knew no bounds. She set out on what could be called a vendetta to bring Ransom to justice and locate her kidnapped crewmembers, even resorted to torture/attempted murder to locate his whereabouts. She might have actually killed the hapless Equinox prisoner, Noah Lessing, were it not for Chakotay's intervention. She was led at first by a desire for justice, but ended up herself on the dark side. Not a pretty or admirable portrait, but an understandable one. Too bad TPTB didn't let us see the lasting repercussions of her actions, what it must have signaled to her crew or their reactions to her behavior, let alone how the surviving members of the Equinox fared aboard Voyager.
Janeway's character had such wonderful potential, so many facets to work with, and in the early years this was explored pretty well. We saw her make mistakes, score some successes, suffer losses, learn and grow. We saw her eyes light up with the excitement of discovery, and reflect her sorrow, her concern, her self-doubts. Later on, with shifting focus by the writing staff, the character's behavior became erratic; there was often no way of predicting how Janeway would react to a particular situation or conflict. Frequently there was little or no carryover from one episode to the next. Conflicts that occurred one week were conspicuously absent the next, relationships that had been emphasized at one time were seemingly forgotten with ne'er an explanation. Certain behaviors or actions, such as Janeway's clinical depression in "Night", could be interpreted as a logical progression due to the increasing stress and isolation of the years in the Delta Quadrant, but they weren't given enough development and were then resolved in ridiculously quick and easy ways.
Likewise, Janeway's increasing fixation on getting home in the latter seasons did make a certain amount of sense considering the increasing wear and tear of the journey (though the ship always looked suspiciously as if it had just come out of spacedock in terms of how spanking new and fresh everything always appeared to be; even when torn up badly in one episode, all was miraculously fixed the following week). However, once again we needed more of an explanation of just how Janeway began to distance herself from her attitude at the beginning of the show's run that the journey itself was just as meaningful as the destination, forgetting the credo of exploration that was at the heart of every Starfleet officer. Janeway's tendency toward self-sacrifice--found in every captain worth his or her salt--evolved into an unhealthy martyr complex. For all her devotion to her crew, she was shown withdrawing from them. There were no more little scenes of her interacting with them in the holodeck, no more instances of her soliciting opinions from her first officer or chief of security. Increasingly, Janeway became more and more isolated until the only person we saw her interact with was Seven. Much of the qualities that drew us to her were downplayed or disappeared entirely. By the finale, even Janeway's habit of drinking coffee--what we could have sworn was as intrinsic to her nature as her voice like smoky crystal or her Death Glare--had disappeared.
Because we'd invested so much in the character, because of the tantalizing potential that was never quite reached, we couldn't just turn our backs on her or the show. Instead, we resorted to fanfic to fill in the gaps, explain the connections TPTB couldn't be bothered to give us, to reinforce the human connections and traits that had drawn us in the first place. To bring our Kathryn Janeway to life once more.
Key relationships that give us a lot of insight into the character:
1. Mark Johnson
When Voyager's journey began, Janeway had a fiance, Mark Johnson, waiting for her back home. The two of them had been involved for years; Janeway clearly cared for him very deeply. ("Sorry to bother you." "You only bother me the way I like to be bothered.") When Voyager finally made contact with the Alpha Quadrant four years later, Janeway was devastated to learn Mark had moved on with his life, even though she was later able to acknowledge she had been holding on to him as a 'safety net' to avoid other potentially disturbing and complicating romantic opportunities.
Speaking of those opportunities…
2. Chakotay
Most people would place the beginning of J/C in the second season episode "Resolutions", when the Captain and Commander were stranded together on New Earth. The two of them alone on an idyllic planet, combined with a bathtub, a backrub and an oblique declaration of love in the form of "an ancient legend of my people, the tale of the Angry Warrior" was irresistible. But the spark between Janeway and Chakotay was apparent the very first time they met face to face, back in "Caretaker."
Janeway suggested to Chakotay they join forces in tracking their missing crew members. Even though he was a criminal--one she'd been sent to apprehend--she treated him as an equal, with respect. It wasn't out of fear or weakness; she let him know right away in no uncertain terms that she was in charge and wasn't going to back down. Chakotay responded to her authority, and later, to the humanity and compassion she showed in dealing with the Ocampa and the Caretaker himself. He sacrificed his ship, putting his own life on the line, to defend Voyager against the Kazon. He later supported Janeway's decision to destroy the Array--their only way home.
The two of them balanced each other's strengths and weaknesses almost perfectly. Chakotay represented an unconventional way of looking at and dealing with problems, provided the flexibility Janeway and the ship would need to survive so far away from home and the familiar Starfleet structure. He had the "common touch" that Janeway lacked due to the distance she'd always been taught to cultivate between captain and crew. He could show her how to feel, that an emotional display was not a show of weakness. And most importantly, Chakotay showed her she didn't always have to go it alone, she could depend on others.
