Episode Review - One (Voyager, Season 4)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here

Overview – Encountering a nebula that has deadly effects on the crew, Janeway is forced to make a difficult decision. She can add a whole year onto their journey home by traveling around the nebula, or put the crew in stasis for a month with only Seven of Nine and the Doctor left to care for the ship and crew as they travel through it. Taking the shorter route, Seven finds her sudden solitude quite disturbing and more challenging that she had anticipated. As the nebula starts to have a debilitating effect on both her and the ship, Seven must make a difficult decision of her own.

Score: 7/10 – This episode is very similar to a future episode of Enterprise, “Doctor’s Orders”. Swap out Seven of Nine for Doctor Phlox, change the setting a bit, and it is essentially the same story. I would have to say that I liked the Enterprise version better, but this is an OK episode in and of itself. I really only have one issue with it, and that has to do with how some of the hallucinations were executed. I find that often, when a character is hallucinating their crewmembers, the way it is presented seems a bit cheesy. I am not sure if it is the writing/dialogue, or the acting, but it just did not seem to work for me. Some of the “whispers” were a bit over the top. When I compare it to “Doctor’s Orders”, nothing that happens in “One” was surprising to me. I was able to figure out that there were several things that were supposed to be a surprise or twist, such as the alien captain that Seven imagines up, that were too easily telegraphed. Regardless, it is a heavy Seven of Nine episode that shows a lot of growth for her. There is some great banter between her and the Doctor, and we get some nice moments. We have some fun, mostly at the expense of Tom Paris. There are some notable plot holes, which I will touch on shortly, but overall the episode is good.

Relevance - 0 points. Try as I could, I just could not find anything that connected this episode to anything else in Star Trek. We had allusions to things like Torres’s reasons for joining the Maquis and Seven having been separated from the Collective before, but there is not a whole lot that makes it relevant to the overall Star Trek story.

Continuity - 2 points. Character continuity checks off here. Chakotay expresses concerns to Janeway (in private, of course) as to having Seven in charge of the ship for a month. Janeway returns with a feeling of trust and faith in Seven. Seven herself responds to the situation in a way that shows the great turning moment for her character. Universe continuity seems to check out as well. I am going to dock the story continuity a point for a couple of things. First, how could a nebula so large not be detected by the ship sooner, and the fact that Tom Paris had escaped from his stasis chamber on several occasions should have caused some significant damage as they were in the thick of a nebula that on the outskirts of it killed a crew member after being exposed for a mere couple of minutes. Both are plot holes that can be easily overlooked for the sake of the story, but not for the scoring of points in continuity.

Character Development – 3 points. Definitely a turning point for Seven of Nine. For the majority of the season leading up to this episode, she had been very much at odds with various members of the crew. Each time, she grew a little. Here, she grows up a lot. The Doctor also shows how much he has grown since the beginning of the series and the relationship between him and Seven are greatly developed. I think that this is an essential episode for Seven’s progression, and for that alone it makes it a must see episode for fans of the character.

Social Commentary – 2 points. The weight of solitude for someone who is so accustomed to being connected to others is a heavy one to bear. Seven went from being one in a collective to one among a crew of individuals to simply one (hey, that’s where the episode’s title came from!). Seven must deal with the intense loneliness and isolation for a month. Many of us may experience a day or so, but I think we all would struggle with such isolation.

Cool Stuff – 1 point. I scored a point for the cool alien pilot that we see in Seven’s hallucination. We never learn if he is based off of an actual species or if he is purely the product of Seven’s imagination.

Rank – Lieutenant (15 points). There are definitely some great moments in this episode, and fans of Seven of Nine should definitely watch this episode as it provides a great turning point for her character. However, I think that “Doctor’s Orders” from Enterprise is a far better telling of the isolated crew member dealing with hallucinations. So, you may skip this one and not miss on much that is important, but you would miss out on a fairly solid story.

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Episode Review - Tsunkatse (Voyager, Season 6)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here.

Episode Overview – (Star Trek: Voyager: Season 6) While on some much needed shore leave, members of the Voyager crew discover “tsunkatse”, a sort of mixed-martial arts combat sport. Meanwhile, Seven of Nine and Tuvok are captured by the producer of the games, who forces Seven to fight in his arena. The crew must then attempt a rescue as Seven finds herself in a fight to the death.

Episode Score – 6/10. This was a fairly routine episode. The story is a rehash of the typical “forcing a character to fight against their will”. It is not poorly done, but when you compare it to a similar DS9 two-episode story (“In Purgatory’s Shadow” and “By Inferno’s Light”), it is very superficial. So while this is a good episode, it does not give us anything special beyond a reason for then-WWF (now WWE) fans to watch the Rock in his first acting role.

Relevance – 2 points. The Hirogen have been used before, and the Hirogen character played by veteran Trek actor J G Hertzler adds another dimension to this species. The species responsible for tsunkatse (the Norcadians) show up again in the form of Mezoti, one of the child drones taken aboard by Voyager in the next episode, “Collective”.

Continuity – 2 points. Story continuity, check. Nothing contradicts anything. The fact that in the next episode we see Mezoti, a Norcadian, makes sense since we are still in the same region of space. Character continuity, check. Everyone acts within established parameters. Seven and Tuvok go on a survey mission for their shore leave, everyone thinks they’re nuts, etc. Universe continuity... hold on there. The Hirogen acts the way we would expect him to act, and I would add that this character, while unnamed, definitely adds depth to this alien race. Where I have an issue is that in the audience, there are several aliens who are background aliens in Deep Space Nine. Have to ding them for that.

