The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2007-01-12 at 8:57pm:
  I agree that the story could have been better, but I still think it was an above average plot. Certainly better than Tsunkatse, which got a 7. But I do agree that a lot of it was unrealistic as far as the Borg just leaving the cube floating in space for anyone to salvage. I wouldn't put it past them though, with their ridiculous arrogance.
• From szycag on 2008-09-29 at 6:43am:
  This episode is absolutely vile. The last thing I want to see is bad child actors parading around as Borg. I understand the circumstances of the plot, but even considering them... it's just a major disappointment and it's done all wrong. Voyager's writers seemed intent on trivializing the Borg to the level of just another ST villain. Yeah, it's cool to see them out of their element once in a while, but not like this. The leader kid's acting is especially bad.
• From Harrison on 2012-12-20 at 4:55pm:
  Yes, a flawed episode that could have been a great one. The flaws are disruptive to the general Trek narrative, undermining hitherto established basics -- eg, that the Borg return for their technology, or destroy it, when a vessel is disabled. Adding to the list of problems ... what happens to the Borg baby? The writers took care to establish the children as recurring characters, yet the baby is never, ever mentioned again in any episode.
• From TheAnt on 2013-10-09 at 11:09am:
  The Star Trek take on Lord of flies
  
  Even though this isn't one of the very best of Voyager, it still stand out as one of the better episodes of the series.
  
  One detail I especially like is that the deck of cards which take all attention for the 4 in the shuttle so that they are caught in the first place.
  Also foils the plan to blow up the cube shield generator when the Borg girl use the cards to follow and find ensign Kim.
  Thumbs up and a must see!
  
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-30 at 7:49pm:
  You know that Collective voice you hear whenever you communicate with a Borg cube? "We are the Borg, you will be assimilated, your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own, resistance is futile, et cetera et cetera..." I always assumed that was thousands of drones on the cube speaking as one. I guess not. I guess it's just... like, a vocal filter anyone on the Cube can use.
  
  And why the heck do the Borg keep biographical data on the individual drones? Seems like an incredibly inefficient use of computer memory, especially if all of the drones had access to those files.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2007-04-17 at 9:09pm:
  This episode epitomizes Voyager. It's really painful for me to even talk about this episode. Tom Paris turns Harry into a cow. The Doctor is a minister. The show has nothing to do with outer space.
  
  God. Since it doesn't break canon, I can't give it a zero on this scale. However, its score is the limit as x approaches zero. It's as close to a zero as you can get without actually being one.
  
  As a matter of fact, I actually think that "Threshold" has a better plot.
• From f. ive on 2010-01-28 at 11:08pm:
  Paris didn't turn Kim into cow. He turned his holographic girlfriend
• From L on 2014-01-30 at 8:44am:
  Almost worth it just for the scene where the Doctor slams open the church doors and yells "Sinners!"
  
  But otherwise, lame.
  
  
• From Hugo on 2015-06-27 at 7:12pm:
  That doc has a jeremiah-chrichton-level-bad beard. A thorough stupid/silly episode, but it still kept my interest. Not sure what that means though.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Robert on 2006-12-29 at 9:06pm:
  I always thought they really missed an opportunity here. If they had to bring back a dead crewman for the story, why not bring back Harry? Remember, the 'real' Harry was killed in "Deadlock" and was replaced with the 2nd Voyager's. Wouldn't it have been a kick if it was his body that had been recovered by the Koboli?
• From Pete Miller on 2007-01-16 at 10:15pm:
  First of all, this episode is an example of how VOY is suffering from "Badda Bing" syndrome, as you might put it. It's well into season 6 and we're getting a bunch of random crap like this rather than major advancements in the storyline. This episode might have been appropriate had the dead ensign been someone we knew. (In fact this would have been a good way for them to bring back Yar in TNG rather than make her some kind of Romulan hybrid.)
  
  Secondly, this episode is a perfect example of a problem I have trouble reconciling, that Star Trek is rife with: The universal translator. When Ballard starts speaking Kobali, how can Torres tell the difference? The translator should be giving it to her in english or Klingon, or whatever she speaks. Example: When Ballard's "father" comes on board, he is almost definitely speaking Kobali, and everyone can understand him just fine.
  
  This problem is all over the place in star trek. When Worf or Martok or whoever says something in Klingon, how can people tell the difference? Furthermore, isn't martok *always* speaking Klingon?
  
  I realize that the UT is a necessary plot device, but I wish they either mentioned this magic ability it has to determine when you want to speak unintelligibly to the rest of the crew, or just stop putting these problems in.
• From Rob on 2008-04-27 at 12:37am:
  I completely agree with the other Robert... in fact, when I first saw this episode I immediately thought "This could have been a great Harry episode if the 'original' was now the Koboli" and I also thought they could have easily used Ahni Jetal from "Latent Image" and given the Doctor and Harry both an emotionally powerful scene.
  
  Again: Voyager = Wasted Opportunities
• From f. ive on 2010-01-29 at 10:37pm:
  ah, Lyndsay Ballard. To me, the cutest and most sweetest female character of all the Star Trek series. Why couldn't she just stay and be happy?
• From Anonymous on 2013-01-13 at 7:56am:
  To both Rogers, that Voyager was blown up, there would have been no recoverable body.
• From Al on 2015-10-03 at 3:34am:
  Anon that 2 Robs.
  
