I can't sleep. Lucky me.

Alright, so not too long ago I did a character study on Ethan Hunt and how important his character is to the action genre. I so enjoyed writing that, and I was just thinking about Star Trek: Voyager, so I thought it might be fun to do a character study of one of my favorite female MCs in television.

You may or may not know that I have a sort of bias for male MCs in movies and tv. I just find them to be more well-developed and likeable, generally, than female MCs, and I've noticed that I've seen very few convincing female characters in any form of entertainment media. (I may have mentioned Ilsa Faust and Jyn Erso as exceptions. Did I write something about Jyn?) So when I started reading up on Voyager and found out that the captain was a woman, I honestly thought "here we go again."

But then I saw the pilot episode about a year ago and loved it. Now my brother and I are working our way through the series.

But Janeway! I was expecting this overly-masculine character that always tries to be the toughest person on the ship, orders everyone around, and has basically no character development. And then I ended up with a space mom who loves coffee, supports her crew, and very simply sets an example by standing tall and staying optimistic in unprecedented situations. An excellent captain but with all the feminine qualities that I didn't expect going into the series.

One of the first things I noticed about Janeway was something she did during the pilot episode. There's that pivotal moment where the ship nearly gets torn apart as it's being snatched into the Delta Quadrant. Stations are smoking, sparks flying, and something must be wrong with the artificial gravity because people are being thrown out of their chairs. Janeway stands up to give an order, and then the ship rocks again and she's thrown to the floor. When everything calms down and she stands up again, her hair is falling out of its bun. That exact moment is where I decided that this show might not be so bad after all. Let's be honest, when does a female lead's hair ever get messed up? (By the way, that's sort of a thing on Voyager; if Janeway's hair is messed up, something bad's going down [Obi-Wan Kenobi, anyone?].)
Even better is the next scene. Janeway is making her way down to engineering to find out what exactly the situation is, then try to pull her team together and get them working on any damage. As she's walking down the hall, she's pulling her hair back up. She wants to channel that calm and composed appearance when she meets with her crew, because she knows that they'll be more at ease if they see that their captain is still holding herself together. Ever since then I've noticed that Janeway takes great pains to keep her appearance sharp. She stands up straight, keeps her hair neat, and is always in uniform whenever she's around the rest of the crew. She keeps it together even though they're 70,000 lightyears from home and don't seem to have a quick way back. It's impressive in an endearing sort of way.

But the best thing about Janeway is that she's so far from invincible that it almost makes her more impressive. She doesn't let stress or fear or uncertainty show when she's sitting in the captain's chair, but she doesn't just... not have those emotions. Tuvok is her advisor and right-hand-man, and probably her closest friend on the ship. There is many a scene of Janeway sitting in her office, drinking her coffee, and hanging her head over a data pad trying to figure out what to do next. Tuvok walks in, and she immediately tells him what's wrong, what she's worried about, and why she can't figure it out. Tuvok, like a true Vulcan, gives her the most logical advice he can come up with and then helps her work through the problem. The same with Chakotay, Janeway's first officer. If she has a problem and she thinks Chakotay can solve it, she'll find him and let him help her. Whenever she needs a good navigator to tell her what the best course of action is in a dangerous debris field, she grabs Tom Paris. If there's a problem with the warp nacelles or Voyager needs a new way to handle a new situation, she asks B'elanna Torres what she can come up with. Janeway doesn't try to do everything alone, and she knows when to ask for help.

Janeway also clearly establishes the Voyager crew as a family from the very beginning. There's a scene near the beginning of season 2 where Neelix and Tom are angry with one another. When they report for a mission briefing, it's pretty obvious that they had a fight. Janeway asks them if they have a personal problem, and when Neelix replies "yes," her only response is "Solve it. Dismissed."  She's very caring and fairly personal with her crew, but she also makes sure that they keep their heads and continue to do their jobs. As the series progresses, Janeway becomes more and more comfortable with the people she works with, and while she still stands up tall and sets an example, she's also willing to stop what she's doing to check on a crew member or just make sure that everyone is still doing alright so far from home. She hugs. everyone. that needs it. which I literally love. She's also got a husband back on Earth, and she doesn't have a romantic relationship at all aboard Voyager (at least not so far; we're about halfway through season 2. I don't think she ever does, though).

Basically, Kathryn Janeway is everyone's mom, and she's probably the most well-developed female character I've seen on a tv show. No big fights, no domineering the situation, no classic emotional breakdowns, just a girl who knows her crew and knows what she's doing.

And loves coffee.