Captain Kathryn Janeway is the fictional captain of the Starship Voyager from the TV series Star Trek Voyager. It should be noted that I am talking about the fictional character only and not the actual actor (Kate Mulgrew) who is pretty talented if we’re being honest with ourselves.
SO Captain Kathryn Janeway…
Captain Janeway is truly the worst captain in Star Trek history (excluding Captain Archer who does not count because Enterprise is the wayward child of the Star Trek series and does not count) and here’s why!
- Captain Janeway’s incessant moral grandstanding gets the crew of Voyager constantly in trouble (more so in the beginning seasons). In fact, without Janeway’s constant moral grandstanding the entire plot line of Voyager would be moot. Voyager would never have gotten trapped in the Delta Quadrant to begin with.
- Captain Janeway abandoned her crew in the dark void (S5, E1, Night) because booohooo she feels bad for getting them trapped in the Delta quadrant. She’s supposed to be the captain, she’s responsible for her crew, but she let her self pity dictate her actions. Captain Picard would be ashamed of you.
- Captain Janeway whined and cried all the way up into the later seasons about her second in command, Commander Chakotay. Because you know, he has to obsessively obey her and she never has to listen to him because that makes sense (see S3, E26, and S4, E1) ??? Unlike all other captains in the Star Trek series, Janeway didn’t seem to have much respect for her second in commands decisions.
- Despite not wanting to violate Star Fleet directives in the early seasons, Captain Janeway in the final episode violated Star Fleet’s Temporal Prime Directive and went back into the past, altering history, so Voyager could get home earlier. I don’t care if she changed her mind and became wiser or whatever reasoning you can come up with… it’s annoying that most of the trouble Voyager got into was caused by her obsessively obeying the prime directive and then Janeway herself goes and breaks the most important directive of all. She could have gotten the entirety of humanity killed doing what she did.
- What really grinds my gears though, is how Captain Janeway treated the doctor. She was pretty mean to the Doctor for the longest time! It was nice though, in the later seasons, when Captain Janeway and crew recognized the doctor as a person and became nicer to him.
- Captain Janeway’s compassion is overrated. She only gave second chances to her pet projects. Everybody else, like Maquis crew members, didn’t get second chances.
- She never stood up for her crew like Captain Picard or Will Riker did. Instead, she just had an obsession with going down with the ship… Her crew’s safety was an afterthought.
- Oh and did I mention, Captain Janeway supported the Q Continuum’s locking up of one of the Q, denying him his right to die. Only Q’s daring allowed for Q to finally die in peace. All Janeway did was stand in the way of other people’s rights. Again, Janeway’s misguided moral nonsense meant that others got trampled and hurt.
Ultimately the character Captain Janeway leaves a lot to be desired. She was not a great Captain like Picard or Sisko… She was something else. While being something else makes her absolutely terrible in the role of a Captain, it does make things interesting… if only because it’s different.
Janeway isn’t THE worst though
Here’s to you bakula *worst actor and captain award*
I agree 100%
Even though she says she will do anything (almost) to get home, Q offers her a way to get home by merely having sex and she says no!!!! WOW! She must be really important!
Let’s hate on people, let’s promote that. The years this actress put into making a character that changed lives for women in her day, yeah let’s hate that. What a weird take. I could counter with a hundred reasons why you’re wrong, you missed the boat and I feel sorry for you. Your complete ignorance of what your talking about shows you’re either really young, or you personally have no depth. What a WEIRD take. Voyager wasn’t perfect, but Janeway absolutely held her own and she had the respect of her peers. Thanks for your bottom of the barrel take though.
Maybe hating it’s not the best thing to do and maybe this character’s poetic, romantic and self-centered behavior changed lives for women in her day… and I’m pleased for that. And certainly there are some positive aspects in her character. But we’re talking about tons of nonsense and non consistent behaviors, not to mention her presence on almost every away mission, even little ones. Ok, she’s the main character but she throws herself in the middle of almost every salvage mission. This could be seen as a nice thing to do but not if you’re the captain of a starship, not in Star Trek. I’d have used others characters, to known them better.
Compared to other captains I don’t like her at all, that’s my personal opinion. I’m interested in those hundred reasons why he’s wrong, tell us about it. And talking about ignorance.. judging people without even knowing them, saying things like “you are either like this or that” those could be a signs of ignorance. But I don’t know you so I don’t judge you
Out-verse: Civil war writing.
In-verse: Janeway is secretly a doom cultist succeeding in destroying the universe to free a greater evil the Q locked away for benevolent reasons to the mortal races.
Fan theory: SF Debris is right that Janeway MUST be killed on a FUNDAMENTAL level, so any fanfic is to character-assassinate her HARD!
janeway worst captain and actor ever!
Bakula was absolut great, as the whole serial was.