Chakotay for his part lacked her iron will, the ability to see something through despite the personal cost, the refusal to accept defeat. If Janeway had a tendency to push too hard, he had a habit of backing down. Chakotay wasn't a gambler, didn't play long shots, or believe all would work out in your favor as long as you weren't afraid to go for broke.
Chakotay was drawn to Janeway's strength, to her intensity, but at the same time wanted her to let him be strong for her for a change. And she couldn't do that. She also found it difficult to relinquish control. She was always afraid of failing, and the only way she knew was to be "more Starfleet than Starfleet", to cling to the regulations as to a lifeline. Through her years as an officer, Janeway had suffered more than her share of losses even before Voyager. The journey in the Delta Quadrant was a never-ending struggle, with the Captain all too painfully aware of the enormous responsibilities riding on her shoulders. As a result, she was afraid of letting anyone get to close to her, for fear of losing them as well.
Janeway could be authoritarian and arbitrary. Especially in the later years, she would often not solicit Chakotay's opinions, or would ignore them when she did. But at the same time he had to remember that she was the Captain, and the final decision on all matters was hers. As First Officer, his job was to present her with workable, acceptable alternatives, but all too often they fell into the pattern of him simply objecting to her choices, without giving her something else to work with. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than their argument over forming an alliance with the Borg in "Scorpion".
Janeway accused Chakotay of confusing the professional with the personal, of taking her dismissal of his command advice as a personal rejection. And yet she also accused him of abandoning her simply because he didn't agree with her command decisions.
As late as "Shattered", it appeared that there was some hope for J/C after they finally got home. That hope, however, ended with "Endgame."
3. Other Romances
All of the other Starship captains got their romances, their "babe of the week", with the tacit understanding that of course nothing permanent could ever come of this attachment. But somehow the rules were different when it came to the first female captain. She couldn't be allowed to "play the field" without calling into question her morals. And despite the precedent of Kirk and his romances with various yeomen, or Picard with Neela Daren, Janeway wasn't allowed to be involved with any of her crew. Or perhaps TPTB felt that a woman of a certain age would no longer realistically be interested in sex or romance. The flirting and subtext between her and Chakotay during the first few seasons was sharply downplayed and then dropped in the later years (much to the dismay of the J/C contingent who nonetheless never quite gave up hope until the end) and Janeway's romantic opportunities, such as they were, were few and far between. TPTB seemed to deliberately be pushing the notion that Janeway's devotion to her crew, to seeing them get home, was directly tied to and dependent upon her celibacy. Hence, she was provided with a hologram love interest, Michael Sullivan, in the episode "Far Haven" and "Spirit Folk". Adding insult to injury, we were expected to believe that Janeway would endanger flesh and blood members of her crew to avoid damaging her programmable sex toy. Janeway's other late-season romance *was* an actual person, Jaffen in the episode "Workforce", but she was suffering from amnesia throughout their affair. As soon as she recovered her memories of her life aboard Voyager, she immediately broke it off with him.
Q attempted to seduce Janeway in "The Q and the Grey", but it was done in a laughable matter and Q quickly admitted he had an alternative motive and it was not his lust for the fair captain which was behind his clumsy attempts. Actually, Janeway and Q had a very good relationship, one of mutual respect, certainly a much better one than Picard ever experienced with the Omnipotent One. Starting from "Death Wish", Q showed a respect for Janeway's opinions and ideas and from that time on came to Janeway not to test/threaten but to solicit help. And she for her part helped him as well as she could.
The major exception to the "no romance for Janeway" rule came with the episode "Counterpoint", probably the sexiest episode of Star Trek thanks in no small part to Kashyk and the intricate dance of trust, seduction and betrayal that he and Janeway played out. Did she fall in love with him? Or was she playing him as he played her? We'll never know, but that kiss looked pretty authentic and in the final moments of the episode, instead of an expression of triumph, Janeway wore a look of sadness.
4. Mentor, Role Model, Mother
To Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim, Janeway represented in varying degrees: stability/security, a role model or mentor, a better way of life.
Paris was in prison when Janeway came to him in "Caretaker", telling him "I served with your father" and offering him a way out, help her find the Maquis in the Badlands in exchange for "considerations" regarding his sentence. She didn't allow his instinctive sarcasm and cultivated indifference to cloud the issue, and despite himself, he accepted her offer. Then, as later on, Janeway helped bring out the best in him, made him want to prove himself and show her what he was capable of. Once things began to go wrong on the mission in the Badlands, Paris stepped up to help without a second thought. He wanted to be a pilot again, but perhaps even more importantly, he wanted to earn her trust and respect and thereby win back his own self-respect. Paris in turn likely understood Janeway better than did most of the crew. A fellow Starfleet brat, he knew all too well what it was like to grow up with a famous and demanding father, and was perhaps envious of the way her successes contrasted with his failures and disappointments. Paris's path to redemption was not a smooth journey; he took several steps forward and an equal number backward over the next seven years, but on the whole he was making progress. Even when Janeway had to demote him and put him in the brig in "Thirty Days", his transgression was of a different nature than it had been earlier. For a change, Paris was putting others' interests above his own. Thanks in no small part to Kathryn Janeway.
