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 honor 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 $12,500 before December 22, 2019, to fund the monument—and it’s already made just over $4,500. 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.
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