Ain't Space a Small Place?
"The Raven" Plot Summary:
As Voyager approaches Bohmar space, Seven of Nine begins to see visions of a large black bird swooping down on her and Borg assimilating her. While Janeway fights for permission to get Voyager through the alien space, Seven's Borg technology begins to reassert itself. She steals a shuttle and flees the ship, leaving a wake of enraged Bohmar and confused Starfleet crewmembers.
Tuvok and Paris follow Seven in a shuttle and are taken by her to an M-class planet where Tuvok and Seven find a half-destroyed Federation ship, the Raven. Seven reveals that this is the ship on which she and her parents came to the Delta Quadrant, confirming a hunch of Janeway's, who has entered Bohmar space against the Bohmar's wishes to find her. Paris rescues Tuvok and Seven, and Janeway dismisses the addition of months of travel to their journey in her delight to have Seven back and more fully human than ever.
Analysis:
If Voyager had done a storyline like this six months or so from now, I probably would have thought it was terrific. We'd have had a long period of getting used to Seven as a Borg, still resisting fitting in with the humans of the Federation despite being thousands of light years from Borg space, and it would be dramatic and frightening suddenly to have her Borg side re-emerge. But Voyager's writers are apparently determined to throw away most of Seven's potential as an alien source of confrontation before it starts. Like they did with the Maquis, the writers are assimilating her into the Federation crew faster than we can say "Resistance is futile."
Seven is currently the most interesting character on the show. She's still conflicted, angry, oddly innocent; Jeri Ryan has played her subtly and superbly, even during last week's sexploitation scenes. It's also a lot easier for me to look at her now that the silver catsuit has been replaced with a brown one, though I'm glad they're putting her on solid food - she looks like she's about to drop dead from anorexia. I'm still astounded that Seven was ready to try lovemaking before eating, but hey, we all have our own priorities...
I can't figure out Janeway's, however. She looked really incompetent letting the Bohmar, her new reluctant allies, come onto her bridge in the middle of a red alert, especially considering that she had no clue what was going on nor how to stop her rebellious ex-Borg crewmember. Her later lame threat when they warned her not to interfere in their space, "You're still on my ship," was laughable. I agree with the Bohmar: Janeway's security is so dreadful that Voyager shouldn't be trusted in anyone else's space. They're down another shuttle, too, but with their infinite supply, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Janeway did figure out what was going on in Seven's mind, but too late to help Voyager; she was able to retrieve her crewmembers, but she's going to have to add a lot of months to their journey. What happened to the captain who was so anxious to get home that she forged - practically forced - a treaty with the Borg? I guess she's been too busy being creative on the holodeck to get up to speed on command skills. She says it helps her efficiency to forget about Voyager for awhile...sorry, Captain, but I beg to differ. I hope Seven chooses to be creative around other people rather than with artificial constructs...even with Harry, whom she says she finds predictable - she's not the only one!
Chakotay's consistent as well; he still doesn't trust Seven, still expects her Borg side to keep reasserting itself. Maybe this is a good thing, since he's more ready to protect the crew from the problems she causes than anyone else seems to be, but I have to worry about the poor woman, having to answer to a man with such an obvious prejudice. Tuvok was far more sensitive with Seven - their dialogue was lovely, restrained as a Vulcan-Borg exchange should be yet still moving, and his commitment to seeking the truth with her made up a little for his gross inadequacy as a security officer earlier in the episode. I think Janeway should make Seven the new chief of security; Seven did a great job bolstering her shuttle's shields while whomping alien spacecraft and hiding from Voyager.
Still, I like Tuvok. He was a lot more sensitive to humans this episode than B'Elanna, cracking jokes about Harry's crush on Seven when in all likelihood the poor boy was never going to see her again. I'm curious why Tom got to sit in on the briefing with the aliens when Tuvok didn't - the Vulcan's the one who just got a promotion, after all - but I guess they had to give Tommy the Superhero something to do.
Visually, the flashback sequences of this show reminded me a lot of "Birthright Part I," the Next Generation segment where Data dreams about a bird flying through the Enterprise - since LeVar Burton directed this episode, that makes sense, though Burton's images are more heavily shadowed and ominous than were Winrich Kolbe's in the TNG episode. This wasn't a bad episode, but it cut off the possibilities for all sorts of intrigue down the line about Seven's past and future. Like Chakotay's capitulation to Starfleet, like Paris and Torres falling in love, the writers seem to have plunged in heedlessly, tossing out one episode instead of developing characters and situations which will hold interest over the long haul.