Chakotay had begun the process of teaching B'Elanna Torres to trust in others, to feel herself a part of a community, to believe in a cause larger than herself. Janeway completed that process. She gave the angry young Maquis ("Who is she to be making this decision for us?") a chance to prove herself, to earn the position of chief engineer. And at the same time Torres discovered a kindred spirit who she could relate to, look up to. In "Barge of the Dead" it became very clear that Torres viewed Janeway as a mother substitute, and she needed to make Janeway proud of her, to understand. Janeway responded in kind and the two of them had a very special relationship throughout the show's run. We didn't see them sitting and chatting casually, or exchanging confidences as Janeway did with Kes, but there is no denying the mutual respect and caring they had and how important they were to each other.
Harry Kim most definitely saw Janeway as a substitute parent, and always strove to be the "good son." It was only later, in "The Disease" that we saw him defy orders for something (or rather someone) he believed in, to actually talk back to his captain ("Have you ever been in love?") and to acknowledge that he didn't want her to treat him anymore as a child, but to allow him to grow even if she disagreed with his direction. It would have been interesting to see more follow up, to see the relationship between the two of them develop into a more balanced one.
Other than Chakotay, the only other real friend/equal Janeway had was Tuvok. The episodes depicting the close bond between them were few and far between, but this aspect of their relationship did play an important role in both "Flashback" and "Endgame." Tuvok better than anyone else on board understood Janeway, her motivations, and in his quiet way, supported her throughout their journey. She could not have made it through "The Year of Hell" without him, to name just one instance.
5. Janeway and Seven
Janeway was responsible for separating Seven from the Borg Collective--"saving" her according to Janeway's interpretation, "being no better than the Borg" in Seven's early opinion, by denying her the ability to determine her own destiny until she could be "trusted" to make the "correct" choice. And thus was the stage set for a fascinating interaction between the two women, as Seven gradually became accustomed to living among humans again, of accepting Voyager as her new Collective. It was only natural that Janeway took Seven as a personal project, as she had with other crew members in the past, and only natural that Seven should look to Janeway as a role model and guide. To me, the relationship between the two women was similar to that of a mother and daughter. However, there is plenty of subtext for J/7; there are lines that Janeway said to Seven, that had they been said to Chakotay, would have had the J/C contingent on cloud nine. Seven challenged Janeway, intellectually, emotionally, like no one else, and forced her to rethink or at least justify her preconceptions and attitudes.
Regardless of how you interpreted it, the Janeway/Seven relationship, which had shown so much promise at the beginning, gradually took on the tired aspects of a rebellious child stubbornly going her own way and then being disciplined by a weary and exasperated parent who tried to explain just what had been done wrong but knowing that at the next opportunity the entire pattern would be repeated again. How many times did Seven disregard Janeway's orders only to be proved right in the end? Or else we were treated to yet another rendition of "Captain risks everything to save Seven" alternating with "Seven rediscovers her humanity once again." Much of what had been fresh and interesting was leached out. And we never quite saw the relationship between the two women, which had begun as decidedly unbalanced in terms of power distribution, ever evolve into an actual friendship, a meeting of equals.
All in all, Janeway was a character with such incredible potential, so many interesting facets to her personality, to her interactions with her crew. Unfortunately, the follow-through wasn't quite there, and we never saw the resolution to many of the relationships. Instead, Janeway inexplicably withdrew, from her crew, from the importance to the storylines. Many of her decisions and actions seemed almost irrelevant, or in other cases inexplicable.
But despite the erratic treatment of the character, the turnover in the writing staff, certain basic truths about Janeway remained: the impulse to sacrifice herself for her crew, the holding fast to what she believed right even though it might not have fit in with the ideals or regulations of Starfleet, pulling herself up and keeping on fighting in the face of overwhelming odds, never admitting defeat, the ability to think out of the box, and above all, the fierce devotion to her people.
Everybody needs heroes to believe in, and despite her flaws, Kathryn Janeway fit the bill better than most.
