A well known author forced Star Trek: Voyager to change things up

Kathryn Janeway is an icon. The first female character to be the lead of a Star Trek series, Janeway paved the way for women everywhere to be seen in a whole new light. Brought to life by Kate Mulgrew, Janeway proved that she could command a ship as well as Mulgrew could command a seen.

So staunch she was in her character, Janeway became well known for a variety of reasons. Her command style, her ever-changing hair styles, her love of coffee (and Chakotay), as well as her ability to fend off entire armada's with just one ship. Even her first name, "Kathryn" is unique and wholly hers.

Yet, it wasn't supposed to be that way. Originally named Elizabeth Janeway according to the The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future (via SlashFilms), concerns over copyright issues popped up, forcing them to rethink the name for Janeway. After nearly being called Nicole, at the behest of original Janeway actress Genevieve Bujold, the writers and crew settled on Kathryn, and a star was made.

Though, Elizabeth Janeway was impressive and to share a name with the Star Trek icon would've been a cool feather in the hat. While Kathryn had a share of impressive accolades, her real-life counterpart was just as impressive.

She helped with the General Motors strike of the 1940s, all while writing The Walsh Girls at the same time. Another one of her novels, Daisy Kenyon, was made into a film starring Joan Crawford, before landing as the president of the Author's Guild.

Her husband even had the wildest nickname too, as he was known as Calamity Janeway. Though, for his part, he was a financial expert so that was often not a strong indication as to how he thought the economy was doing at the time.

She would've been a fantastic woman to base some of the actual Janeway characters around, and had they kept the name and found a way to work with the original Elizabeth, then maybe she could've had a cameo in one of the earlier seasons.

How cool would that have been?