Back when Voyager was first-run, I stopped watching some time during the second season. Earlier this year I got the first season; the nice price helped with that decision. I was curious about Janeway’s following among some fans, and thought it might be a good idea to carry my questions to where some of them hang out.

I won’t be making that mistake again.

I went in with no agenda beyond wanting to know more. And when I don’t know something, I ask questions about it. Either the militant J-fans didn’t like my questions, or they didn’t like being questioned. I’m reminded of my time among the Star Wars Prequel bashers (yes, I’m proud of that title) at that site I will not name. We knew which questions were genuine attempts at learning what we were thinking, and which were meant to provoke a response. I should have remembered those days going in, given their militant reputation. In the span of only a few days, they lived up to every stereotype thrown at them.

At the time, I didn’t have any opinion on Janeway’s death in the novels. I only heard about it, never read the book in question, Before Dishonor . Research clued me in to the particulars of the issue. You can boil down the arguments in the pro-Janeway side to “they (TPTB at Pocket Books) killed her off for the sake of killing her off”, “you don’t kill off a major character like her”, “they killed her because of some sexist agenda” and variations of those. To even suggest that it was done for plot and dramatic reasons and only those reasons will bring the pack running for blood. Just the suggestion.

Therin of Andor , while going at these folks last year, summed up my next piece of annoyance:

I’m frustrated that most of these ongoing VOY/Janeway complaints seem to demand that ST tie-ins must come with some guarantee that any variation or character arc must be settled fast, or there at least be assurances that major changes will be reversed by a certain date. In the TV episodes, unless it was a two-parter, almost every shocking event had to be “repaired” because the regular cast had five-year contracts. Novels written after the end of a series can afford to be different. Each of the relaunches have been designed to permit longer story arcs, and yet I detect a distinct lack of patience and trust.

Being TV tie-ins, the story is never going to go so far from the parent show’s status quo as to be unidentifiable and, with a little patience, most of ST’s character deaths are traditionally undone. When your scope for what makes a novel successful (ie. strong focus on a youthful, long-lived Kes, everyone back on the ship like a happy family, and an alive Janeway) [my emphasis - IS] , you’re bound to hit disappointment. Over and over again.

What you want is seen as stagnation and repetition to others.

The mere suggestion that the J-fans might need to expand their definition of what they want is like showing Dracula the cross. They liken it to “compromise”, and they hate that word. What I bolded in that quote appears to be the only definition of Voyager they will accept. I asked certain questions with the intent to prompt people to think a little harder about what they’re demanding asking for. I said:

Okay…

Janeway comes back. The whole crew comes back. We’ve spent seven years watching them trying to get home. What stories are left to tell? Expand an episode? “Missing” scenes? Alternate timelines? Dig into people’s backstories? Fix fics?

Doesn’t matter, bring her back. Going over the same ground? Doesn’t matter, bring her back. Well, it does matter. It matters that in the chance that Janeway does come back, it won’t be on Voyager with the same happy family. Plots move inexorably forward. If you go to the past, it will be for one-shots, a duology or trilogy at the most, not an entire new series. Me? If you’re gonna bring her back (and there had better be a good story reason for doing so), find a new enemy to sic her on and watch the fur fly!

Like I said, I didn’t have an opinion one way or another. That may change. For the meantime, I’ll watch Voyager when I can acquire the DVDs, and keep my questions to myself.