Survival Instinct

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Survival Instinct)

Ronald D. Moore's first, and penultimate, credit for Trek post-'DS9,' and he manages to answer the question of how you can tell a story about Seven of Nine's past when all she did after becoming assimilated as a child was to be a Borg drone, hardly the most varied and interesting career (although I have some thoughts on that for later), and he does it by exploring a moment when she was severed from the Collective. It's not about having sympathy for this drone, it's about discovering the horror her fear led her to: clamping down on the freedom of her colleagues (if that's the right word, fellow slaves would be more appropriate), who are beginning to revert to their pre-assimilation personalities, disgusted and horrified at what's been done to them, while Seven, who hasn't experienced adult life other than as part of the Collective, is entirely motivated by fear into restoring all their status quos in the most arbitrary and remorseless way. It's a good way to get at the heart of the character, something Moore had plenty of experience with on 'DS9,' and the fact it's about one of the least accessible pasts a character can have, shows he was up for a challenge in his transition to 'Voyager.' It's not that you suddenly see the Moore greatness enacted on the 'Voyager' characters, and in fact it must have been somewhat of a comedown when you think the previous Borg story he wrote was the smash hit film 'First Contact,' and now he's called upon to write some small personal story of Borg dissent, but he uses all the characters quite nicely, if briefly.

Neelix is the only character barely to appear, and you'd think a role could have been found for him scavenging on this alien space station Voyager is docked at, but you can see the male friendship side of Moore's writing so ably demonstrated in such pairings as Bashir and O'Brien, with the scene of Tom and Harry having to report to Janeway after partaking in a brawl during some alien racquet game. Chakotay is a good person for Seven to confide in, and Tuvok is operating in his proper role of Security when he rescues Seven from her former Borg's episode of losing it in the Cargo Bay. And Janeway, while not being front and centre, gets her hair caught in a plant! Even B'Elanna is thanked for her assistance by Seven, so there are plenty of evidences for the desire to see everyone having something meaningful, if small. Seven is the focus, with a side order of Naomi Wildman to once again remind us of her position as a reminder of the little girl Seven was before she was Borg, and the Doctor is there for all the medical requirements. But the guest characters are about equally important, something that doesn't always work out on Trek, but in this case we have three previously established Trek actors to varying degrees: Tim Kelleher who'd been in the 'TNG' series finale, Bertila Damas, who'd been the atypical Vulcan Sakonna in 'DS9' two-parter 'The Maquis,' and, key to it all, Vaughn Armstrong in his middle period, beyond the earliest episodes of 'TNG' and 'DS9,' but before 'Enterprise' (also his second of five appearances on this series as he was memorably its first Romulan in Season 1's 'Eye of The Needle').

It helps to have these semi-familiar faces because they all knew how Trek worked and they all come across as sympathetic, notwithstanding Lansor ignoring Naomi's friendly attempt at introduction, but it was quite refreshing to see a child full of herself get completely ignored! Not that Naomi is precocious or anything less than charming most of the time, but it's good for her to learn that things aren't always going to go well in first contact situations, to frame it in a Seven-style lesson! They needed to be sympathetic because they do look to a lesser or greater degree, like ruffians, the scars and damage done to them, first by the Borg, then by the removal of as much Borg residual technology as possible, leaves them somewhat forbidding in appearance, other than the Bajoran woman, Wilkarah who probably has more desire to look as normal as possible compared with the men. It's a Borg story that isn't your typical Borg story. Of course even here we've seen a similar tale before with Hugh in 'I, Borg,' but where that was about a severed drone captured and held prisoner, these are the opposite, doing all they can to free themselves from the Collective forever, even the echo of their slavery solidified as it is in the form of a constant mental bond between the three that prevents them a moment's peace. That's a good idea in itself, that the vastness of so many Borg voices becomes background noise, but bringing it down to a small number makes it so much more unavoidable and distressing.

I wish Chakotay had been included a little more since he had experience with Borg that had escaped the Collective and wished to live their lives apart from it ('Unity'), but there's limited time as always. There are a lot of questions about these three, and indeed the Borg operating procedure: how did they escape assimilation? Unlike Seven who was taken by the Voyager crew and forced to accept it, we never hear how they escaped. Are drones interchangeable? They and Seven were all 'of Nine' so what happened when either she left or they did, whichever was first? Were other drones drafted in to replace their role or were the designations changed, so Eight of Nine became Three of Four, or something like that? Is the higher the number the more senior the position? That doesn't seem right for the Borg and their lack of individuality, it's just that Seven was the one who appeared to lead them on the planet. But that could have been from her stronger desire to return to the comfortable embrace of the Collective while they were susceptible to the voice of command even in their slightly more individualistic state. I wondered if Seven had had any other designation, by which she wouldn't always have been Seven of Nine, but if she performed another function she'd be called something different at a different time in her 'career' - for example, she was a child when assimilated, the others were adults, so there must have been a long period when she wasn't working with them. I suppose it goes back to whether drones are merely drafted in to take on designations of other drones until their usefulness ends.

It's all very intriguing because for all that we know of the Borg there's still so much that we don't. Not that that's a bad thing, mystery is integral to being able to tell stories and if all is known what is left to uncover? On the other side, as I've said numerous times before, if you don't tie down the lore as tightly as you can others can come along and make a complete mockery of it all, but even with absolute, definite examples of canon there can still be those who ignore or bust it wide open (as happened recently with the Eugenics Wars supposedly now 'moved' to the 21st Century thanks to the idiocy of 'Strange New Worlds,' perhaps the most egregious attack on Trek continuity we've seen - and there have been plenty in this modern era!). Lore isn't the only thing at risk, as sometimes even the little visual details can be affected by budget or inconsistency. We have a lot of aliens in this episode thanks to the space station, but unfortunately too many were visibly recognisable as previously created faces when in the Delta Quadrant we shouldn't be seeing anyone familiar, except in the most extreme cases (as with Wilkarah's Bajoran heritage). I spotted Voth (to be fair, a Delta Quadrant race), those short Evora aliens from 'Insurrection,' and most criminally, a Dopterian (I think that's the name of the race with a long, bald, horizontal skull and small, mouselike face). It's tough with the time constraints and strict budget to pull off a station full of aliens, but for once I felt they didn't do a good enough job in that area.

