Una McCormack reflects on writing her latest Star Trek novel The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway

The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway by USA McCormack

OCTOBER 28, 2020 - Yesterday saw the release of The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway, written by veteran Star Trek novelist Una McCormack. McCormack, who also wrote the Star Trek: Picard prequel novel The Last Best Hope, spoke with TrekMovie.com this week, revealing some of her writing process in chronicling the life of the first female captain to lead a Star Trek series.

In preparation for writing Janeway’s autobiography, McCormack told TrekMovie, she plowed through all seven seasons of Voyager in just seven weeks. While she admitted her favorite Star Trek series is Deep Space Nine, McCormack said she “MASSIVELY enjoyed” her “research” into the captain of the U.S.S. Voyager.

The story, however, is about the captain, not her ship. “We didn’t want the whole book to just be taken up with Voyager,” McCormack said. “We wanted this to be a narrative of her whole life. There’s actually quite a lot in the show about Kathryn’s childhood, lots of throwaway lines. That’s a bit of a gift.”

McCormack developed her writing skills in the world of fan fiction. This worked out to her advantage in writing the autobiography. McCormack said she is “pretty skilled at taking [...] small facts and weaving them into a coherent narrative.” A large part of that narrative is, of course, the time Janeway spent aboard Voyager (the ship). When it came to choosing which stories from Voyager (the series) that McCormack wanted in Janeway’s autobiography, it largely came down to the captain’s role as a mentor.

“With Janeway,” McCormack said, “there’s a lot of that with her, obviously with Seven [of Nine]. But at the same time with people like B’Elanna [Torres] or Naomi Wildman [...] They’ve all been torn away from family.” McCormack included the Tom Paris character as well, saying “those were the [people] I added to the key emotional stories I wanted to tell.”

With Star Trek: Voyager celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the book is sure to be a fitting tribute to a character who has been an inspiration to audiences for a quarter of a century. The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway is available for purchase now from Amazon.com and other retailers.