Drone

Leonie -- 21 Oct 1998, 8:37 PM

Terry, did you manage to unglue your eyeballs off the TV after the "Nekkid" B'Elanna scene? Are you breathing normally yet!? Have you blown your Rewind button on VCR looking at over and over again? Jus' wondering.

D'Alaire -- 21 Oct 1998, 8:40 PM

(grin) Terry and Mac were all I could think about! (NIM) Guess that vid-pic thingy's gonna come in real handy now, hmm, Terry?

Ooooh, How I wanted to warn you, Mr. Mac and Terry, to take deep breaths.

Well, of COURSE B'Elanna is stunning, as always (and she's very Season Three again--yea!), but they don't usually give you gentlemen of the better taste department (snit, snit) much eye candy as far as our favorite "Human Klingon Hybrid" (eek) is concerned. Rolling over in bed, negligee and undressing for the shower!

Mac and Terry -- cheers!

I just wonder where I can grab some fabric in that color and quality (I already have Kate's pink all sewn up). It was lovely!

Leonie -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:33 PM

You know D'A, I myself am also tempted to write Paramount and ask where they got that color negligée from. I have a dressing gown that would go perfectly with it, but the negligee that I had originally brought to match it, doesn't quite go. But of course it is much shorter than that ;-) I just hope that it's in satin or silk.

I didn't know that you can sew D'A.

I used to once when I had access to a sewing machine. I guess that's a good thing since I am an honorary YAM!!!

D'Alaire -- 21 Oct 1998, 10:00 PM

Deep royal blue in a...faux satin...or maybe I'll splurge and get the real thing. I can make it -- and I will. Yep, I sew, cut patterns, quilt, the whole shebang. I can't tell you how many great ideas I've gotten off of Trek costumes.

I already have Kate's "Eye of the Needle" ensemble, which I simply love.

B'Elanna's shift will require a robe, but next time I'm at the fabric warehouse, it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Hmmm...how many yards at 54", I wonder... : )

Eric -- 21 Oct 1998, 10:26 PM

Not gone just yet! Dressing gown you say???
Tell me MORE!!!

Better yet send me pictures!!!

Eric - as YAM as I wanna be, and then a little more...

Joy -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:25 PM

LOL, Leonie and D'A! I did the same thing. My first thought was "who's going to take up the collection to send the oxygen tanks to Dayton [Terry] and NY [Mr. Mac]?"

It looks like B'Elanna has better taste in nightwear than the rest of the crew!

Leonie -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:39 PM

Oxygen, smoxygen...... Mr. Paris, Cortical Stimulator, Maximum Setting NOW!!!!!

What am I saying!?!,

He'll be on one of the biobeds next to Terry and Mr. Mac.

hmm I wonder if Mrs. Mac...........

Again I say, Where's Chak in his silk boxers and matching dressing gown stripping to get into the shower !?!!!......

Leonie - Who has got to stop these images from forming in her head.

Terry -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:34 PM

I loved Drone or Gentlemen Prefer Nude Klingons as it is known in my household.

Any episode which trashes another shuttle in the teaser, shows B'Elanna in a skimpy nightgown, shows B'Elanna taking her nightgown off, shows B'Elanna in bed in a skimpy nightgown, shows B'Elanna in the shower, shows B'Elanna almost popping out of her skimpy nightgown, and shows B'Elanna taking off her towel must be worshipped and praised.

And oh yeah, there was a minor subplot about a new Borg named One. There were some good things in Drone but some weaknesses as well. My main problem is that I never quite understood who One was and what he was thinking. The plot developed so slowly that I looked at the clock when the Borg finally showed up and was surprised to see only seven minutes left. The ending was way too rushed.

Loved:

B'Elanna in bed in a skimpy nightgown! Hubba, hubba! B'Elanna nude in the sonic shower! Gasp! THUD!

Okay, the blood has rushed back to my head cranium. I was yelling, "Yes!" and "Alright!" I yam very pleased.

Some funny lines especially by the Doctor. Too often the Doc's humor has been slightly off target recently. Not here; he was right on target. "The Borg, party-poopers of the galaxy." There were other good lines by the Doc and others.

Jeri Ryan's acting. An excellent job. I didn't quite buy her as One's mother but that was the problem of the script, not her acting. I liked her scene where she practiced smiling. She was upset that the Doc caught her. And the Doc tweaked her about it later.

Ensign Mulcahy - a redshirt who talks and LIVES!

Hate:

Another indecision by Captain Braindead. It is against Federation policy to avoid temporal contamination. But now they go beyond using the Doc's emitter to letting a Borg be born with 29th tech? Why do the writers keep having Janeway act so stupidly? Especially when everyone else sees the flaws in her decision?

It would be murder but Janeway is playing Russian roulette with the fate of the galaxy. If the Collective assimilated the 29th century tech, they would easily and quickly assimilated all intelligent life in the galaxy. She never should have taken such a chance. To make things worse, she gives One all of their knowledge and technology. Another Trek cliche.

YAATE: The show felt extremely rushed at the end. The drone was so slowly educated that I disliked how fast he had to come to a decision about the Borg Collective. It was done in less then ten minutes and I didn't believe it. Frankly, I never really got a good feeling for One and his act of heroism was not a moving as it might have been. I thought that Hugh was more sympathetic.

Predictable. Once I heard that the Doc's portable emitter has embedded in One's brain, I knew 1) One would die and 2) his body would be recovered. These two facts made much of the plot very predictable.

Pet Peeve:

Did anyone get drive nuts by the moronic Borg dialogue. Listening to Seven's usual drivel is bad enough, but two Borgs talking? "I/You must comply." "X is irrelevant." "Resistance is futile." "Y is irrelevant." "You/I will adapt." "You will be assimilated." "Z is irrelevant." Geez! And I thought the Vori dialogue in Nemesis was annoying.

Now back to business. Got to start my vidcap device. Must -- take -- vidcaps -- of -- B'Elanna!

AC -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:42 PM

Terry, what I want to know is...In all this heart-palpitating visions of our favorite engineer in various stages of undress, was Helmboy around? What was the plot justification for all this, other than showing that RD is back in shape after having her baby (I will *not* be jealous....I will *not* be jealous, and I definitely won't think about how my jeans still don't fit....)?

AC, eagerly awaiting a Voyager tape from her sister.

Jason -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:53 PM

That basically sums up most of what I had to say. I agree with your comments on the main plot. The story moved too slowly and there was no emotional investment in the Drone that made me care one way or another whether he lived or died.

There was also no real explanation as to why he suddenly disliked the Borg. Even despite what Seven and Janeway showed him I"m not certain that it would erase his curiosity of the Collective. I thought that would have been a weakness.

We didn't know who "One" was so he was no more than a redshirt, really. J. Paul Bohmer also failed to get across a sense of the Drone's innocence. What is it with actors who play non-assimilated Borg?

Jeri Ryan was not so great in "Scorpion" and Bohmer underwhelming here.

Only Alice Krige has done it well so far. Maybe they should leave well enough alone.

Terry -- 21 Oct 1998, 11:41 PM

B'Elanna's nude scene was disgustingly gratuitous!

Totally uncalled for! Trek has sunk to new lows! Put some heavy clothes on that gal!

Oh well, as much as it pains me, I guess I might as well post some pics just for the YAMs [and MAMs]

D'Alaire -- 22 Oct 1998, 12:16 AM

Roar, Terry! At least the fanfic canon...has been smooshed once and for all -- no back ridges!

How did I KNOW you'd do this?! Tee hee -- Good! I'll be sending Timmy a couple of these! Make him REALLY miserable! LOLOLOLOLOLOLLLLL!!!!!

Thanks so! (grinning VERY evilly)

Oh, now that I've seen it again...

Yes, that was a very interesting line! "How Starfleet of you!" Hmmmm.

I now know that Kim wasn't promoted--Whew! I knew that couldn't have been!

And yes, some more -- Janeway really was whacked out for a real reason for her decision.

Mrs. Mac -- 22 Oct 1998, 6:06 AM

It's a darn good thing I have a nightgown like that. Now I have to find an edible one just to keep his mind focused. Sheesh. You WOULD post these. :) Hey it turns him on. That's a good thing.

Tracy -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:38 PM

I laughed, I cried ...Well, looks like Voyager is two for two! (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)

Drone was a well, written and well acted episode. And, yep, I'm sure that Mr. Mac and Terry might watch it, oh, a few dozen more times... just the one scene... you know, the one with a topless B'Elanna...

Heh-heh.

One of Seven was a much better Borg than Seven, IMO. Although the twitching bothered me a bit. To tell you the truth he reminded me a lot of Data.

Anyhow, I'm just doing a short review this time.

No real nits this time; if I think of them, I'll just address them as I go.

Points

I liked the contrast of Seven's emotions in the reflection in her mirror, from the smiling practice in the beginning, to the pain racked face in the end of the episode.

Cool costuming for One's Borg getup. I liked the fluidity of the exoskeleton/suit. It looked more advanced than your everyday Borg, not to mention aerodynamic.

Does Roxann Dawson make you sick or what? Ach. If only I could have looked that good less than a year after giving birth. Mac and Terry, I gotta admit it (again), I thought about a huge puddle of drool at your respective feet at the sight of B'Elanna in lingerie; not to the mention the sudden flash floods in Long Island and Ohio, around the same time that she took it off...Bet you envied the Doc...

Okay, ya'll, let's say it again: "Let's not let just anyone access our most sensitive systems just because they say they can do something really cool..." Argh. Much less a Borg! That was a nit, wasn't it?

When One said he was going to defeat the other Borg, I thought, "You Da Man!" Kewl!

Finally, his sacrifice: I know a lot of people will probably say that it was totally un-Borg-like for him to go and destroy a Borg ship, then let himself die to save Voyager, but I disagree. All he did know was Voyager and her crew. He was tempted by the Borg, but his loyalty to Voyager and his "mother" won out. His dying was only logical. It was the only way to ensure that the Borg never obtain his technology. Although, if they really want it, they'd go after the Doc's holoemitter. Even Seven's cry of "You're hurting me" didn't sway his decision. It was too bad he died. I liked him. I'd chuck Harry out the airlock in exchange for One...just kidding.

Oh yeah, a babe moment: Anyone else think Mulcahey was a good looking dude?

D'Alaire -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:47 PM

Drone...few moans. Okay, now that I've cleared up the B'Elanna topic, I can move on...for now. (grin) Oooh, I'm still grinning for Terry and Mac!

