The least disliked episode 2021 - VOY Season Six

[Qonundrum]

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.

Except the Borg are also shown, for their big mortal enemy (humans), to keep sending "just one cube"(tm) for every shiny new invasion, when we all know that the Federation barely scrapes by with one cube so two ought to do it. Never mind the number of times the one-liner of "After one or two shots they'll adapt" and six phaser blasts later do they finally do so. Do the Borg not have heuristic stochastic analysis abilities?! "Hey look 3 of 8675309, it's a Federation peep that's just beamed aboard our cube. We saw people like them six years ago, four years ago, three years ago, one year ago, six weeks ago... Are they a threat?" 3 retorts: "No. Keep walking, we're almost to the bathroom." (Seriously, that is dredged up as often as "We are the borg, resistance is futile, you will be assimilated." as if the Collective can't see it's a boatload of humans that identify as "Federation" in front of them. And there's no magic cloak anyone deployed or got discovered.) Or even looking at a phaser pulled out and not realize it's going to be used?!!! The script writers sometimes do get into corners when dealing with "the big bad" and how to keep them either (a) big and bad, and/or (b) interesting. IMHO, VOY kept them interesting far more than STFC had - so for all the nitpicks one can bring up, the overall and lengthy success rate is still important to mention. But most if not all Star Trek incarnations also have the ship using transporters through its own raised shields when plot-convenient as well, which also takes any viewer who's sufficiently invested to know that in every other story told that that's not possible to do...

 

[Orphalesion]

Except the Borg are also shown, for their big mortal enemy (humans), to keep sending "just one cube"(tm) for every shiny new invasion, when we all know that the Federation barely scrapes by with one cube so two ought to do it. Never mind the number of times the one-liner of "After one or two shots they'll adapt" and six phaser blasts later do they finally do so. Do the Borg not have heuristic stochastic analysis abilities?! "Hey look 3 of 8675309, it's a Federation peep that's just beamed aboard our cube. We saw people like them six years ago, four years ago, three years ago, one year ago, six weeks ago... Are they a threat?" 3 retorts: "No. Keep walking, we're almost to the bathroom." (Seriously, that is dredged up as often as "We are the borg, resistance is futile, you will be assimilated." as if the Collective can't see it's a boatload of humans that identify as "Federation" in front of them. And there's no magic cloak anyone deployed or got discovered.) Or even looking at a phaser pulled out and not realize it's going to be used?!!! The script writers sometimes do get into corners when dealing with "the big bad" and how to keep them either (a) big and bad, and/or (b) interesting. IMHO, VOY kept them interesting far more than STFC had - so for all the nitpicks one can bring up, the overall and lengthy success rate is still important to mention. But most if not all Star Trek incarnations also have the ship using transporters through its own raised shields when plot-convenient as well, which also takes any viewer who's sufficiently invested to know that in every other story told that that's not possible to do...

Here's what I think of the Borg: they were at their most interesting in QWho, but the way they portrayed them in QWho they would have been far too powerful to become recurring villains. So I kinda think that they never should have been recurring villains, especially not ones that show up as often as they did on Voyager. And to me the villain decay and overuse of the Borg was one of the worst aspects of Voyager. Like they and their Queen almost became like Rita Ripulsa in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, a weekly opponent that will always be beaten without the need for any sacrifices.
But at the same time I can understand that the Borg as presented in QWho and BOBW were such a cool villain that it's only logical that both fans and the writers wanted more of them. I jsut think Voyager went too far.

 

[Qonundrum]

Here's what I think of the Borg: they were at their most interesting in QWho, but the way they portrayed them in QWho they would have been far too powerful to become recurring villains. So I kinda think that they never should have been recurring villains, especially not ones that show up as often as they did on Voyager. And to me the villain decay and overuse of the Borg was one of the worst aspects of Voyager. Like they and their Queen almost became like Rita Ripulsa in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, a weekly opponent that will always be beaten without the need for any sacrifices.
But at the same time I can understand that the Borg as presented in QWho and BOBW were such a cool villain that it's only logical that both fans and the writers wanted more of them. I jsut think Voyager went too far.

^^this

Villain decay (cool term ) is bad enough, but I'd opine the rot started with "I, Borg", Maybe not intentionally, but for all its attempts to not be a an action-redo, its flaws led to "Descent" - quite the title in its own right, and something I'd rather watch far less than most of VOY's Borg outings.

It almost bugs me more that "Scorpion" pretended the Borg Queen didn't exist (STFC came out a year earlier and was she not used because they wanted to keep the reveal a spoiler for the 3 people who had seen VOY but not STFC or were they going back to basics?), but then Queen B. gets integrated into the show anyway. In fairness, the actors were well-cast and very effective, but the Queen concept opened the door to more of their rot when, ideally, keeping them in the background and exploring the tangential issues (Seven, Icheb) were generally more rewarding (and suitably dark and compelling for all the right storytelling reasons) than yet another trip to a cube to granborgy's house they go... which isn't to say that Seven-centric stories got worn out either... like TNG with "Again With The Klingons"(tm) (and how DS9 and its format, for a while, breathed in new life because nobody was going to show Worf ritually slicing up Kurn in TNG and Sisko's reaction to that is something nobody on the big-D would even begin to do...) But I digress. VOY did go overboard, but to me they did revitalize for a while what TNG didn't or couldn't do.

It bugs me far more when people say "Bring back ________!" because of their being strong foes in their one-time outing and yet we all know the same things will, later or sooner, happen to ________ if they return. The Zygons from Doctor Who are an easy example of that. Be grateful nobody thought of a way to do the Wirrn. It's not impossible but it's definitely not easy without having a proper and robust vision combined with keeping true to the stated traits and limitations of the baddie.... bending or breaking those can, of course, expand the lore or shatter it. IMHO, after TNG flopped with the Borg, it's impressive VOY made them feel halfway decent at all.

VOY, IMHO, did the right thing to explore Seven and Icheb as they are tangential and in of themselves don't dilute the Borg (as well as often remaining fresh). But every time they meet a cube, sphere, diamond, clover or purple horseshoe, the convenience factor seems to increase. And it's often sweeps week or a season ender too. Which reminds, "Hope and Fear" was shrewd in what it was doing too...barring a couple questions, I need to pop back over to season 4's contest...

 

[BigDaveX]

"Hey look 3 of 8675309, it's a Federation peep that's just beamed aboard our cube. We saw people like them six years ago, four years ago, three years ago, one year ago, six weeks ago... Are they a threat?" 3 retorts: "No. Keep walking, we're almost to the bathroom." (Seriously, that is dredged up as often as "We are the borg, resistance is futile, you will be assimilated." as if the Collective can't see it's a boatload of humans that identify as "Federation" in front of them. And there's no magic cloak anyone deployed or got discovered.) Or even looking at a phaser pulled out and not realize it's going to be used?!!!

Ironically, that whole "the Borg never react to intruders until they start shooting up the place" thing seems to be the result of a misunderstanding of their debut episode, where Riker did initially surmise that the Borg didn't consider the away team a threat, but then Data later worked out that the Borg were actually focusing on repairing the chunks that the Enterprise had blasted out of their cube earlier and just considered the away team less of a priority.

So, in that context, the Borg's actions come across as more "Focus on repairing the damage caused by the ship with multi-megaton armaments, and leave the away team whose hand weapons we've already adapted to", rather than "Eh, what possible harm could there be in letting armed hostiles run freely around our ship?"

 

[Oddish]

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...

"Blink of an Eye" was a strong episode with a wonderful premise, and the Doctor's experience had shades of "The Inner Light" about it. It would have been a worthy choice. So would "Memorial" and "Life Line".

 

[Farscape One]

"SURVIVAL INSTINCT", "BLINK OF AN EYE", and "MEMORIAL" are the ones I was hoping to win season 6.

 

[Qonundrum]

Ironically, that whole "the Borg never react to intruders until they start shooting up the place" thing seems to be the result of a misunderstanding of their debut episode, where Riker did initially surmise that the Borg didn't consider the away team a threat, but then Data later worked out that the Borg were actually focusing on repairing the chunks that the Enterprise had blasted out of their cube earlier and just considered the away team less of a priority.

So, in that context, the Borg's actions come across as more "Focus on repairing the damage caused by the ship with multi-megaton armaments, and leave the away team whose hand weapons we've already adapted to", rather than "Eh, what possible harm could there be in letting armed hostiles run freely around our ship?"

For Q Who, sure. Every time after that, it's not so easy. In The Best of Both Worlds, the group of them beam over to the (perfectly operational) Borg shop to fetch their kidnapped comrade and get to waddle around, instead of being noticed and then taken captive to be assimilated as well. But then there'd be no cliffhanger. "How many Borg does it take to screw in a light bulb into Locutus' head?" Not the whole collective, and not even if they had 70% ship loaded with Locutuses waiting their turn for a bulb. There are simply too many of them to believe that for anything beyond their introductory setup. After every thing analyzed in Q Who, there should be no way. And yet they still don't have replicator technology to create their own deflector shield replacement parts with, which must have been done offscreen after "First Contact" or else they'd not be able to re open the borg time tunnel to get home. That's also the same movie that has Picard spouting "They'll ignore us until they consider us a threat." despite these same Cyborgs were already doing the invading and from their perspective any non-assimilated critter is a threat. Picard and Ruby WERE a thread! Ugh!!

That, and while it's true the Borg can collectively repair a ship faster, they still have plenty of drones droning about the corridors. The Borg, given how many species they've dealt with, know that when an animal is injured it's also going to leave something for self-defense. In Q WHO, it's nothing short of a miracle that Riker and co were not taken prisoner, given the dogfight already ensued. The episode carries the context well, given the alienness of it all, but it still doesn't hold up. The context that all the Borg would ignore their attackers, now beaming in for the nth time, is too much. Certainly not after their first and/or second episodes where they might not think anyone inside their cube would not fire a weapon. (The Borg might think "Oh, a retuned phaser, it might cause some very minor damage and we're decentralized and redundant with all our systems so one zap is negligible." but it's still preferable to have nothing to need fixing in the first place. Then again, humans can be even weirder.