  Yes but from the more damaged Voyager copy, Harry dies when he is lost/thrown(?) into outer space. A twist to the ultra fab "Dreadlock" is breached by the Vidians is the less damaged Voyager, leading for that Janeway to order Harry takes the Wildman's baby (like Harry, died in the other ships reality) with him to the other ship as the successful Vidian boarding the "healthier" Voyager now means that 'J' will stop the the invasion by self destructing, destroy in the Vidians threat + setting the other Voyager free to escape the "lock" of phenomena that divided the ship, now given the reversal of fortune the clear best chance of survival (of the two ships) with the Vidians breaching the other ship
• From Vmail on 2015-12-15 at 4:09pm:
  I agree that bringing back Ahni Jetal would have made the most sense... they could even have used a different actor without much of a problem
• From parkbench on 2016-03-01 at 7:01am:
  
  thanks peter miller for noting the translator problem. as a bilingual person who has enjoyed fleetingly studying languages over the years and who works occasionally as a translator, it frustrates me to no end that the universal translator principle is always assumed even to the point of not making sense. i'm a few episodes past this now ("muse") and just trying to understand how communication is happening at all, unless you assume that the matrix locks into your freaking lobes without you even realising it--this somehow on a crashed and non-functioning away mission ship...
  
  also, i wish that ballard had stayed on as a "teaser" permanent character. they could have milked this story arc for a few episodes, made her a kind of 'background' main-character for 3 or 4 episodes with hints of her feelings changing as a back story, and then her actual loss at the end, actually messing w viewers' expectations of a new permanent character. she certainly looked creatively done as an alien; i wish seven's difference w rest of the crew was that pronounced (supermodel w/ 3 pieces of visible robotics is kind of too obviously eye candy/fetish...).
  
  so yeah, cute episode, but lost opportunities, the name of the voyager game.
• From McCoy on 2017-10-22 at 3:30pm:
  In short - it was awful.
  I agree with all noted continuity/logical problems, but it's the morality of this episode which bothers me most.
  But first - why Kobali are altering alien DNA? They've lost their reproduction ability? Or maybe they've never existed as a species and this "pathogen" is some kind of virus, somehow altering humanoids into "kobali form"?
  I find their behavior disgusting and amoral. You can't explain it by "different culture". Stealing a body, altering and reanimating it is very similar to what Borg are doing.
  And my final question - why Janeway allowed Ballard to go back to Kobali? Because she really wanted it? Well, it's bull... Seven didn't want to be disconnected from the collective and it doesn't mean she should stay with Borg.
  Now I want to forget that episode and never see the Kobali again.
• From Amelia Obumhardt on 2022-03-04 at 8:44pm:
  Agreed with pretty much everyone here, they should have brought back someone we knew, I was thinking Suter, the killer that Tuvok helped mentally.
  
  Instead they wasted most of the episode on exposition for a character nobody cares about. Terrible.
• From maggie on 2022-07-06 at 4:55pm:
  Ugh, the Kobali seem to be a rip off of the Oankali in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenisis series. The Kobali use the dead instead of live species with the Oankali. And of course their looks differ too. Otherwise, both mix their DNA with the alien species to reproduce. Both use stasis chambers and place their alien “mates” with families. Both offspring struggle with identity. Don’t forget the similar sounding names…
  
  I don’t see Octavia Butler credited anywhere. For two species to have so many similarities and not be acknowledged feels icky. At min, it’s inspired by, at most it’s a copy with minor modifications.
  
  I’m sure it’s tough being a writer for a revered show. But they can’t be so out of ideas that they are snatching storylines from an award winning sci-fi author, right?
  
  Should have just expanded on the Seven of Nine/mom/teacher/etc episode. Glad for the continuity there.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From tjrt on 2010-02-10 at 12:41pm:
  According to Memory-Alpha.org, Leucon is played by Mark A. Sheppard, while Morn is played Mark Allen Shepherd. Despite the similarity in their names, they're actually different actors. So far for the Morn Appearance...
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-27 at 2:49pm:
  I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. At first I felt like the stakes were too low: here was a brand new character that we, the audience, haven't known long enough to care about, suddenly faced with the decision to leave the ship. YAWN. Who cares?
  
  But the episode actually shaped up nicely, and caused me to care about Icheb when I didn't before, which I suppose was the whole point of the episode. Captain Janeway was again faced with a difficult moral decision (a situation she finds herself in frequently, to the show's credit) and made the call to put the ship in danger to rescue Icheb. Perhaps not the decision I would have made in the same situation (needs of the many, Prime Directive, etc.), but complicated and ultimately defensible decision nonetheless.
• From parkbench on 2016-03-01 at 7:37am:
  this episode surprised me. these days i tend to leave voyager on and sort of half-watch it; i really had expected it to end when icheb beams back down to the planet, but when it kept going & getting more sinister i was suddenly gripped by it (so was my partner, who normally doesn't like such things, that probably helped).
  
  basically i like any conceivable continuity in Voyager, so that definitely biased me towards the episode. and i like that seven has a little bit more to her now than her (& the doctor's) usual data-like dilemma. hopefully they draw this out more.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dstyle on 2015-07-27 at 8:05pm:
  I was worried the episode would end with Harren back on Voyager, asking if he could join some fellow crewmen at their table in the mess hall, so I'm glad to have been wrong on that. He was a truly hopeless case, and both he and Voyager are probably best served with him holed up on deck 15 with Tom Morello (also: awesome!). Harren's abruptly out-of-character gambit to save the Delta Flyer in the final act notwithstanding, I think this was a solid character driven episode.
  
