https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp217
Two years ago we took a look at how Star Trek covers Christmas, and it was admittedly a little thin. However, just like that holiday, Star Trek has run into New Year's on a couple occasions, showing that this holiday is still celebrated on some level in the 24th century. That's a bit strange considering space travel kind of breaks the whole reason for setting a certain time period as a year, but life does go on at Earth and other planets, which explains why this holiday tradition is still around.
The most memorable episode centering on the concept of New Year's Day was a bit of a flashback episode in season 5 of Voyager, entitled 11:59. In that episode, Janeway researches and tells the story of an ancestor Shannon O'Donnell, who she believed was an astronaut legacy in the year 2000, but it turns out that she was just a struggling failed astronaut. She ends up falling in love with a bookstore owner named Henry Janeway from a small Indiana rural town, and she convinces him to stop protesting construction of a Millennium Gate right before a deadline on, you guessed it, New Year's Eve of 2000.
That episode, which aired in 1999, was an opportunity for the show writers to throw a joke at the then-current Y2K craze with the following dialogue:
QUOTE:
O'Donnell - "everyone was convinced it was the dawn of a new era. But when the world didn't end and the flying saucers didn't land and the Y2K bug didn't turn off a single light bulb, you'd think everybody would have realized it was a number on a calendar. But, oh, no, they had to listen to all those hucksters who told them the real millennium was 2001. So this New Year's Eve will be as boring as last year."
That episode, which aired in 1999, was an opportunity for the show writers to throw a joke at the then-current Y2K craze with the following dialogue:
QUOTE:
O'Donnell - "everyone was convinced it was the dawn of a new era. But when the world didn't end and the flying saucers didn't land and the Y2K bug didn't turn off a single light bulb, you'd think everybody would have realized it was a number on a calendar. But, oh, no, they had to listen to all those hucksters who told them the real millennium was 2001. So this New Year's Eve will be as boring as last year."
The other time we see New Year's festivities referred to is in the Deep Space Nine season 3 episode Explorers. Dr. Bashir finds out that a former classmate who beat him out for valedictorian at Starfleet Academy doesn't recognize him because she was told that he was an Andorian at a New Year's party of a mutual friend. So punking and silly jokes while drunk is still a tradition of the holiday in the 24th century.
Although the holiday is not prominent in Star Trek lore, the tradition of reflecting on a time period and being nostalgic is certainly something that still goes on, as alluded to by the entire Voyager episode we just discussed. With 2016 being cruel on many fronts including the loss of Anton Yelchin, we can only hope for a much better 2017 to go with that fancy new Star Trek Discovery show launching soon.
Happy New Year, friends and Trek fans.
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Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!
Although the holiday is not prominent in Star Trek lore, the tradition of reflecting on a time period and being nostalgic is certainly something that still goes on, as alluded to by the entire Voyager episode we just discussed. With 2016 being cruel on many fronts including the loss of Anton Yelchin, we can only hope for a much better 2017 to go with that fancy new Star Trek Discovery show launching soon.
Happy New Year, friends and Trek fans.
-----
Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!
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