#str trek

I think as much as I've always hated the C/7 thing in Endgame, I've always hated what they did to the characters of Chakotay and Seven more (making him a creep, and her a needy girly girl...)

But in actuality, my biggest gripe is the treatment of Kathryn Janeway during this two-parter.

First off - Janeway gets her ship home, but she doesn't really - her older self arranges it, and removes a bit of her younger self's agency in the process.

The whole crew must be aware of this. This elder version of Janeway is basically a manifestation of her younger self's failure. Future Janeway doesn't trust her younger self and she's here to save the crew from her. Ultimately it's the Admiral who gives her life for the ship and our Janeway is largely left nodding along or getting chastised for wanting to change the plan.

Then there's how isolated Janeway is. This is the woman who has given up just about everything for everyone else every step of the way.

She sacrificed her future with Mark to save the Ocampa

She sacrificed potential happiness with Chakotay to give the crew her full attention

She probably sacrificed her last natural childbearing years to get the crew home too (KJ's dob is never officially confirmed, though if it is 2336, then that means that she's still childless as of the age of 49 by the end of Prodigy, so time is running short. If she's closer to Kate Mulgrew's age then she's close to Beverly Crusher's age for giving birth to Jack at 57)

(her lack of kids wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't already know that she wanted kids)

Kathryn has also kept a distance between herself and her crew in order to remain an effective commanding officer, meaning that the bonds she shares with her command crew are all the more important...

But let's take a look at the lie of the land, shall we:

Chakotay is her most important friend. The person we see her with socially far more than anyone else. He's openly seen rejecting spending time with her in Endgame in favor of his new romance. And given their very real romantic feelings for one another, the last thing Janeway would want to do would be to hang around him and Seven like a third wheel when their relationship is in its formative stages.

Seven is also extremely important to her, Chakotay knows she thinks about Seven differently from the rest of the crew. I read their relationship as mother-daughter, personally, but no matter your take on their relationship, Seven's relationship with Chakotay must hurt and confuse her immensely. If you view her relationship with Seven as a mother-daughter one, then it would make sense for Chakotay's actions to feel like a betrayal, ditching mother for surrogate daughter. If you ship Janeway and Seven together then it also feels like a betrayal, only this time it's Seven betraying her for Chakotay.

So these two people, the two she spends the most time with and cares for most... are essentially withdrawing from her life at a critical juncture.

(luckily for us we know C/7 do not last so her individual relationships with both are salvaged)

Then there's Tuvok, who, although now in a position to be cured, I can imagine will probably need to take a long period of convalescence to recover (and probably also to do a human detox after spending so much time around them). So Tuvok is going to be gone, and obviously as a Vulcan there will be gaps in how he could have helped provide for her emotional needs anyway.

After that there's Tom and B'Elanna who will either be in their happy new baby bubble, or coping with a rather jarring change of lifestyle and an influx of relatives to deal with (Tom still has both parents and two sisters, B'Elanna has her dad and probably also her uncle and cousins looking to reconnect). They're not going to have time to devote to anyone from Voyager for the foreseeable.

Then there's Neelix. Oh, wait - he randomly bumped into some Talaxians and left.

That really only leaves The Doctor, and knowing Starfleet like we do I bet their first move was to deactivate him to do some analysis while impounding and experimenting upon his mobile emitter. I mean they refused to rule he was a person just a few months back, so why would they care for his autonomy now?

So that brings us to Harry, and Kathryn really does adore Harry... but he's also the person she's had the most difficulty getting close to because he's the baby of the crew. She's tried to maintain that professional distance with him more than most (it's why he has no idea of who Mark was even five years into Voyager's journey). She knows a lot about him, but to Harry the Captain is the Captain. And he's probably busy with his parents and extended family and finding out what befell his friends during the war.

So yeah... essentially by the end of Voyager's journey, Kathryn Janeway is alone, and quite profoundly so.

And it feels so wrong, like a slap on the face. Because Kathryn Janeway is no introvert. She needs people, she always has. It's why she's so touchy feely with the crew - it's a manifestation of her need to connect with others despite her rank.

It's no thanks to Voyager's creative team at the end of Voyager that we know things worked out better for her. If not for supplementary materials and Prodigy, Janeway's loneliness would have stuck in that ending narrative for me and been a huge injustice.

But thanks to Mosaic, we know that Kathryn still has her mother Gretchen and sister Phoebe, and Prodigy makes Phoebe canon (prior to this the existence of a sibling was confirmed in Coda, but not any more detail). The match-up for Phoebe's name to me serves as proof that her mother is Gretchen and is still around.

Prodigy as well also establishes that Chakotay and Seven are no longer a thing, clearly haven't been for a long time, and that Chakotay and Janeway are much closer than they were on Voyager. Prodigy also essentially makes Isabo's shirt canon and by extension makes J/C canon (I will not debate this point!).

It also reveals that The Doctor is still in her life and has become a friend.

Picard also reveals that Janeway and Seven stayed in touch, with Janeway advocating for Seven’s place in Starfleet. We don't know if they're regularly in each other’s lives but their friendship remains (I'm ignoring that Seven made Janeway's literal stalker her XO...).

star truk