The least disliked episode 2021 - VOY Season Six

[Sakonna]

"The Haunting Of Deck Twelve" is very blah and phoned-in. I'm such an easy sell for any "spooky" Trek, too, but this one just does not deliver.

Survival Instinct
Riddles
Dragon's Teeth
One Small Step
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Child's Play
Good Shepherd
Life Line

 

[Qonundrum]

This was a VERY uneven season in terms of quality.

I can't believe "UNIMATRIX ZERO" is still here. Janeway plans to get on the cube and further the rebellion... by getting assimilated? Being assimilated was a horrible experience, and this just cheapens EVERYTHING Picard, Seven, and anyone else went through.

Pt 1 is arguably passable, if not barely,, but flawed. Pt 2 is ridiculous, making typical story-by-number plotlines seem less predictable by comparison. But I digress. This Unimatrix Zero is a virtual place they get to only when they take a nap -- like "The Matrix" but reversed -- yet there's talk of arming everyone in there with bat'leths at one point. How does that fix anything? Everyone's fine and dandy when they wake up and can go back again once they restock their bag of arcade tokens! Then there's that little virus that is injected into the crew to go get assimilated so they can go infect the hive, but has to be spread by the solar plexus or whatever the electronic hub thing is called?! The soap opera romance* drivel doesn't help... then comes pt 2 where it takes forever for Queen B. to figure out she can't read their thoughts despite feeling pleasure over the assimilation process starting (not by looking, but by feeling)... but I digress. The cliffhanger for pt 1 is also underacted by 2 of the three and overacted by the third...

Even Borg refer to themselves as "I" and this is at the start of the story!! When disconnected from the hive, the drones still use "We"... or if they adapted to Hugh, yet they're not adapting to replicators and lots of technology they nicked from the Federation-- ugh.

Yeah, everyone gearing up and jubilant over "Let's get assimilated, whee!" is way too convenient. And lucky that no Borg found a toe or fingernail in such bad shape that the whole of the leg or arm would be cut off to put in a Borg bionic bit in its place.

If anything, the overt body horror is par for the course with the Borg post-STFC, the same movie that also doesn't show the Borg adapting as they still send one ship, which is clobbered fas-- there I go digressing again.

Lastly, it's better than the baby borg/beat on the brat episode from earlier in the season and the acting from Suzanna Thompson as the Borg Queen makes up for quite a bit and the animosity toward "(grr) Janeway!" is terrific. Even if the Collective as we knew it until 1995 is long gone, and even in mentioning that I'll still say VOY did less harm to the Borg as a foe than the 1996 TNG movie did. Maybe 1993 since "Descent" was another unconnected chapter from the big bad Borg book of fairytales...

* Schlock such as the bit where sleepy Borg in UM0 is pining to Seven and trying to get her to remember their trysts with "we were virtual lovers for six years, don't you remember?" yet Seven doesn't respond with anything even remotely clever like "It couldn't have been that good if I don't remember it!" It's all so forced and dripping b.s. and adds nothing to the story. It's even subpar for even those corny teenage novels with pretty half-nekkid people on the cover.​

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing One Small Step. It's a bit too saccharine.

I disagree that Janeway getting assimilated cheapens Picard's experience. Cause Janeway was a trojan horse, she knew she wouldn't stay that way. Any more than taking a tour of Alcatraz cheapens the experience of people who've been to prison.

Survival Instinct
Riddles
Dragon's Teeth
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Child's Play
Good Shepherd
Life Line

 

[Qonundrum]

Removing One Small Step. It's a bit too saccharine.

I disagree that Janeway getting assimilated cheapens Picard's experience. Cause Janeway was a trojan horse, she knew she wouldn't stay that way.

I felt they were trying to redo the experience as an audience event. It doesn't cheapen Picard's experience as much as it cheapens the adventure for the audience and it's interesting how they spoil it upfront. Yes, she's a trojan horse, though what led up to it wasn't easy to keep suspension of disbelief going and there's a lot of conveniences being used. Pt 2 copies almost verbatim a scene where the Borg are adding in something into the cranial implant, complete with glowing laserbeam cat toy pointed at the camera lens. There's zero dramatic impact. Though it did signify the start of the blu-ray revolution and being roughly a couple years since blue lasers were perfected (~1996 or so), that headpiece prop probably cost as much as Picard's red one back in 1990...

Janeway knew she wouldn't stay that way because of the plotting-by-numbers, though why she would risk assimilation - or the degree of which bits are replaced with whatever - for "a highly experimental" tactic per the EMH and another plot point that's questionable - the nanovirus that has to be spread via the central plexus, something that runs counter to previous Borg standards of distribution and redundancy to prevent "all eggs in one basket"... it'd be worse if this story did cheapen TBOBW. But does cheapen the Borg.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It is a bit weird the Borg never adapted to the Trojan horse virus for a year and a half.

 

[Brennyren]

Herding "Good Shepherd" out. Because I find it implausible that, on a ship no bigger than Voyager, our little lost sheep had managed to go unnoticed for six years. Because I get tired of seeing "A Mother to Her Crew" as the primary model for women in leadership. And because the situation being resolved by the selfish guy being willing to sacrifice himself is such a cliché it makes me grind my teeth.

Props, however, for the fact that the class screw-ups weren't Maquis for once.

Survival Instinct
Riddles
Dragon's Teeth
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Child's Play
Life Line

 

[Seven of Five]

Riddles has good intentions with the Neelix/Tuvok relationship, but the problem is resolved a bit too easily considering the brain damage Tuvok suffered.

Survival Instinct
Dragon's Teeth
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Child's Play
Life Line

 

[Farscape One]

"DRAGON'S TEETH" goes because the rest are a bit better, and we never see the Vaadwaur again, despite Janeway's assurance of doubting we saw the last of them.


Survival Instinct
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Child's Play
Life Line

 

[Brennyren]

"Child's Play" is finished. Poor Icheb has the second-worst parents in Trek (the worst are Seven's), but I will admit what tipped my vote is that we now know the likable guy will never catch a break.

Survival Instinct
Pathfinder
Blink of an Eye
Memorial
Life Line

 

[BigDaveX]

Blink of an Eye. Neat premise and the execution isn’t bad at all, but there are just a few too many logical holes in how they go about it.

Survival Instinct
Pathfinder
Memorial
Life Line

 

[Sakonna]

"Survival Instinct", which I like, but the final conflict being "should we have them reassimilated for their own good?" is always a bit too much of a stretch for me.

Pathfinder
Memorial
Life Line

 

[BlueStuff]

Memorial - not for me. Forcing people to experience a trauma?

Pathfinder
Life Line

 

[Oddish]

Arghhh... Pathfinder and Lifeline... they're both so good! But I'll give Pathfinder the nod because it's got Barclay, Troi, Neelix the ice cream stealing cat, and a heartwarming final scene.

WINNER: Pathfinder.

 

[Orphalesion]

Eh, not a fan of pathfinder, nor Life Line. Like...why shove Barclay and Troi into Voyager?
But then again, I wouldn't know which other episode should have won either.

ANnd of course to each their own.

 

[Oddish]

I enjoyed both. Life Line is a rare thing because one of the actors actually helped write it. But I liked the way Pathfinder reimagined Voyager... the Maquis still in civilian clothes, for instance.

 

[Orphalesion]

I can't believe "UNIMATRIX ZERO" is still here. Janeway plans to get on the cube and further the rebellion... by getting assimilated? Being assimilated was a horrible experience, and this just cheapens EVERYTHING Picard, Seven, and anyone else went through.

It's part of the bigger problem in Voyager that the Borg had decayed into recurring bad-guys that could easily be beaten or outsmarted. Like by the final seasons of Voyager it felt like Janeway could waltz into the Borg Queen's evil villain lair and bitch slap her whenever she felt like it and got out unscathed because the script said so.

