The third of Titan’s series of ‘autobiographies’ of Starfleet’s legendary captains – following Kirk and Picard – charts the story of Voyager’s illustrious captain from adolescence, to the Delta Quadrant and back, told from her own point of view.
Like the previous two entries, the series’ central conceit is that this is an autobiography, written by the central character. Janeway’s ghost-writer – frequent Trek author Una McCormack – does an excellent job of capturing the captain’s voice. You can almost hear the words being read in Kate Mulgrew’s distinctive tone.
The first half of the book deals with Janeway’s pre-Voyager life, expanding on details alluded to in the series: her childhood in Bloomington, Indiana (which, in the real world recently unveiled a statue celebrating their most famous fictional resident); the premature death of her Starfleet Admiral father; her time at the Academy and first posting as a science officer on the U.S.S. Al-Batani, where she served under Tom Paris’ father (Voyager’s future helmsman also makes a few adolescent appearances); her relationship with her fiancée, Mark; the awkward initial meeting with Tuvok; Janeway’s experiences during the Cardassian war; and her first posting as captain on the newly-commissioned Voyager.
It’s this first half of the book that seems most like a conventional autobiography. The second section, covering Janeway’s experiences on Voyager is very conscious that this journey has already been covered on the show itself. So, rather than recounting the story of Voyager’s journey to the Delta Quadrant and back, a lot of the detail is skipped over – you’d imagine the incident where Janeway and Paris were turned into lizards and had lots of lizard babies would merit a chapter by itself in a regular autobiography.
Instead we’re given selected highlights of the journey, coupled with Janeway’s thoughts on various subjects. So we get sections with her insights on areas like the idea of families onboard Voyager, or some of the harder decisions she had to make during her time in command (and yes, Tuvix does get discussed in detail – and it’s good to know that even Janeway isn’t sure she made the right call). While not perhaps true to the idea of an autobiography, McCormack (probably correctly) assumes that anyone reading a book about Kathryn Janeway will have seen the series and doesn’t need a blow-by-blow recap.
Where the book possibly falls short is in recounting Janeway’s adventures post-Voyager, which is restricted to a brief section. With Janeway set to return in the animated Star Trek: Prodigy next year, there may be a practical reason for this, with McCormack being unable or unwilling to cover or contradict a period presumably set to be featured in the show, but after the detail granted her pre-Voyager life, the effect is disconcerting.
While the focus on her early life may not entirely play true to the book’s concept, The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway is a fun, insightful read for Voyager fans, and expands beautifully on one of Trek’s most fascinating characters. Fans wanting to know more about her post-Voyager career – or indeed her thoughts on being turned into a lizard – may feel short-changed however.