Yea on the shuttle scene-- I liked the "Class 2" story. I love little details like that. I loved seeing the four of them working together. I've missed scenes like that.

Other tidbits --
One shuttle down!
Mulcahy -- is he on the list? He might not have gotten killed, but he did simply disappear like a good redshirt should!
Kim was promoted? I was interrupted during that scene.
Now we know how the Delta Flyer comes about.
Nice use of Neelix--it's how I like him best.
Love Kate's hair.
Seven is still reed thin.
TOTAL GAG-o-RAMA on next week's promo! Thhhipt! Cowards!

"You get a Gold Star" -- snort!!!! snark! snark! love it.
"Voyager is my Collective" -- excellent line! Lovely.

But this episode was about Seven, I know, I know. (grin) And I enjoyed it. Chalk another one up to TPTB giving her good stories. (There's a tiny nit in that, even if everyone [yea] got a bit of attention throughout the story, which always pleases me--TPTB must have heard some kinda b*tching for last season's imbalances.)

Kate as grandma, hmm. She seemed awful eager in the beginning, considering the threat of the Collective calling and the Doc's loss of his emitter. That was confusing. And Doc...I dunno, he just doesn't seem as...Doc-ish somehow. He had some good lines, but...mmm, I can't place it.

Seven's adaptation to the role was nice. Her development of [maternal, caregiving] feelings was lovely. Another notch on the growth rung for her, and she handled it well. The regeneration scene, where she "puts One to bed", so to speak, was charming. The final scene in sickbay, after One dies and she wanders around, was wonderful and simple and sad. Very touching, though what's with these fade out endings? Are they going for the artsy thing? I want closure!

I just knew there was a Tuvix thing just waiting to happen as soon as Janeway said he was adapting as part of the crew. One was a dead man as soon as she said it.

Thankfully, we didn't get Tuvix again, though. Too much controversy. Instead, we got a nice scene of trust and giving -- when One and Seven got to the bridge and helped to defend against the Borg. We also got a wonderful act of self-sacrifice on One's part. "You will hurt me"/ "You will adapt" was stunning. (Good twist on the Borg-speak.)

One. In the beginning, and possibly throughout, he reminded me of Lal--even walked a little like her, too. He played the exceptional child/ protégé nicely. At first, I thought he'd really annoy me with his earnestness, but as he "grew", he grew on me (much like Lal had). The child to adult "psychosocial development" was textbook. One to six in 43 minutes.

The effects were great. Borg stuff is always neat to watch, and they pulled out all the tricks. The nebula was lovely even in exploding. TPTB splurged on this one.

Thumbs up from me again despite a few nits. There were some very nice twists and elements that kept my attention wonderfully. I'm just upset my VCR went nutty. I'll have to catch another satellite feed to tape it. I might be bothered more or less when I see it again, but I don't think there'll be nearly as many nits as last week.

ONE MORE WEEK!!! (despite stupid AOTW)...and then I'll be waiting again after that! (rolling eyes...grin)

Eric -- 21 Oct 1998, 10:46 PM

I am Tuvix of Borg! Did anyone else get a Tuvix flashback? I sure did. But first a important announcement :

ROXANN DAWSON HAS A KILLER RACK!!!

Thank you, I had to get that out of my system.

Anyway, there was alot of good in this episode. Jeri Ryan's acting continues to shine, and man she looks great and she is still my favorite (current) Trek babe but she had a run for the money due to :

ROXANN DAWSON'S KILLER RACK!!!!!

In fact I had a hard time keeping up with the story due to:

ROXANN AND HER MAGNIFICENT KLINGON RACK!!!! and the fact that she STRIPPED DOWN AND GOT ALL NEKKID!!!!!!

Stuff that made me drool :

How come nobody told me about RD's AMAZING CHEST????

Stuff I liked :

Foundation Imaging does a great job again! When are these guys going to win a much deserved Emmy?

The joined beginning and ending. I LIKE that. (But there WAS a problem I will get to later).

I liked One. I knew he was toast from the beginning, but I still liked him.

Jeri Ryan performance. Good, good, good!

Roxann getting jiggy wit it!

Stuff that stank :

Janeway makes another brain dead decision with the Borg. I swear her IQ drops when a Transwarp Conduit opens up!

The Borg encounter was WAY to fast!!!! Hey look the Borg!!! Hey look their all dead!!! We're saved!!! We need better endings guys!! You did it with H&F, and B&A you can do it again!

Before I go I would like to state for the record :

ROXANN HAS A KILLER RACK!!

See you guys in a few!!

AC -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:58 AM

Hmmm. Based on Eric's reaction...I'm guessing TPTB figured if one babe pulled in some YAMS, what would two babes do? Good lord, it looks like a YAM-alanch!

I'm glad my favorite character got some, er, screen time, I just hope they do a little more character development along with it. *laugh*

Peter -- 21 Oct 1998, 11:11 PM

My first bunch of thoughts on babyborg. Well.. I liked the episodes.. it was entertaining .. and as long you do not think about it it stays that way ..

it is a nice star trek ep .. a good stand alone ...

I loved Jeri's performance .. the smile tests .. overall, the (herself surprising) emotions ...

some good lines: 'the early bird catches the gaagh' :) 'the crew was very impressed, I heard you made them call you captain Kim' .. (what a loser line for Harry again.)

Our guest Borg was great ... he played the infant entertaining and it felt real .. but he was never the threat that I hoped for .. I always thought that he may have extracted the knowledge about the Borg when he first stuck his tentacles into 7's neck .. and would turn against them in the end .. but .. he was such a good kid (maybe too good to fast ... even came back (though willing to die) just to return the holo emitter)

the Borg in their bowling ball were never any threat .. that was hmm.. too short .. could have been more interesting ...

Neelix was less annoying that he could have been (or I was already dozing off)

chacko.. Paris.. Tuvok.. harry .. hmm .. brief but there ...

la diva klingona ... yeah baby .. schhhwwwwiiinng ! .. that was a little to leeta .. but ok .. why should 7 be the only eyecandy .. we still have B'Elanna and boy is she yummy ! can someone make some stills of that? so that pictureboy has something to play ???

will I ever like Janeway ? is she just too mama ??? every time she speaks about respecting individuality .. I have to think one year back when she denied 7 that right, when 7 wanted to return to the Borg ...

but well .. all in all very entertaining ...

(did anybody else wonder about the use of the videophone ??? why not just the intercom like in the other 400 star trek episodes ???)

Fliteman -- 22 Oct 1998, 1:07 AM

Drone thoughts & pool updates...

I LIKED Drone. Perhaps more than Night. B'Elanna's um... well, I won't be calling her 'crabhead' anymore. The shot of her in bed when the doc woke her up... Wow.

I not only liked Drone, I liked THE Drone, One. I kept waiting for him to suddenly take over the ship like every other AOTW, and was glad to see what happened. I do agree the contact with the Borg vessel (not a cube) was rushed; but I also think it was good to show One's gradual learning & acceptance. They need more of this in general.

Favorite scene: One & Seven walk into Engineering, and Crab.. uh, B'Elanna & Seven clash. Also, I noticed Janeway's hair for the first time... I liked it to.

Okay... Preliminary Pool Findings (PPFs):

One (1) Shuttle Gonzo. Outta here. Not to return. Vamoosed.
One (1) Irrelevant from Seven. (She said the word twice, but only once was it used in the proper form. "Designation is irrelevant."
She also said, "Irrelevant - they will fail." This is open for argument, but I'm not counting it.

47s:

This I have to attribute to my lovely wife: The final scene in Sickbay, where Seven is talking to One on the table, and he won't lower his shields - There are bars of lights on the panel beyond... One section has 7 bars, another has 4. We re-ran the tape to be sure.

And, a possible derived 47.... B'Elanna orders a Diagnostic Alpha 36 on the Doc's holo-emitter... 3 is one less than 4; 6 is one less than 7.

I know... stretching there, but... The all-knowing and honorable G'inny has final say, and I just wanted to be sure to point it out to her.

Did it seem like the writers were going out of their way to AVOID any 47s...?

Ginny -- 22 Oct 1998, 10:11 AM

I missed the bars of light, but I did find these 47's.

47's seen: 0
47's heard: One assimilated 47 billion terraquads of information
47's only I would get:
Harry made 11 (4+7) course changes on his watch
Deck 11 (4+7) was mentioned
One's Borg designation: Unimatrix 325.006 (32=4x8, 56=7x8)

Mrs. Mac -- 22 Oct 1998, 6:51 AM

B'Elanna's wakeup call.

Flite said: I LIKED Drone. Perhaps more than Night. B'Elanna's um... well, I won't be calling her 'crabhead' anymore. The shot of her in bed when the doc woke her up... Wow.
-----------------
LOL! Let me tell you a little story. We have 3 TVs. The one in the den has the tape machine attached and at 9:00 it was set to channel 2 to record "To Have and To Hold."

The second TV is a small portable - kind of a backup.

The third TV is in the bedroom - which is where we watched Voyager last night. Or tried too. I am not very fond of having a television in the bedroom but last night it was okay! After that B'Elanna scene ... well, er ... we missed most of the rest of the episode. I think poor Mac had too much cleavage for one day between this little B'Elanna bed scene and Tracy's picture. We'll try to catch the episode on Sunday - and definitely tape it! :0 Mrs. Mac

Carol -- 22 Oct 1998, 1:08 AM

Forgive me while I Drone on for a moment....but I can't really pinpoint my feelings about this episode. There were things I liked, things I didn't. Maybe more things I didn't than did.

Cheers

Well, the crew interplay seemed rather natural again this week.

I thought the B'Elanna in the shower scene was supposed to be in next weeks episode. The sonic shower wasn't anything really special -- not what I expected anyway. (And if Tom or Chakotay doesn't get a shower scene by the end of this season, I'm gunna protest big time).

