Seven of Nine breaks down. Mechanically, that is.
This is one of those episodes that I find difficult to pin down precisely. There were some good elements – Seven’s reaction to her mortality, Icheb’s growth as a character, and the moral discussions about risky surgical procedures. But that’s balanced by some straight out puzzling choices – why have a long ‘get the doohickey from the Borg ship’ sequence, complete with mysterious aliens, which ultimately goes nowhere? Why bother with the ‘Seven pretends she isn’t sick’ stuff at the start of the episode? They add nothing to the point of the episode other than filling in minutes. We’re already down to 42 minutes of screen time an episode, surely there isn’t that much need for padding.
The lack of continuity bugged me a bit here. No mention of the Borg civil war, like, for instance, the fact that there’s a side in that fight who might have been able to help? And hey presto, there’s just a replacement for the destroyed shuttle, even though that’s been a major drama in the past. The writers just don’t try hard enough to remember their setting.
(The shipping off of the other Borg children could not have been more perfunctory: ‘see ya, thanks for visiting’ just about).
613 down, 124 to go.