Voyager Flashback: Dark Frontier

When February "sweeps" came around in 1999, the network execs at UPN asked Star Trek: Voyager to deliver them another two-part episode like they'd done the year before with "The Killing Game," which they would air on one night as a movie-length event. Though the writers didn't have an idea for such an episode, they quickly coalesced around using the Borg, and introducing the Borg Queen from First Contact to the show. Thus was born "Dark Frontier."

Janeway is determined to steal propulsion technology from a weakened Borg vessel, and thinks she has enough advantages to pull it off. But secretly, the Borg Queen is aware of Voyager's efforts, and is using the pending encounter to force Seven of Nine to rejoin the Collective. Can technology pioneered by Seven's human parents, Magnus and Erin Hansen, prove the difference in this confrontation?

This two-part episode certainly does have the scope of a movie, and it clearly feels like budgetary mountains were moved to increase the production values here. Sets, visual effects... everything feels a cut above typical Voyager. We get new Borg ship designs, a huge Borg city in space, and more drones than we've ever seen (giving us a marvelous haunted house vibe at times). Stuff that was barely possible in a multimillion dollar movie just years before is now achievable on television as the power of CG continues to develop at light speed. An expanded orchestra, including weird instruments Jerry Goldsmith used for First Contact, is employed here by David Bell to score this episode.

Indeed, one of the few elements to suggest this isn't a "big huge movie" is that Alice Krige does not return to play the Borg Queen. (She was reportedly unavailable.) Still, Susanna Thompson does an excellent job taking over the role. (Or is it the role? Here begins the nebulous question of what exactly the Borg Queen is. Is the same Borg Queen from First Contact, a copy of that Queen, a different Queen altogether, or something your puny human mind can't fully comprehend?) Thompson definitely uses Krige's performance as a touchstone, but her incarnation is perhaps a bit less sensual and a bit more vicious.

Despite this "movie" being stuffed with action, there are a number of nice character moments throughout. In a rare scene featuring Neelix not being annoying, he connects with Seven over the losses of their families. Naomi Wildman's friendship with Seven is highlighted in a nice scene where she shares her "rescue plan" with the captain. Flashbacks with the Hansens quickly establish them as Dian Fossey types researching especially dangerous "animals." Seven's blend of secrecy and self-sacrifice makes sense for me -- she's experienced enough as a human to care for others, but is too inexperienced to ask for help when she's being cornered. And the Borg Queen's coercive techniques to break down Seven's will really play up the strange "cult leader" nature of the character.

But in the way that a big summer action movie is sometimes skimpy on narrative logic, this episode also features some elements that don't add up. Seven's research into her parents' history is left unfinished before the "heist," just to maintain a flashback structure and preserve a twist for later. The idea that there's something special in Seven's experience that means she's more valuable not as a drone feels like quite a stretch. The fact that Voyager abandons Seven's father to the Borg when they rescue her seems unforgivable. And the writers really fumble the emotional resonance by having Seven's father be the focus of the flashbacks; given that the present struggle is between two mother figures in Seven's life (Janeway and the Borg Queen), the flashbacks should center on Erin Hansen, not Magnus.

Then there are the nitpicks for longtime Star Trek fans. The Hansens are going out to research the Borg -- who they know by name -- years before the Enterprise first encountered them. The decision to send the Doctor -- and his mobile emitter -- on a mission to the Borg seems idiotic in light of past experience. The Borg seemingly need to be reminded of information about the Hansens (and their methods) that they've already assimilated. And after decades of fan arguments about whether the Enterprise or the Death Star would win in a fight, this episode breaks everything by showing the obvious answer to any conflict: beam a torpedo aboard your target.

Other observations:

• Janeway has never fiddled with her combadge, the "tell" Chakotay says telegraphs her thinking.

• Seven gets a new purple/maroon suit in this episode. (Apparently, the previous blue incarnation had proven difficult for visual effects shots.)

• There's an unintentionally hilarious moment during the heist rehearsal. Chakotay says they're running six seconds behind schedule... and everyone keeps walking placidly.

• It's a great exchange when Seven declares "I will resist" and the Queen replies: "I know." She practically looks to the camera as if to say: "bet you thought I was going to say 'resistance is futile.'"

• I'm not sure why the Borg record of humans is a holographic image of a male underwear model, but whatever.

• The Borg Queen says she comes from Species 125, meaning there were Borg before there was a Borg Queen. I'm not sure what that means, but it feels interesting.

• One place the massive budget does look thin is in the scene where Seven tries to help a group of aliens escape assimilation. The too-docile background actors playing the victims aren't up to the task of conveying the tone of the situation; I feel like they really needed to pay at least one actor to speak.

"Dark Frontier" is certainly a "summer blockbuster" of a two-part episode -- mostly entertaining in the ways it was intended to be... and not fully able to hold up to scrutiny. But I'd say it still works out to about a B+.