Star Trek: Voyager
Summary
Star Trek : Voyagerexecutive producer Rick Berman excuse thatStar Trekcreator Gene Roddenberry would n’t have take care having a female captain in a leading function . Female captains had existed inStar TreksinceStar Trek IV : The Voyage Home , butVoyager ’s Captain Kathryn Janeway ( Kate Mulgrew ) was the first woman to lead aStar Trekshow in the series ' history . Roddenberry give-up the ghost away in October 1991 , four years beforeVoyagerpremiered in 1995 , so Berman and his co - executive producers Jeri Taylor and Michael Pillercould only speculate on how Roddenberry would have finger about Janeway ’s statement .
InThe Fifty - Year Mission : The Next 25 Yearsby Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross , Berman foreground Mulgrew ’s Captain Janeway as one way of life thatStar Trek : Voyagerwould disagree from the series that preceded it . Roddenberry ’s acceptance ofwomen as captainsin client roles onStar Trek : The Next Generation , which Gene consult on , indicated thatVoyager ’s next step forward for sexuality equation in the final frontier would have get the Roddenberry seal of commendation . Read Berman ’s citation below :
We wanted Voyager to be different , so we made it different in a duet of ways . To start out with , we placed a woman in command of a spaceship . It ’s something we experience it was time to do and it generate us a newfangled way . Gene Roddenberry was never indisposed to the estimation of having female captains in client roles , but this was something that we never did get a chance to discuss with him . Jeri Taylor , Michael Piller , and I all hold that when we hire this on , that it was the next logical step for us . I ’m certain Gene would agree .
Gene Roddenberry Wanted a Female Commander in Star Trek
Number One in TOS is a Template for Captain Janeway in Voyager
The creation of Number One ( Majel Barrett ) , the female commander inStar Trek : The Original Series ' first pilot , " The John Cage " , serves as extra proof that Gene Roddenberry might have actively encouraged induce a female senior pilot inStar Trek . Gene ’s first concept include far more sex equalitythan what in reality made it to 1960s idiot box screens , with women constitute a full 50 % of the USS Enterprise ’s crew , butnetwork notes put the kibosh on Number Onein a leadership use and gender parity in the crew complement . Roddenberry relented by deoxidise the female crew to 30 % , but retaliated by maintain Barrett in the cast as Nurse Christine Chapel .
Both identification number One ( Rebecca Romjin ) and Nurse Chapel ( Jess Bush ) are finally fully realized distaff characters inStar Trek : Strange New Worlds , modernTrek ’s good continuation of " The John Cage " .
Number One ’s authority and competency is never in question on the basis of her gender , which provides a template forhow a charwoman in command should be perceived inStar Trekthat ’s expanded byCaptain Kathryn JanewayinStar Trek : Voyager . Number One and Janeway are womanly , but never sexualized , and afford the deference they merit as leaders and scientist without a second thought given to the fact that they ’re woman . Although the barrier of a woman in command was n’t break inTOS , that original design forStar Trekindicates it ’s pretty likely Gene Roddenberry would have approved ofStar Trek : Voyager ’s Captain Janeway .
Star Trek : Voyageris cyclosis on Paramount+ .
author : The Fifty - Year Mission : The Next 25 Years : From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams : The Complete , Uncensored , and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trekby Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross
