"Collective": Tuvok's reassurance to Harry?

[Ragitsu]

Hello!

Recently, I was thinking of dialogue from "Collective" (i.e., the episode where we meet the Borg adolescents). There was a moment when Harry Kim was stuck onboard a Borg cube and relaying information back to Voyager; the gloomy scenery finally began to rattle his nerves and Tuvok - previously listening in - attempted to allay the Ensign's fear.

KIM: I need a little distraction. This hike is bringing up some bad memories.
TUVOK: An earlier visit to a Borg Cube?
KIM [OC]: No, a haunted house my parents took me to when I was six.
TUVOK: Borg vessels may be forbidding, but they are not haunted.

"Forbidding" is a fairly subjective assessment...an emotional appraisal. Was Tuvok trying to calm down his subordinate while not truly believing in that concession or did he - deep in a recess of his mind - feel much the same?

 

[Tosk]

1: such as to make approach or passage difficult or impossible
2: disagreeable, repellent
3: grim, menacing

Seems fine to me. Even without the reassurance angle, still a perfectly cromulent word to use in this circumstance.

 

[Oddish]

Was Tuvok trying to calm down his subordinate while not truly believing in that concession or did he - deep in a recess of his mind - feel much the same?

Vulcans understand and feel the same emotions we do... they're just taught from childhood to control them.

And in any case, "forbidding" is an apt description for a Borg ship.

 

[Finn]

I'm always perplexed by that story by Harry, after what happened during the events of the Scorpion two-parter....I mean he got attacked by an alien and almost died...

It's almost like they forgot about that...different writers or something?

Or it was hell of a haunted house back in South Carolina....

 

[at Quark's]

^Well, that happened while he was a Starfleet Officer, and as Janeway says, 'weird is part of the job'. So he probably just shrugged that off and didn't even think about it for a minute or two afterwards

 

[Summer Solstice]

I think Tuvok was just trying to calm Harry down - he's spent a very long time around humans in general and quite a lot of time working with Harry in particular, he knows what to say to reassure Harry.

 

[Ragitsu]

1: such as to make approach or passage difficult or impossible
2: disagreeable, repellent
3: grim, menacing

Seems fine to me. Even without the reassurance angle, still a perfectly cromulent word to use in this circumstance.

To a species that inherently reacts negatively to the Borg cube - be it the exterior, interior or both - due to their particular psychology (geometric shapes and/or darkness can set some folks off), I can see how the second two definitions fit; I can also see how an individual of any species that learned to fear the Borg through experience would develop an apprehension regarding Borg technology. However, I question the universality of this trepidation. A species that is interwoven with technology (e.g., the Bynars) or evolved in a particular environment may find a Borg cube pleasingly elegant or efficient in its design. Another species may appreciate the black/dark and green aesthetic of Borg lighting. In the real world, there are people who adore the flexibility, coloration, smooth lamella and sinuous movement of a certain beast; while I do not carry a phobia towards this creature (though I do acknowledge its danger as I would any other life form potentially lethal to humans), I am not gaga for snakes. However, I now seem to recall a Borg cube showing up in one of Tuvok's thoughts; if that is true, then perhaps there is unanimity of feeling - concerning this specific enemy and their vessels - between the Ensign and the ordinarily valorous Vulcan.

The first definition seems an unlikely fit here, if that was indeed Tuvok's intention: haunted houses are all about scary imagery...rarely do they throw you into a maze and Harry didn't blatantly convey consternation over getting lost.

I'm always perplexed by that story by Harry, after what happened during the events of the Scorpion two-parter....I mean he got attacked by an alien and almost died...

It's almost like they forgot about that...different writers or something?

Or it was hell of a haunted house back in South Carolina....

I wonder if a haunted house of twenty-fourth century Earth is simply a holodeck or if Mister Kim was subjected to an old-fashioned experience (perhaps with superior animatronics?).

I think Tuvok was just trying to calm Harry down - he's spent a very long time around humans in general and quite a lot of time working with Harry in particular, he knows what to say to reassure Harry.

Do you think he felt likewise?

 

[Tosk]

Sometimes Vulcans use words or phrases that have an emotional connotation.
Like Harry Nilsson said, "That's the way it is, baby."

 

[Summer Solstice]

Do you think he felt likewise?

No. I think Tuvok probably feels very little because he tried to become a Kolinahr master.