#was rewatching unimatrix zero

[jone-slugger]

The Borg Queen is so done with Janeway...

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s7 ep1: Unimatrix Zero pt 2

More Borg stuff, but this time it was pretty cool, actually.

We find out that our Voyager crew who got assimilated still remember who they are, and their mission- being assimilated was the plan all along. The Doctor gave them a temporary neural suppressant to counteract the link to the hive mind, so they could slip through the cube's defenses, undetected, as drones, and download the virus to save Unimatrix Zero. (Which quite frankly is an insane plan, but we're going with it because... sure, why not!)

Their mission as Borg is only supposed to last a few hours, and Tom gets worried when Voyager doesn't hear back from the away team when they were supposed to. He goes to Chakotay to ask him if they can go back and get them anyway, and he argues when Chakotay says no. It's kind of hilarious to see Chakotay get the same treatment from Tom as Chakotay usually gives to Captain Janeway. Chakotay, my dude, you question Janeway's orders all the time, you can't complain when someone else does it to you! (But I think maybe he actually kind of likes Tom better because he questioned him- I guess it's peak first officer behavior in Chakotay's mind, lol)

As you would imagine, the insane plan doesn't work out perfectly, since Tuvok's neural suppressant begins to wear off early, and the Borg queen is able to tap into his thoughts. When she realizes they've downloaded the virus and given the Unimatrix Zero drones conscious awareness of their individuality, she uses Tuvok to capture them, then she beams Janeway's image into her lair to talk to her- and their scenes are all pretty much Janeway owning the Borg queen at every turn. The Borg queen is all 'I'll destruct every ship with a drone linked to Unimatrix Zero unless you tell me how to destroy it', which is frankly hilarious, considering that destroying as many Borg as possible is basically what Janeway is there to do, and Borg queen is just handing it to her on a silver platter?? The lack of self-awareness is hilarious, and Janeway hams it up pretending to be sad about the Borg ships being destroyed. Janeway ends up using it to her advantage, when she pretends to ask Voyager to destroy the drones link to Unimatrix Zero to stop the queen from destroying ships, but secretly asks them to destroy Unimatrix Zero itself so the queen has no way to find the drones who've been given awareness. (And of course Chakotay is the one who instinctively realizes what she's really asking them to do, because their love lets them understand each other without words. But they're not a couple. Ok, sure!)

Meanwhile, back in Unimatrix Zero, Seven and Axum try to work out their relationship. Seven is still weirded out by the idea of having been in love with someone for six years that she can't remember, and she seems pretty hostile toward him for most of the story, until for some reason, they have one little conversation, and she suddenly decides she's still in love with him, and they get back together for like two seconds before they have to destroy Unimatrix Zero. They find out it's the only way they can be together, since Axum is on a ship in the Beta Quadrant in the real world. They have a dramatic farewell as Unimatrix Zero collapses, but it doesn't have much impact, since their realationship wasn't really developed. If they'd have built up their attraction and relationship over both episodes, it could have worked, but it felt so rushed, and was never referred to by Seven ever again, so it doesn't feel like it was especially real or important.

Back in the real world, Voyager comes to rescue Janeway, Torres and Tuvok from the Borg ship they're on, and one of the newly individualized drones from Unimatrix Zero, who's commandeered his Borg ship, comes to help them. B'Elanna saves the day by taking down the shields of the the cube they're on, so that Voyager can beam the away team back before the Borg queen auto destructs it. The away team is safe, and the Borg now have thousands of liberated drones mounting a resistance from within. Pretty sweet!

The final scene is of the away team recovering in sickbay after the Doctor removes all their Borg implants, though that seems pretty convenient that he could totally remove them when he couldn't remove all of Seven's, even with Kes magically destroying one of her more pernicious ones. But I guess maybe because they hadn't been drones for very long, maybe the implants didn't have time to completely attach and take over yet? Idk, I guess we'll go with that! (Though the next ep is the one where Seven's cortical node fails, and apparently every drone has one, and can't survive without one, even after they're freed, but it's like. a giant hole in the head. How did they remove that?? Do they all just have cortical nodes with giant holes in their skulls?? I suppose not, since that would have come up in the next ep- maybe like Icheb, they weren't drones long enough to have their bodies adapt to needing it? But still, that seems like A LOT of brain to remove and not end up like a vegetable, but whatever. Suspension of disbelief required- activating now lol)

Tl;dr: An exciting fight against the Borg, with lots of peril and suspense, and Janeway being a badass. Good stuff.

