10 False Star Trek Facts You Probably Still Believe
3. Janeway Was The First Female Captain
Kate Mulgrew was the first leading female captain in any Star Trek series, commanding the USS Voyager for its entire run. She is an excellent actress and character, who will hopefully return to the screen in a future episode of Star Trek Picard.
She was, however, not the first female captain in Star Trek history. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home features an earlier incarnation of the Miranda Class USS Saratoga (a repaint of the Reliant model from Star Trek II). On board, Madge Sinclair plays the unnamed captain of the ship who unfortunately loses all power with the Whale Probe. Sinclair would later return to the franchise, playing Geordi La Forge's mother in the episode Interface.
Though her fate is never revealed on screen, this inclusion locks her as the first female captain of a Starfleet vessel. She would later be followed by Rachael Garrett, who captained the Enterprise C and of course, in Star Trek Discovery, Captain Georgiou of the USS Shenzhou.
Enterprise would retcon Sinclair's role by establishing Captain Erika Hernandez as commander of the Columbia, Enterprise's sister ship.
However, to get very technical on the matter - they are all of them preceded by the Romulan Commander in the Original Series' episode The Enterprise Incident. Though not a Starfleet captain, Joanne Linville portrayed the first female commander of any vessel in 1968 - beating all of them to the punch!