Should Janeway have been a mother?

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't know what that would have changed about the show except to make Janeway feel bad a little more.

Why is it not weird for Kirk and Picard to choose career over reproduction but weird for Janeway?

 

[Melakon]

Why is it not weird for Kirk and Picard to choose career over reproduction but weird for Janeway?

Because it's the VOY forum I guess. Archer didn't have kids either.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm not sure if people wanted Archer to pass on his genes.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

She did say in the episode where Q wants to knock her up that she always wanted a child (not with him though), and I do think it would've added a nice dimension to the character--giving her the most primal need to get home, which would make her sacrifice of the Array heart-wrenching, choosing between her offspring and the lives of thousands of innocents. It would also explain her going into motherhood mode with some of the crew.

But having to have the first female Trek series lead be a mother would really bother me, makes her into more of a stereotypical sort of character.

 

[Taylirious]

Didn't she have a dog with Mark(?) and it had or was going to have puppies? She seemed pretty happy with just that.

I voted no.

 

[Janeway7trulv]

If Janeway had children she wouldn't have chosen the command of Voyager in the first place. A command, yes, but later. She is also a good scientist. There would have been many good planet-bound jobs for her.

Spot on!..If it was written in the show - for me , she will have lost her creditability-not to say that women that have children do not have any statue.

For me, the show will be more of Dynasty that Star Trek. I wonder why this question hasn't been asked about Kirk or Stewart ? ..

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Didn't she have a dog with Mark(?) and it had or was going to have puppies? She seemed pretty happy with just that.

I voted no.

Yes she had Molly the Irish Setter, who was pregnant when she left.

So obviously she is a grandmother, lost in the DQ.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

If Janeway had children she wouldn't have chosen the command of Voyager in the first place. A command, yes, but later. She is also a good scientist. There would have been many good planet-bound jobs for her.

Spot on!..If it was written in the show - for me , she will have lost her creditability-not to say that women that have children do not have any statue.

For me, the show will be more of Dynasty that Star Trek. I wonder why this question hasn't been asked about Kirk or Stewart ? ..

Kirk has two dead kids already.

 

[Melakon]

Yeah, the dog was the stand-in for Janeway's child, until Seven took over that job.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Molly did NOT write her a Dear Janeway letter. Mark did.

She missed and grieved Mark a lot more than the dog. She knew the dog was in good hands.

 

[Kilana2]

According to the Litverse Captain Rachel Garrett of Enterprise-C has a son. So it seems to be possible to be Captain and mother.
There is always the controversy about raising children aboard a starship and putting them in harms way. As Janeway put it, she can't prevent her crew from having children.
If Janeway remains childless after the return in the AQ, so be it. According to her abilities she would be a great mom, though.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Should Archer have been a father, would that make him saving the earth in Season 3 more poignant?

Should Picard have been a father, would that make him embarrassing his kid by getting assimilated more poignant?

Daaaad the kids at school are throwing batteries at me and yelling "who's your Daddy"

Daaaad the kids at school are shoving me into my locker and yelling "MATURATION!"

 

[hux]

I would imagine that having children is a decision that would have been tough to make for captains considering the amount of time that they would be away from home. Although there were some large starships that carried families on deep space missions. What about their husbands? They would also have to be in Starfleet or agree to forego their careers while on the ship.

Trek didn't explore this much (understandable as it would require predicting the future dynamics of families and that's a minefield). Someone mentioned Sisko being a dad but had his wife lived, would he have been that involved of would she be doing most of it. Would it be a nanny?

I think Trek chickened out a little here. Starfleet people apparently just have kids but don't really need to look after them or let it bother their careers that much. It just works out

 

[Disco]

She never struck me as someone who wanted kids (can't recall if she ever spoke about it). I can't imagine many captains would be the type to want family life. It's hard to judge how things like this work in the Trek future as they tended to avoid looking too closely at it. There still seems to be a very traditional heterosexual, monogamous, gender role conventionality to it all though

Janeway will probably live to 135 so kids could come much much later if she wanted.

I was hoping this thread was gonna be about "should they have written Janeway as a mother". That might have been interesting. Thinking about it, none of the crew were trying to get home to any children, were they. Seems like an obvious character backstory to look at when considering the shows premise. It was all just partners and parents

Tuvok had kids.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Chakotay thought he had a kid.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

And then, after bonding with the idea of that kid he found out it wasn't his kid and he no longer gave a crap about it. Him. The half alpha quadrant boy.

 

[Disco]

According to the Litverse Captain Rachel Garrett of Enterprise-C has a son. So it seems to be possible to be Captain and mother.
There is always the controversy about raising children aboard a starship and putting them in harms way. As Janeway put it, she can't prevent her crew from having children.
If Janeway remains childless after the return in the AQ, so be it. According to her abilities she would be a great mom, though.

I think Janeway lacks the warmth to be a great Mum.

Anyway Picard having a son in the Litverse is great example of how it is possible for Captains to have children and how difficult it is to balance the responsibilities.

 

[MacLeod]

When Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant and we met Captain Janeway, do you think the character should have been a mother?

She was around 40 years old at the time. Engaged to Mark. Does this make sense? I understand life spans are longer in the 24th century, but are child bearing years extended? Is it possible to fight a natural desire to reproduce? If we found out 20 years on that she had a child that was raised by the father, would our perceptions change? (Kirk/David)

Can a woman have it all? A career and a family in the 24th century?

You know, I'm going to blow your mind here and say even now, some woman actually choose NOT to have a child. I know right? Who can believe it but I assure you it is true.

Got to agree with this, and even today women have children into their forties +

No as the the question of whether or not she should be a mother for me I don't think it would have made much difference as I felt they never really wrote the characters in such as way as they were seventy years from home and that there was a decent chance that they may never see home again.

 

[hux]

Tuvok had kids.

Vulcans don't count. It needed to be a human to fully explore the impact of the emotional separation. Maybe Samantha Wildman could have had a kid at home already. Other than the background crew, I can't really see a good candidate.

Had admiral crazy not come back and screwed with the timeline and Voyager stayed in the Delta quadrant, who would look after Miral? Flotter? B'Elanna and Tom didn't know they were getting home early so who was gonna look after her? These people all just seem to have kids without much thought for child care. It's an area that gets ignored

 

[TheGoodStuff]

When Voyager was lost in the Delta Quadrant and we met Captain Janeway, do you think the character should have been a mother?

She was around 40 years old at the time. Engaged to Mark. Does this make sense? I understand life spans are longer in the 24th century, but are child bearing years extended? Is it possible to fight a natural desire to reproduce? If we found out 20 years on that she had a child that was raised by the father, would our perceptions change? (Kirk/David)

Can a woman have it all? A career and a family in the 24th century?

You know, I'm going to blow your mind here and say even now, some woman actually choose NOT to have a child. I know right? Who can believe it but I assure you it is true.

Got to agree with this, and even today women have children into their forties +

No as the the question of whether or not she should be a mother for me I don't think it would have made much difference as I felt they never really wrote the characters in such as way as they were seventy years from home and that there was a decent chance that they may never see home again.

I agree. Janeway is one of my favourite characters in the franchise and it is because of the unique situation and pressures she is under. She lost her fiance and her homeworld, all she could afford to focus on was getting home...in ways that mission [and the resultant saving of everyone else on board] was her 'baby'.

Giving Janeway a kid, I feel, would have lowered her into a stereotypical 'mother' character. Mulgrew managed to expertly balance being tough-as-nails and motherly with the crew. A baby would have tipped the scales too far.