Jeri Ryan acted really well this week for the most part. She and her "endowments" didn't annoy me, which is a plus. :-) And the scene when she said that Voyager was her collective and Kate's reaction to it was very nice. Also her contrast of emotions at the beginning and the end was nice too. And she didn't save the world -- uh, I mean day. Again. Thank God. :-)

Janeway turning the tables on Seven and making her teach a drone individuality was good, if ironic. (Janeway regarding the parallel between Seven and One and teching ex-Borg Seven individuality: "....we succeeded." Me: "Well, sort-of." :-)

I know you all caught the set up for the design of the Delta Flyer for next week, right? :-)

Ensign Yellow Shirt talked, got attacked and lived to tell the tale. :-)

On The Edge

I didn't find Janeway's decision regarding One to be smart or dumb quite frankly. She could have just aborted him when he was still a fetus or when he grew up and then we would be having a "Tuvix Part II" discussion right now (And thank God we're not IMO :-D) (I'm not even going to start in on the "Individuality" debate at this late hour that I know is going to start up. Maybe later :-)

However, when I saw him gaining access to engineering system I began to groan, knowing how dumb that decision has been before 9 times out of ten. ("Hey, come on, let him in engineering! Its worked so well for us before!")...but "One" never betrayed the ship or anything as has happened in times past with with everyone else, including Seven. I'm guessing that because he sacrificed himself was made to show that it was good to trust him or whatever. But I really didn't care that it turned out to be good.

Jeers

And I guess that's the main problem was with this episode. That I didn't feel anything for the new drone, or "One" as he decided to be called. When the Borg ship exploded, I didn't care if he had gotten killed or not. My first thought was "Uh oh, the Doc's mobile emitter got destroyed!" Not a good sign. When he finally did died, I didn't feel a thing for him. But Jeri Ryan's acting in the scene was good as I've said before.

And I found a lot of the scenes between "One" and Seven really corny. I mean really corny, to the point I was rolling my eyes through half of the episode. I hate to compare it to TNG's "The Offspring" but that episode made me feel the surrogate child is created/lives a while/dies tragic death theme more than this did.

It was a little slow and a lot of things seem to just be filler. Whomever said Jeri Ryan isn't a good Borg is right on target. That whole "Resistance id Futile," "You Must Comply" stuff between her and One really started to get on my nerves after a while. She's a better Human/Borg than doing that whole Borg thing.

Boy, if Robert Picardo thought that this was the best episode of Voyager they've done, I could name him ten other episode that were way better than this one.

BTW -- the preview for next week couldn't be more misleading if UPN even tried.

Andy -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:12 AM

"We belong....dead." Where did I hear that last? The Bride of Frankenstein? Terminator 2? Ah, hell, I've heard that old cliche so many times and it seemed so obvious a way to end this episode that I didn't think even Voyager's writers would resort to it. Are these guys a bunch of hacks or what? Maybe I've seen too much science fiction in my life but just about everything I saw tonight reminded me of something I'd seen before....from the fetus that looked like the star child from 2001 to the way the director shot the scene of Tuvok and crew marching down the corridor, rifles in hand, to confront the Borg menace. It has all been done before.

I don't know. Maybe I'm in a crabby mood because I don't feel good (thanks for all the nice notes earlier today, guys). After all, this was a Seven episode, and I thought Jeri had some of her best scenes since "The Gift" in it. Like her or not, I think most of you would agree that it is fun to watch Seven grow into her humanity. The show itself, however, appears hopelessly adrift and too many of the characters are just floating along with it. Janeway's handling of the new drone struck me as beyond foolhardy, but I've come to expect the captain to make the worst possible decisions. The doctor's self-absorption was fun for a while but now it is just irritating. Torres complains a lot...which seems to be all she is capable of doing. Other characters might as well have been sleep walking.

Could it be that Trek is just plain running out of steam? What is the episode count now for all four series--it must be over 500. After that many shows, it must be damn near impossible to come up with new ideas. I'd say they have beaten the Borg horse to death after this one.

I'm guessing that a few of the Dawson fans caught the skimpy nightgown/shower scene and got rush from it, but it seemed odd and out of place to me. Why would she be wearing that sort of nightgown? Wouldn't an old t-shirt be more in character? And frankly the shot from behind shower scene was just plain embarrassing--something I might expect on Melrose Place but not on Trek. Given the circumstances of the scene, it wasn't even mildly arousing.

The first two episodes of the year sure haven't reached out and grabbed me. I think the two reasons I'll probably keep watching are, 1). Ryan's presence (of course); and 2). I need to watch the show to continue participating on the board, For my money, the stories I read today about Voyager City were a hell of a lot more entertaining than the "real" stuff. And at least Voyager City has this really neat character named Reverend Windes....

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:51 AM

I agree, Andy. And even more than being unoriginal, the writers tried to copy about three stories into one here. First, the parenting story from the Lal ep. Second, the self-discovery story from the Hugh ep. And finally, another lame Borg battle story from several eps.

The story should have concentrated on Seven as a mother or on One's growth as an individual. It settled mostly on the former but then added an unnecessary confrontation with the Borg ship. And unfortunately, that action required that One's part of the story be more fully developed. Which it was not, IMHO.

Mrs. Mac -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:35 AM

Mr. Crabhead, Andy. Just kidding, Andy. Boy, you ARE crabby! I hope you get better soon!

Crab...er...Andy said:
"I'm guessing that a few of the Dawson fans caught the skimpy nightgown/shower scene and got rush from it, but it seemed odd and out of place to me. Why would she be wearing that sort of nightgown? Wouldn't an old t-shirt be more in character?"

Oh, Andy. I may wear a flannel nightgown to bed in the winter on occasion, but there's still a part of me that says, hey let's be unpractical and wear something sexy and womanly even if it's 10 degrees below. You forget, B'Elanna is probably the only one on Voyager who gets any action and she probably has a lovely assortment of lingerie to make her man and herself feel very nice.

Why you YAM. Lingerie according to Andrew:
crabby = old T-shirt.

Jules: -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:41 PM

I agree, Mrs. Mac. I should think that B'Elanna has a lot more reason to consider the merits of frivolous night wear than she had two years ago.

Also, they don't seem to be keeping quite so strictly to the replicator rations as they were back then. If we assume that the energy situation has abated slightly, as a result of some of their resource-of-the-week searching sessions, then she probably has a few credits to burn. And, unlike her our darling Tom, she's planned ahead far enough not to waste them by throwing them away on a frighteningly lurid Hawaiian shirt...

Leonie -- 22 Oct 1998, 4:07 PM

Hear Hear.......I normally do the shorts and T-shirt to bed routine because I like lots of layers of blankets and flannel will keep me too hot in any season, but once in a while I do get out the negligees and teddies and wear them to bed just because.

And when I am in a relationship, I definitely sleep in good lingerie, whether or not my man is in my bed!!!

Carol -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:41 AM

All that was missing was Also Sprach Zarathustra.

Andy,

I admit, the first thing I thought of when I saw the Borg Baby was the 2001 Star Child. My roommate who doesn't even watch Star Trek commented on it too. :-)

I don't think the episode was horrible or even completely bad. It just wasn't all that good. The core story just didn't hold my interest much. I liked Night much better personally.

Jeri Ryan's acting was one of the only few saving points IMO.

Leonie -- 21 Oct 1998, 9:23 PM

Something is bothering me about this episode and I don't know if I can put my finger on what it is. I'm going to have to think a little about it.

I do have two comments.

There is DEFINITELY a serious shift towards providing the fans with eye candy. Across the board, YAMs, MAMs, YAFs and MAFs.

Gone are B'Elanna's PJs from the Second Season's "prototype". Now we have a Night blue satin short nightgown.

Not only that we get a nude B'Elanna scene. (I believe that the appropriate MAM term is "YEOW"!!!!)

Ensign Mulkaye. And all I could think about is Fr Mulkaye from MASH. (About their obvious differences of course). Now that was good eyecandy.

The only question I have is.....

When do we get to see Tom and Chak taking their sonic showers???? And in my case Chak especially. Keep this up and I'm going to have to revert to my YAF ways and say to my co-worker on Thursday mornings.

"Last night's Voyager had a plot!?!! I must have missed it.

Secondly,

I really liked Seven of Nine in this. The smile in the mirror at first and the sadness at the end(tears)? It really did something for me. I don't believe it, I am beginning to see beyond the spandex.

As I write I think I get an inkling of what bothers me.

The flow is not right. I can't explain it, but it's not right.

I found myself for the first fifty minutes going....."Yuck, this is so phony" and in the last ten minutes going....

"You know, I think I'm going to have to watch this again with the ending in mind. It had substance."

Review Boy (JW) -- 22 Oct 1998, 1:36 AM

Thanks, Leonie!

I actually quite liked "Drone". Not perfect, but surprisingly moving. It reminded me of "offspring" with Data and his daughter, and the episode with Troi and her self-sacrificial insta-son.

Torres showering will, of course, have to be recounted in loving detail for the review, but I'll employ my usual discretion. *chortle* Naturally, if Doc has been in the habit of contacting Torres at moments like that, the Klingon painsticks begin to make sense. :)

Poor Mulcahey (or whatever his name is). We never did hear how he made out. Seemed like a pleasant enough guy. "one"'s parentage is a bit confusing, though--part Seven, part Mulkahey, part 29th-century mobile emitter, with perhaps a bit of Doc's programming thrown in. "I'm my own grampa" by Ray Stevens comes to mind...

But overall it was fun. Gramma Kate finally got her wish--a (relatively) submissive new arrival. Not even Neelix adapted to Voyager this quickly.

Too bad he couldn't stay; a Swiss Army Borg could have come in handy.

The choice of actors was interesting. The guy who played One was the young holographic Nazi in "The Killing Game." He's got a great voice, and I enjoyed his take on the character.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:07 AM

Has anyone figured out why the Borgified emitter didn't just assimilate Mulcahy instead of growing a whole new Borg? There was never a good reason presented. Seven herself said that the Borg didn't do this. New 29th tech shouldn't have resulted in reprogramming. I guess that maybe the probes needed the emitter to fully utilize the 29th century tech.

Still, why not assimilate Mulcahy, too?

O. Bleek -- 22 Oct 1998, 5:21 PM

Terry I got the impression that the emitter/Borg thingie wasn't ready to "assimilate" anything at the point when Mulcahy was nabbed. It wasn't mature enough to have that ability yet.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 5:41 PM

Not mature enough? It built a freaking maturation chamber and incubated an in vitro fetus from Mulcahy's DNA. With full full Borg force fields and all. Sounds like the emitter was doing anything that it wanted.

Besides, assimilation is easy. Inject nanoprobes, count to ten for full assimilation. :)

The explanation that the nodules? were for taking samples instead of injecting nanoprobes doesn't hold water with what we have learned of the Borg in the past. They don't investigate something; they assimilate and absorb its essence and knowledge. I fully expected to find an assimilated Mulcahy who had built the maturation chamber.