I disagree that Janeway getting assimilated cheapens Picard's experience. Cause Janeway was a trojan horse, she knew she wouldn't stay that way. Any more than taking a tour of Alcatraz cheapens the experience of people who've been to

That's a flawed comparison and not what's it about. Janeway's easy assimilation and de-assimilation cheapens the threat of assimilation from a narrative standpoint. Like...why would Picard and Seven angst about their time spent assimilated, when Janeway, B'ellana and Tuvok can flip back and forth without any lasting consequences?

In earlier stories assimilation was portrayed as a point of no return and recovering from it, even if it was for a relatively short time like Picard, was portrayed as difficult, long and as inflicting long-term emotional wounds on an individual.
In that episode it was like "Well, gonna get myself assimilated for an afternoon, BRB!"

 

[JirinPanthosa]

So because in 2366 they didn't have a response to assimilation, they can't have one a decade later of Starfleet researchers and access to alien technology and three years of practice with Seven and the children?

You act like Unamatrix Zero happened two days after Best of Both Worlds. It was ten years of story and technological development.

The majority of the trauma to Picard and Seven wasn't the physical act of being assimilated, it was not being in control and being made to do horrible things to innocent people.

 

[BigDaveX]

The majority of the trauma to Picard and Seven wasn't the physical act of being assimilated, it was not being in control and being made to do horrible things to innocent people.

Which, if their anti-assimilation drug had failed - which actually did eventually happen to Tuvok - would have been exactly what would have happened to them. They treat it like some standard-issue "behind the lines" mission, when in fact the consequences of it going wrong would be the Borg potentially using them to kill and/or assimilate their loved ones.

 

[Orphalesion]

So because in 2366 they didn't have a response to assimilation, they can't have one a decade later of Starfleet researchers and access to alien technology and three years of practice with Seven and the children?

You act like Unamatrix Zero happened two days after Best of Both Worlds. It was ten years of story and technological development.

The majority of the trauma to Picard and Seven wasn't the physical act of being assimilated, it was not being in control and being made to do horrible things to innocent people.

I'm not saying there can't be advances against the Borg, but, as BigDaveX points out in the post above mine, they treat it as an ordinary mission, "gonna get assimilated for an afternoon in order to defeat the Borg yet again, BRB!"
Also...the Borg also had 10 years to advance their assimilation techniques...and in First Contact, which happened just before the Voyager episodes (or at least close to it, IDK and IDC about the exact timeline, sorry) assimilation is still treated as this super serious thing.

 

[Qonundrum]

Was hoping for "Blink of an Eye", since "Pathfinder" is a bit corny in spots, complete with guessable ending like with most fairy tales, but it still works and rises above the sum of its parts. Can't complain either way...

True, UM0 takes place years later, but it's amazing how quickly the anti-assimilation brain blocker was developed. Or notes taken from Starfleet database and expounded upon - that's fair enough to roll along with in that aspect. Still, VOY half the time acts as if they have a copy of the entire Starfleet database on ship and the other half the time they say they can't contact Starfleet due to the distance. Not that the show isn't riddled with inconsistencies that TNG would be generally more conscious to not make. It's a reason why "big bads" become stale; more and more weaknesses and workarounds have to be devised - and making a standardized one quickly goes south. Which is odd for another reason; the Borg would adapt. Compared to being able to fully prevent any assimilation would be a far worse stretch.

UM0 did have a benefit of (finally) adapting to phaser pew pew shots after the first hit, instead of TNG where time after time they'd konk out half a dozen or more until their shields went up. It's why "Child's Play" was far more effective; the focus wasn't directly on the Borg but using a new method in a convincing (and extremely dark and morbid) way, though if I recall correctly, the Borg cube that was infected by a pathogen had taken place, brought about by Icheb during his (first) assimilation, so doing so again would be countered a lot more quickly. Leucon was contriving the first assimilation story as the Borg aren't going to handpick kids like people pick through apples in a supermarket bin. They prefer drones when possible and won't let 'em escape (apart from, Dark Frontier when Queen B. humors Seven in a gambit.,)