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mattoreilly-76881
Reviews
Star Trek: Voyager: 11:59 (1999)
Truly dull and uninteresting
I'd like to start this review by saying that I have never before written a film/TV show review on IMDb, or anywhere else that I can recall. I just don't have interest in doing so. The fact I have now taken the time to write one for this episode is a testament to just how bad this episode was.
I've always enjoyed Trek, from a very young age I watched TNG, and then DS9. DS9 was by far my favourite and some years ago I re-watched them all on DVD. But I was never able to get into Voyager. After having re-watched TNG I decided it was time to give Voyager another go. And it's not half as bad as I recall - it's not great and overall seems a bit wanting at times with rather 2D characters, but there are some great stories and overall I'm enjoying it.
Series 5 has been hard work, though. It feels like the whole series is filler with (virtually) no killer. The episode before this (the Doctor falling in love with Seven) was pretty poor - character development, particularly for the Doctor and Seven is interesting, but there was no B-plot. The ambassador who is essentially monk-like who ends up completely inebriated is not a plot, it's all utterly pointless. Still, I digress. Then came 11:59.
Dear, sweet Lord - 'dull' doesn't do it justice. It's mind-numbingly boring and, worse, utterly pointless. An important part of a TV show, especially one as long-running as Voyager, is that we have to care about the characters and be invested in them. This obviously happens over time and develops over time also. And that's where the problem with this episode lies: why do we care about Janeway's almost-400-year-old relative and her frankly boring story? We don't. It has no bearing on the events of the present (within Voyager), it doesn't explain anything or add anything to Janeway's character that we didn't already know. Which makes it entirely redundant.
I honestly couldn't watch it all the way through to the end, I was too bored. I should add that I'm someone who can happily watch a 6 part 1960s Dr Who story, so it's not my impatience that's the problem here.
Thankfully, I'm now watching the next episode (Relativity) and while I can't yet say how good it is, at least something is actually happening.