S4 E06: The Raven

While Voyager is negotiating for passage through B'omar space, Seven begins to have strange flashbacks/hallucinations about her running from the Borg. While Neelix is teaching her how to eat (wtf?), a Borg servo busts out of her hand and she goes all "you must be assimilated" on everyone. She steals a shuttle and runs off into B'omar territory

That's the annoying part of the episode. More of the crew looking incompetent in front of yet another alien civilization, more of Janeway lecturing Seven about how great it is to be human, more lessons on how to use silverware. Wait, no, that's a first. And while it is hard to imagine that Seven is so stupid that she requires step by step instructions on how to lift food to her mouth, that scene wasn't all bad. Neelix is doing his over-eager to please thing, which can even be somewhat endearing; But the best part comes when Seven interrupts him to tell him why she knows something about Talaxians - the Borg had assimilated a Talaxian transport in the past, and added them to the collective. Neelix does miss a beat, but just a beat, and goes on dishing out the hospitality and warmth. That's exactly what I want out of Neelix.

Okay, now part two:

Tuvok and Paris find they can get through the B'omar detection grid unnoticed in a shuttle, so they go after Seven. Tuvok beams aboard her shuttle, but is incapacitated and Seven disables the engines on Paris' shuttle. Seven reveals to Tuvok that she thinks that she is following a Borg homing beacon, but Tuvok, certain that there are no Borg around, is unconvinced. He does manage to weave some uncertainty into Seven's thoughts, and convinces her to take him with her to the surface of the moon that she's taken them to. There, they find the wreckage of The Raven, the small ship that Seven had lived on with her parents before they were assimilated. Memories rush back to her, but they must move quickly, as the B'omar begin to bombard the surface. Voyager arrives at the last minute and rescues everyone.

Tuvok and Seven have a much better dynamic going here than Janeway and Seven. It is much more of a Geordi/Data thing, where Data wants to explore emotion and what it means to be human, where his best friend, who already is human, is pretty socially awkward himself and ends up learning along with him. Seven's being dragged into this humanity thing kicking and screaming (an admittedly refreshing take), and here we've got Tuvok, someone who represses most human elements about himself, to help her cope. I like it a lot better.

Seven's reaction to her childhood home (and memories) is also reasonably well-acted. My initial reaction to Seven (mind you, this was after I stopped watching the show) was that not only was she a crass casting move in terms of her appearance, but her only expressions were "cold" and "sour." I'm happy to say that, if this episode is any indication, my initial reaction was an error (largely due to seeing trailers and clips and the like).

One nitpick: I'm a little uncomfortable with non-Vulcans doing the nerve pinch, especially after Seven indicates that no Vulcans have been assimilated. Since it would be slightly ridiculous to assume that not only do humans have this special spot that no one in history has found, but that it is shared with every other Trek species (The Chase notwithstanding), I think there's not much of a leap to assume that there's something telepathic about the move. Now, yes, Data did it too, but that bothered me as well.

Watchability: 4/5

Bottom Line: If I had a large unit of currency for every time I said some variation on "bad start, good end" in this section of these reviews, I'd have a decent collection of large currency units. Still, the start is relatively short this time, and also contains an "improved Neelix" scene, so I'm happy to reward that.