Now Voyager, the 1990s fanzine for a female Starfleet captain

In 1995, Star Trek Voyager (US 1995–2001), a television series starring Kate Mulgrew as captain, was enthusiastically welcomed. A fan club immediately formed and produced a fanzine, Now Voyager (1995–9), dedicated to a female sf media star, edited by a woman (Michelle Erica Green) and written and drawn by women.¹ Though short-lived (Vols 1–5, 1995–9), this fanzine transitioned from print to online. Here I survey the fanzine’s content and analyse the section debating Captain Janeway’s and Kate Mulgrew’s feminism. This recurring feature suggests that equal-rights feminism was still alive in the 1990s, adapting to new social and media contexts.

Is a fanclub newsletter a fanzine? According to Robin Anne Reid, fanzines are ‘magazines of original material produced by and for fans’ (Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy Vol. 1, Greenwood 2008: 278). John Clute and Peter Nicholls add ‘fanzines abandon … professional aspirations in exchange for informality and an active readership’ (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 2nd ed. 1993: 414). Now Voyager fits these definitions, encompassing not only biography, photographs and interviews, but also original artwork, commentary and stories by fans. During its five years, the fanzine included an editor’s column, reviews of episodes, photographs of Mulgrew and other cast-members, reviews of Mulgrew’s films, ‘Katewatch’ describing Mulgrew’s appearances, commentary on Star Trek books, biographies of production staff and reports on sf convention panel discussions on Captain Janeway. The fanzine also featured ‘Innuendos’ reinterpreting lines from the series, ‘Maaail Caalll!’ offering humorous emails attributed to series characters, trivia quizzes, a photo caption contest, ‘Touching Scenes’ counting how many times Janeway touched each crewmember, fan art, fan cartoons and ‘Copyright Violation Corner’ publishing fans’ stories about the series’ characters. Like sf conventions, the fanzine crossed generations: the sixth issue included a fan-club list reporting fans’ professions, a drawing of ‘Captain Janeway’ by nine-year-old Kate Scally (issue 1.6 (1995): 11) and a pork tenderloin recipe from Kate Mulgrew herself.

Each issue also included ‘Kathryn Janeway, Feminist Heroine’, a column of fans discussing the existence, nature and effect of Janeway’s and Mulgrew’s feminism. The bulk of the comments echoed the title, lauding Janeway as ‘One of the few strong female lead characters on television’ (P. Castillo, issue 1.1 (1995): 13), ‘an ideal feminist heroine and role model precisely because her gender is not an issue’ (Atara Stein, issue 1.1 (1995): 14). Some comments complained about the series’ gender stereotyping, citing Janeway’s penchant for Gothic romance (Kathy A. Alton, issue 3.6 (1997): 14) and ‘home and children … transplanted into space’ (Sandra Necchi, issue 4.1 (1998): 22). But Heidi Johnson argues that feminine behaviour, such as expressing self-doubt, is as frequent with male as female captains, comparing Janeway to Kirk (issue 1.4 (1995): 17), and Linda Bindner suggests that the character helps us ‘to comprehend the difference between aggressive and assertive’ (issue 5.2 (1999): 25). Joan Testia sees Janeway as anticipating a new era for women: ‘My students, both male and female, are growing up knowing that women and men can be healers (Crusher and Bashir), engineers (Geordi and B’Elenna), and, now, commanders (Picard and Janeway)’ (issue 1.5 (1995): 22). Less sanguine, Michelle Green points out that ‘Even in this enlightened age, when a woman succeeds in an area dominated by men, she often finds herself the target of extreme criticism’ (issue 1.2 (1995): 20). Sadly, Green’s comment is still true.