Star Trek top 5: My 5 favorite Starfleet captains

Kathryn Janeway

There are a lot of personal reasons, deeply personal reasons, that drew me to Kathryn Janeway. We’re not going to talk about those, however. What we are going to talk about is how Janeway was easy, without a doubt, the most charming and down to Earth captain the shows may have ever seen. The fact that one of her most infamous lines in the history of Star Trek: Voyager is “…there’s coffee in that nebula” is just a testament to how real she was as a character.

While the Maquis inclusion storyline was shelved pretty early into the series run, she was not without her own fair share of adversaries. She, like Sisko, was the driving force of the show and the characters that she worked best with were often the scenes that powered the show. From the apprehensive pairing with Chakotay to her motherly bond with Seven of Nine, she always seemed to bring the best out of her co-stars. Even if she wasn’t always fond of them.

While Janeway doesn’t have that one defining antagonist as Sisko did in Dukat,  Janeway made every adversary feel that much more potent as a threat. Especially with her run-in with Captain Rudy Ransom. Ransom was a mirror for Janeway, an opportunity to see what could’ve been had she been less of a leader, and had their circumstances as a ship been worse than they had been.

Her reflection and ability to look inward were paramount to the show‘s progress and the development of the stories and characters around her.