Drone

DVD, Voyager S5 (Drone)

A few things had their genesis here, or I might say their conception. That's a good word for this episode since it deals with the unexpected 'birth' of a new life form, and as the Doctor says, their primary mission is to explore new forms of life (shame modern Trek doesn't follow that mission, preferring galactic- or cosmos-scale catastrophe, season after season!). Catch is, this one's Borg. I wondered if there was some element of broaching the subject of abortion, as they immediately begin to suggest termination of this Borg foetus before it's even been given a chance of life, while Janeway isn't prepared to 'pull the plug' and is a little more willing to give it a chance, but it does seem like an analogy of unexpected pregnancy and how this new person is going to come in and disrupt our lives, so maybe we should kill it! There isn't a great deal of exploration of the idea of whether they have the right to destroy it (and sanctity of life isn't going to come into it from their point of view, sadly, because being a Godless society means they don't believe in anything being sanctified), and it's not really much about the allowance of a life to exist, and not murdering it (they'd covered similar ground in 'Tuvix'), and in this situation it's about a potentially deadly creature that could have dire consequences for the galaxy as a whole (so there were galactic or cosmos reverberations after all!), because if the Borg get their hands on its mix of Voyager and 29th Century Federation technology, they'd essentially be unstoppable (er, hang on, I thought the Borg were already pretty much unstoppable - witness the gradual weakening of the race to bring them down to the level of weekly bad guys rather than game over harbingers of doom).

As analogies go this one converts into a child wanting to know about its painful, unfortunate and potentially damaging past: the relations that gave it up, the fact it was an unwanted 'accident' (even though in reality every person was planned by God, another reason which makes abortion such a terrible crime against humanity by humanity itself), and at what point it's the right time to give it that information, whether it has matured enough to be able to, shall we say, assimilate such concepts. Then it sort of morphs into the idea of protecting a child from the dangers of the world outside when all it wants is to go off and meet its mates and explore all those experiences waiting for it. From there all analogies break down as a rather too pat conclusion takes over since time has run out and we have to end the story. So 'One,' as he refers to himself, has no ounce of rebellion, and despite his Borg genetics, is able to easily resist and reject his people's advances (I really wanted to hear the alluring whisper of the Collective when he and Seven are both being called back, just like in 'First Contact,' so they missed a trick there), and happily sacrifices himself so Voyager will be safe because he logically recognises that they'll keep coming for him as he's such a prize. There was real danger in allowing latitude at each stage of his development, because if Janeway's trust, which didn't really have any basis in anything, had been proved misplaced, it would have been the single worst thing she'd ever done, unleashing a 29th Century Borg upon the Universe!

Unwarranted trust isn't the only problem with the episode, there's also the fact that One can make modifications to Voyager, improving its shields and weapons, and yet as far as I remember, none of it would stick, it's not like they now have permanently superior mods, and that's a problem because it makes the series look a little backward in how it deals with the rules and realities of the universe it inhabits. The same can be said for the use of the 29th Century holo-emitter that causes so much of the problem - B'Elanna is quite blasé about being able to fix it, yet surely such advanced technology should be beyond 24th Century engineering knowledge. It can be said that this series was where things started to lose a little cohesion, that while 'Enterprise' was responsible for much more casual and contemporary (to our time), dialogue and attitudes, which influenced both the Kelvin Timeline films and the current crop of TV shows, 'Voyager' began to add more serious levels of fantasy into the sci-fi proceedings (and while 'DS9' is vastly superior to either, it also played its part in creating internal conflict and finding ways to undermine the values of Trek's world - while it was so much better written itself, meaning easy to forgive, the concepts, such as Section 31, have unfortunately given rise to poor choices within the bad writing of the current series'). And while I'm complaining, it could also be said that this was close to being a remake of the Hugh story (another character that was utterly misused in recent Trek), in 'I, Borg.'

I did suggest in my previous review that Season 5 could be the best the series reached, but it's been a slow start so far, that's for sure! For some reason I had it in mind 'Drone' was a Season 6 story, but I'm probably thinking of 'Survival Instinct' which was another early season Borg tale. I can't say I was ever that enamoured with this episode in the past, and it hasn't exactly grown on me that much, but perhaps because of all the bad Trek I've forced myself to watch in the last few years, it did seem a little better than it used to. While One's sacrifice came out of nowhere it's just gratifying to see such noble behaviour compared to the off the wall cartoon/superhero antics of the Kurtzman era, and there are things about it that make you ponder - like how One is so drawn to his heritage, and yet how damaging that heritage is. We see such joy and wonder as he assimilates the data that is like nourishing milk to a baby, and he can't get enough. I suppose there is an element of nature versus nurture in that he has these predetermined urges towards certain things, but they're curbed by the people of Voyager. This is where the story isn't satisfying enough, however, and it falls down on there not being compelling enough reason for him to trust, believe and follow his new 'collective,' as it were. He has the strength and ability, and if we're to judge by the pull of the Borg, the potential desire to take over Voyager and do as he will, but Seven's authority is the only thing which holds him back, albeit another good lesson, this time in bringing up children in strict obedience.

