A look back at her ancestor’s history does not give Janeway the whole story.
As Neelix presses Janeway for information about Earth’s history, she reminisces about one of her ancestors, Shannon O’Donnell. Shannon was in Indiana in December of 2000 when she discovered a quaint downtown area about to be destroyed and replaced by the Millennium Gate. The world’s first self-sustaining civic environment, the Gate had developers offering Henry Janeway a lot of money for his bookstore, but he didn’t want to give in. Through a chance encounter when her car broke down, Shannon and Henry began working together to prevent the destruction of downtown.
A database search uncovers a picture of Shannon and her children, which Janeway wants to frame. She explains that she grew up admiring Shannon and her bravery in building the Millennium Gate, which became the model for the first habitat on Mars. Back in 2000, Shannon is approached by Gerald Moss, one of the developers who knows her from her days of astronaut training at NASA. Knowing that Shannon recently lost her job, Moss tries to lure her to his team as consulting engineer in return for Shannon convincing Henry to give up his shop to the project.
Intrigued by the experimental biosphere, Shannon tries to talk Henry into seeing the benefits of the Gate. He will hear nothing of it, however, and Shannon leaves when the two of them begin fighting. On Voyager, the crew trades stories of their family history. When Janeway asserts that Shannon did work on all the early Mars projects, Paris contradicts her. He is an expert on all the early Mars projects, and he is positive there were no O’Donnell’s working on them.
Further research shows Shannon did not overcome any great obstacles to build the Millennium Gate, as Janeway had believed. She was only a consulting engineer, and the sole opposition she faced was Henry, who became her husband. As Shannon prepares to leave town, and the Gate developers are about to move their plans to another city, she suddenly returns to Portage Creek to talk to Henry.
Shannon reveals she has come back to be with Henry. She wants to explore the future, but he must be willing to leave the past behind. With only a minute to spare until midnight of 2001 and the deadline for the Millennium Gate project, Henry agrees to rebuild his shop in the new biosphere. Janeway is disappointed Shannon was not the courageous explorer she always believed her to be, but she has no idea what her ancestor did for the town of Portage Creek, and a man scared to face the inevitable future.
CAST
CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY
KATE MULGREW
CHAKOTAY
ROBERT BELTRAN
B'ELANNA TORRES
ROXANN DAWSON
TOM PARIS
ROBERT DUNCAN MCNEILL
NEELIX
ETHAN PHILLIPS
THE DOCTOR
ROBERT PICARDO
TUVOK
TIM RUSS
SEVEN OF NINE
JERI RYAN
HARRY KIM
GARRETT WANG
SPECIAL GUEST STAR
HENRY JANEWAY
KEVIN TIGHE
GUEST STARS
JASON
BRADLEY PIERCE
and
MOSS
JOHN CARROLL LYNCH
Teleplay by: JOE MENOSKY
Story by: BRANNON BRAGA
and JOE MENOSKY
Directed by: DAVID LIVINGSTON
HIGHLIGHT LISTING
STAR TREK: VOYAGER: “11:59” -- A look back at her ancestor’s history does not give Janeway the whole story.
ADVERTISING HEADLINE
FAMILY HISTORY
From one generation to the next,
courage is passed to those brave enough to recognize it.