Actually, the way that the emitter constructed all that hardware raises many questions. Why bother with humanoid bodies if simple nanoprobes can do even large-scale work?

Cmdr. 8472 -- 22 Oct 1998, 4:49 PM

I think one of the things that was wrong with "Drone" was how it was shown in the previews. Kind of. I mean, basically what I anticipated was "Borg on ship. Borg accident. Crew teach Borg. Borg go berserko. Borg run amok through ship. Crew kill Borg. Any questions?" But that's also a good thing. It shows that the show has not grown too predictable.

Maybe we're just used to the action-packed Voyagers. Fight scenes, battles, etc. This one was different. And it was a Seven episode not dealing with her past or battle scenes or aliens, unless you count "One."

Oh, and what's with Earth: Final Conflict? I missed a lot of eps. Who's this new guy? What's with Da'an and Lili (sp) ? And who's the idiot who gave Zo'or power?

O. Bleek -- 22 Oct 1998, 5:11 PM

I'm fuzzy over Drone too, Leonie. I was entertained by Drone, but the whole time I was shaking my head at the story elements. The acting by Seven and One, the Doc, even Neelix was terrific. Even Chakotay got my thumbs up - at least he
cracked a nice big smile at Harry.

But the story, well, the story.... Sigh. I think the subject was way too derivative - Seven given a "child" to care about and then lose. Seen it - actually seen it done much better. I think such a situation was introduced too early in Seven's development as well.

The advanced Borg drone concept is a good one, but that concept was rather wasted here. Almost cartoonish in execution.

My biggest nit: do the writers hate Janeway? She has totally become the psycho captain from hell. What's next? I simply cannot forgive the writing of Janeway's character. I'm trying just to ignore it so I won't be raving mad.

A rushed storyline. The writers were throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the mixer. Comedy, tragedy, technology, fatalism, humanity, sex, etc. They really bit off more than they could chew IMHO. Very ambitious but too ambitious for these hacks to do justice to.

But again, I think the actors made the episode work on an entertainment level. We love our characters, and the actors carried through with flying colors. They actually raised the level of the script. That's why I think I was satisfied with the episode.

And also because I lowered my expectations of the writing a long time ago. They did manage to get in some excellent lines between the horrid ones. Someone else, I think D'Alaire, mentioned this exchange as being stunning - I was too:

Seven - "You are hurting me!"
One - "You will adapt."

Where's my hankie?

Diane -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:43 AM

WOW, another pretty good episode!
WOW, continuity!
WOW, great Direction!

I am impressed, can you tell?

Just wanted to get in a few quick comments. This new job is really digging into my personal life, like keeping me away from the Neb. I have another business trip and won't return until Wednesday.

Story wasn't original, but then again, what is. I kept thinking of the TNG episode where Data created a daughter, and like that episode, this pulled at the heart-strings. Liked how this story continued the "One" story from last season. This was the perfect add on to that show. I can't believe that Voyager, for two shows now, has continued character themes that were started in last season. Thank you Braga. . I liked how Seven had to reflect, hence the mirror, the self reflection reassured in her words to One.

J. Paul Boehmer, once again, shows us his great acting talents (last year's Nazi). His portrayal reminded me of a combination of Data, CP30, and Data's Daughter (forget her name). It was very effective. Ryan did a good job once again.

Just wanted to comment on Dawson and Phillips. So far this year, these two have outshown everyone else on the show (IMHO). Dawson's playing of B'Elanna is way over the top and invokes feelings in me that want to say, "Hell Girl, [You go, Girl!] what is wrong with you!" Next week's episode should prove very interesting. Phillips portrayal of Neelix is also drawing me in. I really feel for this guy.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:46 AM

One's self-sacrifice was totally meaningless.

The reasoning was that he killed himself so as not to put Voyager at risk from the Borg. But how did killing himself help Voyager?

The Borg Collective want to add new biological and technological distinctiveness to themselves. They don't care about One as an individual, only his tech. The only thing new about One was the 29th century emitter and its tech. That still exists. Besides, the Collective has no way of knowing that he did die.

The Borg Collective will be after Voyager now to get the Doc's emitter. Now they even know a very recent location of the ship as well. The writers were obviously not using their brains here. In Gift, they hurled the ship 10,000 light years to avoid the Borg's pursuit. Now they basically point the ship out to the Collective and give them a good reason to chase them.

Jason -- 22 Oct 1998, 8:06 AM

Drone is what you get when you combine 4 previous episodes together for a "new" plot. But really, it was nothing that we had not already seen before in "I, Borg", "The Offspring", "The Begotten" and "Prototype".

The upside on that mix: it is always a good development story for the character involved in the orphan's evolution. The downside is that we have seen it so many times that "Drone" had nothing new to add. It just followed a tried and true formula and it shows up in the end result.

It's a formula episode... nothing really more than that.

D'Alaire -- 22 Oct 1998, 8:17 AM

I'd wondered along this line, too. I'm starting to think that one reason (plot device) Janeway said, let's keep the baby, and the reason Drone ended as it did, playing chicken, was a way of bringing it back for later episodes. No, I haven't heard anything of the sort, but it's plausible, since TPTB seem unusually attentive to continuity just now.

My biggest question about destroying the Borg Bubble was --If One was so advanced and realized of his potency, why couldn't he have stuck a Hugh-like blurb into the Borg programming? Given the Borg some animus "human" programming?

Vickie T. -- 22 Oct 1998, 10:02 AM

My Split Personality Review of Drone.

On an emotional level, Drone struck a chord with me. It really pulled me in and involved me in the story.

Oh, puh-leeese. A chord? Don't you mean a sour note? The story was totally lacking in originality and my nit list could sink the Titanic!

I like the way they're showing Chakotay actually doing his job, managing the crew. I like the fact that they're finally showing him use that warped sense of humor he is supposed to have. "I hear you make them call you Captain Kim." LOL

Yeah, and speaking of Captain Kim, just what was the deal there? Has Harry been promoted to night shift commander? The man is an ensign, for heaven's sake. Surely they must have a few lieutenants floating around on the night shift? And furthermore, how can the guy possibly be assigned to command the ship on the night shift, then be at his regular station, doing his ensign duties during the regular day shift. Does the guy never sleep? Hmmm. Maybe that could explain his wooden performances. He's really an android!

I loved the scene in B'Elanna's quarters. Don't you know the Doc would be in a complete panic over his mobile emitter? He was probably pacing the sick bay floor for an hour before it got late enough for him to start nagging B'Elanna. And, I'm not a YAM, but B'Elanna is lovely, isn't she?

And just what was the deal with the video communications link? Talk about your major invasion of privacy! I refuse to believe that anybody can just call up and have a direct visual link without you first enabling the link. And a video link in the bathroom?? That Doc could transfer to on his own??? This is not only a major invasion of privacy, it's...it's...icky!!

And so it went, on through the episode. My left brain was saying "Oooo, I love it!" I even cried at the end, sniffle sniffle. My right brain, however, spent the whole hour saying, "Now that's stupid!"

In the final evaluation, however, I have to go with my left brain. I did enjoy the episode. Even though it could have been a lot better!

Joy -- 22 Oct 1998, 1:41 PM

I think I see a pattern emerging. Terry sums up Jason's thoughts. Ginny posts what PegN would have. Vickie T got it for me. I made several futile attempts to do a nutshell review this morning, and finally gave it up as a lost cause.

The very abbreviated version: I liked Drone, in spite of a lot of nits. Final conclusion: Hey, it was a rollicking good hour of entertainment, and I had a fine time. What more can I ask from a television program?

Ginny -- 22 Oct 1998, 10:42 AM

Congratulations! You're the proud parents of a bouncing baby Borg!

Well, obviously I hear the beat of a different drummer. I loved this episode. I thought Jeri Ryan was as good as I've ever seen her. I thought the actor who played One was terrific. I liked him tremendously by the end of the episode and was really moved by his sacrifice. I wasn't sure about the wisdom of Kathryn's decision not to terminate him initially, but I thought it was very consistent with some of her previous decisions.

GRIPES

--More Tom would have been nice. An explanation of why the Borg switched from cubes to spheres would have been edifying. Not quite so many angled breast shots would have been a relief (Tsk, tsk, Les). Other than that, I have very few complaints.

GRATIFYING BITS

--The special effects were terrific. I especially liked the imploding Borg sphere.

--The direction (except for the breast shots) was quite good. I liked the shots from the fetus-eye view. I liked the security squad coming down the corridor like Wyatt Earp and his deputies. I liked how One didn't have any concept of personal space. I liked finding out how the sonic shower works--more or less.

--Jeri Ryan was just wonderful. She never descended into any atypical sentimentality, but her subtle expressions of pride in One and her real grief at his self-sacrifice were appropriate and well-played. Their final exchange was the most moving thing I've seen on Voyager since Kathryn embraced Tuvok in YOH.

--The young man who played One was delightful. His awkward movements reminded me of a toddler who is just learning motor control, and his questions and statements--"Why?", "I want...now."--had a child's unconscious arrogance. I've noticed that other posters had a problem with One. Either they didn't have time to come to care for him, or they couldn't figure out how he could be Borg and think the way he does at the end. I didn't have any problem with either of those things. As Kathryn notes, One is born with no designation, no purpose. He therefore essentially "imprints" on Seven. The values and thought processes he develops mirror her own. She considers Voyager her Collective. She has been willing, in the past, to sacrifice herself (DAY OF HONOR) and others (PREY) for the safety of her new Collective. One obviously picks up on that--and logically so, since the sacrifice of a drone for the good of the Collective represents typical Borg behavior.

That One and Seven also managed to infuse those scenes with something more--mutual regard, or even affection --- made his sacrifice moving, rather than simply pragmatic.

--I loved Kathryn's face when One was introducing himself to her. She had that old uber-mom glow of old--that same delight that she took when Tom or Seven made any behavioral breakthrough. And I thought her decision to spare One was pretty typical behavior. She did the same with Species 8472--despite the danger the creature's presence posed to the crew. In fact, she was willing to sacrifice the whole crew for it on a point of principle. I see the same mind set at work here, plus the added incentive that One might be able, through his more advanced technology, to strengthen their defenses. After all, if the Borg ever assimilate Voyager, they'll get the holo-emitter and all that advanced technology anyway.

PegN -- 22 Oct 1998, 11:05 AM

Good grief, Gin, I don't have to post my thoughts on this episode, you already did right down to more Tom, and the breast shot angles.

I liked the episode, thought Ryan was as good as RDM in displaying emotions with subtle facial expressions and was very moved by her scene at the end with One.

I thought there was going to be more to the sonic shower scene and was relieved that there wasn't. Oh, and B'Elanna must've changed sleepwear since being with Tom. I remember a couple of seasons ago when she got up in the middle of the night with an idea, went to Sickbay, and told the Doc, when he raised his eyebrows at what she was wearing, "What? This is what I sleep in." She was wearing long jammies. Tom the Love God has done wonders for her (except her disposition). Maybe he had been in her quarters for part of the night, eh?

Roxanne -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:12 PM

I thought the same thing about the Borg. I'm getting extremely tired of the same old Borg stories. "You will be assimilated; resistance is futile."

"No, we won't; we will resist."

All that was missing were the "Pow" and Zap and Twang from the old Batman series.

All in All very disappointing.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 6:37 PM

The Borg need to assimilate a good thesaurus. (NIM)

They obviously bypassed Planet Roget.

Jules -- 23 Oct 1998, 2:15 AM

LOL, Terry. Apparently galactic domination has a limiting effect on one's vocabulary, although you'd think that the Borg of all people would be immune to that. Surely they've assimilated whole races of dictionary and thesaurus compilers? In fact, I know they have. They got Arturus's race in the end, didn't they? Hmm... do you suppose that's why they were so persistent? They saw a lack in their knowledge that needed filling, and his race were the ideal providers of it?

But I think they get their dialogue from the same place the Daleks and the Cylons did. They definitely get it from the same place the Cybermen did - they're quoting them word for word most of the time!

Andy -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:32 PM

Don't feel bad, Vickie. Sometimes when I talk about an episode or the show in general, I have a hard time distinguishing between the roles of viewer and critic. More often than not, I aspire to be a wannabee critic, when I might as well just give a reaction from the gut as a simple viewer---which, after all, is what all of us are.

I pretty much slammed this show but the fact is I recorded it, and will probably watch it again. It was, after all, entertaining. My biggest gripe with the Trek franchise is that, at least in my opinion, it is at a very low ebb and I think it could be a lot better. And as I have already stated my opinion that the show may not be around after this season, I'm also looking at each episode thinking, "Will this bring the new viewers Voyager needs right now?"

As a Voyager fan, I suppose "Drone" and "Night" have been all right, but neither has done much to pump up interest in the show. We needed some home runs to start off season five, and neither of these episodes struck me as much more than base hits. Base hits won't be enough.

Jason or Carol probably are better informed on this subject, but I'll bet they will tell you that when TNG was so popular in the early 90's the audience base was much broader than it is for Voyager. We are hard-core Trekkies, and we are going to watch no matter what [as long as Jeri Ryan continues to appear on the show, in my case.] So where I might be tempted to praise "Drone" as a fan, I try to detach myself a bit. "Are either of the first two shows of this season of sufficient quality to bring in better Nielson numbers?" is the question I have been asking myself--and the answer is a resounding "No."

I'm still sick (but at work, none-the-less) so I'm not certain how clear all of this is coming across, but bottom line is I agree with your feelings.

Oh, and thanks for the jokes yesterday. I have a book just full of jokes like the ones you sent, and if I can ever find it I'll shoot some back at you.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 6:51 PM

Spheres are much closer to perfection than cubes, Ginny. But seriously, someone (Seven?) called the spherical Borg ship some fancy name that I can't remember but basically means a deep-space scout ship. In other words, the Collective still uses cubes as their main vehicles and uses these smaller spheres for scouting missions.

In I, Borg, Hugh's crashed ship had a small crew. I wonder if it or the Borg ship in Raven was one of these Borg SpaceBalls Spheres?

Jim C -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:15 PM

Spheres are much closer to perfection than cubes, Ginny. In First Contact one of the cubes launched a sphere that the Enterprise followed back in time. IIRC that was the first time we saw a Borg sphere.

Jim C -- 22 Oct 1998, 2:29 PM

Drone to the chapel and I'm gonna get married.

Well, so far two pretty good episodes. I must admit I liked "Night" better than "Drone."

(Rant warning; rant ahead)

I really dislike the way Voyager PTB are portraying the Borg, both as a species and as "individuals" (I put that in quotations because the original concept was that there was no such thing as an individual in the collective). I never did like Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine from Scorpions I and II because she just showed too much individuality (now that she's Seven the severed Borg, I love her character). I didn't like One as a Borg drone in this one, although I can cut him more slack than Seven of Nine's Borg because of the extenuating circumstances of his "birth." IMO he was a lot more like Data in manner and speech than a Borg. Heck, he even directly quoted Data at one point when he said "...joke, a verbal comment or gesture designed to provoke laughter." Of course Data quoted Webster, but that's beside the point.

IMO the Voyager Borg are a mere shadow of what they started out as in TNG. They (and the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers) were the most psychologically terrifying aliens I can remember. Now they aren't any more threatening than the Founders, or any other species in Trek. They are formidable foes but Voyager really hasn't had a problem keeping them under control, even when Voyager was in their densely populated area of space (yeah, yeah, extenuating circumstances and all that).

When the Borg were first introduced to the federation by Q, the only reason the Enterprise wasn't assimilated was because of Q's intervention. In The Best of Both Worlds, the only reason they were defeated was because they assimilated Picard and gave him knowledge to shut them down. In First Contact they were defeated because they thought they could turn Data and make him the next Locutus. You'd think they'd learn not to assimilate anyone for anything other than drones. The only times they haven't defeated themselves in the face of sure victory have been when our favorite omniscient being acquiesced to Picard's pleas and when they encountered a race that wasn't having any of that assimilation stuff and could back it up.

I found it hard to swallow that one mind, even if it was a 29th century Borg mind, could fight the influence of billions of minds so easily. All One did was transport, link up and take over heavily safeguarded primary functions like navigation and propulsion (recall in TBOBW Data and Picard couldn't get to any of the "important" primary functions because of the safeguards, they had to come in the back door and put the Borg to sleep).

All right, rant over. In spite of all that I did enjoy this episode for the most part.

I really like the way TPTB are paying attention to continuity and foreshadowing this season. Apparently Harry is now the night watch XO. We saw it last week in Night (clarinet scene) and again this week (Captain Kim). They foreshadowed Extreme Risk both last week and this week (the Paris/Torres fight and the shuttle discussion).

I like the fact that Seven has finally overtly accepted Voyager as her family. This was a great episode as far as character development for her, beginning to end. The smiles, the mothering, the admission that she has a new collective, etc.

Okay, I'm going to surprise everyone and say Torres looked HOT (well, except the ridges) in her VK'toria's Secret outfit. My question is: what does she wear for Tom if she wears that in private? Come to think of it, where the heck was Tom? How long have they been together now and they aren't having sleepovers? Maybe she was still sore about the argument in Night... Classic Doc line of the week: "I'm a doctor, not a peeping tom."

I liked the directorial trick of perspective when One was looking out of the maturation chamber. I got a kick out of the fish eye lens and muffled conversation.

I liked the way the Doc tried to reassure One when he realized he was an accident. "A random convergence of technologies," indeed.

I thought they could have played up the parallels between the birth of the proto-nebula and the birth of the super Borg. They both came into existence at approximately the same time and caused the ship some danger. It would have been appropriate if something happened to snuff out the nebula at about the same time One died.

There were a few things I disliked in this episode besides the general handling of the Borg (rant number two coming).

I really didn't like the exchange between Seven and Janeway about aborting One. To me it sounded like just that: a discussion on abortion, without exploration of the moral or emotional implications. Don't get me wrong, abortion is an important issue. The problem is if it's brought up, I think it shouldn't be dealt with so casually. Ideally, I don't want to even hear about it on escapist shows like Voyager. I want to be entertained, mentally stimulated even, but I don't want the writers to throw out some social issue and then gloss over it. It was the same in Revulsion (whether you think that was about rape or false accusations). TPTB dealt with the subject so poorly in that episode we aren't even sure what it was about. It was the same with depression last week. TPTB should try and avoid social issues like those since it's apparent they don't know how.

As other people have said, Janeway made her usual idiotic decisions, but I guess they're in character now and we would actually be surprised if she made one that had some sense in it.

I had a problem at the end when the Borg sphere was tractoring Voyager and everyone on the bridge was looking to One as their savior. IMO that was totally out of character for everyone. I think it would have worked better if they were all doing everything possible to free themselves while One was still struggling with his decision. Once he reached it he then helped without further prompting.

Well, those are my random musings. Not a great episode, but still generally entertaining.

I'm happy we'll see the Malons again next week.

Terry -- 22 Oct 1998, 6:59 PM

I picked up on the abortion issue, Jim. I was very afraid for a moment that the writers were going to create another Retrospect controversy. And very glad when they quickly skipped past the issue.

Unfortunately, if they had had Janeway seriously consider the consequences of letting the Borg fetus be born (as she should have), the abortion issue would have had to been raised.

Jim C -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:35 PM

Too true Terry. Maybe it's not so bad when Janeway doesn't consider consequences after all. I think all the Voyager boards around would have crashed the net because of the resulting debates.

Jim (Doh, you corrected me.:) I sited Revulsion in my critique. I meant Retrospect.)

Mike -- 22 Oct 1998, 7:59 PM

I liked 'Drone', but the Mrs. didn't like the ending. Gee, I've got to start writing these things right after watching the show. When I wait till the next day, I forget most of what I wanted to say. Well, here goes anyway.

I considered this another winner for Voyager, but it was a bittersweet winner. My wife and I were divided on this one, usually we agree. She didn't like it cause One died at the end after they made us like him and made us think he would live. I was expecting him to die so it didn't bother me as much when it happened. To me it was a very noble death that even Worf would approve of.

Likes:

-It was a good Seven episode. I really liked that first scene where she was practicing smiling in the mirror and the last scene where she was also looking in the mirror sadly. Those two scenes framed the episode.

-It was also a good Janeway episode. Kate refused to destroy the developing Borg even after others, including Seven I believe, seemed to think destroying it was an option. She even got One to enhance the shields and phasers. I also liked how she complimented Seven's work with One and seemed proud of her. Her little Borg is growing up quickly :^).

