Actually I believe it did have to happen. I also don't believe The Eternal Tide is a story Kirsten wanted to tell. I think it was a story she was told to tell by Pocket Books. The decision to kill off the central character of the entire series was a major mistake and by bringing her back to life they are acknowledging that they made a mistake.
Janeway is Voyager. Voyager has no other character as compelling or as commanding as her. Chakotay is no Will Riker. TNG Could survive with Will Riker as a captain, Voayger cannot survive without Janeway. I believe they knew this from the begining, which is why they gave themselves an out from the begining by involving the Q with her death. The was the safety net that they would use if fan reaction was too negative. It was, and she is back.
In the Acknowledgements of this book, Mrs. Beyer wrote the following, "I cannot help but fear that some will see this story as a failure of nerves and others, most unwisely, as a vindication of the narrow constraints they would see put on all Trek literature".
So what she is basically saying is, I was told to bring her back, but I am not saying so.
Or, "People think I got nervous and frightened and that is why I brought her back".
Also, If you think they made me do it, you are wrong, I wanted to do it all along.
It reminds me of the old situation of employment, " You can't fire me, because I quit".
we know that to be sour grapes in most instances. There is also the old dating situation, "I dumped her, she didn't leave me".
I think she is being extremely patronizing and disingenuous by suggesting that people like me who think Janeway was brought back because pocket Books demanded that she do so are wrong. No, we are not wrong. Janeway is back despite the fact the you killed her Mrs. Beyer. You made a mistake and the bosses called you on it. Accept it and don't employ straw mans, gratuitous assertions and semantics to avoid the facts of the situation.
It is not wrong for us as fans to insist that the captains stay alive. Killing Kirk was a huge error and he too was brought back. It is just this simple, you do not kill the captain unless you are ending the series permanently. You cannot continue on in print without the captain.
In Return of the Jedi at a early test screening, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian were killed flying out of the Death Star. The Falcon didn't make it and audience practially rioted and as a result, they were allowed to escape the explosion in the final cut of the film, proving that you do NOT kill the captain, and Han Solo is nowhere near as important to Star Wars as Janeway is to Voyager. She is more along the lines of Luke and vader in terms of importance.
If Janeway had not been brought back as the fans demanded, the books would have stopped selling. The only reason I believe that they continued to do ok was the carrot of Janeway being dangled over the fans' heads, knowing that sooner or later she would return and they would continue to begrudgingly read the series knowing she would be back. Without that little nudge, the fans would have vanished. All of this is my opinion and can be disagreed with hopefully without arguing. I enjoy discussions, but I do not enjoy arguments.
Star Trek Voayger isn't "plenty of series". It is the story of a crew led by a captain named Kathryn Janeway, the first female captain in the history of Star Trek and as such, indespensable. She is one of a kind and that makes her survival a must because when she dies, Star Trek goes back to being the all boy's club. Gene would never have wanted that. He wanted all races and genders to be equal in his future utopian view of humanity. He would have never allowed her to be killed. Spock came back under his watch. He knew you don't kill the big guns.
I love Voyager more than the TOS and I know that is an oddity, but that is what I like and just like the TOS, the Captain is still alive. They keep putting out books with Kirk in them as if Generations never happened. Good move.
