Collective (2)

 DVD, Voyager S6 (Collective) (2)

Fresh from watching the third season of 'Picard' in a relatively short period I can only assume I reacted so positively to this episode in reaction to that, because I've never liked the Borg children, thought it was a bad idea to introduce them, especially as they hadn't used the existing people groups they'd been presented with in the past very well (the Maquis crew-members we'd met, almost never seen again; the recent addition of the Equinox remnants, never seen again...), and they didn't seem interested in developing any recurring characters to any great degree! 'Picard,' for all its joy of giving us one last roundup of the 'TNG' crew, together again (even Data, [sniff!]), reminded me how many bad Borg stories there were, how many silly ideas they threw at them on 'Voyager,' but even as far back as 'TNG' (I didn't used to like Hugh in 'I, Borg' though I've come round to him, but 'Descent' was certainly the weakest story), so to see a Borg story 'out of the norm' (which isn't really true because those kinds of stories became the norm over the typical and superior 'Borg are an impossible threat to handle' types, as in 'Q Who,' 'The Best of Both Worlds,' 'Scorpion,' 'Dark Frontier,' 'Regeneration'), but which was actually displaying the best natures of our characters really struck home, and while I still wouldn't rate it a classic I was surprised at how strong it was!

It's lovely coming home again and seeing Seven of Nine when she was portrayed as a fascinating, repressed, strident, flawed but learning character compared with how Jeri Ryan played her in 'Picard.' So many things about this episode were a clear and obvious antidote to the still generally negative impression of even the best of modern Treks, and again, while I'd say 'Picard' Season 3 is the best of that series and even the best live action stuff they've done in the current era, it still fell quite short of even the standard level of old Trek. This is far from perfect, admittedly: I was all up for an adventure starring Chakotay, Neelix, Tom and Harry, but after a strong start the former disappear from the story, literally! We see them a bit later as hostages, but in gradual increase of the criticism of the last couple of seasons (which hasn't played out yet to any large degree), it switches to being a Seven of Nine story with Janeway prominent. If this had been now-Trek they could have had space for a few extra scenes with the running time bumped up to over fifty minutes if need be, but while 'Picard' often squandered its comfortable running time with too much reiteration and repetitiveness, then-Trek was so tight and economical with its running time, though as in this case it could be to the detriment sometimes: we could have done with a much-needed scene where Torres meets Paris after the ordeal to show her concern (she spends any time in the episode covering Harry's station and could just as easily have been played by a guest extra); Neelix meeting the Borg children, considering how good he is with youngsters (though they may have been saving that); an ending with Chakotay discussing the events of the episode with his Captain; and Harry, well he gets to play partially assimilated and almost saves the day, so he was accounted for.

Other than the shift into a typical Seven story I have few complaints. Sure, that whole teaser with the four previously mentioned playing poker had its issues (would Chakotay sanction gambling, especially over the 'real stakes' of a morning off for whoever wins - in the past he always seemed quite disciplinarian about such things, perhaps he's mellowed a bit now he's well established as First Officer and the crew have all settled down. Even so, if other members of the crew heard about it they might think it unfair...), not least being that they have no warning of a gigantic Borg Cube bearing down on the little Delta Flyer until they notice it through the porthole! Shouldn't the computer give warning? In the episode's favour they do explain the ship masked its approach to sensors, but even then, once in visual range the ship should be throwing every alarm its got into a frenzy. But then we wouldn't have had the excitement of them reacting to such a shocking appearance in the middle of a fun moment of relaxation, and it was certainly a very effective way to kick off the episode. What is fascinating about the story is how the Borg don't follow the predetermined route they always do - we'd expect captives' immediate assimilation (I never wondered before, but why do they have assimilation chambers since all they need do is inject victims with nanoprobes and that does the rest - maybe it's for observation or more invasive procedures?), they're willing to negotiate with Voyager when they come a-calling, and behave erratically - it all adds up to a deliciously unexpected encounter and because Trek schooled us so well and so closely on exactly what to expect with each race it makes a much greater contrast.