  Also: Billy standing in the middle of Sickbay in his underwear is a good reminder that in the future we won't need any sort of privacy when receiving medical attention.
• From joe on 2016-06-17 at 2:19am:
  Why would any of the carrying of the specs in the opening sequence need to take place? They have ship-wide communications and interconnected databases...it's obviously a plot device, but it's damned annoying and wholly insulting to any avid Trek watcher.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2007-01-22 at 9:23pm:
  I think you're right about the costumes because that was the first impression I got as well. They have this subtle cheapness to them that definitely reminds me of star trek fans' costumes.
• From parkbench on 2016-03-01 at 8:32am:
  i'm surprised this didn't get a higher rating; in a sense it is more of voyager's non-sequiturs, but it feels like this season there's actually a bit of craft to the storylines, and as long as you don't expect too much, it's almost like Voyager's "trying" for once.
  
  we're starting to see--6 seasons too late, in my opinion--something resembling a fulfillment of the original concept idea, interesting and non-connected adventures every week that have a unique flair and a sort of blunt, but a little bit subtle moral edge to them. this one actually felt really lovingly made to me, and is sort of a logical consequence of Voyager traipsing around the quadrant being do-gooders for so long. i liked that somebody eventually would take advantage of it, and i liked the ending deception. i only think we were 'let in' on it too early and it felt like the dilemma wasn't drawn out enough (though i really did feel bad for that telsian...).
  
  so, not the best episode but certainly not a purely 'silly' one like the doctor's singing forays; it seemed to really be an appropriate 'monster of the week' style story--and let's be honest, this is all Voyager's going to ever be good for.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Aris on 2009-08-01 at 6:56pm:
  A fun Episode.Reminded me of the ancient greek tragedies and comedies.Had many elements like the chorus, masks etc. In ancient greek mythology the nine muses were considered as the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. Not many tragedies and comedies have survived. I wonder if among the lost ones, were any similar to this episode... After all a greek ancient writer named Lucian wrote the first sci-fi story ever: "The True Story"
  I laughed very much when Tuvok was snoring. At first I thougt it was the faint sound of Torres' distress call. I'm pretty sure that was the impression Tom Paris also had!
  
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Tragic_Theatre
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_History

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2007-01-24 at 9:15pm:
  Ha! This episode basically gave a big middle finger to Kes. I never liked her and was disappointed to hear that she comes back in this episode.
  
  Problem: Correct me if I'm wrong, but when you set a phaser to "kill", it vaporizes the person!!! Kes just kind of fell over when Janeway shot her. Come on guys, this is season 6 and that's Star Trek 101!
• From Rob on 2008-04-28 at 2:37am:
  Not to pretend to be an expert on phasers or anthing, but I thought that a 'maximum setting' results in vaporization (ST: First Contact). That doesn't necessarily translate to the "kill" setting as a setting below complete vaporization could also cause enough damage to kill a target.
  
  Yes, No?
• From Tony on 2008-09-25 at 1:24am:
  I'm no expert on phasers eaither, so I don't know wheather the kill setting vaporizes or not, but if Kes can stay concious when hit with the stun setting, her powers could have prevented her from being vaporized as well.
  As for the episode itself, I did indeed find it distastefull as I was hoping for Kess to have a happy life after voyager. Presumably she still will after the events of this episode, but with much less of her life left. The fast that she lost some of her powers is anoying as well.
• From OmicronThetaDeltaPhi on 2014-02-16 at 9:56pm:
  Regarding Tuvok's age, "Flashback" explicitly stated that Tuvok was 29 years old in those flashback scenes (which occurred during Star Trek VI, circa 2293). So regardless of how fast Vulcans age, there is simply no way Tuvok could have been less than 100 years old during "Fury" (set in 2376)... unless one of the two episodes was giving Tuvok's age in Vulcan years or something.
  
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-07-10 at 10:37pm:
  My friend, this episode is NOT a 2, it's a 0. A BIG FAT zero.
  
  The poster who said it was a "middle finger" to Kes is absolutely right. Except, unlike him/her I don't think it's at all laudable or even interesting (and certainly not very "Star Trek") to give a "middle finger" to a perfectly moral and good character, even if they are unpopular. And she wasn't even all that unpopular, she was just let go to make room for a new character because the showrunners were changing direction. (In my opinion the new character is much more interesting, but that's beside the point here).
  
  "The Gift" was an unsatisfying send off for Kes, but at least the idea behind it was that she had gone on to a bigger, more enlightened existence (like Wesley Crusher)... This redux, on the other hand, is totally unconscionable! WTF??? Really! If I was Jennifer Lien, I'd refuse to come back for a guest spot like this!
  
  Kethinov, I know your require a canon-defying continuity error to give something a zero rating, does the Tuvok's age thing count? Make it count :-)
  
• From parkbench on 2016-03-02 at 10:36pm:
  agreed that this episode was a mess--an there interesting premise, but almost seemed like an excuse to do a 'bottle show'--recycle a lot of old clips and slightly alter them.
  
  it also had a flimsy premise for kes petulantly getting mad as she got older and exacting revenge, and the second time when she already knew what was coming, somehow forgetting and falling into the same trap. maybe you could stick in things there about 'fate' and whatnot, but they didn't, so it just seems arbitrary.
  
  also tuvok's age thing--i'm confused because wasn't it just a few episodes ago that they were guessing his age, i think tom was, and they said it was already in the hundreds? forget 29...so yes this seemed inconsistent.
  
  anyway a confusing episode which ruined a not-great character=flop. i don't mind them soiling the memory of a "nice" character if they want to, but they didn't even do it well. kes somehow goes off the deep end and doesn't only want to revenge but actually becomes a heedless jackass who tries to condemn the entire crew to death? nope. don't believe it.
• From tigertooth on 2017-07-26 at 4:39am:
  I liked how when they went to the second run-through of the birthday cake scene, the director "crossed the line" and shot it from the reverse angle, almost giving it a mirror-image kind of look from the first time through.
• From Mitchell O on 2023-10-19 at 12:15pm:
  In the season 2 episode “Meld”, Tuvok mentioned that he has studied violence for “over 100 years”, leading further credence to Tuvok being far older.
  