[sojournerstales]

help, my voyager rewatch has brought me to unimatrix zero and now i have to watch unimatrix zero ;_;

[quasi-normalcy]

Has there ever been a bland male love interest on Star Trek blander than Axum from "Unimatrix Zero"?

[lonely-night]

it's been 2 weeks I still couldn't rewatch season 6 finale Unimatrix Zero

[revolutionsoftheheart]

random question voyager fandom: does chakotay ever sit in the captain's chair?

i've reached unimatrix zero in my rewatch and he's been left in command, and it just hit me that he's still sitting in his own chair. and it's not the first time he does that. i definitely remember other instances in past seasons when he's done the exact same thing.

tuvok, harry, b'elanna... they all sit in the captain's chair when they're in command, as one should. but i can't recall a single episode where chakotay does. am i remembering wrong?

[cristobalrios]

PicardPositivity Day 13: Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One The Ex-Borg Fenris Ranger from the Delta Quadrant

I have definitely talked about our Chaos Trio before, but on this our Seven's day, I really have to talk about how much I adore Seven.

She has been my favorite character from my favorite Star Trek for years, and I literally squealed when she was revealed to be in Picard, and I never do that. I get excited, but never involuntarily scream. I remember the first time I saw that trailer with her in it. I was not expecting it at all, and I was watching the preview before showing it to my family. I was planning on mentioning it to them later that a new trailer came out, but that "later" turned into "immediately" after I saw Seven and literally squeaked trying not to actually scream, because they didn't know the new trailer existed, they were in the same room, and I didn't want them to know I had watched the trailer without them. That "immediately" was so immediate, though, that I didn't actually finish watching that trailer and totally missed that very last clip with Data at the end (the first clip we'd seen of Data, too, if I remember correctly, although we already knew Brent Spiner was in it but we didn't know about Jeri Ryan), and only saw that part when I rewatched it with my family a minute later. I did tell them I had watched it, though, it was literally just a momentary "oh I shouldn't make too big a reaction because they don't know what's happening and I don't want to explain it to them" reflex.

Anyway, this is the preview in question:

And I adore how our badass Ex-Borg Fenris Ranger from the Delta Quadrant turned out, although I hate that things have been so hard on her, and I am devastated about Icheb. Raffi/Seven at the end there was a surprise and a great one, and I adore every interaction she has with Rios. I need Rios giving her the "you hurt Raffi I hurt you" protective sibling speech. I need Chaos Trio bonding. It looks like we'll get some more interaction in s2 and the hints are tantalizing. I can't wait to see where Raffi/Seven goes. I can't wait to see Rios and Seven's bond developing. I can't wait to see more of Raffi and Rios's friendship. I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait.

You know what I need? Actual interaction with Seven and the Holo Squad. She had that bond with Doc. I just. Really want to see Emergency Holograms of all kinds just automatically gravitating towards Seven. I want to see Seven and Emmet snipe at each other. I want him to tell her to her face that her ship was hideous and her to snap back and for him to just be like "damn I guess she's alright. Still has terrible taste in ships though." I need her to see elements of Doc in each of the holos and I need it so much.

And I love her and Elnor. And I love that Elnor and Raffi bonded and Elnor and Seven bonded and, well, he's Their Kid now. He saw badass warrior women and went "alright new moms!" and they just went, "yeah, I guess you're right!"

Oh, and I only have one Seven meme that I've made, somehow, so I'm just adding it here:

PicardPositivity Prompts My PicardPositivity Tag The General PicardPositivity Tag

[the-plural-of-cris-is-crises]

A Very Trekful 10 Days

February 21st:

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E1 "Remembrance"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E1a&1b "Encounter at Farpoint Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 21 - Dahj & Holo Tech

February 22nd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E2 "Maps and Legends"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S1E10 "Hide and Q"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: First Contact

New Release - Star Trek: Picard "No Man's Land" Audio Story

PicardPositivity Day 22 - Laris & No Man's Land

February 23rd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E3 "The End is the Beginning"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S2E16 "Q Who" / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E13 "Deja Q"