Nowadays, when most Trek aliens sound and act like humans with makeup on a lot of the time because the human characters are so overly emotional, you lose the ability to tell this kind of story and revel in the differences to expectations, and it really speaks to the Trek style up until the modern age that they were able to take advantage of having everything so carefully tied down to specific behaviour and motivations. All the characters are true to how they should behave: Janeway is willing to consider all alternatives when it comes to the safety of her crew, not shutting down the idea of a pathogen that would 'neutralise' the surviving Borg that Tuvok, in his role as Security, advises. It's a shocking thought that they could kill children, even children totally assimilated by the Borg, but if they'd all been like First, aggressive, refusing to listen to any alternative viewpoint because it goes against their very nature (sounds like a lot of people today!), then perhaps they'd have been forced to go to it as a last resort. But that's not (wasn't then, anyway), the Trek way: they use intelligence and cunning, feel out the situation, talk where they can with their enemies. Seven even makes gestures of good faith simply because it's the right thing to do: when they introduced Icheb with a malfunction in his vocal processor you think it's just there to sound 'cool,' because why not, it emphasises the alienness of Borg? Yet it becomes a plot point with Seven able to show the nature of Starfleet, fixing him for no other reward than because she can help. The same with the Borg baby where she demonstrates to the whole clan the same ethics. And even at the end when First is fatally electrocuted, she rushes over to see if she can help him and when all she can do is comfort him as he dies, she does that!

It's inspiring and rewarding, the way Trek should be, leaving you with positive feelings rather than reliant on whatever the next terrible thing is to leave us with a cliffhanger so we come back for the next part of the serial. It is wrapped up rather too quickly and easily, again I say it's not perfect - it would have been better to show some of the transition of the Borg gang from Borgified to practically normal, full heads of hair, etc, as we see them at the end, because you lose the impression of the scope of the invasive and all-pervasive intrusiveness of Borg technology infesting an organic body and how hard it is to overcome and recover from it. So it does have the effect of belittling the conversion they had to go through. But I can see why they wouldn't want to give over too much time to this little group, they might not even have planned them being as big a part of the series as they became and so they needed to wrap up the story, I suppose. At least it ends on a well-judged, sensitive note as Seven wishes them goodnight as they all step into the regeneration chambers in her Cargo Bay (handy there are four, but what happens if she needs to regenerate, too?), taking one last look back at them as if to remember the similarities with her own history, then the door closing on her, closing out the episode effectively and beautifully with a deft touch.

The Doctor doesn't have a lot of exposure, but I like that the moral issue at hand of whether they should deal with these children as they would any other Borg, is placed firmly at his door - he's the one that develops the pathogen for use, but he orchestrates an environment in which to present it to his Captain in the most contrasting way possible: getting her to hold the Borg baby, saying she just wanted to be held, and only then producing the deadly vial by the baby's side. Janeway isn't to be swayed so easily, it's not that she's cold or heartless, I don't believe she has any intention of using the pathogen unless there is no other option, but the Doctor wants to put his point of view across and does it with great care and planning. I like that we're seeing different points of view, but the Doctor isn't refusing to follow orders or expressing how he feels about the ethics of the situation, blowing up at his Captain, it's all very well worked out and is about as far from how the conflicts, both in Trek and the real world, are portrayed now, as can be. In this case both have a valid argument, not that Janeway is arguing for the murder of children, but even the possibility she could use such a weapon is a silent assent for a drastic course of action, exactly the kind of dilemma Trek was (was!), so good at. It's not even a big part of the story, but far from taking a backseat to unnecessary action scenes, the core of the story is in Seven's attempts to gain the trust of the children, or maybe not even that, to simply show that they are in the wrong.

I was struck by the parallel of the guys playing poker at the start and the situation between Voyager and the Cube - it's the same, they're both playing poker, not really knowing what the other's hand holds and that cat and mouse, give and take was compelling as we see how a starship Captain has to deal with an opponent without quite knowing what the result will be in any eventuality. Janeway is great in this, but Chakotay was too, in the brief screen time he was given - I like that when they're captured he's the one who still has hope when Paris basically panics and thinks it's all over, there's no chance of escaping assimilation, and the First Officer gives them a task to do, to escape from the chamber. It's a shame Neelix was so muted, and even in the poker game when they suspect he's kidding them when being so simple about the game I was expecting his old shrewdness to come to the fore and he really was leading them on - when you think what he was like when we first met him and in the early scenes, by comparison he has become a little too soft. I did feel for Harry Kim who has to traverse the inside of the Cube (all Borg ships are graveyards, but this really was one), to help Voyager help him, though he ultimately fails (great sense of scale to the internal shots). When he was so nervous and Tuvok asks if he's thinking of a previous time on a Cube I was expecting him to talk about the horrors he experienced in 'Scorpion,' but he doesn't. Otherwise the episode was good at using backstory, such as Seven talking about her own assimilation.

