Janeway is negotiating passage through a part of space controlled by the B’omar, possibly the stupidest (and worst dressed) aliens we’ve met in all of Star Trek. Meanwhile, part of Seven’s Borgness reasserts herself, she steals a shuttle and makes off into B’omar space for what she thinks is (in effect) her Borg mothership, which is summoning her with a homing beacon — making her think she should return to it and be re-assimilated. Tuvok and Paris take off in another shuttle to retrieve her, again violating B’omar space. Turns out Seven actually was being summoned by the ship (the Raven) that she and her parents used to travel to the Delta Quadrant, which was partially assimilated by the Borg (or something) and then crashed on the planet. The encounter makes Seven relive her original assimilation, but Voyager attacks the B’omar and saves Seven, Tuvok and Paris. Back on Voyager, Seven begins to think about her human origins.

Why it’s important

This one’s open to interpretation.

At this point in Trek, Seven is pretty clearly the first human ever assimilated by the Borg. So, learning how that happened is important. That said, there are a lot of reasons why that doesn’t quite make sense.

For one thing, if Seven, her parents’ ship and possibly her parents were assimilated “nearly 20 years” earlier, it means the Enterprise’s encounter with the Borg nine years earlier (in “Q Who?”) was a lot less significant. Up until this episode, there was enough ambiguity around Seven that maybe you could figure she became a Borg without the collective knowing about Federation technology. But “The Raven” clears that up, which is really stupid ret-conning as it undercuts one of TNG’s best episodes and the suspense leading up to the original Borg invasion.

What doesn’t hold up

Putting aside what I noted above, Janeway really goes over the line in this episode with her interactions with the B’omar. She essentially declares war on a space-faring people (!) to save Seven. Or, at least, she won’t respect sovereign boundaries.

Now, sure, the B’omar are ridiculous, stupid and petty — and their demands before Seven takes off make very little sense (why would they require Voyager to go at a slow warp velocity if they want the ship to get out of their space as soon as possible?). But that doesn’t really matter. Janeway, acting as the ranking Starfleet officer in the Delta Quadrant, discards borders and attacks B’omar ships in their space. That she dismisses their hails late in the episode because she doesn’t “have time for this” is frankly alarming. Kathy’s certainly not helping the Federation’s Delta Quadrant reputation in this episode. But why start worrying about that now, right?

Then, there’s the matter of Seven’s parents and their ship. Back in “Scorpion”, information on Seven’s parents seemed pretty minimal. But here, Janeway sure knows a lot about them (this gets worse in future episodes, by the way). And why did the Borg “partially assimilate” Seven’s parents’ ship and then leave it behind? There are some ways this might have worked, but the creators don’t really try to address it. And, without the “partial assimilation,” Seven’s homing beacon wouldn’t have been activated.

Oh, and how did Seven’s parents even get to B’omar space? We’re talking 60,000 light years from the Federation! Again, there are ways this could have been explained, but the creators opt not to. Huh.

Lastly, Voyager loses yet another shuttle in this episode. Unreal.

Final thoughts

This is such a weird episode, as there are a lot of good things despite the goofiness. I really liked the scene in which Neelix tries to teach Seven to eat solid food (Ethan Phillips really brought his top form) and Tuvok’s interaction with Seven as they approach the planet where the Raven crashed.

But Janeway just comes across as so dumb and hard-headed. It’s a shame.

Coming later this week …

Andy Dick. For serious.

The crew is getting used to its newest addition, Seven of Nine (introduced in the previous episode). Unhooked from the Borg collective, Seven’s human physiology is beginning to reassert itself (hmmm) so the Doctor is removing a bunch of her Borg stuff. Meanwhile, Kes’s mental powers (noted sporadically throughout the first three seasons) are beginning to get kind of crazy, as she can see beyond the subatomic. Seven, who wants to go back to the Borg, eventually sends a partial signal to the collective and Voyager is faced with the likelihood that they might end up in nanoprobe town. Meanwhile, Kes is phasing in and out of reality and is affecting the ship, so Janeway puts her on a shuttle (which are like Pez to this crew, but whatever). As Kes phases out of reality, she sends Voyager 10 years closer to home and out of Borg space. As the episode ends, a now mostly human Seven begins her life on Voyager — in a skin-tight catsuit that made pants tighter for nerds for the next four years.

Why it’s important

From a production standpoint, replacing Jennifer Lien’s Kes with Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine is a big domino. But from a Star Trek universe perspective, this is the first time Voyager gets appreciably closer to home. We’ll see a few landmarks like this one in Voyager’s next four seasons, and we’ll likely review them all.

What doesn’t hold up

Well, putting Seven in the catsuit was pretty ridiculous. Granted, sexy women have been a hallmark of Star Trek since “The Cage”, but it’s too bad that the series that took the step forward of having a female captain — and had a cast that was notably PC — took a step backward and so objectified its newest character. Jeri Ryan probably doesn’t get enough credit for making Seven a strong and sympathetic character given the hand she was dealt.

Also, it’s interesting that the Voyager is said to have been taken out of Borg space by Kes’s gift, considering we see the Borg so often the rest of the series. I suppose Janeway was unaware at this point of what the Borg could do to get around the galaxy — we learn about their transwarp hubs later — but getting out of the heart of Borg territory really wasn’t that big a deal. By way of the Borg’s attacks in Federation space, Janeway should have SOME idea of the Borg’s abilities to cover vast distances.