-I know that last week I said there was a definite chemistry between Tom and Seven. This week I saw even better Chemistry between Chakotay and Seven. Come to think of it, the only male lead she doesn't have chemistry with (besides holodoc) is Kim and Kim seems to be the one TPTB have in mind for her (if I'm not mistaken).

-Neat ground work was laid for the arrival of the super shuttle to come. Wasn't it Seven who suggested building a better shuttle and Tom who said that was a good idea? (my memory is failing me).

-I liked seeing Seven take another definite stand against the Borg in defense of Voyager and her "new collective". There's no doubt she can be trusted now, as long as those annoying nanoprobes don't do anything unexpected to undermine her again (like last season).

-Good scenes of B'Elanna getting into the shower. I like seeing other female cast members besides Seven getting a chance to be the femme fatale. I bet Big Mac's eyes popped out when he saw that scene. He's probably wearing out the rewind and play buttons on his VCR right now ;^). She looked good, Mac.

Dislikes:

-the episode was REALLY far-fetched, but I let it ride cause it was exciting and emotionally touching.

-I know some of you do like it, but I don't like when Torres acts bitchy to the wrong people. She starting to turn back into the Old Torres I wasn't too fond of. Don't worry, Macs, I haven't written her off again *yet*.

-the Borg are being used too much on Voyager. When they show up now it's just a joke hearing "resistance is futile", yeah right, resistance is so futile that Kate kicks their butts regularly and even misses the Borg when she's bored (like she mentioned last week). The Borg have become toothless tigers now, their roar is all they have these days. One way or another they get defeated. Pretty soon they'll have to change their greeting to "We are the Borg, resistance is ....OH HECK! it's Janeway again, let's get the hell out of here".

PegN -- 23 Oct 1998, 10:01 AM

Michael, Michael, Michael.(and everybody else)..... Yes! I think Seven and Chakotay have chemistry too! I've said it before, when Seven talks to Chuck, she gets in his personal space just like Kate does whether she's comfortable with that or she unconsciously imitates Katie.

Tuvok may be her mentor but she approaches him when she has a protocol question or needs input on human behavior as he observes it. Katie, of course, is her mother figure, so she does have child/mother type questions and conversations with her.

But now, Chuck........when she's trying to articulate a feeling or emotion (The Omega Directive, for example though there has been another time), she goes to him because she knows he'll understand what she's trying to express.

I could see Seven, developing a crush (It's just...a little crush) on Chuck. Emotionally, she's maybe a young teen and Chuck is attractive, mature ('cause face it, Harry, around her, is a doofus) and can be very warm and gentle. Plus, it would be interesting because Chuck initially was very wary of her and to see him reluctantly become attracted to her would be very cool.

So what if he's a bit older. Beltran is what, late 30's? [try middle 40s, PegN] Ryan is (oh, Andy would know this) early 30s? Oh yeah! Definite chemistry.

Mike -- 23 Oct 1998, 10:07 AM

Terry, I have to strongly disagree...

Terry said:
"Another indecision by Captain Braindead. It is against Federation policy to avoid temporal contamination. But now they go beyond using the Doc's emitter to letting a Borg be born with 29th tech? Why do the writers keep having Janeway act so stupidly? Especially when everyone else sees the flaws in her decision?"

Come on, Terry. I don't think you're being fair here. Kate did make a decision and she made the right one. Do you really believe it would be proper for a star ship captain to destroy a new life form without even finding out for sure if it was dangerous? A new life deserves a fair chance? If Kate had killed it out of assumption and fear, I would have been totally disgusted with her. The fact that it was an advanced Borg doesn't mean it deserved to die. For all we know a future Borg may have developed beyond the need to assimilate and destroy. It didn't assimilate what's-his-name, the guy it took some DNA from. Janeway gave Seven a chance, didn't One deserve the same? We've already seen (on TNG and Voy) that when a single Borg is separated from the collective, it's not necessarily a threat to the galaxy. And as far as blaming Kate for temporal contamination, I don't think murdering an infant life form would be considered an option before the facts are even fully known.

No, my friend, I strongly disagree with you here. Janeway should not have murdered the infant Borg. She had successfully dealt with the Borg collective in the past, so there was no reason for her to think she couldn't deal with just one lone Borg (future Borg or not). If One had not died at the end he may have been their ticket home. He already gave them improved phasers and shields(if my memory serves me). He may have had the knowledge to convert Voyager to transwarp capability. The fact that One did turn out OK showed Janeway was right. It may not have been Ones fault the homing device was triggered, he may have had no control over it.

When Kate is wrong, I'll admit it. Kate wasn't wrong in 'Drone'.

Ginny -- 23 Oct 1998, 10:25 AM

Lay on, MikeDuff. I didn't find anything objectionable or even surprising about Kathryn's decision here. It was very consistent with her dealings with Species 8472 in PREY and equally consistent with past ST episodes dealing with either new lifeforms or individual Borg. Otherwise, Kirk would have zapped the Horta, and Picard and company would have wasted Hugh.

As I said in my review, the technology that created One was always there in the form of the portable holo-emitter. If the Borg ever assimilated Voyager, 29th century technology would have been made available to them, anyway. So Kathryn's decision to allow One to live, which resulted in Voyager getting the benefit of the technological improvements to it's shields and phasers turned out to be the right one.

And isn't this always the way it worked out for Kirk? No matter how risky or ill-advised or PD-adverse his decision might initially seem, the TOS writers inevitably resolved it for the greater good and glory.

Roxanne -- 23 Oct 1998, 11:10 AM

Thank you, Mike. I agree with you 100%. Without knowing what it would do, killing it would have been immoral.

Terry -- 23 Oct 1998, 9:56 PM

Mike, Janeway's actions were once again irresponsible AND immoral. I wasn't going to respond to your and Ginny's posts since it is an old argument. But I was watching two films on TV, Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove. And I was reminded of your comment that Janeway's decision turned out to be right. Were Kennedy and Kruschov right to bring the world to the brink of destruction just because war was barely avoided?

Ginny's comment about Janeway acting like Kirk was, of course, perfectly correct. No matter what foolish risk is taken by a Trek captain, we know that the writer will make it work out. But that is a foolish excuse for stating that the decisions are correct. Good fiction still must be believable and conform to its own established rules and make sense. Otherwise, the captain can make any damn fool decision and have it work perfectly.

I feel that TPTB have so conditioned the viewers to ridiculous situations that we accept them almost without notice. I pointed out that One's self-sacrifice was useless as it would not serve to protect Voyager from the Borg one bit. But no one here bothered to even discuss this point or even cared. The plot makes no sense; who cares? "I loved seeing Seven smile and the cool special effects."

I even sloughed off the decision at the time as another of those "Janeway makes the decision which will drive the desired plot turn." The writers didn't care about whether the decision made sense as long as it created the situation that they wanted.

A major area of the writers' sloppiness is the Doc's portable emitter itself. It has been stated again and again that no one should use future technology in the present for fear of disrupting the natural course of history. The Temporal Prime Directive has even been mentioned.

But why then do the writers use the emitter? By all rights, it should be destroyed. Of course, it is just created to allow the Doc freedom to move about. This is not too serious a breach since it appears that Voyager only uses the emitter and has not analyzed its technology and used it to improve Voyager. Still, it is a major threat to the safety of the galaxy.

If the Borg ever assimilate Voyager, they would gain technology 500 hundred years in advance of anything now in existence. The major priority in dealing with the Borg should be to avoid the emitter's capture.

And I should point out that you are making the same errors as others in declaring One a 29th century Borg. He is NOT. He is a 24th century Borg with 24th century Borg programming augmented with 29th century Federation technology. We CANNOT assume that One would be in any way similar to what drones of the real 29th century will be like. Certainly not in terms of drone programming. (In fact, I always assumed that the Borg will be extinct or non-aggressive by the 29th century.)

About Janeway's decision. Let's forego an abortion debate. Let's stipulate that One is an intelligent lifeform with a right to live his own life. And that he is innocent of any crimes.

The situation is similar to an stranger finding the emitter and taking it back home near the Borg Collective. If the Borg get their hands on the device, their tech will be so advanced that they can easily assimilate the entire galaxy. Should this single innocent stranger be killed to guarantee the safety the rest of the galaxy? I say yes.

The problem with Janeway's decision is not that it will likely fail. I will grant you that it had a high degree of success. But the risk/award ratio is too high. She is gambling the fate of all intelligent life in the galaxy for the sake on one person.

And who gave her the right to make this decision. Oh right, no time for a poll. Her actions in Scorpion caused the deaths and assimilation of millions of innocent lives. Yet there, she was justified by the fact that 8472 threatened the galaxy. She will sacrifice millions but not one person?

Vickie T. -- 24 Oct 1998, 11:54 AM

Terry, your comments have merit...however, (oh, you knew that was coming, didn't you?) I simply refuse to allow myself to think that deeply about the episodes because it just makes me mad. Once I get started on that train of thought, I end up spiraling downward until I start to sound just like Andy :-) predicting the death of Trek, cursing TPTB and asking myself why I bother tuning in every Wednesday.

Oh, wait, I know why I tune in every Wednesday - it's so I can ogle Chakotay! :-)

So, it's not that I don't, on some level, agree with you. It's just that I often find it too depressing to contemplate all the ridiculous plot devices and sloppy writing we see on Voyager.

BTW, am I the only person who is really crept out by thinking about what the Doc is going to have to do to get his holoemitter back? I mean he's going to have to dissect it out of One's skull! Yech!

Mike -- 24 Oct 1998, 9:19 PM

That may be YOUR opinion, Terry, but I disagree...and I stand behind my other post to you. I responded to each of your comments, Terry. But the post was too long to put here and I didn't feel like breaking it up into a lot of smaller posts. My response to you is here:

I was just going to say that I still disagree and leave it at that, but since you took the time to write so much I thought the least I could do was respond to each of your comments in turn. Your comments are in blue italics.

"I wasn't going to respond to your and Ginny's posts since it is an old argument. But I was watching two films on TV, Failsafe and Dr. Strangelove. And I was reminded of your comment that Janeway's decision turned out to be right. Were Kennedy and Kruschov right to bring the world to the brink of destruction just because war was barely avoided?"

What does that have to do with Kate's decision not to destroy an infant life form they knew nothing about? In fact what does your comment about Kennedy and Kruschov have to do with anything I said? Frankly, I don't understand where you're coming from here, Terry.

