In the second episode of the sixth season of Voyager, I DEEPLY LOVE THIS EPISODE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
Trigger Warning: For talk of consent.
THIS IS SO GOOD AND I WISH THERE WAS MORE OF IT. I am continually impressed with how many different ways the writers are able to engage Seven of Nine in these stories. You think it would get old to explore Seven’s humanity BUT WHO AM I KIDDING, OF COURSE IT’S NOT. However, this episode blew me away because it was about using Seven to explore other drones’ humanity. Y’all, THREE NEW DRONES WHO LEFT THE COLLECTIVE. Willingly!!! Honestly, I’d love an episode that explained how they were able to do this without raising suspicion. How do you plot an escape when everyone can hear your thoughts? That’s so intriguing?
But “Survival Instinct” traces a different journey, all due to the fact that somehow, these three drones were linked as a neural triad eight years prior, a fate that was not granted to Seven. How is that possible? What possible benefit would this have for the Collective? Of course, the script for this episode cleverly plays on expectations because I assumed the worst of Lansor, Marika, and P’Chan. Why else would they plot this in secrecy? Why would P’Chan worry about injuring Seven unless there was a high risk that this would indeed happen? Even worse, I recognized that they were the drones in the flashback, so my mind went to one place: they were trying to bring her back to the Collective.
Except that made no sense, and there are so many context clues that foreshadowed what they really wanted. Why would the Borg disguise drones to blend in? They prefer blunt force and violence. There was also that scene in the Mess Hall where P’Chan used a plural, collective pronoun and then corrected himself to the first person. These people wanted individuality, and they were desperate for it! There was no uncertainty here. No, that came from Seven, who was unsure about how to proceed. Initially, she was helpful, and I’m sure her own curiosity played a part in that. Why was she missing such a huge gap in time? However, once she learns the truth – that she panicked as her memories came back to her and injected nanoprobes into all of these people in order to save herself – the guilt settles in. How could she have done something so terrible to people who had escaped from the collective?
There’s a lot at work here that sells this story. First of all, all three of the guest actors in this episode are phenomenal, and you could get a real sense of some sort of chemistry between them. Add Jeri Ryan’s always stellar performance as Seven, and you’ve got one of the most compelling episodes in terms of acting. Seriously, those flashback sequences are electrifying, y’all! The story is just as good, too, because there’s a distinction made between these drones. Not only have the triad’s experiences been different, but their assimilation as adults factored into why they did not panic as their memories flooded back. Seven was assimilated as a child, so the only memories she has of a time before being a Borg were of THE WORST THING EVER.
Mixed in with this are themes of family. Are these ex-drones the closest Seven has to a family? They are all from the same unimatrix, and they shared an experience together that almost brought them close together. Then there’s Naomi and Seven, who have found family in one another, ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE TROPES IN THE WORLD. That’s how Seven first makes the decision to work with the other ex-drones to figure out what their lost memories are. But it’s a double-edged sword; that is also why they felt particularly betrayed by what Seven had done to them. You can see how Seven’s affection for these people also complicates the choice she has to make about granting them their individuality or dooming them to “survive” in the collective.
That, my friends, was my favorite theme of the episode. Survival is inefficient. Who cares if you’re alive if you can’t really live? Seven has struggled for two full seasons to learn the value of living independently, and it’s why she ultimately refuses to make the same mistake she did the first time around, even if that means these people will die in a few weeks’ time. At least that brief experience of freedom is better than a lifetime of subservience.
I LOVED THIS EPISODE A LOT, IN CASE YOU COULDN’T TELL.
The video for “Survival Instinct” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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