  Either Janeway was incorrect in her calculations and Tuvok was humouring her, or the script writers stuffed up. Likely the latter.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From g@g on 2012-02-01 at 4:15am:
  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.
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-30 at 3:01pm:
  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.
  
  

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Steve Mohns on 2010-08-27 at 3:20am:
  Can someone explain to me why, in this and perhaps other episodes, they have such an dilemma with sending the doctor's data somewhere? He's data - what's the problem sending a copy? At worst there'd be a delta between the experiences of him having two experiences at the same time, which could surely be merged later. Have they ever described it as being some kind of ethical issue? I'd think not, as he doesn't seem to have the same rights as, say, Data had.
  I'd have been happier if they hadn't made an issue of not wanting to sending him because Voyageur'd be without him, and it was dangerous.
• From Kethinov on 2010-08-27 at 8:09am:
  Upfront disclosure: I don't think the writers had their computer science fundamentals quite locked down when they wrote this stuff. The same problem is happening on the new BSG series Caprica right now. The writers on that show make frequent computer science errors, unfortunately. I suppose tech errors are a fact of life on science fiction shows.
  
  That said, the "copy the doctor" issue on Voyager isn't as bad as you might think. It's well established that he takes up so much computer memory that they can't have more than one copy of him on Voyager's computer at any one time. In order for two doctors to delta their experiences and merge into a single codebase, they'd have to be diffed, which requires having both copies of the doctor in computer memory at the same time.
  
  Voyager simply lacks the computer memory for this, so after they transmitted him, they must have deleted him from their computer as a safety precaution so they'd have enough room for him when he got back.
  
  You might wonder why they didn't keep a copy of the doctor around just in case of emergencies while the original was gone and then delete the copy on Voyager just before the other doctor got back, but that raises ethical issues. Should the doctor that remained on Voyager be deleted so that the other may live? Doesn't sound very Federationy.
  
  They *can* store him in a backup module, but again, in order for two doctors to diff and merge their experiences, they both have to exist in the memory of a single computer at the same time. So, on the whole, it seems like the writers accidentally managed to get this one right, just barely. Throughout Voyager's run, I was constantly worried that they would break this rationalization. But they never did! :)
• From dillingham on 2012-01-04 at 9:32am:
  This may or may not be an episode problem: Zimmerman tells the doctor, "I didn't program you for sarcasm!" But if that's true, then the doc learned it exceptionally quickly. I'm pretty sure he was sarcastic from day one, (literally). Rather than an actual episode problem, one could interpret this as a good example of Zimmerman's conflicted and somewhat myopic nature - he's conflicted about his own personality and accomplishments just as he's conflicted about the Mach One (and by extension about the doc). Sarcasm is probably one of those character traits he wasn't quite aware of when he designed the Mach One, and that slipped into the programming unintentionally (like his own arrogance and hot-headedness and all the rest).
  
  (Good epside, btw.)
• From packman_jon on 2012-06-09 at 5:23am:
  Loved this episode. Picardo is brilliant in this episode. The more I watch Voyager, the more I love Picardo
• From Jadzia Guinan Smith on 2015-07-11 at 2:00pm:
  
  It always bothered me too that they can’t copy the doctor. I can’t really accept the explanation that Voyager doesn’t have enough memory for more than one copy at a time, when they had enough to run the whole town of ‘Fair Haven’ continuously for days (or was it weeks?)!
  
  This particular episode has bigger problems, though. E.g. why in the world would 675 EMHs be used to scrub plasma conduits? There’s gotta be less resource-intensive ways to do this – like simple robotic arms or holograms designed specifically for scrubbing (that don’t require extra memory to run subroutines for “faces”). It’s not like the Mark One copies were pieces of equipment that they had to repurpose because they didn’t know what else to do with them. These are just computer files, why not just delete?
  
  Also Troi losing her cool and calling her patients “jerks” was totally absurd. She’s a veteran counselor, with a distinguished career on the federation’s flagship, and she can’t handle a couple of squabbling patients without throwing a tantrum herself? Annoyed the hell out of me.
  
• From tigertooth on 2017-01-07 at 3:57pm:
  I was going to skip this episode, but I saw our host gave it a 9, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Glad I did. They did a good job of keeping it light, adding some drama in, but not overdoing it.
  
  And of course you get Picardo vs Picardo, which I should have known would be fun. It's somewhat a shame that the plot necessitates that he couldn't play Zimmerman very differently than the Doctor (as opposed to, say, Data vs Noonian Soong or Lore), but he got some subtleties in there.
  
  I felt like Barcalay and Troi kind of got shoved in the background, which is odd for TNG characters, but I'm not wild about either of them (though I am a Dwight Schultz fan), so no major loss. That said, their role reversal plan between Zimmerman and the Doctor was pretty great.
  
  And really, Zimmerman's whole plight of his personality being deemed faulty (essentially) was a great hook for the plot.
  
  

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From g@g on 2012-01-31 at 6:24am:
  Here are a few more problems:
  
  A) Wtf is up with the queen's drones being able to go into Unimatrix Zero (and presumably retain their connected to the hive)? It doesn't really square, does it? Isn't that the whole point - that when you go there, you maintain your individuality? If the queen figured out a special means, or constructed a special piece of hardware, that might be understandable, but there was no mention of such a thing.
  
  B) OK. Wtf is up with the queen's counter-plan to release her reprogrammed virus *within* Unimatrix Zero? If it's possible to release the counter-virus within Unimatrix Zero, why did Janeway and Tuvak and Voyager's pregnant chief engineer risk their necks (and then some)? Why didn't Seven just "take a nap" and release the original virus that way? If there was an explanation, it should've been shared with the audience.
  
