Star Trek: Voyager — Janeway's 10 Best Quotes, Ranked

A highly accomplished Starfleet captain who became a maverick when her ship suddenly found itself in the Delta Quadrant, Captain Kathryn Janeway remains one of the most compelling characters in Star Trek canon thanks to her resilience, intelligence, and quick-thinking. As diplomatic as Captain Picard and as daring as Captain Kirk, she proved in Star Trek: Voyagerthat a woman could sit in the chair, and not only run a tight ship but lead it on bold new adventures.

When the crew found themselves on a 75-year journey home, she always steeled their reserves, often pitching in around the USS Voyager to render aid in any department. With her background in science, she was a leader uniquely qualified to problem-solve some of the ship's more complicated conundrums. Her crew came to her for advice and for courage, and her words of wisdom never steered them wrong.

10 "Now this is how I prefer the Borg. In pieces!"

When Janeway destroys a probe in Season 5, it leads her and the crew to a damaged Borg sphere, where they pilfer a transwarp coil. This is only possible thanks to Seven of Nine investigating her parents' research, which forces her to re-access the collective.

Voyager got much more down and dirty with the Borg than other series because the ship had an ex-drone for a crew member. When Seven of Nine is back among the collective, Janeway mounts a rescue mission to face down the Borg Queen — the first of many times — and save her. This is one of her more memorable lines along the way.

9 "Abandon ship? The answer's no. I'm not breaking up the family."

When faced with the relentless onslaught of Krenim temporal attacks, Captain Janeway is presented with one of the most difficult decisions of the voyage home. The species continuously alters their timeline, hoping to eventually remove them from history.

Chakotay asks Janeway if she's prepared to abandon Voyager to save the crew, something she won't do despite the cost. The two-part episode called "Year of Hell" is on many a top 10 list of Star Trek episodes.

8 "It's never easy... but if we turn our backs on our principles we stop being human."

It was difficult for the crew of Voyager to maintain their principles stranded out in the Delta Quadrant, especially when they saw other Federation starships kidnapped by the caretaker resorting to pirate tactics to obtain resources. Janeway had to make decisions that made her unpopular to her crew, who felt she valued principles more than their lives.

Janeway believed that to engage in such nefarious methods was not only beneath the Voyager crew, but an indication of morality's decay. Still, she showed compassion for the crew of the USS Equinox, who did what they had to to prevent starvation.

7 "You can't just walk away from your responsibilities because you made a mistake."

While not a member of Starfleet, Neelix was an invaluable part of the Voyager crew, responsible for keeping up morale and preparing home-cooked meals without a replicator. His biggest task involved helping to navigate the ship in the Delta Quadrant, space he was intimately familiar with as a trader.

Eventually, the ship passed out of territory that Neelix was familiar with, causing him to have a personal crisis of usefulness. His fear of no longer having a purpose resulted in him doing some dubious deals with shady individuals to obtain a map. Captain Janeway was mad, not so much for what he did, but for how he used the mistake to try to abandon his responsibilities to his friends.

6 "There are three things to remember about being a starship captain: keep your shirt tucked in, go down with the ship, and never abandon a member of your crew."

The passage of time might have been difficult to track on Voyager,considering the ship and crew had a 75-year journey to make in order to reach the Alpha Quadrant, but one of the more telltale ways was watching young Naomi Wildman grow up, the first child born during the mission home.

She received a lot of advice from the crew, especially Seven of Nine and Captain Janeway, the latter of whom reminded her the three definitive rules of being a starship captain.

5 "Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little..."

Every new Star Trek series is inevitably compared to the one that started it all, Star Trek: The Original Series. Subsequent series have done their best to set their own course while also paying homage to its famous progenitor, as Voyager did in Season 3.

Tuvok's strange dreams about the USS Excelsior and his time under Captain Sulu alter his ability to perform his duties on Voyager, and Janeway has to get to the bottom of it by sharing his experiences. As it turns out, she had a great respect for Captain Kirk and his crew, even if she didn't agree with his methods.

4 "We're Starfleet officers. 'Weird' is part of the job."

Late in Voyager'ssecond season, Vidiian warships attack the ship, forcing it to enter a plasma field where it suffers power failures from multiple proton bursts and subspace turbulence. Through a space-time rift, the battered crew of Voyager sees another version of itself, and the two crews attempt to merge.

This line is uttered by a resilient Janeway to Harry Kim as she tries to find a way to leave the plasma field and save her crew from the organ-harvesting Vidiians, receiving help from the unlikeliest of places: a second Janeway.

3 "One voice can be stronger than a thousand voices."

Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine had a contentious relationship aboard Voyager at first, but the two strong-willed women eventually came to form a close bond that was built on solidarity and mutual respect. Janeway helped Seven realize that she didn't need the collective to have a purpose or a family.

In Season 4, when Seven tried to escape back to the Borg, Janeway had to remind her that she was stronger as an individual and that she should use her uniqueness to help others.

2 "You can use logic to justify almost anything. That's its power and its flaw."

Having Maquis mixing with Starfleet officers aboard Voyager was never going to be easy, and when Captain Janeway is flummoxed about how to acquire a trajector from the Sikarians without sacrificing her principles, it's the Maquis members of the crew who broker the deal behind her back.

Janeway is furious with B'Elanna Torres and the others for going behind her back, but her disappointment is reserved for Tuvok, who claims responsibility for approving the subterfuge using Vulcan logic. Their relationship is strained after she delivers this memorable quote.

1 "You know as well as I do that fear only exists for one purpose... to be conquered."

One of Janeway's most famous lines comes from the encounter between Voyager and a race of beings who purposefully place themselves in suspended animation during an ice age. Unfortunately, an aggressive program called the Clown locks them in.

The Clown may have thrived on fear, but he had never encountered Captain Janeway. She was able to deftly maneuver his terrifying world and ultimately defeat him, freeing the Kohl.

Source: screenrant.com