Key Episodes:
Janeway herself: "Caretaker", "Eye of the Needle", "Resistance", "Death Wish", "Deadlock", "Macrocosm", "Scorpion", "The Year of Hell", "The Killing Game", "11:59", "Equinox", "The Void", "Endgame"
Janeway as mentor/mother/role model : "Parallex", "Sacred Ground", "Coda", "The Chute", "The Disease", "Barge of the Dead", "Ashes to Ashes", "Good Shepherd"
Janeway and Tuvok: "Flashback", "Tuvix", "The Year of Hell", "The Killing Game", "Endgame"
Janeway and Seven: "Scorpion", "The Gift", "Hope and Fear", "Dark Frontier", "Unimatrix Zero", "Endgame"
Janeway/Chakotay: "Resolutions", "Coda", "Shattered"
Fanfic: The motherlode of Voyager fic can be found at the Trekiverse archive. What follows below is just a small sampling, but these are the authors who had the most impact on me in my early days of fandom, and who helped shape my vision of Janeway.
m.c. moose particularly the wonderful "Tapestry Trilogy"
Penny Proctor (EJ Andrews)
monkee
YCD
Kelly Chambliss
august
Character: Kathryn Janeway
Author: Rocky
E-mail: roq@iname.com
Web page: http://www.angelfire.com/yt/rockyroad
Spoilers: For all 7 seasons of VOY
Well it was one of those great stories
that you can't put down at night
the hero knew what he had to do
and he wasn't afraid to fight
the villain goes to jail, while the hero goes free
I wish it were that simple for me.
And the reason that she loved him
was the reason I loved him too
and he never wondered what was right or wrong
he just knew - he just knew.
--"Hero" by David Crosby and Phil Collins
I've always gravitated toward the heroic type--strong, bold, utterly fearless, the born leader. No surprise, then, that Star Trek captains always held a special place in my heart, beginning with James T. Kirk. Handsome, smart, with nerves of steel, he was capable of staring down any foe from Klingons to Khan, and struck fear in the hearts of many as a wily and worthy opponent in battle. And in keeping with the legend of every heroic commander, he was possessed of tremendous charisma and not only was willing to go to hell and back for his people but frequently did. The Captain also understood the role required a great deal of sacrifice on his part: giving up of any chance of personal happiness for the sake of his ship and crew. They in turn were well aware of his devotion to them, and the degree of personal loyalty they bore him was phenomenal.
The next ship's captain, Jean-Luc Picard, was a bit of an adjustment for me; it took me a while to realize he was not so much a departure from the archetype of the heroic captain as a variation on a theme. True, Picard was not so much into the physical derring-do (and his shirt never ripped), but he showed there were many different forms of courage, and he certainly did not fall short by any measure.
Then along came Kathryn Janeway.
The first thing that struck me about her was how very reminiscent she was of Kirk--the same bold manner, the nerves of steel coupled with a patented death glare. In "Flashback" Janeway expressed a longing for the old days and the mavericks of that time, the "frontier mentality", but she herself embodied many of the same characteristics. Kirk would have easily recognized and applauded her combination of diplomacy with saber-rattling, understood how the rules are different when Starfleet Command is several thousand light years away. We saw her stalking the corridors armed with her enormous phaser rifle "Big Betsey", we saw her in hand-to-hand combat with her enemies. We saw her give the order to self-destruct her ship--more than once--unflinchingly accept assimilation--twice--and refuse to accept her own death. As Jim Wright said, "Never mess with a redhead."
At the same time, Janeway also was blessed with the intellectual curiosity of Picard (in "Hunters" she exhibited a similar interest in ancient cultures), not to mention a technical knowledge none of her captain forbears had possessed. In "Caretaker" we saw Janeway repairing the warp engines of her ship, moving with the ease of a long familiarity about the engine room. In "Parallex" she once again showed her mastery of warp theory, along with a vast knowledge of quantum physics and celestial phenomena. Kirk would have automatically turned to Spock for any scientific data he needed; Picard to his senior staff. Though neither of them was above getting his hands dirty when necessary, they never looked comfortable, nor seemed to revel in it the way Janeway did.
The earliest indication that Janeway was a different breed of leader, of course, was that she was the first female captain. (Indeed, in "Turnabout Intruder" TOS gave the impression that women could not be starship captains, though this has since been retconned that it was Janice Lester herself who was unstable but not the rest of her gender). Immediately, there was talk of a "role model", an inspiration for little girls (and some not so little) everywhere. Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle commander, was even referred to by many at NASA as "Janeway." I didn't automatically gravitate to Janeway because she was a woman, can't say I immediately related to her better than to any of the other captains for that reason, and yet, there was something undeniably thrilling about finally seeing a female in the center seat.
And perhaps because she was a woman, TPTB allowed her to display the "feminine" traits of kindness, and compassion as evident early on in the pilot episode. Her determination to bring Harry Kim back to his parents (and her regret over having to turn down his mother's request about getting him his clarinet before departure), her relationship with her fiance, all hinted at a very different side of Kathryn Janeway, softer, more human, more up close and personal than we'd gotten with the other captains. Or the compassion she showed to a poor bereaved old man in "Resistance" when her primary focus was freeing her captured crew members. Indeed, her determination to protect her people and get them home could be seen as an outgrowth of her "maternal instincts."