It didn't make much sense Harry leaving a trail of playing cards in case he needed to find his way back since Janeway had already specifically told him he'd only have to make the journey TO the shield generator, and if I'm being pedantic it was too dark to be able to see those little cards anyway, especially if he had to find his way back in a hurry! I suppose the little girl, Mezoti, was supposed to be playing the usual trope of creepy child when she comes upon him having gathered the cards, but either from the performance itself or the directing of the scene, I didn't get an undertone of threat from it, especially when she picks out the Queen card and says she prefers this one. I liked that it wasn't what you'd expect, nothing to do with the Borg Queen, but because the likeness reminds her of Seven! So it came across as more cutesy than anything until you think back to it in retrospect when we later find Harry was partially assimilated. It's all left to the imagination, and while modern Trek would undoubtedly have had a scene where the girl comes over to him and digs her tubules in as he screams, brutality wouldn't have fitted with the story, especially from her as we're supposed to be sympathetic to the younger ones who are being bullied by First. Still, it does make you wonder whether she attacked Harry or was merely a diversion so First could come up behind him. Overall I really liked the performances of the gang. The twins have nothing to say and are only there to make up the numbers, but the gradual shift away from First as protector and leader, to Seven, was beautifully done.

The only note of concern is the baby. Did they use a real baby because if not it looked very lifelike - not when it was in the maturation chamber, but when Janeway or Seven hold it, it was so realistic and yet they usually have strict rules about what can be put on a baby, as we saw previously with the very basic horns on baby Naomi. My concern is what happened to the little tyke? They mention the four children at the end, but nothing is said of the baby. I can see why they wouldn't want to be saddled with a baby from a production standpoint because it's difficult to include one, and equally I can see why they wouldn't have wanted a pall over the ending by suggesting it had died as that would have been a very sad way to finish out the episode, but at the same time you need to say something, you can't just ignore it! Unfortunately, that's how the series often went, not giving plots or characters the development or wrap-up they needed. It would also have been good for the series to have babies be a central part of it since for all they knew it would take more than one generation to return home and they should have been birthing replacements, but that's just one of the underlying flaws of a series that was generally so good, but could also miss major details of importance.

In this episode's case I was impressed with how it laid everything out logically, believably, providing a realistic and grounded base upon which to build the story, in complete opposition to the way modern Trek does it, first creating a story full of mysteries and suspense, but not having a good base to lay it on, reliant on shock or narrative devices rather than good storytelling and depth of character. The Borg in this episode are an excellent example: they behave as adolescents would, and though it's something of a familiar theme of children running their own little world ('Lord of The Flies'), and something covered in Trek before ('And The Children Shall Lead,' etc), it was done very well here. Tuvok calls attention to their contemptuousness toward authority, conviction of their own superiority and that this is typical adolescent behaviour for any species (though I wished he'd excepted Vulcans, though this was yet another reminder of the diminishing of the race in the Berman era's latter years). When they don't get their way they try to rip Voyager's Deflector right off its hull with a Tractor beam, and when Seven breaks the news the Borg don't want them any more (which struck a false note since we know they come back even for their dead, as far as I remember, to harvest the tech, so it didn't make sense that any being would be considered expendable - to the Borg they're just resources, so why waste them, and especially the Cube itself which could have been repaired, I'm sure!), First rebels against reality saying they'll prove themselves worthy by assimilating more races, failing to understand the nature of the Borg, that it's impossible to win their approval.

It's actually a very tragic story of abandoned children, tied up in the Trek world with all the alien trimmings, but that's what it is at heart and in that respect it's not really different to any other story of children in that position who have built something of a society based on mistakes or lack of mature understanding simply to survive ('Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome' came to mind). Perhaps the moment when I had the most sympathy was Icheb not even understanding what the term childhood means and tying it in to Seven's own being cut short makes it ever more poignant. I never really liked Icheb that much originally because I always wanted the Borg to be tough, unstoppable and impossible to deal with in any way, just the name should strike terror. But that image and ability was worn down through so many episodes, particularly of 'Voyager,' and one big reason why I felt the series didn't reach its full potential overall, but over the years I came to like him more as I accepted what the series became and you just enjoy what's there rather than anticipating what might be (and he certainly didn't deserve the horrific treatment given to him in 'Picard'). Perhaps in the same way I'll come to appreciate modern Trek more in that light, though I doubt it because it simply doesn't have the positive values and quality of writing and characterisation of the original 60s-2000s run. Maybe once they say there's not going to be any more it'll have more meaning, but not much - the truth is I'll always go back to 'Voyager' and its contemporaries because they knew how to tell Trek. There had been plenty of atypical Borg stories by this time (I think of 'Survival Instinct' earlier this very season!), but that's why this one holds up: they found a new angle and they made it work. A lesson for modern writers everywhere (but especially those writing Trek!).

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