  C) Why did Janeway embark on this madness in the first place? This has got to be one of her craziest plans ever. To expose herself and two of Voyager's most critical senior officers (one of them with a baby on the way) to assimilation, was pretty much *insane* - experimental neural suppressant notwithstanding. Going Borg and coming back is no small matter, as we've been reminded over and over again (think: 3x17 Unity, with the ex-Borg who'd lost limbs and were otherwise horribly deformed; 6x2 Survival Instinct, with the hopelessly linked ex-Borg "Triad"; and any number of traumatic Seven of Nine episodes starting with 4x6 The Raven, in which she had a frightening relapse and started sprouting new Borg implants like they were acne, but including also 7x2 Imperfection, when her cortical implant failed and almost took her with it, and, in hindsight, 7x18 Human Error, when she encountered her Borg "fail-safe" device.) The point is, assimilation isn't something to fool around with! You don't just visit the Collective for a weekend and come right back. This should've been obvious to Janeway. It was an utterly insane tactical decision, even for her. It made for some interesting aesthetics, but not very thoughtful command. How the doc pieced them back together is beyond me.
• From g@g on 2012-02-01 at 3:34am:
  I just thought of another problem. The residents of Unimatrix Zero apparently have some Neo-like control over this Matrix-like pseudo-existence. This is hinted at when Seven is informed that she "doesn't have to look like that here," meaning she can change her appearance and get rid of her remaining Borg implants (which she does, and manifests some new threads also).
  
  How this is done, and how far it extends, is simply not discussed, which presents plot problems later on. If they can change their appearance within Unimatrix Zero, if they have "supernatural" control over their environment, or perhaps only of their own forms, why were they such easy prey for the Queen's drones? Couldn't they have altered their appearance to, say, become twice as large, or turn into species 8472?
  
  (Or into tigers or machine gun wielding, trenchcoat wearing kung fu masters?)
  
  The Matrix-like dimension of the matter could've given the episode a bit more depth. If this was essentially a dreamworld, where were the lucid dreamers?
• From Abigail on 2013-06-30 at 12:01am:
  One of g@g's thoughts above also occurred to me and really bothered me during this episode. I was bothered a lot by the fact that the Queen was purportedly able to release the counter-virus within Unimatrix Zero. Like g@g said, then why couldn't the initial virus be released that way?! I had trouble getting past that during the episode.
  I hadn't thought about the last point he made - that they could change their appearance, so why not make themselves "tigers or machine-gun wielding, trenchcoat-wearing kung fu masters"? :) Another good point!
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-30 at 4:48pm:
  Borg Queen: "There are 50,000 drones on that cube, but I can no longer hear 3 of them. <cube self destructs, image is replaced by Borg sphere> There are 2,000 drones on this sphere, but only one of them is silent to me. <sphere self destructs> Need I go on? Do you want me to stop?"
  Janeway: "No, by all means, please continue. You, ah, you don't really understand how war works, do you?"
  
  Neither, apparently, does Janeway.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Tony on 2008-09-04 at 11:03pm:
  A brilliant episode except for one thing: I'd like to either have the aliens in the debris field play a larger part in the story, or have them removed entirely. As is, they seem rather random, almost like the writer(s) said, "Hey, we need some action to fill this part, let's add some hostile aliens." Provided, it would seem odd not including and implant stealing scene, and it would be a dull suene if they just took the implant and left, but I feel that they could have done better. Otherwise a great episode.
• From McCoy on 2017-10-29 at 7:48am:
  I think my ocular implant was malfunctioning while watching this. 10/10.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From edward on 2014-04-04 at 4:30pm:
  It is a fun episode, although Harry Kim's "What the hell is going on?" is one of the worst deliveries of a line I've ever heard.
• From parkbench on 2016-03-06 at 1:12am:
  haha, i'm glad i'm not the only one who noticed that weird harry kim line. plus, while he's grown as an actor over the years, there was definitely a few awkward moments in this one.
  
  but yeah i'm a sucker for romance plots, even if they're hetero. how can you get better than a warp-core breach proposal???
  
  totally guessed that it was the nice-looking aliens who were sabotaging at that diplomatic meeting. a decent episode, very trek. not the best, but a decent voyager non sequitur, which is again, all you can hope for w voyager.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Psycroptic on 2013-04-11 at 1:38am:
  Finally an episode where tuvok gets to do something
• From The Emergency Obumpresidential Hologram on 2022-03-07 at 4:45pm:
  Chakotays phasor test was pretty unreliable, Tuvok should have just aimed to miss Janeway. No risk.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Corporal Crust on 2007-03-23 at 10:20pm:
  A great episode. A great script. Perfect use of the doctor. Yes, it was an alien of the week episode and yes he did "do harm" to get the system to change. These are minor quams. However I believe the issue of the doctors morals was a great one to explore. Last time the doctor did harm was when his ethical subroutine was disabled. This time the harm was done under his own will. This shows his growth and his need to handle tough decisions responsibly....on a side note, Gar looks like a reject from the cats musical.
• From jaylong on 2007-04-30 at 6:06pm:
  And why is it that I see so many fat aliens wearing metallic spandex. But yeah, still a good episode.
• From Dstyle on 2015-07-31 at 2:57pm:
  Aw man, Jim O'Heir (Jerry from Parks and Rec) was the cuckold whose wife had run off with Gar! Geez, poor guy can't catch a break anywhere!
• From Mike on 2017-06-27 at 12:08am:
  Captain Kathryn "The Gloves Are Off" Janeway's style of situation handling seems to have rubbed off on the crew. The Doctor makes Chellick a patient in his own hospital. Tuvok considers a forced mindmeld with Gar, and Neelix even gives Gar food poisoning to extract information. You may not approve of their actions, but no denying that this crew has clearly had enough of being slapped around in the Delta Quadrant.
  
