Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew, is a fictional character in the Star
Trek franchise. As the captain of the Starfleet starship USS Voyager, she was
the lead character on the television series Star Trek: Voyager, and later a
Starfleet admiral, as seen in the 2002 feature film Star Trek: Nemesis.
Although other female captains had appeared in previous Star Trek episodes
and other media, she is the only one to serve as the central character of a Star
Trek TV series. Casting
The character was originally called Elizabeth Janeway, after the noted
writer of the same name. However, after Geneviève Bujold was cast, she requested
the character to be renamed "Nicole Janeway". Bujold, whose experience was
mainly in feature films, was unprepared for the schedule demanded by the
television series, was unwilling to do news interviews, and dropped out on the
second day of filming for the pilot episode "Caretaker". Kate Mulgrew, who
had previously auditioned for the role, was brought in. She suggested that the
name to be changed to "Kathryn", to which the producers agreed. Actresses
Erin Gray and Chelsea Field also auditioned for the role.
Fictional character biography Janeway's hometown is Bloomington,
Indiana on Earth. She was born on May 20.
Captain Janeway took command of the Intrepid-class USS Voyager in 2371.
Their first mission was to locate and capture a Maquis vessel last seen in the
area of space known as the Badlands. While there, the Maquis ship and Voyager
were transported against their will into the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light-years
away, by a massive displacement wave. The Maquis ship is destroyed while
fighting the Kazon-Ogla, and although Voyager survives, there are numerous
casualties. In order to protect the Ocampa, who live on a planet Voyager
visits, Janeway destroys the Caretaker Array, the space station that
transported the two ships to the Delta Quadrant, which provides energy to the
Ocampa's planet, despite the fact that the Array may be the two ships' only
chance to return home. In doing this, Janeway strands her ship and crew seven
decades' travel from home. Her first major task is integrating the
surviving Maquis and Voyager crews. Chakotay, captain of the Maquis ship,
succeeds the deceased Lieutenant Commander Cavit as her first officer.
Janeway also grants convicted criminal, former Starfleet officer, and
accomplished pilot Tom Paris a field commission, and makes him Voyager‍ '​s
helmsman. Janeway's other interactions with her
crew include helping the ex-Borg Seven of Nine reclaim her individuality and
humanity and advocating for the Doctor's status as a sentient being.
During the course of the TV series, Voyager has contact with the Q Continuum
on three occasions, and repeated contact with the Borg. With the intervention of
a future/alternate version of herself, Janeway leads her crew in using one of
the Borg's transwarp conduits to return her ship to Federation space after
having traveled through the Delta Quadrant for seven years.
= Later appearances= During a cameo appearance in the film
Star Trek: Nemesis, now-Admiral Janeway instructs Captain Jean-Luc Picard to
travel to Romulus at the invitation of the film's antagonist.
Admiral Janeway also appeared in the Borg Invasion 4-D ride at the Star Trek:
The Experience venue in Las Vegas, which closed in 2008. In the ride, Janeway
leads Voyager to the rescue of ride participants who are ostensibly trapped
first on a space station and later on a shuttlecraft that come under attack by a
Borg Cube commanded by the Borg Queen. At the ride's end, Janeway tells the
participants, "Congratulations. You've defeated the Borg with one thing the
Queen can never assimilate: the human spirit. As long as we have that,
resistance will never be futile." Although Paramount considers only the
onscreen, live-action Trek episodes and movies canonical, Janeway has
nonetheless continued as a major character in the Star Trek novels that
depict the events in the lives of the Voyager characters after the end of that
series. In Peter David's 2007 Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Before
Dishonor, which is set after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, Janeway is
assimilated by a rogue faction of the Borg, and becomes their new Borg Queen.
Seven of Nine, with the aid of Ambassador Spock and the Enterprise-E
crew, manages to communicate with Janeway's consciousness, buried deep
within the Queen's mind. During a brief moment of contact, Janeway helps them
destroy the Borg cube, with all hands on board. Although Seven manages to escape,
Janeway is killed. Her memorial service sees a vast turnout, and a tall gleaming
pillar with a light burning atop it is constructed in tribute to her. The Q
female appears to Janeway's spirit, and tells her that Q and the Q Continuum had
taken an interest in her. Telling her that she has a destiny, Lady Q takes
Janeway by the hand, and disappears with her into realms unknown. Writer Peter
David explained the book was conceived by Pocket Books editorial as one in
which Janeway would die, and that he was brought in to write it in order to give
her a reportedly heroic send-off. In the 2012 Star Trek: Voyager novel The
Eternal Tide by Kirsten Beyer, Janeway returns to human life with the help of
young Q, who needs her assistance, and by the book's end resumes her
admiralship in Starfleet. In the 2014 Star Trek: Voyager novel Protectors by
Kirsten Beyer, Janeway goes back to Earth per orders of Starfleet Command;
by the end of the book she returns to the Delta Quadrant, taking charge of the
starships stationed there. In the second 2014 Star Trek: Voyager novel, also by
Beyer, Acts of Contrition, Janeway continues as the Admiral in charge of
Starfleet's Delta Quadrant exploratory fleet of ships.
In Cryptic Studios online role-playing game, Star Trek Online, Janeway is
briefly mentioned in the background, exploring the Hobus system after the
supernova that was the catalyst for the events of the 2009 Star Trek film.
See also List of female action heroes
References External links
Kathryn Janeway at Memory Alpha