Star Trek: Voyager co-creator, Jeri Taylor, has passed away at 86

Star Trek: Voyager was made possible by creative minds of Jeri Taylor, Rick Berman, and Michael Pillar. Together, they took a chance on having a woman at the helm of the bridge of a Starfleet starship, and it worked so well that Voyager cast members have made their way back into newer Trek series today. Taylor, who also wrote many of the scripts for Star Trek: The Next Generation, also became a supervising producer on Voyager and co-executive producer of the series in later seasons. It's fair to say that she brought a lot of Voyager to Voyager, especially in the creation of Captain Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew.

And now, a large portion of the creative light of Star Trek has dimmed, as Jeri Taylor has passed away at the age of 86. A pioneer when it came to Star Trek, Taylor put a lot of her own attributes in the creation of Janeway. When she spoke at Star Trek Las Vegas in 2021 [via Trekmovie], Taylor said "it was my fantasy that Janeway was me."

"“I always thought of Janeway is just me, I wrote her. I can’t say that I wrote her as me, but as I would like to be. I felt full of her. And I think she is full of me, although, in many ways, far more skilled and able than I am. But it was my fantasy that Janeway was me and I tried to approach it like that. Flaws—we all have flaws. I could name my own; I don’t know that I could name Janeway’s”"

- Jeri Taylor

The Star Trek world has taken to social media to share what Taylor has meant to each of them, to share how she impacted their lives, and to say their farewells.

Taylor passed away October 24th, and we here at Red Shirts Always Die send our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and loved ones. Star Trek has truly lost a shining star.