PicardPositivity Day 23 - Sutra & Chateau Picard

February 24th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E4 "Absolute Candor"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E20 "Qpid"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S5E15&16 "Dark Frontier Parts 1 & 2"

New Episode - Star Trek: Discovery, S4E10

PicardPositivity Day 24 - Riker & Zhat Vash

February 25th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E5 "Stardust City Rag"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E6 "True Q" / Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1E7 "Q-Less"

2024 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S3E11&12 "Past Tense Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 25 - Enoch & Behind the Scenes

February 26th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E6 "The Impossible Box"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E15 "Tapestry"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S6E26 & S7E1 "Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 26 - Agnes & Crew

February 27th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E7 "Nepenthe"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S7E25&26 "All Good Things Parts 1 & 2" / Star Trek: Voyager, S2E18 "Death Wish"

PicardPositivity Day 27 - Bruce Maddox & The Artifact

February 28th

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E8 "Broken Pieces"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S3E11 "The Q and the Grey"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S7E25&26 "Endgame Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 28 - Data & Starships

March 1st

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E9 "Et in Arcadia Ego Part 1"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S7E19 "Q2"

PicardPositivity Day 29 - Ian & Stardust City

March 2nd

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E10 "Et in Arcadia Ego Part 2"

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: Lower Decks, S1E8 "Veritas"

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Lower Decks, S2E8 "I, Excretus"

PicardPositivity Day 30 - Picard & Season 2

March 3rd

New Episode - Star Trek: Discovery, S4E11

Premiere - Star Trek: Picard, S2E1

[flutenby]

Was Hugh's reassimilation possibly the thing that caused Unimatrix Zero? It's been a while since I watched Voyager but I just rewatched I Borg and that seems possible?

[annakie]

Voyager Post-Show Books Read Order + Rewatch List

I’m lending my Voyager + some TNG books to my mom to read, and I sent her an email with this list that I made.  I thought it might be helpful for other people, (and also it’d be easier for me to find next time) if I posted it online somewhere.

First, it’s also a read order for the major books covering Voyager happenings plus a few TNG books that I also own for the same era.  It’s got all the major Voyager happenings in it, and a few TNG books that are optional, though most play into what’s happening with Voyager.

In reading the books, I found it was helpful to go back and rewatch certain episodes to do things like remember who the minor / guest characters were and their plots when they showed back up, or review some character arcs for the main characters, or just the overarching plots of episodes which the books referenced.  

I also linked to their pages on Memory Alpha for easy referencing, but rewatching is better.  

Unless otherwise marked, suggested episodes below are Voyager episodes.

Any episodes I put a * after I'd say is critical to understanding the book(s), otherwise it's just helpful.  I’m happy to add to this list if anyone has other suggestions.

Voyager - Homecoming - This book deals with the immediate aftermath of Voyager's Endgame (the series finale). This and the next book are a two-parter.  They're good but not great.  The Voyager books get much better starting with the fifth. Rewatch List - Non Sequitur (2x05) Hunters (4x15) Lineage (7x12)   Prophecy (7x14) * Author, Author (7x20) Endgame (the very last episode) *

Voyager - The Farther Shore - Part 2 of the above.

Voyager - Old Wounds - This and the next Voyager book are also a two-parter.  They are... okay.  The Voyager books get a new author after this and then they get really, really, really good. Rewatch List - Tattoo - (2x09) *  Nothing Human (5x08) TNG Journey's End (7x20) (Chakotay's people live on the planet Starfleet is trying to relocate in this TNG episode.)

Voyager - Enemy of My Enemy - Part 2 of the above.

TNG - Death in Winter -  Non-essential for Voyager.  This takes place shortly after the movie Nemesis and deals with Picard having to rebuild the crew.  This is maybe the worst of all the books I've read in this series, but one important thing does happen. Rewatch List - TNG Nemesis (the movie) * Eventually, you're going to want to rewatch the below episodes, I think it'd be useful to watch them before the following books.   TNG - The Best of Both Worlds 1 and 2 (3x26, 4x1) Voyager - The Q and The Grey (3x11) * Voyager - Scorpion Part 1  and 2 (3x26, 4x1)  

TNG - Resistance - Moderately important for future Voyager stuff, skip if you want.  Most rewatch episodes were covered above.