Janeway also had a sense of humor, as indicated by her statement, "At ease before you sprain something" to a very eager and officious ensign. But at the same time, none of that took anything away from her strength--both physical and mental--as a captain and her daring, as exemplified by the scene in "Caretaker" when Chakotay beamed over to Voyager for the first time, spotted Tom Paris, and immediately advanced upon him threateningly. Janeway got physically in between them despite her size, and forced the Maquis leader to back down. She stood up to the Kazon ("I don't like threats, I don't like bullies and I don't like you") and all the other enemies in the DQ, never once acknowledging any sense of weakness or inferiority, not letting her being female (apparently chauvinistic and male-oriented societies are as plentiful there as they are in our part of the galaxy) and a small one at that limit or slow her down in any way.
Janeway's dual nature, the captain as leader and as a private individual, was endlessly fascinating. This dichotomy was beautifully symbolized by her hair, which in the early years she wore in the "bun of steel" on duty, and then literally and figuratively letting her hair down in the privacy of her own quarters. Like Picard, Janeway was an amateur painter. She was also a mountain climber, skier, champion tennis player and shot a mean game of pool. She worshipped the memory of her father the Admiral, spoke lovingly of a mother and sister back home, and worried over the welfare of the pregnant dog she left behind.
Raised almost from birth for a career in Starfleet, Janeway started out as very much a "by the book" officer. There are indications in canon that Voyager was not her first command, yet even if it wasn't, she was suddenly confronted with challenges she had never faced before. Ordering the destruction of the Caretaker's array left Voyager effectively stranded 70,000 light years from home, alone, essentially friendless and with bitter enemies both internal and external. Originally sent to arrest the Maquis, she made the decision to extend the hand of friendship, make them part of her crew, in order to ensure the survival of all. It could not have been easy, trying to blend together such disparate elements, and while she had the willing assistance of the Maquis leader, the major burden fell on her shoulders alone. Many of the original Voyager crew were young and inexperienced, and understandably feeling very lost. Janeway had to set about forging new relationships with all the members of her crew, function as mentor and parent substitute as well as leader. She also developed new friendships, as seen in the scene in "Parallex" where she and B'Elanna Torres exchanged technobabble at warp speed, practically speaking their own private language, while the rest of the senior staff watched in stunned amazement.
Conscious of her rank, Janeway may have held herself aloof from her crew, but she wasn't above shooting a game of pool on the holodeck. In later seasons, we saw her repeatedly reach out to "lost" or wayward crew members ("Ashes to Ashes", "Good Shepherd"). In the early years, we saw the way she would listen to her officers, wasn't afraid to concede that she might be wrong, that another approach might be better while at the same time holding fast to her principles as best she could. She was determined to run her ship according to Starfleet regulations and standards, but she was not above taking Chakotay's suggestions under advisement. The earliest and perhaps most important example of this was her selection of the Maquis Torres as chief engineer over the Starfleet Carey.
Not only did TPTB show her willingness to entertain other opinions, other views, they weren't afraid to show her making mistakes, either. Not all of Janeway's encounters with the Kazon were handled well, and she was duped by the Trabe, by Seska, by the Ferengi. Each time, she licked her wounds, pulled herself and her ship together (sometimes more easily than others) and proceeded on her way. She was a survivor, who acknowledged that you can't win 'em all but she was damned if anyone or anything was going to permanently take her down. I think it was Janeway's attitude of pulling herself up by her bootstraps, of never acknowledging defeat, that made me love her most of all.
The daughter of one admiral and protégé of another, Janeway often erred on the side of being too rigid, but at the same time would show a surprising flexibility, a willingness to meet her adversary half-way, and of course the inestimable ability to think outside the box. When confronted with a no-win scenario in "Scorpion", she refused to accept either option and plunged ahead with the bold (some might say reckless) plan of forming an alliance with the Borg against what she deemed to be the more dangerous enemy. At the same time, she was clear-sighted enough to know it wouldn't be easy, but she was determined to make it work as well and as long as she could. She didn't cut and run at the first sign of difficulty, and it was this trait more than any other that made her come out on top on each of her encounters with the Collective.
Janeway wasn't perfect, like an officer in the TNG mold, and if she didn't quite have the gritty edges of the DS9 cast, she still presented a well-rounded portrait of a human being, someone you could relate to as well as admire. The one time she came dangerously close to crossing the line was in "Equinox", when confronted with a rogue Starfleet captain and crew who were using sentient beings for fuel. Horrified, Janeway tried to stop the slaughter, and then when the Equinox's Captain Ransom turned on Voyager and abandoned them to attack, her anger knew no bounds. She set out on what could be called a vendetta to bring Ransom to justice and locate her kidnapped crewmembers, even resorted to torture/attempted murder to locate his whereabouts. She might have actually killed the hapless Equinox prisoner, Noah Lessing, were it not for Chakotay's intervention. She was led at first by a desire for justice, but ended up herself on the dark side. Not a pretty or admirable portrait, but an understandable one. Too bad TPTB didn't let us see the lasting repercussions of her actions, what it must have signaled to her crew or their reactions to her behavior, let alone how the surviving members of the Equinox fared aboard Voyager.
