Summary[]
B'Elanna, Tom, the Doctor and Seven take a shuttle to investigate the formation of a protonebula. The shuttle gets caught in a gravimetric shear, and the crew has to be beamed out. The transporter operator has trouble to get clear patterns but manages to materialize the four crew members on the platform. Then, however, the Doctor's mobile emitter malfunctions. B'Elanna transfers his program to sickbay and leaves the device in the science lab for further diagnostics. When Ensign Mulchaey enters the room the next morning, Borg injection tubules extend from the device and take genetic samples from him. The mobile emitter was infected with Seven's nanoprobes during the beam-out and now evolves to something like a 29th century Borg with the genetic material obtained from Mulchaey.
Captain Janeway allows the new drone to mature and puts Seven in charge of supervising him and teaching him that he is not a part of the Collective but an individual. The drone, who names himself "One", learns very quickly and begins to develop a personality, the only apprehension being that he might want to join the Borg, which would make them even more powerful. Even though his transceiver was deactivated, a second one is created in his body without anyone noticing, which contacts the Collective. One agrees to support Voyager in the fight against the Borg.
When a Borg vessel approaches, he remodulates Voyager's shields but his phaser modifications turn out useless. One says he can only disable the Borg from within. He beams over, using his internal transporter, and navigates the Borg ship into the protonebula where it is destroyed. Voyager can salvage the drone from the wreckage. But One believes that he is too great a danger, should the Borg ever get hold of him alive. He declines medical treatment and dies.
Errors and Explanations[]
Nit Central[]
- Corey Hines on Wednesday, October 21, 1998 - 7:04 pm: This episode contradicts the Borg nursery seen in "Q Who"(TNG). The Borg could have developed improved maturation chambers, which eliminate the need for the nursery shown in Q Who.
- They state that the mobile emitter came from 400 years in the future. If it was it would be from the 28th century, not the 29th. They could be rounding down – late 24th to early 29th.
- One says that the sphere's armor is great. How then, did the Enterprise-E destroy one by firing only 4 quantum torpedoes at it in ST:FC? The armour on that sphere could have been weakened.
- AWhite (Inblackestnight) on Friday, January 02, 2015 - 4:24 pm: After re-watching this ep recently I'm still a bit hung-up on this Borg 'tactical sphere' that I believe makes its debut here and then is quickly forgotten. It seemed bigger than the sphere in First Contact but it didn't make sense to me that the Borg would bother making a ship that has different capabilities than a regular cube. If Borg spheres are more manuverable/practical than the average cube why not make a fleet of spheres instead? Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Saturday, January 03, 2015 - 6:09 am: It may be something new they designed in response to their dealings with species 8472, and not yet in widespread use.
Ex Astris Scientia[]
- Why doesn't Janeway make an attempt to run from the Borg vessel? She orders to go to warp as late as the ship is already in weapons range. Of course, this hesitation allows One to take the Borg vessel into the nearby protonebula where it is crushed, but this solution was previously not considered an option. Maybe she wants the sphere to concentrate on Voyager, thus allowing One to disable it from within.
- It is very unlikely that anything useful is left of the mobile emitter that was first damaged and then assimilated. At least, there should be nothing left after One's death that would allow allow B'Elanna, with her very limited knowledge of 29th century and of Borg technology, to restore the mobile emitter for the Doctor. One could have programed his nanoprobes to repair/restore the emitter, so that it could be used following his demise.
- Cameron The transporter operator complains about being unable to separate the patterns of the away team while trying to beam them back to Voyager from the shuttle, but why is it so hard to separate the Doctor? He isn't a biological being thus his pattern shouldn't be merged with the others. This could be due to the Doctor being in 'Solid' mode.
Notes[]
- ↑ According to the startrek.com episode list, the provisional stardate for this episode is 52105.
| Voyager Season 5 |
| Night I Drone I Extreme Risk I In the Flesh I Once Upon a Time I Timeless I Infinite Regress I Nothing Human I Thirty Days I Counterpoint I Latent Image I Bride of Chaotica! I Gravity I Bliss I Dark Frontier Part 1 I Dark Frontier Part 2 I The Disease I Course: Oblivion I The Fight I Think Tank I Juggernaut I Someone to Watch Over Me I 11:59 I Relativity I Warhead I Equinox Part 1 |