"Ginny's comment about Janeway acting like Kirk was, of course, perfectly correct. No matter what foolish risk is taken by a Trek captain, we know that the writer will make it work out. But that is a foolish excuse for stating that the decisions are correct. Good fiction still must be believable and conform to its own established rules and make sense. Otherwise, the captain can make any damn fool decision and have it work perfectly."

I believe that Ginny made a good point about what was considered proper actions for a starship captain to take, not "foolish" as you put it. Let me get this straight, Terry, you believe that since the embryo was Borg and a new type of Borg "might" have the potential to become dangerous it should die without question, any other decision to you is foolish. Don't give One a chance to live and find out if he is dangerous or not, just kill him to stay on the safe side. And you believe this IS the proper and "intelligent" action for a Federation starship captain to take? I don't think so, Terry, in fact the Federation doesn't even have an execution penalty for crimes (except for General Order 7 mentioned in TOS, for visiting Talos IV in "The Menagerie"), yet you believe it's proper for a Federation captain to sentence a life-form that has not even committed a crime to death.

" I feel that TPTB have so conditioned the viewers to ridiculous situations that we accept them almost without notice. I pointed out that One's self-sacrifice was useless as it would not serve to protect Voyager from the Borg one bit. But no one here bothered to even discuss this point or even cared. The plot makes no sense; who cares? "I loved seeing Seven smile and the cool special effects."

You're getting a little over-defensive and sensitive here, Terry. Did it occur to you that maybe we didn't "bother" to discuss it because we agreed with you? I also think One's death was needless and accomplished nothing. In my post, I was pointing out to you what I disagreed with in what you said about Janeway's decision being stupid. I didn't realize I was obligated to comment on everything you stated, including what I agreed with.

"I even sloughed off the decision at the time as another of those "Janeway makes the decision which will drive the desired plot turn." The writers didn't care about whether the decision made sense as long as it created the situation that they wanted."

Since I believe the decision did make sense, there's nothing else for me to say about this statement you made.

"A major area of the writers' sloppiness is the Doc's portable emitter itself. It has been stated again and again that no one should use future technology in the present for fear of disrupting the natural course of history. The Temporal Prime Directive has even been mentioned."

Okay, I'll go along with that. For the sake of the purists, they should have found some other excuse for the Doc to be able to travel around.

" But why then do the writers use the emitter? By all rights, it should be destroyed. Of course, it is just created to allow the Doc freedom to move about. This is not too serious a breach since it appears that Voyager only uses the emitter and has not analyzed its technology and used it to improve Voyager. Still, it is a major threat to the safety of the galaxy."

It seems that Voyager must have analyzed the technology of the emitter since Torres seems to know how to repair it even when it's damaged as much as it appeared to be at the beginning of 'Drone'. She has also fixed it in other episodes.

" If the Borg ever assimilate Voyager, they would gain technology 500 hundred years in advance of anything now in existence. The major priority in dealing with the Borg should be to avoid the emitter's capture."

If it was just the emitter in question, I would say, yes, destroy it if the Borg were about to take over the ship, BUT, in the case of destroying a life-form or sentient being because it "might" grow up to be a danger, I say no way.

"And I should point out that you are making the same errors as others in declaring One a 29th century Borg. He is NOT. He is a 24th century Borg with 24th century Borg programming augmented with 29th century Federation technology. We CANNOT assume that One would be in any way similar to what drones of the real 29th century will be like. Certainly not in terms of drone programming. (In fact, I always assumed that the Borg will be extinct or non-aggressive by the 29th century.)"

We were never really sure what One was, and I never referred to One in my post as a 29th century Borg. I referred to him as a "future" Borg and an "advanced" Borg. Since he contained 29th century technology he could be described this way. I might also point out that you are supporting my argument when you said "We CANNOT assume that One would be in any way similar to what drones of the real 29th century will be like. Certainly not in terms of drone programming". If you're correct, Terry, then Janeway shouldn't have destroyed him since she also shouldn't have assumed he would be in any way similar to a 24th or 29th century Borg.

"About Janeway's decision. Let's forego an abortion debate. Let's stipulate that One is an intelligent life-form with a right to live his own life. And that he is innocent of any crimes."

Okay, and just for the record, I never did bring up the abortion debate in my disagreement of your assessment of Janeway's decision.

"The situation is similar to an stranger finding the emitter and taking it back home near the Borg Collective. If the Borg get their hands on the device, their tech will be so advanced that they can easily assimilate the entire galaxy. Should this single innocent stranger be killed to guarantee the safety the rest of the galaxy? I say yes."

Your hypothetical situation is not similar to the decision Janeway made, so your comparison is not valid. For one thing, at the time Janeway made the decision to allow One to live, they were not near the Borg Collective. Your situation might better be applied to Seven being destroyed when she was left behind in Scorpion because there was a chance she would obtain the emitter's technology and give it to the collective. Remember Seven did try to get back to the collective a few times. I don't think anyone would have wanted Janeway to destroy Seven, I know I didn't.

" The problem with Janeway's decision is not that it will likely fail. I will grant you that it had a high degree of success. But the risk/award ratio is too high. She is gambling the fate of all intelligent life in the galaxy for the sake on one person."

Again, at the time Janeway's decision was made there was no reason to believe that the new life-form would definitely become a danger. As it turned out he probably would have been a valuable member of the crew. Frankly, killing an innocent and unknown life because of what *might* happen, is a poor excuse for murder. You're making too broad an assumption, for all we know the knowledge gained by One's survival might have meant a new way to stop the Borg from taking over the galaxy.

" And who gave her the right to make this decision. Oh right, no time for a poll. Her actions in Scorpion caused the deaths and assimilation of millions of innocent lives. Yet there, she was justified by the fact that 8472 threatened the galaxy. She will sacrifice millions but not one person?"

This is a whole other can of worms (or should I say "scorpions") that I don't care to open again. I'll just say in response "what would give her the right to kill an unknown life form because of what might happen if she doesn't kill it"?.

There's no doubt about it, Kate is sometimes damned no matter what action she takes. If she had killed the baby One, viewers would say she was a cold hearted coward who killed an innocent life, if she chooses to let One live she's called "braindead" and "foolish" for what *might* happen because she didn't kill. Let me point out again, so there is no mistake. I know that Janeway has made some really stupid decisions in the past and I know the writers too often make her look foolish, but her decision in 'Drone' was a good one.

Carol -- 25 Oct 1998, 4:56 AM

Very good post Mike. I agree. What particularly stuck me was your comparison regarding the decision as it related to Seven. She was more of a threat after Scorpion than One was here in Drone, yet no one called for her "execution." Seven was a active drone when her link was severed, where's One was not -- Kate even found out that drones out of maturation chambers don't have any instructions yet, unlike Seven did.

And I've always thought that Kate -- nine times out of ten -- is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. If she *had* killed One I think some of the same people who thought her decision not to kill him was stupid would be calling her a cold blooded murderer right now if she had (See Tuvix, thought granted that situation was slightly different).

I didn't particularly care for the episode, but I don't think Janeway's decision was stupid at all. Risky maybe, but not stupid. One doesn't get ahead by playing it safe all the time however. And as you-know-who once said "Risk is part of the game if you want to sit in the big chair." :-)

Jules -- 25 Oct 1998, 6:05 AM

Janeway's decision making. It's difficult for me to truly evaluate Janeway's decision here, because I haven't seen the episode yet. But judging purely on the facts as I understand them - that she had the opportunity to terminate the new Borg in its embryonic form, and chose not to - then I'd have to say that she was right to go with that. Starfleet is still about exploring strange new worlds and investigating new lifeforms, even if this particular crew is [a] not entirely Starfleet and [b] a little distracted from the ideals of the organization they serve by the fact that they'd like to get home and see a few familiar worlds and lifeforms some day.

It sounds very much one of those "damned if she does, and d@mned if she doesn't" scenarios. But it shouldn't be. Certainly it sounds a less risky choice than Picard allowing Hugh to live (even if he did ultimately use him as a weapon), or Janeway keeping Seven as part of the crew, rather than just pouring her into a shuttle and pointing her back in the direction of the nearest Borg cube on the assumption that they'd be able to repair her severed link to the Collective - which isn't much of a stretch, since they created it in the first place.

And swatting the unknown - with the acknowledged exception of The Omega Directive - just because it is unknown is not really standard Starfleet behavior. Or even standard Janeway behavior, because there is no denying that she's modified her approach to and application of the rules as a result of being stranded so far from home. For instance, I can entirely see why she might sometimes play fast and loose with the Prime Directive, and I don't have a problem with it. I just wish they'd give her a really good speech one day, acknowledging that she's having to do it, and revealing her innermost feelings about that. Is it a relief not to have to be hidebound by a blanket rule that isn't always appropriate? Or does she spend sleepless nights reliving those occasions and agonizing over whether she could have done things differently and avoided the necessity to break the rules?

I only hope for that speech though, I don't expect it. Most of the more distressing Janeway behaviour of season four, which saddened those of us who list her as a favourite character, and gave plenty of ammunition to those who don't, wasn't really as a result of the decisions she made. No, every Starfleet captain we've seen has made boneheaded or risky decisions. Janeway's real problem in season four was that because it was so action oriented and there was so little emphasis on personal development for any character other than Seven, we lost all the little scenes that we'd have got in the earlier seasons, where she agonized over the decision - either in private or to Tuvok or Chakotay - and the justification speeches were pretty poor too.

Take Random Thoughts as a case in point. The justification speech she gives to Seven there, for the Voyager crew interacting with other species at all, is just downright silly and entirely the wrong speech to give to an ex-Borg, who wants relevant facts and not a sense of wonder at the universe. You might have given that speech to someone with a spiritual bent, but if you're pitching it to your audience, Seven needed a word for word repeat of the speech given at the end of Caretaker, where Janeway states the case for exploration and interaction quite nicely in terms of acquiring resources and gaining knowledge that might point to a quicker way home.

And that scene where Chakotay invites the distraught Tom to sit in the Big Chair and have a little chat about B'Elanna's likely fate is entirely inappropriate, unless it was setting up a plot thread to engineer a break out, even an abortive one. The right person for Tom to have been speaking to at that point in time was Janeway. It would have given her the opportunity to show her own dilemma at being caught between a rock and a hard place, and state the case for the "wait and see" approach. It could have been used to resolve Tom's own feelings - with the Chakotay scene we're left hanging, since we effectively don't see Tom again in the episode, and it doesn't either reconcile him to the situation or take a hard line approach in forbidding him to take independent action. And, it would have been a way of letting us see that Janeway hasn't entirely dropped her first reclamation project, even if she's now found somebody new to mould. Roxann Dawson said, in an interview that I read yesterday, that she didn't remember having any one on one scenes with Janeway in season four. I'd say that Paris is equally in need of a few character development scenes with the Captain. About the only time she took any notice of him last year was when she bawled the two of them out for "inappropriate conduct" in Scientific Method...

