S5 E23: 11:59

Neelix's sudden interest in Earth history causes Janeway to reflect on an ancestor of hers who she has always looked up to. We then follow the actions for this Shannon O'Donnell (played by Kate Mulgrew, to my dismay), who Janeway believes was an astronaut who wen t to Mars and pioneered a self-contained, visible from space, futuristic structure called the Millennium Gate. In fact, she was a washed up engineer who never made it to space, and by chance wound up in the bookstore of a Henry Janeway, the only shop owner in Portage Creek Indiana who won't sell his store to make way for the future. Shannon is approached by one of the Gate's big-wigs, who offers her a job if she'll convince Henry to sell. She talks to him about it, and is up front about the offer, but he, in true Janeway form, is rude and snarky back. She prepares to leave the city, but finds she loves Henry too much, and returns, and everyone lives happily ever after with the Millennium Gate. Janeway is at first disappointed when she discovers the truth about her ancestor hidden in some Ferengi database that they happen to have in the delta quadrant, but the crew reminds her that while her history may be a lie, the fact that it inspired present-Janeway to be a Starfleet officer is real enough.

I think I've been using the words "trite" and "cliched" too much, and I've never liked the word hackneyed much (just personal preference, really), so I headed over to Thesaurus.com to find some alternatives. Stale. Uninspired. Tired. Banal. These are all great words for describing this episode. At least, unlike yesterday's Someone to Watch Over Me, this installment isn't offensive. I suppose that maybe if you are still a resident of your mother's womb you have not already been exposed to thirty variations on the "traditional guy won't sell/move to make way for the future" story, but I think it is becoming standard procedure at this point to play some related audiobooks with headphones firmly planted on a pregnant woman's distended abdomen.

That's not to say that there's no merit in telling a story again. Progress, a DS9 episode, found a new twist on it, created a compelling relationship between Kira and Mullibok, and used the story to explore Bajoran culture (which is highly relevant to the overall DS9 story). This episode instead reveals nothing new about Janeway's character, focuses on characters we'll never hear about again, and couches itself in a love story for two personalities which, in my most humble opinion, have absolutely zero chemistry with each other. But, again, it isn't unwatchable, it's just boring.

My second complaint, that a 20th century drama really isn't what I signed up to watch, is less bothersome, but still annoying. Just as there are a hojillion shows about standing in the way of progress out of respect for the past, there are, as it turns out, a hojillion shows set in the 20th century. If I wanted to watch one of those shows, I would be. I'm not because, personally, if your work is not science fiction or fantasy, I generally feel like you're just not trying hard enough. I thirst for the creativity and world-building of pieces that fall into those categories - though, to be fair, the last three books I've read for fun (and greatly enjoyed for one reason or another) have not been sci-fi, or even fictional. This episode has none of that.

Watchability: 2/5

Bottom Line: Inoffensive, but extremely boring. I think that the only reason that I'm not giving this episode a one out of five is that it is still an improvement over Someone to Watch Over Me.