Captain Janeway shares the story of her ancestor Shannon O'Donnel, astronaut and driving force behind the construction of the Millennium Gate on Earth, a monument built at the dawn of the new millennium. But as some of the crew takes an interest in the story and researches it further, everyone learns that the real history doesn't match the stories Janeway heard growing up.
This unusual episode had an unusual origin. Actor John de Lancie had suggested a episode in which his character Q took Janeway back in time to meet one of her own ancestors. That molecule formed up with two others the writers had floating around: to do an episode acknowledging the (then-coming) turn of the millennium, and to try an episode that had "no science fiction" in it. Indeed, there was a point where the plan was not to feature Voyager at all, instead doing a true one-off episode in which Kate Mulgrew would just play Janeway's ancestor along a cast of only guest stars.
Ultimately, it was decided that a framing device aboard Voyager was needed... though I'm not sure the episode would have played well for me either way. I think the lack of any science fiction hook in this episode is too great a subversion of Star Trek, like a procedural show with no crime or a sitcom episode with no jokes. Moreover, I feel like there are simply no stakes to this episode. Perhaps if I personally were more into genealogy, it would resonate more? Even so, it's not like Janeway has ever mentioned this ancestor before, so it feels like a stretch that she's investing so much of her own sense of self-worth in O'Donnel.
A lot of the episode seems to be saying "don't believe everything you've heard about history," with flashbacks to Shannon O'Donnel regularly subverting the amplified version of events Janeway believes. Unfortunately, the same sort of theme was centered for much greater effect in the earlier Voyager episode "Living Witness" (literally the best Voyager episode so far, and thus not one to "go up against").
Still, I find the episode more "dry" than "bad," because there are good aspects to it. Casting is good, particularly in "special guest star" Kevin Tighe as Henry Janeway, and ubiquitous "that guy" John Carroll Lynch as a wealth real estate developer. The production values are solid, from a credible winter decorating of a backlot "town" environment to a two-story bookshop set complete with spiral staircase.
Small subthemes resonate faintly with Star Trek in somewhat satisfying ways. "Progress" wins out, but in a way that doesn't completely trample "the little guy." We're told that Y2K turned out to be nothing at all, a simple "don't panic about the future" message that wasn't entirely clear to everyone seven months before the end of 1999.
But there are elements that I find weirdly generating friction with Star Trek values. As uplifting as it is to say that "what inspires you is what matters," the notion that truth isn't as important feels weirdly dissonant. Not nearly enough is made of young Jason Janeway's aspirations, and how he's pinned in working for his Luddite father. It's also very hard to see how a relationship between Shannon and Henry would actually endure, given how completely different they are and how many things they fundamentally disagree about.
Other observations:
- There's real-world footage of an Apollo moon landing in Shannon's dream. (She also has a lunar lander model hanging from her car's rear-view mirror.)
- On the evening of the turn of the millennium, a local news station chooses to devote its coverage to a live view of the dark door of a closed bookshop, in the hopes that something will happen. Ratings bonanza!
- We still get a "captain's log," in the form of Shannon dictating a diary into a tape recorder.
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