It is very nice to see a rare example of a Bajoran, and in fact one whom served in Starfleet (I wonder when she joined up and where she was assimilated...), especially in a 'DS9' writer's story, though I would have liked a little Bajoran culture in there to remind us of her heritage, more than simply a ridged nose. It makes sense for the story, I'll admit, since she's spent years, presumably, under Borg domination, and then time after that trapped in a mental triumvirate with her fellows, so she would probably have felt quite far from her Bajoran life, and yet at the same time I felt she should have had a stronger desire to reconnect with her pre-assimilation existence - what about asking if there were other Bajorans aboard Voyager (we know there are), meeting them, or going on the Holodeck to recreate a walk on Bajor. There were a lot of ways I can imagine the episode to be more powerful and more moving, because although it is sad and horrifying from the perspective of what Seven did (not that she's to blame now, she was still basically a child, had never moved beyond those childhood fears when under the Borg's dominion), I didn't feel there was a great deal of juice squeezed out of the final decision on whether it's better to live a full lifespan in slavery or to experience even a short time of freedom. That seemed to me to have been the heart of the story, less so the experience Seven went through, and perhaps if this had been a 'TNG' episode they'd have spent more time on the philosophical musings of such a situation rather than the horror or action, even if it isn't an action-packed sort of story anyway.

I'm sure Jeri Ryan wasn't pleased to be back in the full Borg makeup she'd so rarely had to endure, but it's a good visual continuity to go back to a time when she was like that. We even get a little touching on why she continued to use her Borg designation rather than adopting her old name: she felt it was inappropriate. At one time I'd probably have speculated that she might one day resume her full human identity as Annika Hansen, becoming more human as she grew older and as the technology was gradually lessened within her, but having seen 'Picard' all such speculation is quashed where they ruined the character forever, a final putting in of the boot on the legacy of Trek, and specifically 'Voyager.' So there is no longer a hopeful, happy future to wonder about (unless things radically change in Season 3 of 'Picard' or beyond!), but that can't remove the brilliance of the character in her original guise. It made total sense that Naomi would begin to emulate her friend in little ways, memorising Borg species designations, for example, and just as true to Seven that she would discourage such behaviour since it does diminish a race's dignity to have it reduced to a number, in the same way as humans are denigrated and degraded in captivity by becoming merely a number. It made me think of 'Hero Worship' on 'TNG' when a young boy starts to act like Data, though Naomi is much more rounded. It continues to be a pleasure to see this simple, fledgling friendship between the two relative outsiders: Voyager's only child and its only Borg lady.

I must say, however, you'd think Seven would learn to lock the Cargo Bay door when she regenerates so no one can enter without permission. It is the closest thing she has to Quarters, and in fact you'd think they could have stored at least one of the regeneration chambers in Quarters so she could have her own little space. But maybe they don't work unless they're all plugged in together, and the room wouldn't be big enough, and perhaps living on Borg vessels means Seven requires large emptiness around her as is the case on those vast, airy ships, and the Cargo Bay is the closest she can come to that. And maybe they need to use the Bay for other things at the same time so that's why the door doesn't get locked? We see the chambers being used for the first time by other Borg (or former Borg - I refuse to use the term 'ex-B' since 'Picard' sullied so much about the 24th Century!), since the false history seen in 'Living Witness' when they believed the ship to have had a whole squad of Borg ready to act at Janeway's whim. And it wouldn't be the last use of them, either, as we'd be getting the (groan), Borg children later in the season. There were a couple of things I didn't feel measured up to what we knew about the Borg: wouldn't they simply be able to scan the planet, it shouldn't make that much difference that Lansor smashed the distress beacon, surely? Unless the planet was covered in some kind of ore that affected sensors. And cooking and eating meat? Surely their stomachs wouldn't be able to take solid food after all that time without it?

I'd love to know what a Voyager medallion is. Chakotay mentions they've been trading them with aliens - I'm surprised they didn't turn it into a merchandising opportunity (Gene Roddenberry would have approved!). And there's another win for Christmas, when Janeway mentions all these gifts in her Ready Room make it seem like Christmas morning. So, if we didn't already know it, Christmas does still exist, and it hasn't been turned into 'Xmas' or 'Holiday Festival' or any other watering down from Christian tradition: Christ-mas (even if it is still considered to be about presents!). Having Armstrong there to anchor the story with his presence helps it to have weight. Not that he's ever been one of my favourite recurring actors in Trek, but always a solid, dependable, almost reassuring presence, and he does sell the importance of their plan succeeding - as we later hear they'd become nothing, trapped between being Borg and yet not Borg, something Seven knows something about, but not to the same extent as she wasn't inflicted with their affliction, having found a measure of peace and a role that suited her temperament and situation on Voyager. It shows how fortunate she has been, and though things have been pretty rough at times, particularly in the early days but plenty of times since that, too, it reinforces the unspoken idea that she is at rest, for all of Voyager's constant travel. Moore may not have been responsible for a stunner or a classic, but he gave us a solid, dependable Borg story that allowed us to see Seven in another new light, and after she'd been around for two seasons already that's an accomplishment.

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