Star Trek Voy - Season 6 - Episode 26
Star Trek Voy - 6x26 - Unimatrix Zero, Part I
Originally Aired: 2000-5-7
Synopsis:
The Borg Queen returns. [DVD]
Problems
- Voyager fires a phaser from one of its nacelles in this episode...
Factoids
None
Remarkable Scenes
- Harry bemoaning about not being promoted: "I didn't notice a little box on my chair!"
- The Borg Queen bribing Voyager with transwarp technology.
- Voyager attacking the cube.
- The destruction of the Delta Flyer.
- Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres being assimilated.
My Review
A decent premise but a fairly weak episode. I liked the idea of Unimatrix Zero. Reminded me of a Borg version of the Matrix, where the Collective itself is the Matrix and those in Unimatrix Zero are the freed people of Zion. Unfortunately the episode gets several things wrong. I'm forced to question Janeway's and her crew's extreme recklessness, only Tom and the doctor seem to question the whole idea of invading the Borg in such a manner. The cliffhanger is totally ineffective; are we led to believe it's possible Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres are all lost? Obviously this will not be the case. There are even subtle hints that this is all going according to plan, such as the doctor's "no change yet" line followed by Chakotay's "so far so good" line after the doctor reported that Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres had been assimilated. The writers aren't fooling anybody here. I'd rather have had a more interesting plot in place of this ineffective attempt at misdirection.
The following are comments submitted by my readers.
I second the reviewer's take on this being a kind of Matrix analogue. In fact, I'm pretty sure the writers had this explicitly in mind. It's a pretty direct homage. If you listen closely to the music just as the Doc and Tuvak bring Janeway into the Unimatrix, (itself similar in some ways to Neo's first plunge) there's a telltale audible cue - for a few bars, the music is very much like the Matrix theme! And Seven's subsequent introduction, "Welcome to Unimatrix Zero," is not unlike several of Morpheus' famous lines. I thought this little touch was neat.
- - -
I also want to point to a small but annoying problem that occurs shortly after. Janeway, Axum, and Seven interrupt a Borg drone attacking the Klingon, and for some bizarre reason, out of the three of them it's only Janeway who jumps into battle. The other two (who should obviously be much more invested in Unimatrix Zero and its residents) just watch, like bumps on a log. Doesn't really make much sense. The whole thing was scripted to make a dramatic segue to the Queen, so she could see the events unfolding and scream, "Janeway!" like some evil witch looking through her magic mirror or crystal ball. It doesn't make sense and it's annoying.
Borg Queen: "I can give you transwarp technology to get you home faster if you just stay out of affairs that don't concern you."
Janeway: "Sorry, I can't do that."
<Queen closes channel>
Chakotay: "Why this stab at diplomacy?"
Janeway: "She's trying to find out what we're up to. She's worried."
Chakotay: "You're probably right. It's a shame they don't have a more efficient way to find out everything we know; to 'assimilate' all of our knowledge, so to speak."
Janeway: "Yeah, lucky for us! Whelp! Tell B'Elanna and Tuvok to meet me in the shuttle bay. It's time to go get assimilated!"
Ugh, this show sometimes. I'm becoming convinced that Voyager needs to just stay away from Borg story lines entirely: they're defanging them to the point that they're not even remotely scary anymore. As I watched this episode (and Part 2) I found myself constantly thinking "This makes no sense! And THAT makes no sense! What? Why? How...?" Seriously, as Voyager makes its way across the Delta Quadrant they should be running like hell anytime they detect anything remotely Borg-like on long range scanners. Travelling through the Borg-infested Delta Quadrant should be harder that travelling through Mordor, and, as we know, one does not simply walk into Mordor. Voyager, however, seems to be simply walking through Borg space, engaging cubes left and right like they were the Kazon or something. This episode had an interesting premise, but the way this show has been handling the Borg is really ruining it for me.