Captain Kathryn Janeway

The Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Janeway

Star Trek fans have a saying when it comes to a personal, moral compass: "There's the right way, the wrong way, and the Janeway."

This is because Captain Kathryn Janeway has a reputation for doing the wrong thing to get the right result. This woman is constantly backed into a corner (despite literally traveling all of the known galaxy), where she repeatedly gambles everything in a cosmic game of chicken and wins.

So I took her chaotic heroism as a Business Professional Cosplay challenge. Because some days, work is a little daunting. And while I don't wish a Voyager-level of stress on any workplace, sometimes packing a Janeway-branded compass is the only thing that keeps me standing. I'm going to break this into two parts: The first is my love letter to Captain Janeway and the Voyager Crew, the second is how I made a cosplay fit for command and the office.

Love Letter to Voyager

Spoiler Alert! The show is over 30 years old, but if you care about spoilers, this is your warning.

Star Trek: Voyager aired on UPN from 1995-2001 for seven seasons, featuring the first female lead in Star Trek history. The series begins with her first mission as Voyager's captain. She was in charge for mere moments before getting her entire crew flung so far away that it would take 75 years to get home.

Technically, there was a shortcut back to Earth and the Federation of Planets. However, taking that shortcut would have left an alien species vulnerable to colonization, slavery, and resource theft. Like any good Starfleet captain, Janeway refuses to take the shortcut at such a steep cost.

Key members of the Voyager crew also die (the first officer, the chief engineer, the chief medical officer, and a pilot) in the incident. Janeway has to choose replacements for those positions, hiring a hologram and some wanted terrorists.

Voyager's pilot episode is a wild ride.

And I think what sets Janeway apart from other Star Trek captains of her time is that she is given impossible choices. Impossible challenges. And when actress Kate Mulgrew talks about her experience portraying Janeway, she also describes that time as "impossible."

I think that's what makes Janeway so interesting. She is the Impossible Captain. This is a very common experience for women in leadership. They are given something entirely impossible, and they either make miracles happen or they become a sobering statistic. I think most of us have heard of the Glass Ceiling – a metaphor describing systemic barriers that prevent certain groups from rising in hierarchies, especially women in professional settings. Janeway already broke that Glass Ceiling. Instead, she is dangling off a Glass Cliff for 7 seasons. The Glass Cliff describes a trend in which women are more likely to be appointed to leadership roles during periods of uncertainty, when success seems impossible. Captain Janeway chooses to take on the impossible.

The challenge could have been: "Get the crew home, no matter what."

Janeway's impossible challenge is: "Get the crew home, unless it costs them their humanity (some of them are not technically humans, but that's not the point)."

She draws a line, and she draws it like an unbreakable vow. Voyager's crew cannot cross that line... because Janeway is already walking it for them. There are years' worth of examples, but I'm going to pick four: Tuvix, Equinox, Seven of Nine, and the Borg.

Tuvix

In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek admits that Janeway straight-up murdered Tuvix.

Tuvix was a character created when Tuvok and Neelix combined bodies in a transporter accident. It's science fiction. These things happen.

Janeway's impossible choice is whether to keep Tuvix or separate him back into Tuvok and Neelix. Tuvix argues that he is a new and distinct person who deserves a life. Janeway, against the crew's protests, orders Tuvix back into the transporter, and we are greeted by Tuvok and Neelix.

Seriously, what kind of choice is that?

It's a choice that keeps the crew together. Janeway promised to bring Tuvok and Neelix home, not Tuvix. Tuvok and Neelix lost their individual identities. Janeway chose to restore them because maintaining her crew's character is the single most important mission.

Equinox

Voyager isn't the only ship flung into the Delta Quadrant. They run into another Starfleet crew, and learn that their captain kills aliens to turbo-boost their engines. Janeway is so deeply offended that a Starfleet crew could do this that she kidnaps an officer, attempts to interrogate him, and leaves him to the vengeful aliens when he refuses to betray his captain.

Again, she's given an impossible choice: Allow a determined crew to commit genocide or stop them at any cost. Captain Picard would try to talk them down. Captain Sisko would let Kira quietly sabotage their ship. And Captain Kirk would probably get into a fist fight. Captain Janeway is the one who would allow the aliens to take their revenge.

I bring up this scene because her crew objects to her actions. Captain Janeway's First Officer Chakotay (we do NOT have time to get into Chakotay's character, believe me) steps in and saves the prisoner from certain death. Chakotay firmly tells Janeway that he won't let her cross that line again, and she retaliates by firing him. Chakotay is definitely right. He's demonstrating Starfleet's higher morals, when Janeway does not. Janeway crosses that line so that her crew can reel her in.

It's not the best leadership model, but it is incredibly effective in Voyager.

Seven of Nine

Where do we begin with Seven? Like Chakotay, we don't have the time to properly unpack her character because there is simply too much. Janeway struggles with her relationship with Seven (as did the actors irl). Janeway often encourages Seven to embrace independent thinking after a lifetime in a hivemind... but only if Seven's thinking aligns with Janeway's.

Seven objects to many of Janeway's plans, thoughts, and actions. It's shocking to watch two incredibly intelligent, capable, determined women fundamentally disagree on how to save the crew this week, especially in the Gene Roddenberry universe, which was built on a lack of interpersonal conflict. Janeway takes that rule and blasts it out an airlock.

This is because Seven and Janeway have different goals. Seven wants to protect the crew from harm. Janeway would rather have a dead crew than a compromised crew.