As for the "29th century Borg" business... well, the people who are calling it that are TPTB. Joe Menosky referred to him as such in an article in the current Star Trek Monthly that I read only yesterday. Sure, for them it's a convenient shorthand. It's a snappy one-liner that sort of sums things up, albeit somewhat imprecisely. And I don't see anything wrong with borrowing that shorthand, even if the truth is actually that he's a 24th century Borg, who is also an evolutionary step because of the advanced 29th century technology that's part of his hardware. He couldn't be a 29th century Borg without having been born there and traveled back in time!

Leonie -- 25 Oct 1998, 9:33 AM

I think that it wasn't one decision that Janeway made that I disagree with. I look at her actions in one as several decisions that were made, some that I agree with and some that I disagree with.

I think that the decision that we are talking about here, is her letting the drone mature. I agree completely with that decision. To kill him just because he posed a potential threat to the galaxy in one person's view is wrong and I believe that it is one person's view and it is a narrow one.

I believe that it is a narrow one because it is based on a lot of assumptions. One had no input when he was first activated. He didn't know of the Collective. Granted, Janeway had no way of knowing that when he was maturing, but even so, I believe that it would have been more prudent to let One mature and then when he proved to be a threat to the whole galaxy, then killing him if necessary and I still hesitate to say that.

Janeway and Seven had no way of knowing that the locator signal was going to be activated. I thought that it was just an automatic response in Borg implants that triggered the Borg to know that he was on board Voyager. In fact I think that it was mentioned that they had severed the link to the collective in order to prevent contact. So Janeway had taken every precaution to make sure that the Borg would not know about one and her ship (and the galaxy) would be kept safe.

I have problems with the precautions that she took. Some I thought were effective (the neural link) and others I thought were just bone headed.

Given the nature of the Borg, I really thought that the maturation chamber should have been moved to the Cargo Bay. Maybe it may not have worked, but it should have been attempted. That way if something had occurred, he could have been jettisoned from the ship

That goes ditto for allowing One to walk around the ship and learn that much about it.

In that way I felt that Kate made some of the wrong decisions and compare d to letting One live they were minor ones.

I definitely agreed with letting him go to the Sphere. They would have been assimilated anyway. Once the sphere had arrived they would have either been assimilated or destroyed.

So over all I did think that Janeway did make the right decisions involving One.

With the Holodoc's emitter. What I really find interesting is that while you're going on about the time line, it has already been contaminated by Starling. He used the emitter in 20th earth. And doesn't the temporal time directive have to do with moving people between time and place.

Well my two cents for what it's worth.

And to tell the truth, I didn't like the episode much. But IMHO, Janeway's decisions were not as questionable here as they have been.

Shawnster -- 22 Oct 1998, 11:56 PM

Droning on. Well, I seem to be in the minority (or is that a majority? I couldn't tell) that tended to DISLIKE drone.

I'm sorry, but the story didn't move me. I know, I was supposed to watch Seven become a mommy only to lose her baby at the end. Sorry, I didn't feel the emotional tugs.

Not to be a complete sourpuss. I did like the Seven scenes at the beginning, her practicing smiling. I thought the sad face at the end was a nice completion, I just didn't feel as sad. Definitely not as sad as I felt after "Real Life."

The B'Elanna scenes, while I said 'yum,' I don't think the shower scene lived up to it's billing. Sorry guys.

I like Janeway's new look. Someone mentioned last week that she's gained weight. My first thoughts on seeing her in 'Night' were, wow, she's gotten more attractive.

I knew I would be disappointed with the tech gimmick used. Seven's nanoprobes merged with the Doc's 29th century emitter and was able to create a 29th century Borg. Puh-leeze! Does that mean if Seven's nanoprobes merged with a 20th century movie projector, the result would be a 20th century Borg?

Come on. I mean, really. I can understand Seven's nanoprobes holding all the information necessary to create a Borg. I can stretch my suspension of disbelief that far. Now, where did these 24th century nanoprobes get information on 29th century Borg? I don't believe this 29th century holoemitter contained the design specs for a 29th century Borg.

But no, these nanites (nanoprobes, whatever) are so smart that they encountered a speck of dust from the 29th century and were able to come up with a 29th century Borg.

I agree with (Jim?), the episode seemed slow to develop. Likewise, I was suprised to see the Borg ship show up with under 15 minutes to go. Then they quickly wraped it up.

And next week, the Delta Flyer. Here we are, lost in the Delta Quadrant, far away from any Starbase or manufacuturing plants and we're able to CREATE, BUILD a futuristic shuttle. We're Voyager, we can pull anything out of our bu, uh, hat.

I would much rather seen them spend two weeks docked at some alien base and have a nice episode arc while the back story dealt with Seven and Tom help design and build the shuttle.

Tracy -- 23 Oct 1998, 8:42 AM

It was all in the assimilation, Shawnster.

You wrote:

"Now, where did these 24th century nanoprobes get information on 29th century Borg? I don't believe this 29th century holoemitter contained the design specs for a 29th century Borg.

I don't think the holoemitter did either, but it was the pure technology from the holoemitter that the, nanoprobes assimilated. And since that technology was far more advanced than the ol' 24th Century tech, then "One" was far more advanced than your average Borg. (hence being called a 29th Century Borg.)

And who knows what dust might contain, anyhow? New elements; miniature, yet superior beings; DNA from the flaked skin of a genius?

Yech. I can't believe I came up with that one.

Andy -- 23 Oct 1998, 7:22 PM

Ryan is 30. Born 2/22/68 in Munich, Germany.
Anything else you want to know?

I disagree about Chuck and Seven. I can semi-understand the Paris infatuation some of you ladies have, but I've never had the slightest clue of why anyone would find Beltran attractive. He is not, as near as far as I can tell, very good looking. And the only thing notable about his personality so far as I can tell is that he has none. I think he died a few seasons ago but noone has noticed yet...

Again, I get back to my arguement that Paris/Seven have the best chemistry among anyone on the ship. They both look good and his emotionalism plays well against her cold nature.

It would probably play well, but you would alienate so many P/Ter's that I doubt it will ever happen. Too bad, because P/T just doesn't play very well.

Annie -- 25 Oct 1998, 6:48 PM

I liked this episode much better than Night. There were a few oddities in the episode, but for the most part, I enjoyed it. I also like the way TPTB are setting up future episodes (continuity, I love it). There's not a whole lot I can say now, most of you have seen the episode, and given great reviews, so I'll touch on just a few of my thoughts (maybe).

Some of the items you all find regarding the POLL amaze me. I think it would take me hours to find what you guys do. I must not be as creative minded.

My Review?

My biggest complaint was that the show was rushed. I can see this one as deserving to be a two parter. Janeway was made to give One way too much access to Voyager and her crew in such a short amount of time. As horrifying, and fear inspiring as the Borg are, she didn't seem worried at all about a "29th century" Borg to have free reign of Voyager, gathering all the data he wanted on the ship and her crew. How would she know whether or not One would or wouldn't take all his assimilated information to the Borg. I agree that he needed to assimilate knowledge, but they could have been a little more selective about the information he was privy to. I also think I would like to have seen the episode later in the season. Thank goodness the actors were capable enough to pull the whole thing off.

I think Jeri Ryan was excellent in the episode. I really liked seeing her trying to get in touch with human emotions. The contrast of the practiced smile in the mirror at the opening of the show, and the genuine sad expression at the end was wonderful. Her reluctant "but real" attachment to One was touching. I loved the part where she instructed him to go to sickbay with Neelix, and his reluctance to go without her. Then her, realizing why he was reluctant, reassuring him that she would be along as soon as she could. That was definitely character building on Seven's behalf.

In reading some of the other responses to the episode, I wasn't disappointed to discover that some of those B'Elanna curmudgeons, are viewing the "crabhead" in a different light. She is lovely, isn't she. It is good to see her back to her old self, but I hope they don't over do it. I would hate to see her lose her vulnerability, and become a total "crabhead". I tell you people, she and Tom have NOT done "IT" yet! If they had "done IT", he would have been in that bed with her, and the Doc would have interrupted more than B'Elanna sleeping peacefully by herself. I know Tom isn't any different than you MAM's or YAM's, and you wouldn't let such a beauty sleep all alone if she was yours. Would you?

You know, I have always liked Janeway, but so far, with the two episodes we have seen, I don't much care for her. What are they doing with her! First, she's depressed and isolating herself from everyone, then she is giving a "future" Borg free reign on Voyager. I realize they allowed her to show a few moments of trepidation toward the Borg (and Seven), but it still didn't make much sense to me. She seems to be making really stupid decisions (which I agree with from what I have read from some of you). I have a feeling they are going to get to the Alpha Quadrant this year. I don't want them to quite yet darn it! I would like to see them get back home in the last season. Oh well, that's a whole other rant. I want Janeway back!

As far as the Doctor goes, with the monitor in B'Elanna's quarters, I would assume that only senior staff would have access like that (and only in extreme circumstances). Not that it's okay. I think it was a little far fetched myself. It was a total invasion of privacy. Look at the past. No one has ever invaded a crew members quarters like that. They have knocked on doors, asked the computer the status of the individual, but never has anyone ever invaded a persons privacy like the Doc did. Even though the scene was enjoyable for the male audience, they could have at least have had the Doc's voice come over the comm link instead of the video link, and had B'Elanna doing just the same things she was doing.

Why did Mulcahey (sp) not call Security as soon as he walked in the door? He was cute wasn't he? I don't think I have seen him before. Am I wrong? Why was the door to the Science Lab ajar when Tuvok and Seven got there with the security team? It's a mystery I think, because it closed behind Mulcahey.

Well, all in all I still liked the episode. I still think it should have been done in two parts, and later in the season. I think now, the Borg will be looking for Voyager even though One is dead. Can you imagine them forgetting One? I can't. I think the Borg will seek out and assimilate. By the way I loved the sphere instead of the cube. Where did the sphere come from? The future? The now?

Annie