93 – One

Grade: B-

Summary

Seven of Nine is trying to learn how to make small talk. She’s practicing on the Holodeck, but only manages to annoy everyone and frustrate herself. In the next scene, everyone seems to be in pain. It appears that this nebula has caused the problem. But Voyager can’t get home without going through this nebula. So they come up with a plan to put everyone except Seven in stasis tubes for about a month.

Commentary

Eh, I’m not all that impressed with this episode. There are just too many unanswered questions. First of all, why is everyone but Seven affected by this nebula? Where did the ship get all these stasis tubes for everyone on the ship? Does every ship have enough stasis tubes for all of its crew? Where do they keep the stasis tubes when they are not in use? Will they ever use these again?

Nothing really happens in this episode until after a strange alien boards the ship asking for a trade. After that, the episode takes predictable twists and turns (the Doctor and Seven absolutely must split up because there’s a problem that requires one to be on the Bridge and the other in engineering; suddenly the Doctor’s mobile emitter stops working so she’s all by herself; Doctor can’t see the problems and threats that Seven can see; Doctor’s program is deteriorating, so they obviously have to run back to Sickbay because the computer will delete his program for some unknown reason; etc.). It gets to be so predictable that it becomes manufactured drama. I don’t like being manipulated. I’d rather see something more organic and realistic.

Actually, the only thing that I really found interesting about this episode was seeing a Borg handle being all by herself on the ship. She’s used to being connected to thousands of other beings and hearing everyone’s thoughts. Now she’s all alone and in charge of running the entire ship while they’re in this nebula. As you might expect, she doesn’t handle it particularly well – especially at the end when she starts seeing things that aren’t there.

The acting is good, but the story is mediocre. Besides, we’ve seen this kind of story in Star Trek many other times – too many other times that I can’t name them all. Something original would be nice.

Of Note

The guest alien who supposedly visits Seven on Voyager sounds just like the late Orson Welles.