TNG - Q&A -  Honestly, a rewatch list for Q&A would be every single episode with Q in it that hasn’t been touched on.  This is maybe my favorite of the TNG-only books on this list, but it’s not very important for the Voyager list.

Voyager - Full Circle - FIRST HALF ONLY!!! - There's a break in the middle of this book, with a timeskip in between.  ONLY READ THE FIRST HALF at this point if you’re doing an in-order read with TNG books as well.  If you don’t care about anything but explicitly Voyager books, skip down to #12 as Beyer does a good job of explaining what happens in the subsequent books between the two parts of Full Circle. This is also the book where Voyager starts becoming amazing.  The only bad thing about Kirsten Beyer's books is you'll be sad all the rest of the Star Trek books aren't as good as hers.   No watchlist as mostly the first half of the book is wrapping up the storylines from Christine Golden's first four Voyager books. 

TNG - Before Dishonor - This is nearly as much a Voyager book as TNG.  This book is instrumental in understanding everything that happens afterwards.  I won’t get into my opinion about the book itself though because it’s not very flattering.  You probably want to read at least the first and last chapters, the rest is... skippable if you’re not enjoying it. If you haven't rewatched Voyager's The Q and the Grey and Endgame yet, you're really going to want to here.

TNG - Greater Than the Sum - Just started reading this one, I’ll update once I’m done. Yes, I’m reading some of these books very of out of order. :)  *edit* It was an improvement over Before Dishonor, I’d recommend reading as it does bridge into the next books.

TNG/VOY/DS9/More - Destiny Trilogy - (Gods of Night/Mere Mortals/Lost Souls - I bought them all as a collection)  This is a massive crossover event trilogy but next on my to-read list  I do know that characters from TNG, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, plus Titan (Riker's ship) are all in it. I don't have a rewatch list but I'll make it as I get to reading it. *Edit* OK I’ve finished reading it. My opinion is that you should read this trilogy. Yes, it’s long, but also very worth it.  Probably my favorite non-Voyager books on this list.  There are only a couple of cameos of Voyager characters but they are meaningful, and Seven has a small storyline of her own, as does Tuvok (since he’s on the Titan serving under Riker.) The writing is very good, the story is great, and reading it massively increased my understanding of and investment in a major storyline throughout the rest of the Voyager books.  I also just really, really enjoyed it.  If you don’t want to read anything else not explicitly Voyager, I still rec you read this trilogy. Rewatch List Enterprise: Home (4x03)* Affliction (4x15) & Divergence (4x16)

Okay, now read the second half of Full Circle.  Cry a lot about it. Everything I talk about from here on out is just Voyager.

Unworthy -  The adventure finally re-begins! Rewatch List In The Flesh (5x04) Okay but maybe put off rewatching this episode after the climax of the books. Life Line (6x24) Homestead (7x23) TNG - Darmok (5x02)  (The new Voyager CMO is a Tamarian, though you can put off rewatching this until Acts of Contrition if you really want, the character doesn't get important til then.)

Children of the Storm - No rewatch list.

The Eternal Tide -  My FAVORITE of all the books. Rewatch List- Q2 (7x19) * The Gift (4x02) TNG True Q (6x06)

Protectors -  This and the next two books are their own trilogy, so the below episodes are for all three. Rewatch List - Twisted (2x06) Unity (3x17)   Counterpoint (5x10) Dragon's Teeth (6x07) Unimatrix Zero (6x24) and Part II (7x01) (If you haven't rewatched TNG - Darmok 5x02 yet, do that now)

Acts of Contrition 

Atonement

A Pocket Full of Lies - Watch List - Year of Hell Parts 1 and 2 (4x08 and 09) * Shattered (7x11) *

Architects of Infinity - It’s been a couple of months since my first reads of these two books but I don’t recall any particular episodes jumping out as needed rewatches as I did.  Let me know if you think I’m wrong and I’ll update the list.

To Lose The Earth 

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch: season 6 recap

Once again, an up and down season, which I feel is Voyager's overall pattern: half really good eps, and half truly awful eps, with little in between. I'm almost evenly split between episodes I liked and disliked this season. Some of the mean streak that had bothered me from the last two seasons was still there, especially from the Doctor, but there was less of it overall than there had been, which was a relief. Inconsistent characterization and retconning established things was a big problem again, but this year also produced my favorite episode in the whole series, so it certainly wasn't all bad.