I’m frankly not convinced about the whole idea of Seven’s human physiology “reasserting itself” once she was cut off from the collective. We didn’t see anything like that happen to Hugh in “I, Borg” or to the Borg freed from the collective by Hugh and led by Lore in “Descent”. The creators could have just had Janeway order the Doctor to remove all of Seven’s Borg stuff instead of making it seem like something the Voyager crew had to do. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have done that, as they make a big deal about how Janeway has to act as a de facto guardian to Seven who’s not yet able to make her own choices.

Another thing with the Borg, which we could have discussed in our last review: Does it strike anyone as odd that there’s no discussion of where the Voyager crew was during the events of “The Best of Both Worlds”? Remember that 40 starships were destroyed as the Borg made their way to Earth. We know that some Starfleet personnel escaped and we know that there were many unaffected Starfleet ships (given how many we see in late TNG and DS9 that couldn’t have been built after Wolf 359). Would it have killed Voyager’s anti-continuity creators to have had some dialogue about where Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Paris, et. al, were during the attack at Wolf 359? Voyager hadn’t been commissioned, of course. But those four were all in Starfleet during the Borg invasion (with the possible exception of Paris, who might have already been kicked out of the service). Maybe one of them could have been on a ship in the battle and managed to escape — or maybe one of them would have been on a ship that was too far away to get there on time? Why the Voyager creators constantly avoided this kind of easy point of continuity just blows my mind.

Final thoughts

Although Seven joining the cast looked like it could have been a disaster, it basically turned out OK. Her character added a lot to the series — especially her relationship with Janeway — and added some life to a struggling show. The worst thing about Seven over the years was that she often learned big lessons about being human and then needed to learn them again.

OTOH, Voyager became a show centered mostly around Janeway, Seven and the Doctor over the final four seasons, marginalizing some characters (with Chakotay and Tuvok faring worst). And that’s too bad, because Robert Beltran and Tim Russ both were good in their roles and the writers could occasionally find good vehicles for their characters (Tuvok in “Meld”, Chakotay in “Maneuvers”, etc.).

Coming next week …

Seven’s origin story and (possibly) the Borg’s first interaction with humanity.

Part one: A long-range probe shows Voyager is finally entering Borg space. To avoid being assimilated, the crew heads down an area with no Borg activity, but stumbles upon a battle between several cubes and a new enemy that appears more powerful than the Borg. The enemy is called Species 8472, and the Borg are at a loss for how to stop them. After Kim is attacked by one of the 8472s, he begins to be transformed into one of them, but the Doctor finds a treatment that would use reprogrammed Borg nanoprobes (salvaged during “Unity”) to fight the infection. Janeway (despite objections from Chakotay) seizes the opportunity to trade the nanoprobes for passage through Borg territory. The episode ends with Janeway on a cube, negotiating with the Borg, with an attack by 8472 looming.

Part two: Janeway and Tuvok work with the Borg to develop a weapon based on the Doctor’s nanoprobes. The Borg appoints Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) to be a liaison, and Janeway quickly determines that Seven used to be human and was perhaps the first human assimilated by the Borg. As the work commences, 8472 attacks and the Borg transport Janeway, Tuvok, Seven and a few drones to Voyager before the cube makes a suicide run at an 8472 bioship. Janeway is seriously wounded in the attack, and Chakotay takes over and decides to leave the Borg on a nearby planet after he learns that the Borg started the war by invading 8472’s fluidic space region. Then, Seven forces the ship into 8472’s realm, drawing Voyager into the fight. When Janeway (miraculously) recovers, she and Chakotay clash, and it briefly appears that Janeway has relieved Chakotay of duty. Voyager uses the nanoprobes and fights back 8472 — but then Seven attempts to assimilate the ship. Chakotay, working with Janeway, interfaces with Seven, separating her from the Borg collective. Out of immediate danger, Janeway and Chakotay reconcile and wonder what to do with their newest crew member.

Why it’s important

With the exception of some baddies here and there (the Hirogen, the Krenim) the Borg become Voyager’s main nemesis the rest of the way. Seven’s inclusion on the cast is a huge domino, as well, as her presence becomes key in the Borg interaction (and the direction of the series). It’s also interesting that we learn that Seven was assimilated before Picard and Co. encountered the Borg in “Q Who?” That undoes some of the tension of the TNG/Borg interaction, as the Borg were likely aware of humanity 10 years earlier than was previously known.

What doesn’t hold up

Well, Kim and Janeway both recover FAR too easily, based on the Doctor’s initial comments. In both cases — particularly regarding Janeway — the creators didn’t need to amp up the tension as much as they did.

There are also some weird editing issues. At one point, Kes somehow gets from sickbay to the bridge without any sort of transition, and there’s a scene in engineering in part one in which Chakotay tells Torres and Tuvok to “get the captain,” without that actually happening.

Finally, the notion that the Borg needed to appoint a liaison to work with Janeway and Tuvok is pretty goofy. It was necessary to bring our favorite shapely Borg into the fold, but it was still unlikely. Also, the fact that the Borg essentially have discussions about what they’re going to do instead of reaching automatic consensus among the collective is dumb — although it’s something that Trek started doing with the Borg around this time.

Final thoughts

We’ll get into it more in our next review of “The Gift” later this week, but adding Seven of Nine to the cast was a big change to the Voyager status quo. Otherwise, this is a strong two-parter, which made good use of the bond AND the differing philosophies of Janeway and Chakotay. Kate Mulgrew and Robert Beltran do a nice job in both episodes (though Janeway tearing up in one scene and declaring that she “really is alone” was over the top). The tension between the two characters would go on to be a nice, if inconsistently used, part of the series, as we’ll get into in later reviews.

Coming later this week …

Voyager loses one of its original cast members and aims to bring in anybody who wanted to see a sexy Borg.