Janeway's character had such wonderful potential, so many facets to work with, and in the early years this was explored pretty well. We saw her make mistakes, score some successes, suffer losses, learn and grow. We saw her eyes light up with the excitement of discovery, and reflect her sorrow, her concern, her self-doubts. Later on, with shifting focus by the writing staff, the character's behavior became erratic; there was often no way of predicting how Janeway would react to a particular situation or conflict. Frequently there was little or no carryover from one episode to the next. Conflicts that occurred one week were conspicuously absent the next, relationships that had been emphasized at one time were seemingly forgotten with ne'er an explanation. Certain behaviors or actions, such as Janeway's clinical depression in "Night", could be interpreted as a logical progression due to the increasing stress and isolation of the years in the Delta Quadrant, but they weren't given enough development and were then resolved in ridiculously quick and easy ways.
Likewise, Janeway's increasing fixation on getting home in the latter seasons did make a certain amount of sense considering the increasing wear and tear of the journey (though the ship always looked suspiciously as if it had just come out of spacedock in terms of how spanking new and fresh everything always appeared to be; even when torn up badly in one episode, all was miraculously fixed the following week). However, once again we needed more of an explanation of just how Janeway began to distance herself from her attitude at the beginning of the show's run that the journey itself was just as meaningful as the destination, forgetting the credo of exploration that was at the heart of every Starfleet officer. Janeway's tendency toward self-sacrifice--found in every captain worth his or her salt--evolved into an unhealthy martyr complex. For all her devotion to her crew, she was shown withdrawing from them. There were no more little scenes of her interacting with them in the holodeck, no more instances of her soliciting opinions from her first officer or chief of security. Increasingly, Janeway became more and more isolated until the only person we saw her interact with was Seven. Much of the qualities that drew us to her were downplayed or disappeared entirely. By the finale, even Janeway's habit of drinking coffee--what we could have sworn was as intrinsic to her nature as her voice like smoky crystal or her Death Glare--had disappeared.
Because we'd invested so much in the character, because of the tantalizing potential that was never quite reached, we couldn't just turn our backs on her or the show. Instead, we resorted to fanfic to fill in the gaps, explain the connections TPTB couldn't be bothered to give us, to reinforce the human connections and traits that had drawn us in the first place. To bring our Kathryn Janeway to life once more.
Key relationships that give us a lot of insight into the character:
1. Mark Johnson
When Voyager's journey began, Janeway had a fiance, Mark Johnson, waiting for her back home. The two of them had been involved for years; Janeway clearly cared for him very deeply. ("Sorry to bother you." "You only bother me the way I like to be bothered.") When Voyager finally made contact with the Alpha Quadrant four years later, Janeway was devastated to learn Mark had moved on with his life, even though she was later able to acknowledge she had been holding on to him as a 'safety net' to avoid other potentially disturbing and complicating romantic opportunities.
Speaking of those opportunities…
2. Chakotay
Most people would place the beginning of J/C in the second season episode "Resolutions", when the Captain and Commander were stranded together on New Earth. The two of them alone on an idyllic planet, combined with a bathtub, a backrub and an oblique declaration of love in the form of "an ancient legend of my people, the tale of the Angry Warrior" was irresistible. But the spark between Janeway and Chakotay was apparent the very first time they met face to face, back in "Caretaker."
Janeway suggested to Chakotay they join forces in tracking their missing crew members. Even though he was a criminal--one she'd been sent to apprehend--she treated him as an equal, with respect. It wasn't out of fear or weakness; she let him know right away in no uncertain terms that she was in charge and wasn't going to back down. Chakotay responded to her authority, and later, to the humanity and compassion she showed in dealing with the Ocampa and the Caretaker himself. He sacrificed his ship, putting his own life on the line, to defend Voyager against the Kazon. He later supported Janeway's decision to destroy the Array--their only way home.
The two of them balanced each other's strengths and weaknesses almost perfectly. Chakotay represented an unconventional way of looking at and dealing with problems, provided the flexibility Janeway and the ship would need to survive so far away from home and the familiar Starfleet structure. He had the "common touch" that Janeway lacked due to the distance she'd always been taught to cultivate between captain and crew. He could show her how to feel, that an emotional display was not a show of weakness. And most importantly, Chakotay showed her she didn't always have to go it alone, she could depend on others.
Chakotay for his part lacked her iron will, the ability to see something through despite the personal cost, the refusal to accept defeat. If Janeway had a tendency to push too hard, he had a habit of backing down. Chakotay wasn't a gambler, didn't play long shots, or believe all would work out in your favor as long as you weren't afraid to go for broke.