Things I liked: The adoption of the Borg kids added to the feeling of family and community on the ship, and Seven's assumption of a parental role toward them added extra dimensions to her character as she came to care about them, and as parenting them brought her own childhood trauma closer to the surface. They're getting better at making Seven a fully fleshed out character instead of just eye candy.

Bringing in Barclay, Troi, and other characters from home to show how Starfleet hasn't forgotten Voyager, and establishing limited communication, as Voyager inches closer to reaching home in it's final seasons.

Things I disliked: Too much focus on Seven and the Doctor, to the exclusion of all the other characters. And not just in terms of the number of episodes focused on them, but even in the way the rest of the crew became almost like an afterthought in the writers minds- even when there were episodes focused on other characters, they usually forgot, or ignored, who they were, and all their previous character development, to serve the needs of whatever story they'd come up with, instead of building stories around the characters. 'Muse' was the one and only shining exception, in that it actually felt like it knew who B'Elanna was and gave a damn about her. But other than that, the rest of the cast have been reduced to supporting players at this point, which is sad and disappointing. Tom, especially, is basically just comic relief now, which sucks when he has so much juicy traumatic backstory the show never once explored.

I also disliked that they're doing so many eps where the regular characters aren't the focus. The ones with Barclay and Deanna get a pass because we already know and love their characters, but still, considering how much the regular characters have been pushed to the side, giving the focus of even one or two eps to characters who aren't the main cast should be the absolute limit.

Season stats:

Crew compliment at start of season: anywhere from 128 (stated in an s5 ep) to 136 (actual count after all screen mentioned crew deaths) to 142 (number stated at the end of season 4 with none killed in s5) to 150 (stated in another s5 ep)- it's not consistent

crew compliment at end of season: at least 2 more than there were at start, but up to 6 more if you count the Borg kids (there's too many conflicting counts to give an accurate number tbh, but from my count of on screen shown or mentioned deaths since ep one, it's 142 counting borg kids)

Crewmembers killed off: 3 (plus 1 retroactively in season four- Lyndsay Ballard in Ashes to Ashes)

3 unnamed crew members in Equinox pt 2

Crewmembers gained from Equinox: 5

Noah Lessing, Marla Gilmore, James Morrow, Brian Sofin, Angelo Tassoni, all reduced in rank to crewman

Rescued Borg children (probably not counted strictly as crew, but part of ship's complement): 4

Icheb (Brunali), Mezoti (Norcadian), Azan & Rebi (we don't know what species they are yet)

Romantic subplots:

Captain Janeway: 1 with kiss (hologram bartender Michael Sullivan in Fair Haven and Spirit Folk)

The Doctor: 2 without kiss (his offscreen wife in Blink of an Eye, Tincoo in Virtuoso)

Harry: 1 without kiss (Maggie the hologram flower seller in Spirit Folk), 1 with kiss (Lyndsay Ballard in Ashes to Ashes)

Seven: 1 with kiss (Axom in Unimatrix Zero)

B'Elanna: 1 with kiss (Tom, ongoing since season 3)

Tom: 1 with kiss (B'Elanna, ongoing since season 3)

Shuttles lost: 1 (or 2?) (12 overall? 11 confirmed series total so far)

1? (Seven and Tuvok's shuttle in Tsunkatse- presumably lost after it is disabled and bombed when they are abducted)

1 (the Delta Flyer, blown up by Borg in Unimatrix Zero part 1)

Number of episodes I liked/disliked/mixed reaction:

Liked: 11

Disliked: 10

Mixed: 5

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s6 ep26: Unimatrix Zero pt 1

More Borg stuff, but at least this time it has a very different premise from other Borg eps they've done.

In this one, Seven is contacted by Borg drones who manage to tap into her regeneration cycle via a hidden interlink, Unimatrix Zero, that allows certain drones to retain their individual consciousness during their regeneration cycles. They ask her for help in stopping the Borg queen from destroying their secret interlink, which they can't do themselves, since they retain no memories from it in their waking state.