  Since we never really see any authority figure higher than Chellick, it's hard to say exactly how much of this is in his hands and how much he is contracted to provide. But even as I spent most of the episode cheering the Doctor's secret efforts to care for the Level Red patients, I have to admit his actions toward Chellick caught me a little off guard...and showed how desperate he was to fight this system.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Corporal Crust on 2007-03-24 at 3:19pm:
  Fun episode. However, what makes this episode interesting is also what makes it flawed. There are so many things going on script-wise that the episode never has time to "breathe" properly. We have holograms, folds, ferengi's, troi, impressions, shields, etc. The writers just have too much going on. The idea is cool, and true to trek. It just needed a little more polishing.
• From Dstyle on 2015-08-01 at 1:26am:
  So wait, are Barclay and Troi a package deal or something? We can't have one without the other because of some obscure contractual clause with TNG? I thought for sure this was going to be just a Barclay episode, but sure enough he crashes Troi's beach vacation to drag her into the episode too! (Also: boobs!)
  
  I love how the Ferengi "brace for impact" by cowering on the floor.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Hatstacks on 2008-11-22 at 7:04am:
  Is it bad I liked the 7/Doc better than both 7 of 9 and the Doctor? Best show of the season, hands down.
• From Hugo von Ahlenius on 2015-12-17 at 7:23am:
  Great to see the hard-headed aliens not being so hard-headed!
• From parkbench on 2016-03-07 at 10:10am:
  oh, come on guys...really? this episode had some fun star trek moments, but it was one of the laziest i've seen in awhile.
  
  first of all, somehow a prisoner-captor dynamic becomes 'innocent flirting' that everyone, including other members of the alien ship casually shrug off, with no explanation. even if we assume they're sadistic and don't care about fraternising with those they kidnap, that's not how it's portrayed at all--we're just supposed to take it for granted that 'you get lonely on a ship'. riight.
  
  then, while it was a joy to see jeri ryan do something new--just like w/ reg in the last episode, and the doctor before that--as a plot it was also preposterous. we're to believe a jumble of photons that comes to sentience inherently has a gender identity and sexual expression? just b/c "he" is programmed to look a certain way, look how long it has taken for him to learn and naturally 'feel' other human traits as simple as sarcasm or singing. and somehow one of the most complex of those--sexual attraction and gender expression--which is by no means fixed, is just naturally read (unsurprisingly) as the doctor being a straight male...
  
  yes, we could retcon a decision somewhere along the way to artificially restrict his curiosity to what he perceives as the opposite sex and the 'correct' sexual attraction he feels for "his" gender, but the problem of believability is his disgust when renek or whoever tries to kiss him in 7's body. it just doesn't make sense. if anyone was to have an open-minded view of sexuality, it would be the doctor, who is curious about all human experience. i can't imagine he would have disgust for something which the show hasn't even hinted at allowing him to explore.
  
  and obviously, you can point to "relationships" he's had in the past, which i've had the same issues with--but episodes like this, just like his initial attraction to 7 herself, strain credulity. i'm going to go out on a limb and say that zimmerman didn't program EMH with a sexual drive per se--meaning it is, like many of us, a mix of inclinations and deliberate filtering. since this show would never explore such themes--why take them on? oh yes, it is a lazy, bottom-of-the-barrel technique to get a surefire filler/fan-cruft episode out of the way and keep moving.
  
  but none of that even matters since this weird melodrama is during their captivity! where is this episode going? the writers certainly don't know, other than a heaping mountain of excuses to get jeri ryan to prance around the screen in a skin-tight suit.
  
  so, in conclusion: the scenes jump back and forth and the pon farr plot is totally disconnected. lots of "telling" rather than "showing" moments (the doctor comparing himself and seven's respective traits in the jail cell). a weak sci-fi bro "wink-wink" premise that is barely fleshed out.
  
  yeah...this episode was purely fun for the technical enjoyment of actors doing new things, not for anything else.
• From Dstyle on 2016-03-10 at 4:31pm:
  Just wanted to comment to give parkbench a shout out: I'm loving all of your commentary!
• From tigertooth on 2018-02-23 at 5:09am:
  Even though it goes without saying, the Seven-as-Doctor stuff was great. She didn't totally get the eyes right, but that might have been a restriction due to the prosthetics she had to wear. The vocal tics were fantastic, and the body language was great, too.
  
  I assumed the Doctor was heterosexual because Zimmerman, on whom he was based, was. Seems pretty simple to me.
• From Graham Bessellieu on 2019-09-10 at 2:22am:
  This was a charming and hilarious episode! I re-watched on a whim and was most pleasantly surprised. It's some of the most fun I've seen on Voyager. :)
  
  Wholeheartedly recommended to any fans of Seven or the Doctor. Logged as a personal favorite.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Mitch89 on 2013-02-20 at 9:00pm:
  I like that Harry Kim finally gets to shine as a leader. He's right when he says he'd be a Lt Cmr if they were back in the Alpha Quadrant. Being passed up for promotion over Tom Paris also seemed a little harsh.
• From zook on 2014-01-07 at 2:23am:
  Ron Glass, who plays Loken here, also played Shepherd Book on "Firefly". Not exactly Star Trek trivia, but you do have reviews for Firefly on this site. Glass even has a similar hairdo. I wonder if the same crazy thing happens when Loken undoes his ponytail ;)
• From Mike on 2017-06-04 at 11:44pm:
  TERAK: "Ensign? What's that?"
  
