109 – Dark Frontier, Part 1

Grade: B+

Summary

The Borg are back, but this time, Janeway has a plan. She transports a photon torpedo onto the Borg ship and when it detonates, it destroys the entire ship, since it took place too close to a power grid. They beam aboard a lot of the debris to see if they can steal any of the Borg technology.

Commentary

The first half of this episode looks like a movie that this series never created. The production quality is very high – I bet they spent a fortune on this episode, actually. The storyline is close to the Voyager finale. It’s close enough, in fact, that I think they basically just re-told the same story. My opinion of the finale is damaged by the fact that they already told this story once before.

I don’t really have any complaints about this episode. It’s enjoyable and it goes by very quickly. I like it that they’ve intermixed the past and the present in the story. We learn more about the current story by watching the events of the past story.

I don’t understand why the Borg want to bring Seven back into their Collective and yet they want to leave her the way she is. That doesn’t make any sense to me at all. But then the Borg don’t always speak clearly.

I’m also not sure about Janeway’s plan to steal technology from the Borg. Sure, I know what the goal is – but I just don’t know how a Starfleet Captain could justify it. She’s putting the entire ship and all of her crew at extreme risk. Well, whatever. The episode is still very fun to watch.

Of Note

During one scene, Tom Paris spouts off some really odd facts about Fort Knox. First, he says that in the 22nd Century, “money went the way of the dinosaur” in the New World Economy. Then he refers to an attempt by the Ferengi to break into Fort Knox, in the 2360s. So there’s no such thing as money, but the Ferengi still want to get into Fort Knox? That’s weird. Besides, Ferengi don’t want gold – they want gold-pressed latinum. Gold is worthless to them.

Personally, I don’t understand the economics of Earth. The general idea is that there will be no more greed or poverty in the future, but there is also not going to be any money. What I want to know is how are things paid for and what is used to pay for them? Suppose you go into a Starbuck’s for a coffee in the 24th Century. How do you pay for it if there is no money? As far as I know, Star Trek never explains this concept of trade without money. They take forever to explain all kinds of technical things on the ship and how to revive people from transporter patterns, but they never once explain how to buy something if there is no money. Maybe they barter for everything. Who knows. I would also add who cares, but I honestly can’t. Star Trek makes this point so many times that I feel it should be explained.

The girl who plays Annika Hansen has darker colored eyes than Jeri Ryan. Did the Borg turn her eyes blue after she was assimilated?