We get a slightly unhinged but ultimately sweet scene in the beginning of the ep, where Janeway does another one of her 'you're in trouble' fake-outs before she does something nice for someone- Tom finally gets his lieutenent pip back, and it's long overdue. Dragging out a plot point from a lackluster episode almost two seasons back was way too long, with no real reason behind it. Now I can have an easier time pretending that 30 Days doesn't exist, finally! (Poor Harry being like 'hey where's my promotion' in the background though lol. Dude, chill for a minute and be happy for your bestie, he's only getting it because it was a stupid decision to take it away in the first place, no one on that ship is ever getting promoted lmao)

Back in Borg land, the Borg queen is very pissed off about her drones having fun, and she kills any drones she finds have been part of Unimatrix Zero. She then dismantles them to get to their cortical nodes to try to find a way to access Unimatrix Zero. They go full Halloween horror for the Borg scenes, with gross fake severed head props for them to dissect, but I think it's a little over the top tbh. The Borg are supposed to be soulless automatons, not, like, sexy vampires- they don't need to show the queen getting weirdly horny for dissecting disobedient drones. Having her enjoy her own sadism would work for any other villain, but for the Borg, it should be cold and emotionless, because that's why the Borg are scary.

Meanwhile, Seven finds that she was a part of the secret link herself, and meets a former friend of hers there, Axum, who tells her about her time there, which she has no conscious memory of. Seven is surprised and perturbed to learn that she and Axum had been a couple, but she pushes that aside to focus on finding a plan to save Unimatrix Zero. It appears to them as a tropical paradise environment, but soon their peace is broken by attacks from the queen, as she begins to send her own drones in to drag everyone there back to the hive mind.

Seven asks the Captain for help, and she agrees, since it's also a potential way to weaken the Borg if drones can escape the hive mind through Unimatrix Zero. Tuvok once again provides handy-dandy mind meld services so the Captain can see their little virtual reality for herself, where she speaks with the other free drones, and witnesses one of the Borg queen's little raids. We get an absolutely amazing badass Captain Janeway moment when the drones attack- she picks up a bat'leth, and just starts beating the shit of a drone until she sends it back out of the link. (Is it hot in here, or is it just Captain Janeway with a bat'leth? Lord have mercy!!)

But anyway, the queen was monitoring her drones, and she gets super pissed when she sees Janeway there, beating drones up. Honestly, despite not liking the Borg queen as a concept in general, it's kind of hilarious how jealous she is of Janeway. It has the vibe of the high school mean girl hating the weird girl who doesn't care what a big deal she is- I can literally picture the Borg Queen, a la Regina George, getting out her little Borg Burn Book after this incident, and writing about how Captain Janeway is a fugly slut that no one should trust!!! (Maybe they should have tried channeling the Borg Queen's agression into field hockey too- they could have brought down the collective without needing to implement their insane plan later in the episode lol)

So they figure out that the only way to save Unimatrix Zero and help the people there remember their experiences while awake, so they can fight the Borg from within, is to get directly into the heart of a Borg ship and access it's core processor to download a virus into it. Since the Unimatrix Zero denizens can't do it themselves, Voyager has to. Janeway decides to take the Delta Flyer in herself, but Chaktotay convinces her to let Tuvok and B'Elanna come along to help.

In yet another example of the Voyager writers being deranged for not acknowledging J/C as a thing, they proceed to give Janeway and Chakotay a longer, more romantic, and more public farewell scene than they give Tom and B'Elanna, who are actually canonically a couple. Tom and B'Elanna get one brief and very understated private exchange where they only indirectly acknowledge how worried they are and how much they love each other (I feel like they should've at least kissed for goodness sake), but meanwhile, Janeway and Chakotay get this huge public display in the middle of the freaking bridge. They literally sit there on the verge of tears, holding hands, and staring into each other's eyes, for a not small amount of time, in front of the entire crew! Just out in the open! Like, what??? How can you pretend that's not romantic couple stuff?! The entire crew would think they got together when they're acting like this, that is not normal captain and first officer behavior! Like, Picard and Riker never held hands and stared into each other's eyes, on the bridge, no matter how dangerous the mission was! Jfc it's completely bananas how shippy they write them! And yet they insist they're not a couple! Insane.

Also, this is that one ep where they clearly had a different plan for how they'd end the cliffhanger from what they eventually did, because they have the Borg queen talking to Voyager and being like 'we'll see you soon Harry' and Harry's like 'wtf did she mean by that??' and they never actually did anything with it! It's the most weird random line! It's honestly baffling to me that they didn't write the cliffhanger episodes at the same time, that seems completely insane to just put out a whole ass episode before you've settled on how the second half of the story will end. But honestly, that explains a lot about why the quality was so variable and the throughlines didn't always carry from one half to another with Trek cliffhangers.

