I just got done watching voyager episode "The Voyager Conspiracy" so this post is somewhat inspired by that episode. The theory is could Shannon O'Donnell actually be Captain Janeway? They certainly look and sound exactly like the same person. Voyager episode "11:59" takes place in the year 2000, about 4 years after Voyager visited 20th century earth. But Captain Janeway made it back to Voyager so you might be assuming at that point that Shannon O'Donnell couldn't be Captain Janeway except we know that people can be copied from the transporter: a second transporter beam could have copied Janeway like with what happened Riker. If it didn't happen this way maybe Henry Starling managed to copy her or Captain Braxton did as his way to get revenge for stranding him in the 20th century so he got her copy stranded too. In Voyager episode "Future's End" Chakotay and Torres had this exchange about how they would have to find a job and keep a low profile if they were stranded in the 20th century: TORRES: Chakotay, what if we're stuck here? What if we can't find a way back? CHAKOTAY: There are still a few isolated places left in this century. We'd have to keep low profiles. TORRES: We'd have to get jobs. CHAKOTAY: I've thought about pursuing archaeology full time. Maybe I could teach at a university or work on one of the important digs in Central America. There were still a lot of important discoveries to be made in this century. I could win a Nobel prize. TORRES: So much for a low profile. Kind of like the way Shannon had jobs and kept a low profile. When the Defiant went back in time in episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" Bashir mentions the possibility of how a pre-destination paradox could cause someone to become their own ancestor: BASHIR: No one ever met my great grandfather. This could be a predestination paradox. Come on, Chief, surely you took elementary temporal mechanics at the Academy? I could be destined to fall in love with that woman and become my own great grandfather. O'BRIEN: You're being ridiculous. BASHIR: Ridiculous? If I don't meet with her tomorrow, I may never be born. Unlike in Bashir's case Janeway knew for a fact that she was in a pre-destination paradox type situation when she found out the time ship caused the computer revolution and when Braxton explained the A leads to B leads to C leads to A to her: Then Captain Janeway falls inlove with Henry Janeway and becomes her own great, great, great, great grandmother.
I get the feeling this was the inspirational key to a premise for a Futurama episode: Roswell that ends well. Anyway, I LOVE this. Nice presentation.
Except there is "no time" for Janeway 2.0 to fall "in love" since Starling dies at her Janeway 1.0 hands fairly quickly. If you are suggesting that a milk-toast version of Janeway was sexually violated in the short time between her creation and Starling's death and a child was produced, it still would not explain why we follow her lineage down the "Janeway" line especially since O'Donel showed up at Alexandria Books without a child in tow. Also.. Janeway meets that PR guy in town who knew her years ago when she washed out of the astronaut class, and knew that she was downsized out of her last engineering job. I doubt all that happened in the last "4 years". I also doubt the astronaut class would have accepted a woman in her early 40's (Janeway's assumed age in the 5th season) into its class, especially one w/o a significant work history. So, I respectfully have to disagree with your hypothesis.
Yep. Jolene Blalock played one of T'Pol's ancestors too. Does that mean that she's actually a time-displaced or copy of T'Pol as well?
How is pointing out the flaws in a hypothetical fictional scenario sucking the fun out of it? If he just wanted us all to agree with him without question, he should have said so
forgive me. Let me clarify. The text came off as overly serious. Didn't he question why we are even thinking about it? Perhaps I misunderstood . I am not presuming one has to agree. That's dull.
I just don't see any reason to suspect that Shannon O'Donnell is actually Janeway herself. There's no evidence of it. There was no time travel, indeed there wasn't any sci-fi at all except for those few scenes on Voyager. (besides, Janeway's comments IN those scenes on the ship, would definitely suggest that she and Shannon aren't the same person. Janeway specifically mentions that Shannon is her ancestor) I mean, sure, it may be a tad unrealistic to have Janeway's ancestor look so much like her, but it's a harmless bit of fun to have Kate play Shannon (and I'm sure she enjoyed doing it, BTW), so I'm willing to let it go.
I'm all for your theory. In fact, Starling's dabblings obviously messed up the timeline, therefore we had no Eugenic war in the 1990's And we don't know if Starlig died. He mifgt be stuck in some other century or be back in the 20th century, planning his comeback. The guys who maintaine this site seem to believe that he's still around: http://henrystarling.simplesite.com/
Clearly we misunderstood intentions. Because you're not hearing me either. Not saying you had to agree. Your comment to me seemed to suggest the above was all a fat waste of time to speculate. by all means counter, but it sounded like you were criticizing the point of this post instead of just simply agreeing or disagreeing and why. Re: What's the big deal?
I'm not getting behind any single Janeway copy method. Maybe Starling used exotic future tech to make a copy of Janeway kinda like how the Relativity made a copy of 7 of 9, the Tom Riker method, Janeway from another timeline, a sample of blood combined with Lyssarrian Desert Larvae with Velandran Circe's anti-aging enzyme, or some other method we don't know about. I'm sure Janeway's talents could have advanced her in 4 years. She picked up typing pretty quick. Chakotay was talking about winning a nobel prize. You could doubt it all you'd like of course but there's no contradiction there. The evidence was even if they are separate people Shannon O'Donnel and Janeway both being on Earth at the same time in 1996 during episode "Future's End". Remember her saying this: Captain Janeway: For all I know, she could be my great great great... great grandmother. They look and sound exactly the same and there exists technology to make it possible. Don't know. It's harder for me to make that connection because there is no record of T'Pol existing in 1957. We have a record of Janeway traveling back in time in "Future's End" and within a few years of episode "11:59"
I like to think that Futurama was clever and literate enough to be inspired by science fiction sources other than the Trek franchise. The concept of being descended from oneself because of time travel paradoxes was explored in Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 story All You Zombies, for example. Kor
That is intriguing. I must admit I find it hard to wrap my brain around temporal duplicates. Shannon most definitely embraced science so if she had a chance to reach for the future... I could buy that. There would have to obviously be two Shannons with one being a Kathryn. Like (but more stable) the demon copies where the copy doesn't know they are a copy.
Phoney birth certificates, driver’s licenses, counterfeit money..... And they would need somewhere to live.