Chakotay was drawn to Janeway's strength, to her intensity, but at the same time wanted her to let him be strong for her for a change. And she couldn't do that. She also found it difficult to relinquish control. She was always afraid of failing, and the only way she knew was to be "more Starfleet than Starfleet", to cling to the regulations as to a lifeline. Through her years as an officer, Janeway had suffered more than her share of losses even before Voyager. The journey in the Delta Quadrant was a never-ending struggle, with the Captain all too painfully aware of the enormous responsibilities riding on her shoulders. As a result, she was afraid of letting anyone get to close to her, for fear of losing them as well.
Janeway could be authoritarian and arbitrary. Especially in the later years, she would often not solicit Chakotay's opinions, or would ignore them when she did. But at the same time he had to remember that she was the Captain, and the final decision on all matters was hers. As First Officer, his job was to present her with workable, acceptable alternatives, but all too often they fell into the pattern of him simply objecting to her choices, without giving her something else to work with. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than their argument over forming an alliance with the Borg in "Scorpion".
Janeway accused Chakotay of confusing the professional with the personal, of taking her dismissal of his command advice as a personal rejection. And yet she also accused him of abandoning her simply because he didn't agree with her command decisions.
As late as "Shattered", it appeared that there was some hope for J/C after they finally got home. That hope, however, ended with "Endgame."
3. Other Romances
All of the other Starship captains got their romances, their "babe of the week", with the tacit understanding that of course nothing permanent could ever come of this attachment. But somehow the rules were different when it came to the first female captain. She couldn't be allowed to "play the field" without calling into question her morals. And despite the precedent of Kirk and his romances with various yeomen, or Picard with Neela Daren, Janeway wasn't allowed to be involved with any of her crew. Or perhaps TPTB felt that a woman of a certain age would no longer realistically be interested in sex or romance. The flirting and subtext between her and Chakotay during the first few seasons was sharply downplayed and then dropped in the later years (much to the dismay of the J/C contingent who nonetheless never quite gave up hope until the end) and Janeway's romantic opportunities, such as they were, were few and far between. TPTB seemed to deliberately be pushing the notion that Janeway's devotion to her crew, to seeing them get home, was directly tied to and dependent upon her celibacy. Hence, she was provided with a hologram love interest, Michael Sullivan, in the episode "Far Haven" and "Spirit Folk". Adding insult to injury, we were expected to believe that Janeway would endanger flesh and blood members of her crew to avoid damaging her programmable sex toy. Janeway's other late-season romance *was* an actual person, Jaffen in the episode "Workforce", but she was suffering from amnesia throughout their affair. As soon as she recovered her memories of her life aboard Voyager, she immediately broke it off with him.
Q attempted to seduce Janeway in "The Q and the Grey", but it was done in a laughable matter and Q quickly admitted he had an alternative motive and it was not his lust for the fair captain which was behind his clumsy attempts. Actually, Janeway and Q had a very good relationship, one of mutual respect, certainly a much better one than Picard ever experienced with the Omnipotent One. Starting from "Death Wish", Q showed a respect for Janeway's opinions and ideas and from that time on came to Janeway not to test/threaten but to solicit help. And she for her part helped him as well as she could.
The major exception to the "no romance for Janeway" rule came with the episode "Counterpoint", probably the sexiest episode of Star Trek thanks in no small part to Kashyk and the intricate dance of trust, seduction and betrayal that he and Janeway played out. Did she fall in love with him? Or was she playing him as he played her? We'll never know, but that kiss looked pretty authentic and in the final moments of the episode, instead of an expression of triumph, Janeway wore a look of sadness.
4. Mentor, Role Model, Mother
To Tom Paris, B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim, Janeway represented in varying degrees: stability/security, a role model or mentor, a better way of life.
Paris was in prison when Janeway came to him in "Caretaker", telling him "I served with your father" and offering him a way out, help her find the Maquis in the Badlands in exchange for "considerations" regarding his sentence. She didn't allow his instinctive sarcasm and cultivated indifference to cloud the issue, and despite himself, he accepted her offer. Then, as later on, Janeway helped bring out the best in him, made him want to prove himself and show her what he was capable of. Once things began to go wrong on the mission in the Badlands, Paris stepped up to help without a second thought. He wanted to be a pilot again, but perhaps even more importantly, he wanted to earn her trust and respect and thereby win back his own self-respect. Paris in turn likely understood Janeway better than did most of the crew. A fellow Starfleet brat, he knew all too well what it was like to grow up with a famous and demanding father, and was perhaps envious of the way her successes contrasted with his failures and disappointments. Paris's path to redemption was not a smooth journey; he took several steps forward and an equal number backward over the next seven years, but on the whole he was making progress. Even when Janeway had to demote him and put him in the brig in "Thirty Days", his transgression was of a different nature than it had been earlier. For a change, Paris was putting others' interests above his own. Thanks in no small part to Kathryn Janeway.
