Ricki Tarr on Nostr: I'm going to talk about Star Trek for a bit. I love Star Trek, all of them (yes, even ...

I'm going to talk about Star Trek for a bit. I love Star Trek, all of them (yes, even Enterprise). It's a combination of things that just scratch a particular itch. It's so serious, and so silly at the same time, and ultimately, it's filled with hope, and that's something I always need. But I want to talk about my girl, the often maligned Captain Janeway. She's often portrayed as the most flawed Captain, but let's be real, no one had more challenges and still came out alive in the end. Janeway is Starfleet through and through, not only is she dedicated to her career and advancement in Starfleet, she is even more dedicated to the ideals. The fact that they take this By The Book Idealist, and put her on a ship where half her crew are "terrorists", and in a region of space that doesn't even know what Starfleet is, is such an intriguing choice to me. Voyager is filled with crazy characters, and often crazier plots, but the central premise is just so good. Janeway is trying to live morals and Ideals that don't really mesh with the situation she is in. Imagine spending most of your life learning and teaching this set of rules, and suddenly people are telling you they're not going to help you here. Every compromise kills her a little, to the point that she often puts it off too long, to the detriment of herself and her crew. She will blow up this ship before she lets the species of the season have access to technology. She can't date the guy she's obviously into, because it would be inappropriate to date crew members as the Captain. She's going to get them home, she really will, and she can't just compromise her values on the way. We all know the Prime Directive is generally more of a suggestion than an actual rule any of the Captains actually followed, but Janeway seems the most troubled by it. I could go on and on, and probably will in the comments. I can't say I have a favorite Captain, they all have something interesting to offer, but Janeway is definitely up there for me.