Voyager Flashback: Drone

As effective as the Borg were as Star Trek baddies, the writers clearly knew that they were a well to be drawn from sparingly. The Next Generation kept things fresh with the more personal episode "I, Borg." Voyager's attempt at a vaguely similar tone came in "Drone."

When a transporter mishap brings together Seven of Nine's Borg nanoprobes with the Doctor's mobile emitter, the result is a futuristic Borg drone with incredibly advanced technology -- but it's a blank slate, carrying none of Collective's drive to assimilate. Seven sets out to teach the drone about the merits of humanity and individuality. Will it internalize these values before the Collective comes after them all?

Voyager seems to love a "these two characters are fused in a transporter accident" story; this episode is a Borg-themed "Tuvix." In some ways, it's more effective. Here, the affected parties are around to speak for themselves. Seven of Nine is usually the surly teenager (even at the start of this episode, when she basically yells at the Doctor for not knocking before coming into "her room"). But now she becomes a sort of adoptive mother, having to negotiate the emotions of a child wanting to know about their biological parents.

Yet there are other ways in which this episode falls short of "Tuvix." The Doctor's half of this "co-parenting" situation is hardly examined; he spends the episode basically negging Seven and peeping on B'Elanna in the shower before vanishing almost entirely from the story. It feels like not nearly enough weight is given to how dangerous this Borg drone could be, I guess because Janeway just wants a new "foster drone." Then there's actually a third character involved in this transporter merger, muddying the parental metaphor and adding nothing meaningful I can pinpoint. Never-before-seen Ensign Mulchaey has his DNA sampled to make the drone One, but we're not explicitly told that he survives being attacked, and then another actor plays the role of One. And in the end, instead of someone having to make a decision to resolve the situation (as Janeway did in "Tuvix"), the problem of this Borg drone basically resolves itself.

Still, there are a number of nice moments throughout the episode. B'Elanna being openly hostile to One, and then being won over, is an effective subplot. Seeing Harry Kim in command of the night shift is a rare but welcome moment for his character. The seed is planted for the construction of the new Delta Flyer shuttle. And the episode's bookends of Seven looking at her own reflection are a lovely way to highlight her emotional arc.

Other observations:

• You wouldn't turn on a sonic shower before getting into it, would you? It's not like it needs to warm up first.

• One's dialogue is a bit inconsistent: "I will comply" in one scene, but "we do not understand" in the next. And I don't think this is a deliberate choice meant to say something about his emerging individuality.
  

• A Borg "maturation chamber" makes its first appearance since the Enterprise found a "baby in a drawer" in the very first Borg episode. Also, the Borg sphere makes its first appearance outside the movie First Contact.
  

"Drone" isn't a bad episode, but I think it lives too much in the long shadow cast by The Next Generation's "I, Borg" for me to rate it too highly. I give it a B.