Why is Janeway hated so much?
- Thread starter TheMightyQ
- Start date
I never felt strongly about Janeway- then again I had trouble connecting with the Voyager show and cast. It is not a good sign when the first season is almost over and I still did not remember the names of most of the characters...
I felt a connection only with the characters who got a lot of screen time- Janeway, Seven, the Doctor, Paris, etc. The rest of the cast wasn't that interesting.
--Sran
Voyager just was not the best example of Trek, but be glad we did not get Geneviève Bujold as Captain Nicole Janeway http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SIZcDWKyw0
Her character wasn't particularly well-written but Mulgrew gave Janeway a lot of personality. I'd definitely prefer Kirk, Picard and Sisko but that doesn't mean Janeway wasn't a great captain. She just didn't escape the shadow of her iconic predecessors.
The only Voyager characters I hate are Chakotay and Harry Kim.
The only Voyager characters I hate are Chakotay and Harry Kim.
Totally. That would have killed the series halfway through the first season. Whatever people think of Janeway the character, Kate Mulgrew did a great job as the actress who played her.
--Sran
Ouch, was she on sedatives or something? She's been good in other things but damn, she sounded like she was phoning it in there.
Yes, guilty as charged. I rescind my former comment about Janeway haters being stupid. It was fueled by my own fervent passions. Of course, it all boils down to taste: what you like or do not like. That being said, my most cult-like captain worshiping is of the Sisko-- like most post-Dominion-War Bajorans, I assume. Janeway is only my 2nd fave. I think if we are honest with ourselves, all of us have been bitten by the "Trek bug" and have passionate views concerning our favorite characters. And anyone who disagrees with us, well we are inclined to express these passions to them. It's all in good fun.
Last edited:
I adore the cult like worshipping of fiction. It's a very satisfying hobby.
Absolutely. One might ask why any of us post on this board daily. We were all touched by Star Trek.
Well said. I also think the Sisko is so awesome in so many ways, though he's my 2nd favorite. That doesn't mean I don't think he shouldn't have been thrown in jail with the key lost after he bombed that Maquis colony.
^ I also support the Maquis over the Federation. But that is a different thread. 
Don't make me make that doll joke VL.
I think she sounds like a munchkin myself.
My voice sounds like Captain Janeway's when I'm being strangled.
"Doll joke?" Sounds hilarious. How do I make you make it?
I try never to kill the butterflies so you'll have to wait until someday somewhere someone else makes it and you think hey.. that was what it was about.
Well the thread speaks for itself. Some don't like Janeway, and some do. Those who do, it's almost cult like with their devotion to her. As by the comments of some on this thread, there's clear implication by some that if everyone else doesn't like Janeway as much as they do there must be something wrong with them.
I don't hate Janeway, I do think she's a very inconsistent character to say the least however and she has made some very bad decisions. But heck every Trek captain has at some point. I've even said she was insane at times given her polarity at times and complete 180's in her values and decisions. Really the problem with Janeway wasn't that she's the first female captain, it's that they wanted to put her in a heroic position to so often "make the tough call" that the attempts to do so are often silly at best and thus make the character look silly. Heck, half the time you can tell it's Jeri Taylor story when it's about how awesome Janeway is.
While I find Mulgrew's voice to be grating at times, she really did a good job with the material... it just could've been better. It's hard to take a character seriously when she's just so random. One week she's saying she'll never give up her technology to the Kazon or ally with them and they must stick to the Federation's values. The next week she's allying with the Borg and helping them design a weapon of mass destruction to destroy an enemy at the cellular level.
One week she's going on about how evolved humanity is and how they'd never kill a person who stole Neelix's lungs against his will to save his life. Later she kills a man against his will to save two people she likes more. And so forth.
So yes, being critical of at best questionable decisions they make doesn't equate to "hate," "jealous", "being stupid", "frightened by confident women," or anything else some people are saying to demean people who have the audacity to not share their opinion.
While I think Janeway may be insane at times, at least she's not incompetent. Archer is both.
Putting the Captain in a position to "save the day" is something all 5 versions of the trek series do. TNG started out in its pilot to explain WHY they weren't going to do that... by having Riker claim the Captain's place was on the ship... but as the show progresses we see Picard leave the ship / lead more away teams because we WANT him to!
As for "1 week she says yes, the next wee she says no" argument, well, I disagree whole heartedly.
One week, in season 1 she says no to trading a replicator... then 3 years later she's allying with the BORG or 4 years later she's 4 years later she's giving holographic tech to the Hirogen. She's not being wishywashy, she's growing/learning how to deal with her circumstances. I would expect her to be a different person after 5 years in the DQ wilderness vs just 5 weeks.
Same thing goes with Neelix's lungs vs Tuvix vs an even better example, Janeway's outburst that she'd kill a BORG drone to salvage a component to save Seven. At least in that instance... (Seven), she was able to vent her frustration over a dying Seven with grandiose talk, but was able to calm herself down after getting lectured by the EMH.
Hyperbole, for/against Janeway is wonderful, isn't it?
Not to argue with Jacqueline, but I know a lot of men who love Janeway, & after seeing Mulgrew in person and on youtube get questioned by men, I know it's not just my friends.
As for the misogynistic argument... it makes me think of my psych professor who used to say she hated arguing with Freudians. If she said she didn't agree with their contention that conflict arose from one's unconscious sexual attraction to one's mother or father... then THEY argued her refusal to believe OBVIOUSLY means she WAS attracted.
Reasonable people can disagree... but I feel compelled to explain the "cult" response.
So many of we Janeway fans have been exposed to SO MUCH negative hyperbole over the years, that we naturally have said "ENOUGH" and have taken to the internet to be AS vociferous, AS boisterous as the "anti Janeway" cultists.
Because Q is untrustworthy.
Q PUT Picard into the DQ, and Q took him back out.
Q didn't pull KJ into the DQ, and had no reason to pull her out UNLESS she agreed to imprison another being FOR ETERNITY.
When she made the deal with the BORG, it was her first exposure to the real collective, and she thought she was saving not just herself but the galaxy.
After multiple exposures, she learned just how distrustful the BORG truly was, and changed her tune accordingly.
I don't think Janeway was talking about exploring wasn't worth it.
I think Janeway was talking about shooting a rocket filled with technology into the sky and HOPING that were it landed would benefit the new "friends". This was pre prime directive space exploration, and it, more than anything else Trek has show us, explains WHY we have a prime directive. We helped kill millions on that planet, and in retaliation, they killed one of our own.
I think she sounds like a munchkin myself.
My voice sounds like Captain Janeway's when I'm being strangled.
The first half of season 1 is especially horrendous... but whether it was the audio or how they were asking her to speak, it calmed down into the sexy register most of us came to love.