  KIM: "A junior officer. The lowest ranked officer, actually."
  
  What do I get the feeling that Garrett Wang wasn't acting when he delivered that line so indignantly? :)
  
  As much as I enjoyed seeing them finally focus on Kim's character a bit more, I have to agree that this was a needless and reckless sideshow for Janeway to approve. She certainly should've learned by now that there's a difference between offering help to a species in need without delaying the return trip, and involving themselves in the local political disputes of the quadrant. This is clearly the latter. And yeah, neither side has clear moral superiority here so all that is accomplished is that Voyager loses the resources it needs and Harry may or may not have evened out the balance of power.
  
  As for the problem about the cloaking tech scientists wanting Harry and crew to pilot them back home, I think that's explainable. This world has been blockaded by the Annari and probably doesn't have legions of experienced starship crews. They do have brilliant scientists, however, who probably saw the chance to co-opt some help from aliens that have greater ops experience. The Kraylor probably figured, as long as they're here, why not ask them to do this for us?
  
  An enjoyable episode to be sure, and I do think the subplot with Torres and Icheb was amusing if nothing else.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Lennier on 2008-05-02 at 5:53am:
  In addition to Tylium, the mention of Ovions and Boray are references to the original Battlestar Galactica.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Rick on 2013-04-21 at 4:12pm:
  So the doctor blatantly commits treason and Janeway just says no problem, dont worry about it. She says, "maybe youve become just as responsible as those of us that are flesh and blood... how can I punish you for being who you are."
  
  This has to be one of the worst lines in all of Star Trek. He betrays the crew and commits treason and has to bear no responsibility for his actions. When humans do this you are locked up for life or killed. So the supposedly oppressed doctor can leave the ship to become an opera star or outright betray the crew whenever he wants. Great message
• From Dstyle on 2015-08-04 at 8:24pm:
  Thank God for formulaic story structure! For a second there I was worried the Bajoran hologram wouldn't betray the doctor's trust in an obvious and dramatic fashion, or that Torres wouldn't be able to convince the Cardassian hologram to switch sides through a little casual real talk, or that the diminutive Hirogen engineer wouldn't strike off to help build the new holographic future at the end. Lucky for us the writers followed the formula to a T, saving us the trouble of being pleasantly surprised by a creative or innovative story structure! Thanks, Voyager!

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Jem Hadar on 2010-07-06 at 9:30pm:
  Love this episode, one of my favourites from all of Voyager.
• From joe on 2016-06-19 at 8:34pm:
  Out of all of Trek, Voyager is the worst offender of the time travel non-sense. The is the best example of VOY over-doing the temporal silliness.

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Tallifer on 2011-05-10 at 10:10am:
  This episode was well done: it handled the questions of guilt, injustice, capital punishment, restitution and revenge, the rights of victims and convicts.
  
  Just as it is obvious to the reviewer that Eeko should not have been executed, it is equally obvious to me that he was justly executed: and the episode presented both cases fairly. Imagine being that family sitting there, exposed in front of a crowd of strangers and being pressured to forgo the justice previously granted them.
• From conor on 2012-05-23 at 12:40am:
  "This is a Federation starship, not the barge of the dead." doesn't this count for "I'm a doctor, not a (blah)" style lines, which McCoy was famous for.
  because you have used this example close to this before

No fan commentary yet.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Pete Miller on 2007-03-26 at 8:11pm:
  So Janeway will use the research from Crell Moset, even though it was obtained through illicit means. Yet she won't use the device that the aliens got by killing some other people?
  
  Seems like another Janeway contradiction to me.
• From Jane on 2012-06-26 at 8:44pm:
  Pete miller you have commented negatively on every Voyager episode omg!! get a life or go back to watching DS9 seriously.
• From Psycroptic on 2013-05-29 at 2:18am:
  He has a point, she's a very inconsistent character
• From Dstyle on 2015-08-10 at 7:29pm:
  I watched this episode over a week ago and I can't stop thinking about those awesome aliens native to the Void. Where did they come from? I imagine they were originally a space-faring species that got stuck in the Void millions and millions of year ago, and over time evolved and adapted to become the species they are today. But there are only so many ships in the Void, so there can't be many of this species around. Fascinating.
  
  You know what else I find fascinating? The discussion that has cropped up in the comments to this episode (if you can call three comments spread out over the course six years a "discussion"). I've been thinking a lot about Janeway as I've watched this series and read reactions to the episodes, and there seems to be a lot of anti-Janeway comments: she's a bad leader, she's inconsistent, she makes bad decisions, etc. Some of this is a result of the show being a bit of a disappointment in general: some great premises, but uneven writing and execution. But you know what other show was sometimes inconsistent and uneven? Star Trek: The Next Generation. I bet we can all think of some bad TNG epsiodes where someone was acting horribly out of character, or someone was terribly inconsistent or made some questionable leadership decisions with zero consequences. Yet you don't see comments about what a bad leader Picard is or how he makes contradictory decisions. I don't see a lot of people who dislike Picard because of these episodes, but I do see people hating on Janeway for the same sins. When Picard makes a frustrating or questionable leadership decision he is either given the benefit of the doubt--the issues are seldom black and white, after all--or the blame is placed on the writers (see TNG 2x15 "Pen Pals" for an example of some of this: a thoroughly awful episode IMO). So what's the difference?
  
  You all know what the difference is. Janeway is a woman. I know folks tend to get all offended and clutch their pearls when anyone dares be so impolite to suggest that maaaaaaybe, just maaaaybe, they're being a little unconsciously sexist. But I definitely see sexism at play when I look at the ways all the different Star Trek captains are discusses by the fans. Picard has a bad episode, people blame the writers. Janeway has a bad episode, she's a bad, inconsistent captain.
  