Chakotay had begun the process of teaching B'Elanna Torres to trust in others, to feel herself a part of a community, to believe in a cause larger than herself. Janeway completed that process. She gave the angry young Maquis ("Who is she to be making this decision for us?") a chance to prove herself, to earn the position of chief engineer. And at the same time Torres discovered a kindred spirit who she could relate to, look up to. In "Barge of the Dead" it became very clear that Torres viewed Janeway as a mother substitute, and she needed to make Janeway proud of her, to understand. Janeway responded in kind and the two of them had a very special relationship throughout the show's run. We didn't see them sitting and chatting casually, or exchanging confidences as Janeway did with Kes, but there is no denying the mutual respect and caring they had and how important they were to each other.
Harry Kim most definitely saw Janeway as a substitute parent, and always strove to be the "good son." It was only later, in "The Disease" that we saw him defy orders for something (or rather someone) he believed in, to actually talk back to his captain ("Have you ever been in love?") and to acknowledge that he didn't want her to treat him anymore as a child, but to allow him to grow even if she disagreed with his direction. It would have been interesting to see more follow up, to see the relationship between the two of them develop into a more balanced one.
Other than Chakotay, the only other real friend/equal Janeway had was Tuvok. The episodes depicting the close bond between them were few and far between, but this aspect of their relationship did play an important role in both "Flashback" and "Endgame." Tuvok better than anyone else on board understood Janeway, her motivations, and in his quiet way, supported her throughout their journey. She could not have made it through "The Year of Hell" without him, to name just one instance.
5. Janeway and Seven
Janeway was responsible for separating Seven from the Borg Collective--"saving" her according to Janeway's interpretation, "being no better than the Borg" in Seven's early opinion, by denying her the ability to determine her own destiny until she could be "trusted" to make the "correct" choice. And thus was the stage set for a fascinating interaction between the two women, as Seven gradually became accustomed to living among humans again, of accepting Voyager as her new Collective. It was only natural that Janeway took Seven as a personal project, as she had with other crew members in the past, and only natural that Seven should look to Janeway as a role model and guide. To me, the relationship between the two women was similar to that of a mother and daughter. However, there is plenty of subtext for J/7; there are lines that Janeway said to Seven, that had they been said to Chakotay, would have had the J/C contingent on cloud nine. Seven challenged Janeway, intellectually, emotionally, like no one else, and forced her to rethink or at least justify her preconceptions and attitudes.
Regardless of how you interpreted it, the Janeway/Seven relationship, which had shown so much promise at the beginning, gradually took on the tired aspects of a rebellious child stubbornly going her own way and then being disciplined by a weary and exasperated parent who tried to explain just what had been done wrong but knowing that at the next opportunity the entire pattern would be repeated again. How many times did Seven disregard Janeway's orders only to be proved right in the end? Or else we were treated to yet another rendition of "Captain risks everything to save Seven" alternating with "Seven rediscovers her humanity once again." Much of what had been fresh and interesting was leached out. And we never quite saw the relationship between the two women, which had begun as decidedly unbalanced in terms of power distribution, ever evolve into an actual friendship, a meeting of equals.
All in all, Janeway was a character with such incredible potential, so many interesting facets to her personality, to her interactions with her crew. Unfortunately, the follow-through wasn't quite there, and we never saw the resolution to many of the relationships. Instead, Janeway inexplicably withdrew, from her crew, from the importance to the storylines. Many of her decisions and actions seemed almost irrelevant, or in other cases inexplicable.
But despite the erratic treatment of the character, the turnover in the writing staff, certain basic truths about Janeway remained: the impulse to sacrifice herself for her crew, the holding fast to what she believed right even though it might not have fit in with the ideals or regulations of Starfleet, pulling herself up and keeping on fighting in the face of overwhelming odds, never admitting defeat, the ability to think out of the box, and above all, the fierce devotion to her people.
Everybody needs heroes to believe in, and despite her flaws, Kathryn Janeway fit the bill better than most.
Key Episodes:
Janeway herself: "Caretaker", "Eye of the Needle", "Resistance", "Death Wish", "Deadlock", "Macrocosm", "Scorpion", "The Year of Hell", "The Killing Game", "11:59", "Equinox", "The Void", "Endgame"
Janeway as mentor/mother/role model : "Parallex", "Sacred Ground", "Coda", "The Chute", "The Disease", "Barge of the Dead", "Ashes to Ashes", "Good Shepherd"
Janeway and Tuvok: "Flashback", "Tuvix", "The Year of Hell", "The Killing Game", "Endgame"
Janeway and Seven: "Scorpion", "The Gift", "Hope and Fear", "Dark Frontier", "Unimatrix Zero", "Endgame"
Janeway/Chakotay: "Resolutions", "Coda", "Shattered"
Fanfic: The motherlode of Voyager fic can be found at the Trekiverse archive. What follows below is just a small sampling, but these are the authors who had the most impact on me in my early days of fandom, and who helped shape my vision of Janeway.
m.c. moose particularly the wonderful "Tapestry Trilogy"
Penny Proctor (EJ Andrews)
monkee
YCD
Kelly Chambliss
august