He is shown friendship from such as Neelix, though while this is lovely to see, and natural for the friendly Talaxian, it wouldn't have worked if One had remained confrontational, so he could easily have gone another way if his own attitude had been different, it's just fortunate that he turns out good at heart, if unrealistic. Maybe we should have heard more about Ensign Mulcahey, and his qualities since it's his DNA the tubules extract in the Science Lab (an interesting new use of the Borg tech), but he's out of the story, another angle they failed to explore - and why didn't the nano-probes assimilate him? Seven's parental figure is the beginnings of her role in that regard, as she'd later take on a kind of mentor role with Naomi Wildman, later to be seen this season, and the Borg children who'd join in Season 6. After the destruction of the character in 'Picard' it was so refreshing to go back and see how terrific she was originally, such an amazing character that was utterly ruined by modern writers. Here Seven is really compelling, put into the situation she was in only a year ago, only this time she's in the Janeway role. Of course you can't condense an entire season's worth of development into a single episode, perhaps another reason this episode feels a touch light on depth, but it's a hint at the kind of maternal or commanding role Seven had the potential for, her own gifting and contribution to the crew. That's what I'd have liked to have seen: a Seven who, by the end of the 24th Century, was fully adjusted and probably Captain of her own ship in Starfleet, with a great understanding of human behaviour and how to get the best out of people from all the experience she'd had under Janeway. Instead it was all stripped away to be replaced with a nasty vengeance and a twisted Mirror Universe bent. Horrible.

As well as preparing the way for the Borg kiddies, another small contribution to the series comes from her suggestion here: to build a larger shuttle, when Paris is complaining about the size of the one they use. In practical terms I'd imagine they wanted something like the Runabouts in 'DS9' so they could go off with an Away Team in space and have a little more leeway for stories rather than squashing several characters into one shuttlecraft (though I always loved the sleek design of the Class-2s), which would lead to the creation of The Delta Flyer this season. It's a shame they couldn't have done what they did on 'Andromeda' and used an existing ship that had joined the main one, small enough to be housed inside, but large enough to present a different location, except in this case it would've been Neelix' vessel which was almost never seen. The Flyer would be one of those things that set the series apart a little from its predecessors in that they had the latitude to do things differently because they weren't strictly part of Starfleet most of the time, largely on their own with their own resources. And no doubt because 'DS9' had the USS Defiant they wanted their own extra ship to play with. One other detail began in this episode, or if it had already been created in Season 4, was developed further: the Doctor's hobbies. Here he brings along a holo-imager, which can be assumed to be a 3D camera that records holographically as either images or data for a holoprogram. I don't recall if he'd had that before, but it was certainly something he'd return to.

The Doctor made an uncharacteristic mistake when he mentions the 29th Century and says it's four hundred years into the future! Earlier in the episode the same thing is mentioned, and correctly, that it is five hundred years in the future, so that was a bit sloppy, though it can be explained by saying the Doc was excited and still concerned for his all-important holo-emitter and that's why he made the mistake. That was an area that could have done with some exploration: what it could mean for the Doctor if he had to go back to being stuck in Sickbay or the Holodeck, and if they'd worked in a B-story I think that would have been better rather than concentrating all their time on One. The Doc's lack of appropriate regard for personal privacy returns - last time he waltzes into a running Holosuite program, and this time he appears on a monitor in B'Elanna's Quarters when she's about to step into the sonic shower (which I don't think we'd seen since 'The Motion Picture,' if I'm right, when Ilia is in one!). You'd think there'd be some kind of security protocol on monitors that would mean someone couldn't just look in on someone's Quarters unannounced, but then again he is the CMO so he could have overrode such a protocol if it did exist (and he does breezily remind her he's seen it all before, which is true, but still overstepping the bounds of appropriate Starfleet behaviour!).

I liked B'Elanna's glib suggestion that this is the Borg's new strategy for domination: show up and look helpless (well, if it worked for the aliens in Season 3's 'Displaced,' though I don't think patience is part of the Borg idea of perfection!), and I'd forgotten a Borg Sphere actually shows up. It's unfortunate that this was one of those examples where there's almost no level of threat to the deadly race. There is a slight tension when you wonder if One will betray the crew and join with the Borg, but it's all over a bit easily, Janeway's trust is vindicated, the Borg don't have the slightest chance to be threatening because this new Borg wipes them out like swatting a fly, and then he's conveniently too far gone, and he'd be too much of a liability to keep around. What would have been more interesting is if he'd stayed around for a few episodes, perhaps the Borg kept catching up with them and they have to make that choice for themselves about whether they stick with him, despite the danger to themselves, or part. That could have worked as an alternative: allow him the freedom to go off on his own, then they could have brought him back later in the season or at an even later date, either as a bad guy or someone that needs their help. Unfortunately, this is an example of the series' preference to press the reset button, something they'd largely moved away from in the previous season, at least in the sense that Seven was there and she wasn't going away, so they had to find ways of dealing with her each week.

There were plenty of standalone episodes, but she was a large thread running throughout. It was to the detriment of many of the characters that she had so much screen time, but she was worthy of it, too. I wouldn't have wanted the other characters to become expendable extras, but it's a shame they couldn't develop more ongoing arcs as they'd done in the early seasons. Tuvok for example, could have been involved in lecturing One on the value of life and logic, something, he being a partly computerised creature, would understand and find useful, but although it's great to see the Vulcan striding down the corridors, having broken out the hefty Compression Phaser Rifles, he doesn't have much to do here. It was noteworthy that Kim has progressed to leading the night shift, though I'm not sure how that'll work integrating him into stories with the day shift, so they might not have thought that one through! I think that was a problem with the series, and I say that as someone that's always considered it the second best Trek out there. Hopefully their thought and attention will improve and my preconception that this is one of the best seasons isn't proved futile. I did like the symmetry of Seven looking at her own reflection as a bookend to the episode, but even there it could have had more poignancy to it. At least J. Paul Boehmer (previously the German Kapitan in 'The Killing Game,' later to be various roles in 'DS9' and 'Enterprise'), succeeds in creating a sympathetic performance, as he was so integral to the story.

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