You could look at it that Janeway was given the most range and perhaps encountered the most diverse set of challenges compared to Picard or Sisko. In Voyager everything was new and even when it wasn't (the Borg), it was mighty daunting. That'd be enough to challenge anyone's stability. I think she did fine and pulled it all together in the long run.
She made what she was able to with what is at hand which was rather restrictive seen the situation of Voyager. Of course she made mistakes, in particular by rewriting certain rules in her favor., but hey, which captain of Starfleet did not make it before and will not make it later. Nevertheless, she returned the vessel in a single piece and the crew was little decimated seen all the crossed events.
Well, I admit not to understand what you talked about. Indeed, we cannot say that Mulgrew's appearance contributed to the success of her character (unlike that of Ryan/Seven or Farrell/Dax , who were/are still popular with a large numbre of male Trekkies because of their attractive appearances. In fact, I have no memory that Janeway even wore a sexy day of clothes when she wasn't in service and it's ok. A capitain of Starfleet who has to breathe the respect, under any circonstances, even during festive breaks. (I don't say that the producers didn't try to make Janeway sexy but this project did not have to be for Mulgrew's liking and it collapsed for the best!). About ST 2017, is there any update?
I kind of think Janeway trying different things works. Kirk is volatile in his own way too. They both are existing in complete unknowns with a lot less support. Picard and Sisko are operating on a number of missions which they carry out. I guess it makes sense to me that over time they would make a consistent policy where Janeway might be reacting rather than acting lots of times, just like Kirk did.
Voyager was falling to pieces and Janeway wanted to get the crew off the ship. Why is that hard to consider? I didn't see Janeway flip flopping as a character. I saw her evolve from a typical Starfleet captain used to following the rules, to the Federation's only real representative in the Delta Quandrant who had developed into a more complex and flexible leader with bumps along the way. I never understood why so many were determined to criticize her for not being consistently one-note or for making mistakes, when the other Starfleet captains in the franchise were just as guilty.
Every other captain had someone else to rely on. I'm not saying she didn't have a good crew, but picard and kirk still had starfleet to back them up. Her situation was pretty hopeless, and I think she was cracking constantly and then gaining composure again, resulting in some pretty random stress induced results. Either that or just poor writing.
Escape pods are lifeboats. They're for keeping people alive until a rescue ship comes to pick them up, and maybe landing on a planet they're already orbiting. They have only the tiniest of maneuvering thrusters, which are in no way able to traverse astronomically significant distances. Again, Janeway's instruction to seek out new life and new allies would be like the captain of the Titanic telling passengers to go out and swim for help - except in this example, the Titanic, while badly damaged for sure, was not actually sinking, just adrift. Straight up? The writers wanted to heighten the drama by removing the comfort of seeing crew extras from the shots, so they went with an incredibly and obviously idiotic explanation for why said extras suddenly were no longer around. And it worked, in the sense that the extras stopped showing up, for reasons explained in the dialogue. But said reasons remained incredibly and obviously idiotic.
What did you want her to say? Get to the lifepods! You'll probably die a lonely meaningless death in space. Thanks for coming!
"Unfortunately, we're going to have to dump you on this here uninhabited M-class planet. You've got all the basic tech and Law & Order reruns needed to survive. If we don't come back for you, have a nice retirement. Now, get the hell out." ... How hard was that?!
Seven: I think Voyager was actually saved. Random crewman on the delta flyer with her: uh...no, no definitely blown up. Just us. Definitely can't go back.