In the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of Voyager, THIS EPISODE WAS MADE FOR ME. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Trigger Warning: For consent
HEISTS. FLASHBACKS. HEARTBREAK. HOW LONG HAVE Y’ALL BEEN WAITING FOR ME TO GET TO THIS POINT OF THE SERIES. Oh my god, THERE’S STILL A SECOND HALF OF THIS. I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready.
The Heist
This is an ambitious episode, and part of that comes from the fact that we rarely see the Voyager crew on the offensive. That’s especially the case when it comes to the Borg. Everything’s always a reaction when it comes to them! Yet their decision to trick a Borg scout ship leads Janeway to propose a ridiculous idea: what if they follow a damaged Borg sphere and steal a transwarp coil from them before they are detected? YES, IT’S A HEIST EPISODE, AND YOU BETTER BELIEVE I WAS ONBOARD WITH THIS PLAN RIGHT FROM THE START.
And the writers exploit the creepiness of the Borg ship in order to stage two heists in less than forty-five minutes. Granted, one of them takes place in the holodeck, but it wasn’t any less thrilling. Now, I’ll get to the other reason why the heist is so entertaining, but for now, let’s just talk about this plan. The team had to avoid triggering the Borg’s desire for assimilation; then, they had to get in place to steal the transwarp coil while two others blew up the shield. The coil had to be stolen and they had to reach the transport site in LESS THAN TWO MINUTES. There’s no margin of error, and on top of it all, the Borg might find a new way to adapt to this plan. GREAT.
Both sequences – the Holodeck one and the real one – were a lot of fun to watch. I seriously can’t get over how unnerving those sets are. Like, I knew that the Borg couldn’t see them, but it still felt so creepy! Of course, that’s because of another reason.
The Calling
Even if you remove the Borg Queen influence on this story (WHICH YOU CAN’T BECAUSE IT’S SO GREAT), “Dark Frontier, Part I” still works as a devastating portrayal of Seven’s past. This mission was always going to be uncomfortable for her because it involved her first return to a Borg ship in over two years. In those years, she’d shed her identity as a Borg drone and become… well, one of the most complicated characters in the Star Trek canon. Getting a chance to see her family, though? AND WATCH THEM WALK INTO A TRAP THAT TAKES THREE YEARS TO GO OFF? Oh my god, THIS IS SO CRUEL.
But it’s not cruelty for the sake of it; those flashbacks inform Seven’s character. Which is fascinating to me because I’m not sure if she’s remembering these events or if she’s merely experiencing them through the logs. Does she remember playing with a Borg cube model? Does she remember seeing a cube for the first time on the viewscreen of her parents’ shuttle? What of the times she sat in her mother’s lap and watched her father study the Borg in their natural habitat?
In either case – memory or discovery – Seven must contend with the fact that this was her life. Her parents’ decision to study the Borg in close quarters led them to all being assimilated. Does she resent that? This episode suggests she does pretty heavily, but she also clearly wishes to be a part of the Voyager crew. That is the life she prefers more! So all those heist sequences feel so much more intense because Seven is privately struggling with a whole host of issues: resentment. Fear. Longing. Confusion.
BUT THEN THERE’S THE BORG QUEEN. That first dream wasn’t a dream at all. IT WASN’T A DREAM. Meaning that the Borg knew the entire fucking time what the Voyager crew were about to do. They let it happen specifically so that Seven could hand herself over. And for what? Well, isn’t Seven the most unique Borg in existence? (I don’t know how Hugh from The Next Generation fits into this.) She’s been freed from the collective, she’s got experience the rest of the Borg do not, and I’m guessing that we’re going to see the Borg Queen try to take that experience from Seven.
I’M SCARED. Oh my god, Janeway was so heartbroken! SHE DOESN’T KNOW THAT SEVEN DID THIS TO SPARE VOYAGER. HELP ME.
The video for “Dark Frontier, Part I” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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