Certainly would beat a Millennium Gate, wouldn’t it?
Although the esteemed captain of the U.S.S. Voyager, tireless scientist and lover of dramatic off-camera stares, won’t actually be born for a few centuries yet in the Star Trek timeline, CBS has announced a new collaboration that hopes to honour Kathryn Janeway with her very own monument in her hometown of Bloomington, Indiana.
Voyager first established Bloomington — itself the hometown of Voyager co-creator and producer Jeri Taylor — as Janeway’s place of birth in the season seven episode “Imperfection.” But her ties back to the state of Indiana were already established in season five’s “11:59,” which looked back at Janeway’s ancestors in the then-modern U.S., during the construction of the aforementioned Millennium Gate, the first self-sustaining civic environment built on Earth in Star Trek history.
So it’s fitting then, that with the permission of CBS, a new crowdfunding campaign seeks to build a monument to one of Starfleet’s future finest on the city’s B-Line trail.
Proposed by a joint campaign between the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority and the Captain Janeway Bloomington Collective, the monument will include a bronze bust depicting Kate Mulgrew as Janeway as she appeared in later seasons of Voyager and sit atop a limestone base in the shape of the Voyager and Deep Space Nine-era Starfleet combadge.
As well as giving Janeway her full official birthdate — May 20, 2336 — the monument would also include an accompanying display highlighting facts about Voyager, Janeway’s life, and her connections to the city.
And probably nothing about that time she evolved into a space lizard and slept with her conn officer.
The project, being crowdfunded through Patronicity, needs around $18,300 before December 22, 2019, to fund the monument — and it’s already made just over $9,100.
If you want to contribute to getting Janeway the hometown memorial she deserves, you can head on over to Patronicity and chip in — although Janeway might understand if you’d rather keep your change for a cup of coffee, nebula-based or otherwise.