Character Development – 1 point. Yet another Seven of Nine episode, but this does not do a whole lot to develop her character. She shows allegiance to her crewmate and continues to butt heads with B’Elanna. Beyond this we learn that many members of the crew enjoy a good old fashioned MMA fight. That’s it for character development.

Social Commentary – 1 point. The best I can figure is that this episode makes reference to mankind’s fascination with combat sports. Since the times of the Coliseum in Ancient Rome, we have loved blood sport entertainment. This theme is only lightly touched upon. While professional wrestling is all theatrics, we do have MMA organizations such as UFC, and boxing is still a major attraction, yet rarely is a person’s life threatened. Any commentary on the legitimacy of such combat sports is buried in the vessel of the plot to make a Seven of Nine focused story.

Cool Factor – 2 points. The guest stars make up the cool factors for this episode. If you are a professional wrestling fan, you appreciated the Rock as the intimidating Pendari Champion. This was the first acting job for Dwayne Johnson (although to any WWE/WWF fan he basically was the Rock in prosthetics, right down to the Rock Bottom finisher and the raised eyebrow). This was also a deliberate cross-pollination of UPN products, as in addition to Voyager they were also aired WWF Smackdown. I am giving the second cool factor point to having J G Hertzler and Jeffrey Combs making their first Voyager appearance after having established popular secondary characters in DS9. This is also the first time that the two actors appear in the same scenes on a Trek episode. Combs plays Penk, the Norcadian producer of the sport (and Combs’ fifth Trek character), while Hertzler plays the unnamed Hirogen veteran (also his fifth character).

Rank – Lieutenant (14 points). This is a fun episode. Nothing too serious, nothing too revealing. A good mid-level quality episode with some cool features. Wrestling fans will likely get a little more out of it, but it has some good moments for all.

Episode Review - Dark Frontier (Voyager Season 5)

For those who are new to my episode reviews, you can find the post where I establish my point criteria here

Episode Overview: While attempting to obtain a transwarp coil from a Borg vessel, Seven of Nine finds herself torn between two collectives: the one she knew as a drone and the one she finds on Voyager.

Episode Score - 9/10. This is a big budget two-hour story that brings the Borg back into Voyager’s story big-time. For a Voyager episode, there are some pretty intense action sequences and a lot of great story-telling. We get to see a lot of development in Seven of Nine’s backstory and history. We get to see aspects of the Borg that we have never before seen, and dig deeper into their mythos. Solid performances by many of the cast, especially Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan.

Relevance - 3 points. References to the past attempts of the Borg to assimilate Earth, the Hansen’s ship “Raven” and their attempts to study the Borg. Sets up future Borg episodes (Unimatrix Zero, Endgame). Refers to the Hansens, and shows the fate of Magnus Hansen (Seven’s father).

Continuity - 2 points. Trek Universe gets a point for showing a development of the Borg that is consistent with what has been previously established. Character continuity scores here as everybody acts as they would. An example of this is B’Elanna Torres who has always been suspicious of Seven’s loyalties telling Janeway that when Seven chose to stay behind on the Borg sphere she showed she was never really “one of us”, and Janeway refusing to give up on Seven despite that. Where this episode loses a point is story continuity. The episode suggests that the Borg were rumored to exist as a known entity for at least a decade before this episode, and before the episode “Q Who” on TNG. It is difficult to believe that a Captain such as Jean-Luc Picard could have ever been unaware of these rumors. As well as this the Borg Queen states a couple of inconsistent historical facts. First, that the Borg of attempted to assimilate humans once before. That, I would assume, is referring to “The Best of Both Worlds”. In truth, the events of the motion picture “First Contact” would count as a second attempt. Second mistake was stating that Seven of Nine was the first drone to regain individuality. I guess Hugh from “I Borg” and all the drones that followed Lore did not count.

Character Development - 2 points. Major development for Seven of Nine, having her first interaction with the Borg since leaving the collective and becoming an individual. For the first time Seven refers to Voyager as being her new “collective”, which I would assume is on a similar level as family. She states that she cares for the crew deeply. She also has great conflict in her leaving the crew to rejoin the Borg. She shows that she has not forgotten her lessons on Voyager by helping members of Species 10026 escape assimilation on two occaissions. Janeway and Naomi Wildman have some minor development as well. Everyone else seems to be their usual selves.

Societal Commentary - 1 point. This has been a hard one for me to nail down. The story is great, but what does it say about society in general? I’m not too sure. There is a theme of serving two masters or being torn between two cultures that can resonate with viewers. Because of this, I can only give it a single point.

Cool Stuff - 3 points. Much of the cool stuff in this episode is courtesy of the Borg. We get to see the Borg Unicomplex, which is one of the most impressive designs yet. We see two new ships in the Borg fleet: the Borg interceptor (a scout-type vessel) and the Borg Diamond (used by the Queen). We see the Borg Queen for the first time on television, and played for the first time by actress Susanna Thompson (her fourth character on Star Trek), and to be honest the way her body was formed was amazing. We see the Hansen family again. We learn a lot about the different species designations (humans are Species 5618, Ktarians are Species 6961, etc.). All of these more than make up the necessary requirements for the full three points.

Rank: Captain (20 points). This was a great episode with wonderful effects, a compelling story, and a great focus on Seven of Nine. It was great seeing the Borg again. I’m not the biggest Seven of Nine fan, but I did think this episode was great and did her character justice.