There is also the underlying savior complex driving Janeway in her interactions with Seven. Seven was an average, human girl from the Federation of Planets when the Borg "assimilated" her. Assimilation means that they enhanced her physically with cybernetics, but also stripped Seven of her mental and emotional individuality without consent. Janeway extracted Seven and severed her connection to the Borg because her mission is to preserve individuality, rather than strictly protecting people. Seven's humanity was compromised long ago, and Janeway takes on the impossible, self-assigned mission to reverse Seven's entire personality.

Janeway is repeatedly aggravated when Seven goes the "wrong" way. That being said, Janeway gets Seven back to the Federation, where she becomes a leader in Starfleet.

The Borg

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Janeway says, "Girl, please."

In Star Trek, few aliens rise to the threat level reserved for the Borg. They are relentless, fearless, intelligent, and they are Janeway's primary antagonist for the series. Captain Picard is assimilated by the Borg. Captain Sisko is traumatized by Borg-Picard. The Borg return in Star Trek: Picard (2020), and they are scary. Meanwhile, Janeway will beam herself and her officers onto a Borg ship, cause significant damage, steal critical information, and then carry on with their day.

It's not that the Borg aren't a threat to Voyager. It's that the Borg are the greatest threat to Voyager (preserving humanity and individuality), so Janeway chooses to go all in every single time. She understands her impossible assignment and leaves no crumbs.

In a time skip, the series finale sees future Admiral Janeway realize that with the perfect play, she could outsmart the Borg to get her crew home quicker and safer than the projected 75 years or the actual 23 years. There is no margin for error. Technically, it should be impossible. To save her crew, Janeway has to grab the Borg and release her death grip on Voyager's Glass Cliff. She falls, the Borg fall, the mission succeeds, the series ends.

Janeway is a hero, and she attains hero status by being ruthlessly loyal to the crew she loves. She loves them by adapting her leadership when they cannot count on the Federation or Starfleet to rescue them. She walks the line of right and wrong so that her crew doesn't have to. There are casualties in Janeway's method because her mission cannot possibly coexist with Starfleet's ideals and regulations. She is the Impossible Captain of Star Trek.

And I love her.

The Comfy, Curvy, Janeway Cosplay

I used view C from Butterick Pattern 6495 (out of print) and the stretch ponte knit (Papilio Collection) in black and burgundy from Mood fabrics.

I saw the jumpsuit pattern and heard Janeway's catchphrase, "Do it." The band across the top could easily be swapped out for Janeway's red shoulders, signifying her command role on Voyager. What I really wanted to look at were her pips, or the four gold dots on her collar that state her captain status. I eventually settled on a necklace, and I have no regrets.

The cutting and sewing were super easy. I don't remember any issues. I don't think I even made a toile. I cut different sizes for the top and bottom of the jumpsuit. My hips are typically a larger size than the rest of me, and other than some expected gathering, there was no problem. I also opted for the long sleeves rather than the short sleeves originally designed for the jumpsuit.

I did not expect this jumpsuit to be as comfortable as it is. The stretchy knit, paired with the wide legs, made me genuinely feel like I was wearing pajamas when I first tried it on. There are no closure mechanisms like zippers or buttons. You just step into the neck and hoist it up over your body. I wore it to a fancy restaurant with a dress code, and they let me in without question. In fact, I think it ended up looking a little classier than something I'd typically wear to work... and I'm not mad. I don't have black in my closet (I like black, it's just not my vibe for this era), so I ordered used, black, slip-on, ankle boots from eBay.

And the necklace was an Etsy find. I think it was targeted towards moms and/or grandmothers, and you order the number of dots equal to the number of children in your family. I didn't tell them it was for a Star Trek cosplay, and they didn't ask.

There were two challenges post-completion. The first was that I have a white dog who sheds fur like it's his job. He is with me wherever I go; no amount of lintrollers will change that. The second challenge is storing it. My dresser drawers are best described as "chaotic neutral" and while I didn't want to risk crumpling it, it also just takes up a lot of space with those wide legs. The wide neck doesn't rest well on a hanger, so I ended up throwing the entire garment over the hanger's pant bar. It worked!

My bob of curls just really pulls it together.

The Impossible Captain

When someone asks me who my favorite Star Trek captain is, my answer is, "It depends on which series I'm watching." This is true because they're all good for different reasons. Star Trek carefully builds its characters, pushes them, destroys them, celebrates them... It's a delightful fandom (most of the time) where I have found a lot of joy, community, and meaning.

My parents purposefully named my brother after a character from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was in my mid-30's (and thrilled) when I found out I shared a name with a character in Star Trek: The Animated Series. That character is voiced by Nichelle Nichols, who, once again, we simply do not have time to explore all the ways she contributed to Star Trek, media, and my personal journey. This universe will reach its 60th anniversary later this year, and, in my opinion, one could study a solid period of American history by examining how the show changes over those 60 years.

Janeway is just a piece of that big universe, but she's a very important piece. She made impossible choices that continue to entertain fans decades after her series ended. I love her, but I don't know if I could befriend her. Which is more or less the role I've had to play in my professional life. You can love my work, but our missions don't have to align, and we don't have to be besties.

So to my Impossible Captain, who gave me a good look at what it takes to be a lady in leadership, live long and prosper ✨

Footnotes

"Impossible" - I'm pretty sure this was in The Captains (2011), but if I go back and watch every interview with Kate Mulgrew, I'll never get this thing published. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

"Captain Picard" - I'm not trying to start fights. Clearly, I'm not a Star Trek writer/producer/actor and have no say in what the Captains would actually do.

"Firing him" - It's hard to fire people when that would also mean canceling the actor's contract and marooning the character somewhere in space. So when I say "fired," the characters are relieved of duty and confined to quarters.