  Here's a fun game you can try: if you're one of the folks who dislikes Janeway, whenever she does something you don't like pretend it was an episode of TNG and Jean-Luc Picard was the captain. Still a bad decision? Or was it, perhaps, the actions of a complex and fallible character? Or just bad writing? Rinse and repeat as needed.
• From QuasiGiani on 2017-10-08 at 11:35pm:
  Co-operation is logical.
  
  Simply put: this is the litmus test.
  
  Yes, yes, if you do not get this; if you do not recognize this; if you need to get pedantic in the face of this... you are not a true fan.
  
  Clutch* clutch cluck cluck cluck.
  
  It is the truth.
  
  And is The Truth.
  
  Co-operation is logical.
  
  (*DStyle, let the clutchers clutch, let the reactionaries react, as the "cards" are laid bare. You goddamned right.)

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Dstyle on 2015-08-05 at 9:42pm:
  Despite possessing the complete technical knowledge of the Borg Collective, the aliens of the week decide to make Seven of Nine their new Efficiency Officer. Geez, if you're going to criminally underutilize her, why not just put her in charge of handing out paper towels in the bathroom?

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Hugo on 2016-03-03 at 9:55pm:
  I liked Yerid, the Quarren investigator, reminded me of that detective in Caprica.
  
  The displays in the power plant looked very cheap btw...
• From Lumzi on 2017-08-19 at 4:29am:
  The city looks like Midgard in some places.
  
  The wrong bat'leth is in B'elanna's quarters.
• From Tarondor on 2019-02-02 at 2:15am:
  I found Janeway’s regret at the sudden ending of her romantic relationship to be very touching. It really underscores the loneliness of command and was a good performance by Kate Mulgrew, as usual.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From JemHadar359 on 2008-04-08 at 3:55am:
  I'm not sure off the top of my head, but wasn't the teaser for "Scorpion Part I" shorter?
• From Nicholas on 2009-01-18 at 1:21am:
  I found one thing puzzling.
  
  Apparently Seven has this Borg implant that causes her to shut down whenever she is about to experience higher emotions. As this has never been noticed before, is the breakup with her holographic toyboy more emotional for her than ANYTHING she has experienced over the last three and a half years, including Icheb nearly sacrificing himself for her, One, John Kelly, all her mother-daughter moments with Janeway, memories of her parents and so forth?
• From g@g on 2012-01-28 at 8:58am:
  You know what, this episode rocked. Somehow I didn't feel totally let down by the "anticlimax." The episode is called "Human Error," afterall. All things cannot end well, and people can't always make the right courageous, well-balanced decisions. Human beings, even ex-borg, don't progress linearly - there are a lot of steps backward, and the end is rarely certain or even clear.
  
  Anyway, I'm rambling, but I second the reviewer about the most memorable piano scene and the other good qualities, and disagree about the ending being thoroughly lousy (especially in hindsight, having scene where this all leads in the season finale).
• From Dstyle on 2015-08-07 at 8:41pm:
  I agree with the previous comment: to consider the ending to be a disappointing "anti-climax" misses the point of the ending. It's easy to take emotional risks when you have nothing on the line; it is far more human to be nervous and guarded in real life. We saw this once already in this episode, when Seven socialized and gave a toast at the holographic baby shower, yet made a weak excuse to miss the real one.
  
  I found the ending to be highly relatable: how many times, as a young teenager dealing with new and confusing emotions, did I imagine scenarios where I would approach my love interest boldly and confidently, only to waver in real life and avoid the encounter entirely? I imagine anyone who was a teenager had similar experiences. This is Seven's middle school dance, except she's at the dance with adults who all already know how to navigate these types of situations.
• From McCoy on 2017-11-10 at 8:52am:
  It wasn't anti-climax. It was true and totally in-character for Seven (in time she became my favourite character). I have a social phobia diagnosed and I know, what I'm talking. This episode was about me and all people suffering similar problems. "Happy end" would be out of place here.
• From Lloyd on 2017-12-31 at 4:26pm:
  I agree with the anti climax was horrendous.. but i still loved this episode..!
  I really have no idea why the writers decided to do that - not further this storyline.
  Some storylines benefit from leaving it open ended - the desire to see more are what make some epsiodes great. But not this one! Being left wanting more is infuriating and completely unsatisfying.
• From Graham Bessellieu on 2019-09-08 at 3:12am:
  This is an excellent and essential episode for Seven of Nine's character development! The romance with Chakotay is captivating and endearing.
  
  While I agree that it leaves the viewer hoping for her to break through that final barrier, perhaps it just goes to show how difficult it is to break the habits of her programming.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From peter on 2015-09-22 at 7:36pm:
  I never liked the Q-stories of the TNG and otherwise, because they are fanstasy and not SF. Only they are fun due to John de Lancie who is a very gifted and funny actor. Otherwise the whoke Q universe is complete stupidity. I wonder why the original series never ever came up which such utter nonsense and shite
• From Hugo on 2016-03-17 at 7:43pm:
  I was neither impressed nor amused. Part of the fun with Q on TNG was the chemistry Picard/Q - there is not much of that with Janeway. Loads of overacting in the first part of it too. Then of course, the whole idea of these omnipotent beings is over the top.
  
  I reacted to a few things that I found sexist, that is not usually in Trek - like Q jr q-uing away Seven's clothes (I liked her reaction though!), and the skimpily clad go-go dancers in Engineering.
  
  The good from this ep: Itcheb, great acting!