So anyway, they go to the cube, and Voyager attacks it to distract the Borg while the Flyer sneaks in. The Borg Queen sees the Flyer and blows it up just as the away team beams in, but they get caught before they can reach the core, and they all get assimilated, which is where the cliffhanger leaves off.

It's a very tense, scary ending to the ep, and even though I know how it ends, I was still biting my nails rewatching it, so I think they did a really good job. (Though even on first viewing, when I didn't know how the story ended, I knew they'd find a way to rescue them, somehow. There was no way they were going to write out three main characters in the last season, so wondering how they'd rescue them was the big question we waited all summer to see the answer to.)

I'm a little sad that this is Voyager's last cliffhanger though, since it means I'm nearing the end of my rewatch. Only one more season to go! I'm really going to miss my Voyager space fam! For all the show's ups and downs, I still love these characters, and this ship, and I don't want to say goodbye to them again now, any more than I did then. But at least now I know that Star Trek will continue after Voyager, which we didn't know back then, so that makes it a little less sad this time around. Onward and upward to season seven!

Tl;dr: An unusual but interesting Borg plot that does an excellent job of building tension and high stakes and keeping you on the edge of your seat. One hell of a cliffhanger to close the penultimate season on.

[lonely-night]

rewatching dark frontier again

the way the borg queen mimics what janeway said to seven I think it's deliberate since she assimilates seven's memory when she was regenerating

still can't figure out why the borg queen in episode unimatrix zero wasn't this obsessive with seven like she did in dark frontier

I mean she went so far get to get seven, how she insisted seven is unique and they wanted an individual not a drone? but in unimatrix zero she just sort of ignored seven????

and why seven? she could pick any drone as the next borg queen, any drone can make that nanoprobe virus she wanted, it didn't have to be seven. or... OR the borg quee had developed personal feelings towards seven? 👀 that's not very borg like behaviour tho is it 👀

and she said they placed seven on voyager rather than voyager liberated seven from the collective. but BUT the borg queen could be lying 👀

[the-plural-of-cris-is-crises]

A Very Trekful 10 Days: Day 6

Star Trek: Picard Season 2 Countdown - 5 days!

Picard S1 Rewatch - Star Trek: Picard, S1E6 "The Impossible Box"

Main takeaways from my The Impossible Box rewatch: It's a good episode to watch on Agnes day. Also, her line "it's dark and cold and wants to kill you" is a bit heartbreaking because we know she's feeling that way about everything right now.

Q Rewatch - Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E6 "True Q"

Main takeaways from my True Q rewatch: Baby partial Q. Adorable. Q and his comments on children and knowing he has a son later is amusing. It's interesting that Qs can make someone do something and think they want to but usually don't. Like, Q doesn't really do that to people. He offers things to them and they can choose to play along or not, sort of. They can choose whether they want to play along or not, at least.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S1E7 “Q-Less"

Main takeaways from my Q-Less rewatch: This is one of my favorite Q episodes, and I love watching Vash episodes with Rogue Elements in mind now. Also, what did Vash do on Betazed?

Star Trek: The Next Generation S6E15 “Tapestry”

Main takeaways from my Tapestry rewatch: This is also a great Q episode. Very Christmas Carol-y It's a Wonderful Life-y minus the Christmas parts. Also, Marta Batanides! Another great watch after Picard (this time actually canon instead of beta canon). And information about the Stargazer. Now that we know what we know about S2 I am Researching the Stargazer.

Borg Queen Rewatch - Star Trek: Voyager, S6E26 & S7E1 "Unimatrix Zero Parts 1 & 2"

Main takeaways from my Unimatrix Zero rewatch: I was just thinking about Seven mentioning Unimatrix Zero to Raffi in No Man's Land. Also, I was so tired during this I was mostly asleep but I've seen these episodes so many times before, it's totally fine. Honestly, I've always loved the Unimatrix Zero episodes, and I've wondered what kind of effect it had on the Collective.

2024 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, S3E11&12 "Past Tense Parts 1 & 2"

PicardPositivity Day 26 - Agnes & Crew