Captain Janeway was a perfectly competent captain when her responsibilities consisted of nothing more than saying "report" or telling Tom which way to point the ship but when she was put under pressure and asked to demonstrate her leadership abilities, she failed miserably - For me, the first time Janeway was required to make genuinely difficult command decisions was "scorpion" - In this episode, she actively dismissed the opinions of her crew (especially Chakotay) and conveniently ignored the Prime Directive, in order to get through Borg space - She helped the Borg develop a technique for murdering species 8472 and maintain control and even when Chokotay discovered that the Borg had in fact started the war by deliberately attacking species 8472, Janeway criticised Chakotay for changing her decision (when she was unconscious) and again exibited erratic behaviors
In the "Night" episode, we again see Janeway display these erratic behaviours and demonstrate that she is an emotionally incapable leader who fails to recognise the responsibilities of being captain - Then we had a number of episodes where Janeway did not need to be anything other than average but once again when she was forced into a real command sitaution she repeated this erratic and incompetent behaviour in the "Equinox" episodes - once more, when she is put under pressure, she proves that she is out of her depth even to the extent that she plays with a mans life and dismisses Chakotay again (this time literally dismissing him and confining him to his quarters; she then later threatens Tuvok with the same punishment) - This episode further highlights her inability to be professional and we again see her being emotionally incapable of showing sincere leadership
There are countless examples of Janeway exibiting her self-rightious, superior, smug and over compensating behavior - in the episode "Shattered" when Chakotay goes to the bridge 7 years earlier and tries to explain to janeway what has happened, she acts so monumentally self-satisfied and smug that it's almost unbearable - like wise, in the episode "Relativity" when she and Tuvok capture a future Seven of nine, she again demonstrates this utter self-satisfied, smug superiority and shows no conviction, leadership, professionalism or self-awareness - imagine if Picard had been in those scenarios and you'' quickly see the difference
Some people may accuse Mulgrew of poor acting or the writers of being inconsistent but this is where i will actually defend the Janeway character - I actually believe that the writers deliberately wrote her to be a captain out of her depth and allowed Mulgrew to interpret that perfectly - The writers make it clear that this is her first command and i like to believe that they deliberately wanted this captain and this crew to be genuinely inexperienced - she clearly is out of her depth and does not possess the skills necessary to be a truly gifted captain - In the "Good shepard" episode, Chakotay mentions that many crew members don't make it past their first year and get reassigned and i like to think that the Chakotay character was actually including Janeway in that group of people who would probably have been ressigned (i certainly think the writers had that intention) - similarly, in the episode "Renaissance man", the doctor admits that he's been keeping a record of the captains more questionable decisions which again highlights that the writers were aware of her many failures and deliberately wanted to flag them (which suggests that she was purposely written to be a poor captain) plus the fact that the most copetent crew members appear to have been the ex maquis
There can be no dount that the crew come to respect and admire Janeway but this is more due to their circumstances rather than their faith in her demonstrated abilities - for me, Janeway is a poor captain who lacks experience and natural ability - she demonstrates time and again that when she is taken out of her comfort zone and asked to show real command abilities, she cannot and instead of relying on starfleet training, she becomes erratic, self-righteous and emotionally involved
To conclude, i would like to point out that i am not criticising the show for having such a poor captain but in fact, i am congratulating it - until Voyager, we had only ever seen truly talented, brilliant and naturally gifted captains (Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and later Archer who i would include) Voyager showed us an inexperienced crew lead by an inexperienced captain who could not cope when the big decisions and events came her way - I think the writers left enough evidence to suggest that Chakotay was aware of this (and of course the doctor) but i suspect the rest of the crew also had similar feelings - her short comings and inability to demonstrate true leadership and skilled captaincy was one of the factors that made the show my favourite trek show and i enjoyed this aspect of the show a great deal
she was a poor captain but that made her more interesting in many ways
discuss
In the "Night" episode, we again see Janeway display these erratic behaviours and demonstrate that she is an emotionally incapable leader who fails to recognise the responsibilities of being captain - Then we had a number of episodes where Janeway did not need to be anything other than average but once again when she was forced into a real command sitaution she repeated this erratic and incompetent behaviour in the "Equinox" episodes - once more, when she is put under pressure, she proves that she is out of her depth even to the extent that she plays with a mans life and dismisses Chakotay again (this time literally dismissing him and confining him to his quarters; she then later threatens Tuvok with the same punishment) - This episode further highlights her inability to be professional and we again see her being emotionally incapable of showing sincere leadership
There are countless examples of Janeway exibiting her self-rightious, superior, smug and over compensating behavior - in the episode "Shattered" when Chakotay goes to the bridge 7 years earlier and tries to explain to janeway what has happened, she acts so monumentally self-satisfied and smug that it's almost unbearable - like wise, in the episode "Relativity" when she and Tuvok capture a future Seven of nine, she again demonstrates this utter self-satisfied, smug superiority and shows no conviction, leadership, professionalism or self-awareness - imagine if Picard had been in those scenarios and you'' quickly see the difference
Some people may accuse Mulgrew of poor acting or the writers of being inconsistent but this is where i will actually defend the Janeway character - I actually believe that the writers deliberately wrote her to be a captain out of her depth and allowed Mulgrew to interpret that perfectly - The writers make it clear that this is her first command and i like to believe that they deliberately wanted this captain and this crew to be genuinely inexperienced - she clearly is out of her depth and does not possess the skills necessary to be a truly gifted captain - In the "Good shepard" episode, Chakotay mentions that many crew members don't make it past their first year and get reassigned and i like to think that the Chakotay character was actually including Janeway in that group of people who would probably have been ressigned (i certainly think the writers had that intention) - similarly, in the episode "Renaissance man", the doctor admits that he's been keeping a record of the captains more questionable decisions which again highlights that the writers were aware of her many failures and deliberately wanted to flag them (which suggests that she was purposely written to be a poor captain) plus the fact that the most copetent crew members appear to have been the ex maquis
There can be no dount that the crew come to respect and admire Janeway but this is more due to their circumstances rather than their faith in her demonstrated abilities - for me, Janeway is a poor captain who lacks experience and natural ability - she demonstrates time and again that when she is taken out of her comfort zone and asked to show real command abilities, she cannot and instead of relying on starfleet training, she becomes erratic, self-righteous and emotionally involved
To conclude, i would like to point out that i am not criticising the show for having such a poor captain but in fact, i am congratulating it - until Voyager, we had only ever seen truly talented, brilliant and naturally gifted captains (Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and later Archer who i would include) Voyager showed us an inexperienced crew lead by an inexperienced captain who could not cope when the big decisions and events came her way - I think the writers left enough evidence to suggest that Chakotay was aware of this (and of course the doctor) but i suspect the rest of the crew also had similar feelings - her short comings and inability to demonstrate true leadership and skilled captaincy was one of the factors that made the show my favourite trek show and i enjoyed this aspect of the show a great deal
she was a poor captain but that made her more interesting in many ways
discuss
Busted!
Janeway had to eat crow more than once. The most obvious is "Equinox," but there are others. Let's see: "Hope and Fear," when she trusted Arturis; "Inside Man," when she trusts the holographic Reginald Barclay. That's two, for a start. Janeway wasn't always right, and she often contemplates her decisions. That's what depressed her in "Night," and what haunted her in "Equinox." If any character was close to being a Mary Sue, it was Seven of Nine. 
