Captain Janeway

[ThePurpleOctopus]

Just a thread in praise of this character who I feel has strongly influenced me.

I remember watching her when Voyager was live on TV when I was younger, and liking her so much - I wouldn't be watching Star Trek if not for her, she was my way into it.

But my Mum didn't really like her, called her 'strident', 'bossy', and didn't like her voice. I don't blame my Mum at all - we all have our own internal misogyny we battle with. But her feelings made me hide my love of Janeway for a while.

Then in my 20s I rewatched it all and appreciated Janeway even more, particularly as a young professional trying to be taken seriously - and having been called 'bossy' and 'aggressive' by older men when I truly believe I was nothing more than assertive.

Now in my thirties and re-watching it from the start on Netflix. I think my appreciation for Janeway has gone up again!

Just me?

Loved Janeway and 7/9.

Series 3 of Picard is fucking awesome. So many strong female leads, all dressed appropriately! And an amazing 7/9.

Although Beverly looks as if she's had one too many operations. Thought she had burns all over her face and it was part of the plot.

And the softening of Worf? Just great!

In fact if you look at the cast - 8 out of the 12 "stars" are women.

My daughter is name after Captain Janeway 🙈

@ladymalfoy45 I was gutted!
We just had the ep where the Dr puts them all on a diet (when Garibaldi wants to make the Banya Cauda) and Ivanova complains that her diet will make her gain weight.
She says 'Typical, my whole life I fought against Imperialism and now I am the expanding Russian frontier.'
The doc quips 'With very nice borders!'
We're really enjoying seeing it again.

@MaybeWednesday We haven't watched S3 Picard yet because season 2 was so awful we gave up half way through. Excited to come back to it tho. Worf is my fave all time Trek character.

Omg S2!! I wanted to chew my own arm off! So much navel gazing!

I'm pleased to say you'll probably love S3. You don't need to see S1 or S2 to enjoy it.

I squeeeeeed all the way through!

@MaybeWednesday SO excited.

Picard was very good, recently, Star Trek and star wars have been the only series which has older women playing decent roles.

I enjoyed Voyager but thought it was a bit odd that Janeaway didn’t go off with Chakote in the end, especially after the episode where Chakote and Janeway get marooned on a planet and he builds her a bath!!!

there were some very odd romantic pairings in the end.
in Picard it turns out that Seven of Nine is a lesbian!

Not much to add, just that I loved Janeway and 7! How badass was Janeway at the end of Voyager 😍

Yes, such a great character. I loved her blend of compassion and toughness and the way she used both in turn say with Tom Paris. Not perfect but all the better for it.

Counterpoint is my favourite episode - the way she handles temptation and loneliness and remains clear sighted. It makes me want to cheer when she asks the computer to change the music as she reasserts control.

I agree they should have stopped mucking about with her hair though. I mean they didn't do that with Jean-Luc...

And yes to annoyance at Seven's outfits. High heels and corsetry would surely be dismissed in seconds with a steely "Inefficient."

Just looked up Kate Mulgrew and read that she was born with a full set of teeth and no sense of pain 😮

https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/kate-mulgrew-was-born-with-teeth-kept-in-a-cage-w209601/

in Picard it turns out that Seven of Nine is a lesbian!

It was weird at the end of Voyager when they suddenly shoehorned in her being in a relationship with Chakote. It just didn't work for me.

Dax was a great character! She often bested the men intellectually and physically (the holodeck fight scenes with Worf 😃).
I couldn't warm to Kira though. I actually think the acting was bad, and the anger and "feistiness" was badly performed.
Back to DS9 - Beverley Crusher was a great character, well portrayed.

It sounds like I need to revisit Picard then! We liked Season 1, but didn't finish 2 as we got bored.

Do we need to persevere with 2 before starting 3, or can we jump to 3 without missing important story stuff?

Agreed. They didn't need to do the Seven-Chakotay relationship.

Plus, that would have left it open for viewers to think (or hope, if you're me) that he and Janeway might have got it on once they got back to Earth.

@UnaOfStormhold Counterpoint is my favourite episode too. Great chemistry. Fun plot.

I loved Voyager. It's one of my comfort programs... i put it on, almost in the background, if I'm pottering about.

Seven of Nine was an excellent character and I never skip her episodes.

I skip most of the ridiculous Holodeck eps...dearie me, they're bad. I call them 'caring/sharing episodes'.
The accents in the Newhaven episodes...Jesus wept!

I always thought the catsuit did Jeri Ryan a disservice, because she's a great actress, and didn't need the eye candy factor to keep her interesting.

The dynamic between Kes and Neelix was just plain weird. I think it should have been more fatherly, or avuncular, in nature.

And that episode where Tom (and then Janeway) turns into an amphibian, or whatever it was! 😂

I liked Janeway. Seven of Nine is a male fantasy. Deep Space Nine was my favorite Trek series. I got tired of everything being solved by the deus ex machina of "temporal anomaly" and gave up on Trek years ago. Switched to Battlestar Galactica because Ron D Moore clearly also was annoyed by temporal anomalies. Loved Dark Matter and The Expanse. Watched Picard but found it underwhelming.

We introduced TNG, B5 and lately Voyager to teen DDs, just finished the last series in a massive bingewatch. Voyager was always my favourite, probably because of Janeway. DDs agree!

And that episode where Tom (and then Janeway) turns into an amphibian, or whatever it was!

Just re watched that one! He broke the warp barrier and 'evolved', although it seemed more like devolution to me. They looked like giant salamanders.

The Doctor's dry humour was great.

I've always loved Janeway, and Ivanova from B5. And that brilliant scene with Delenn where she faces down the earth fleet. "If you value your lives, be somewhere else." Sci-fi has a long tradition of strong female characters, maybe because it's an imagining of what could be rather than a reflection of what is. I've been reading some old sci-fi books from the 70s (borrowed from FIL) and some of the female characters in those are fantastic too.

Agree with most of what you say, but she HAS got a very annoying voice.

Love Janeway. I remember punching the air when she made the decision to separate Tuvix. (Sheesh he/they was annoying.)

@Ameanstreakamilewide The weird turning into fish episode springs into my mind unbidden at least once a week. Why??

I suspect it's because it was just off-the-chart weird and kinda incongruous, really!
There were lots of excellent episodes about philosophy, ethics, morality, etc; and then there was this monstrosity.

I mean...🤯

I loved Voyager, and Janeway. Recently I watched series 3 of Picard and was delighted to see all the older female characters.....and the fact that they had the same actors from the original shows. It would have been so easy to use younger replacements, like in Top Gun Maverick, but it was so much more impactful this way.