VOY – Collective

Plot – Whilst cliched, it looks like we are onto a winner with Collective since it starts with an attack by the Borg and a dream sequence that makes it look as though the crew of the Delta Flyer have been assimilated.

The Borg were a perennial element of TNG that made the show finally click into place and fire on all cylinders. It was the threat that the audience needed to really take the show seriously and to completely distinguish itself from TOS. The Best of Both Worlds is peak TNG, I think they were on a wind down after that two-parter because the show was never quite that bold or suspenseful ever again. Voyager took up the mantle of the Borg at around the same point (towards the end of season three) of their run and for once mimicking TNG made perfect sense because Voyager takes place in a region of space that we don’t know anything about. Why shouldn’t they Borg have their area of space here? It was a real chance to explore the species and make them a force to be reckoned with again (TNG threw away their menace with I,Borg and Descent). Unity looked to be doing just that but then Scorpion (again this is probably the zenith of Voyager in terms of quality television) introduced a species they were at war with and losing. Thus, diminishing their threat. Then we had a two-year long examination of a drone turning back into a human being. Showing how the Borg threat can be turned around with a little time and patience (and plenty of angst). And then the Borg children were introduced in this episode, which further watered down the effect of the species. Finally, we hit Unimatrix Zero, which took the assimilation element that made The Best of Both Worlds so frightening and turns it into a plot device that can be utilised and reversed without any apparent side effects. By the end of the show it is the Borg that essentially gives the ship the nudge home it needed to get back to the Alpha Quadrant (unwillingly, admittedly). I’m not saying that none of this was interesting – Seven’s journey is particularly noteworthy – but it does chart the deconstruction of the Borg and the fading of everything that made them scary in the first place. Come Endgame they are just robots with big ships that provide space battle eye candy. And that is a shame for a race that made Trek franchise sit up and pay attention in such an influential way. It took Enterprise (of all shows) to re-introduce that element of fear into the Borg by having them turn up between First Contact and Q Who? and feature the creatures stalking the ship when nobody has any clue what they are. With the audience in the know and the crew of Enterprise at a loss to what these evil SOBs want, they genuinely manage to make them a formidable force again.

Character – There’s a nice moment where Seven considers her own development since severing from the Hive Mind and what these children will have to go through. It’s the most thoughtful thing on offer here, but it is also the sort of material that has been explored ad nauseum in the past three seasons. The most promising thing to come from Collective is the idea of Seven exploring her maternal side, which is flirted with in the final scene.

Best moment – The Borg baby in the cubicle. Genuinely unsettling. There should have been more of that. The baby that Seven actually holds is clearly a doll. Watch as it wriggles up and down in the same pattern over and over. I might have kept it as the CGI version.

Worst moment – I can’t be the only person who first saw the Borg brood and immediately thought ‘oh no…’ What you have is one drone who behaves like a sullen teen from any adolescent drama, one drone who is the reasonable geek of the group (that’s the one we’re lumbered with) and three kids who like to sulk and cry a lot. Yes, this is compelling viewing.

I don’t understand the point of the scenes of Harry on the Borg ship that are trying their damndest to be sinister when they are rubbing shoulders with the teen angst drama that is taking place alongside. At one point one of the kids invades his investigation and starts playing cards as if to say why are you bothering to try and create any tension?

I wish they hadn’t done that – If there was ever an argument that Voyager was a watered-down version of the TNG then you only have to watch the first five minutes of Collective that begin with the regulars playing poker (a TNG staple) and the Borg appearing (ditto). How embarrassing that one TNG cliché prevented the guys from spotting another one sneaking up on them. This is the opportunity they have to get rid of the four most troublesome (in terms of characterisation and development) characters. Imagine if Chakotay, Paris, Harry Kim and Neelix were all assimilated and we were left with a show fronted by Janeway, Seven, the Doctor and Torres?

The climax is particularly gutless and painful to watch because it all comes down to a bunch of kids dressed up as Borg having a barney over the fact that one of them has taken charge of the others and they are all individuals capable of making their own choices. Is this really from the pen of the same man who gave us The Visitor and In the Pale Moonlight?

What the hell happened to the Borg baby? Brannon Braga has gone on record saying that it was returned to its people off screen and never mentioned because they wanted to focus on the dramatic potential of the older children. The dramatic possibilities with the baby are endless, so this is a craven explanation.

A reason to watch this episode again – Praise first, because the idea of bringing in new characters onto Voyager who have a real impact on the lives of the crew is a worthy one and one that should have been taking place throughout the shows entire run. Icheb and his brood stay with the ship for a while and Icheb himself is with the show until the end of the show, developing a relationship with both Seven and Janeway. That’s all good. And so is the opening ten minutes which features action, atmosphere and a sense of dread. Even the idea of the Borg children is a bold one, had they pushed down a more uncomfortable route than they ultimately do. What transpires is a teen drama, full of angst and implants, and the performances of the children in question are well, questionable. This isn’t And the Children Shall Lead, it isn’t even Innocence, but it is another in a developing line of children-based episodes that doesn’t work. Collective is more unsatisfying than all the others because it had more potential than the lot of them. If Ron Moore hadn’t jumped ship early in season six I swear he could have done something spectacular with this premise and with Brannon Braga still on the series at this point (he wrote Genesis, you know) I’m surprised that there wasn’t more body horror on show. Seasons four and five were uplifted by Jeri Ryan’s presence amongst the regulars and the tension between Seven and Janeway. That’s no longer the case, the episodes have to try harder to make an impact. Collective isn’t trying anywhere near hard enough.

*1/2 out of *****

Clue for tomorrow's episode: