Plot – I’ve heard a lot of people ask the question ‘why does this episode exist?’ when it isn’t about exploring space and trekking the stars? Well so are countless other Star Trek episodes and they seem to get away with it. This exists because it is a sweet little character study, a piece of Janeway’s history that she has been mistaken about all these years and an atmospheric bit of Christmassy sentiment. It exists because this is a story that the production team chose to tell and when that story is enjoyable you will get no argument from me.
The production crew’s reaction to 11:59 is fascinating. Joe Menosky (who wrote the episode) berated its lack of science fiction elements (he always was Voyager’s weird science writer), Rick Berman loved it (which suggests he has more of a love of daytime soap than he does of Voyager) and Kate Mulgrew adored the chance to play a completely new character and contrast her to Janeway (her love of the material is visible in every frame). Who is right or wrong I will let you decide.
Character – Henry Janeway can be seen in one of two ways; an old curmudgeon who cannot let go of the past and refuses to embrace the future or a man who refuses to throw away his heritage to allow the corporations in to steamroll and commercialise the area. Both are true and that makes him a complex character because the episode never quite decides whether he is right or wrong, just that he is a slave to his emotions as everybody else.
Performance – Mulgrew as Shannon O’Donnell is far less prickly and more disarming. You can see why Henry Janeway falls for her immediately. She’s bumming about from state to state in a battered old car and living off cookies and a lot of goodwill from the people she meets. As Janeway, Mulgrew plays the part with a sense of entitled arrogance but as Shannon that is all stripped away and she is far humbler whilst retaining all the winning layers of Janeway. When she has to beg for a job because she doesn’t even have enough to fix her car how can your heart not go out to this woman?
Production – I love the gorgeous snowy atmosphere of the location work. Because it is contemporary it looks quite different from the usual Voyager aesthetic and is very pleasing on the eye. The bookstore is a terrific piece of design; it feels like the TARDIS in that it looks vast on the inside compared to the tiny door on the outside and within lies centuries of gathered knowledge and a sense of age and clutter. It’s my kind of place. The scene where Janeway takes Janeway to Paris by cooking her a candlelit dinner with wine and a huge book of the city has a wonderful sense of romanticism.
Best moment – There’s a very sweet scene where the crew of Voyager sit around enjoying each other’s company and talking about their family history. It feels very natural and warm spirited in a way that so many of these scenes on Voyager bomb. Ejecting the plot in the shipboard scenes and focussing on characters means that these people feel more real than usual. The ending captures that feeling of family that Voyager is so desperately looking for in so many episodes effortlessly.
You might say the episode is boring because of it but there are no real villains in this piece and I find that kind of refreshing. It’s the past versus the future rather than good versus evil and even the corporate drone is fairly likable in his own way (and admits Janeway is too). That might gut the show of some dramatic possibilities but I think it adds an extra layer of realism. Life isn’t about realism. It is about egos and opinions.
Worst moment – I seem to say this an awful lot. Neelix means well. That’s a nice way of saying he is the Counsellor Troi of this show. The person who sticks their nose in everybody’s business when it was never asked for in the first place. He latches on to peoples cultural and historic backgrounds and chooses to force them to celebrate. It would be nice if one week that instead of encouraging him, the crew chose to tell him to butt out and mind his own business. Here he disabuses Janeway of the notion that her predecessor was a rule breaker and a rebel. Thanks to him she learns that she was a sell out and a woman who lived a normal life, rather than that of a hero.
A reason to watch this episode again – The most gentlest version of history is written by the victors that you will ever see, 11:59 shows that you can remember the past as rosily as you like but sometimes the truth is a lot simpler and less romantic. It also showcases Kate Mulgrew as a much more sophisticated actress than Voyager sometimes suggests and gives her something fresh and different to get her teeth into. All character and no technobabble? You’ll get zero complaints from me, people. I think it’s rather lovely.
**** out of *****
Clue for the next episode:
No comments:
Post a Comment