^ And as you can see below...
(Also, I'll be going on a business trip for the rest of the week, so no more new reviews until I get back).
Season Four4-01 Scorpion, Part IIIt is rare for second parts on Trek to live up to the first part, but
Scorpion, Part II mostly manages to do just that. It's an excellent conclusion to the previous season's cliffhanger, and introduces us to a new member of the crew in Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). That addition is something of a turn-around for
Voyager, and despite being labelled things like Barbie of Borg by some, she brings much needed spark to the show. And great-looking features aside, Ryan can act.
Seven getting on board would also mean the departure of another regular, and given Harry Kim's dire Species 8472-infected predicament his character's future was in jeopardy. But the showrunners settled on Kes instead (see next episode
The Gift) and Kim made a conveniently rapid recovery. In my mind either of those departures would have worked because neither of them really brought much to the show at that point. But Seven of Nine did, and I think you can safely say that she saved the show.
Anyway, she comes aboard as a Borg liaison, to more effectively communicate with the Voyager crew in constructing a weapon to use against Species 8472. I may be weird but I think that even in heavy Borg getup, she looks somewhat hot (but then I thought the same for Alice Krige's Borg Queen in the
First Contact movie). Yeah, I'm a bit sick sometimes!
The reason for introducing her is that Janeway refuses to be temporarily connected to the collective, in a chilling scene that should have told her everything about how tenuous this alliance with the Borg is. So they get Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One (but they may call her Seven of Nine) as a go-between. Oddly enough she's originally human, despite that the chances of that would have been close to nil.
The conflict and disagreement between Janeway and Chakotay is thankfully further elaborated on, as she suffers some serious injuries and is out of commission at a crucial time. Chakotay is now in command and promptly break the alliance he never really believed in. It turns out that was the right call at that moment, but then again it turns out that Janeway was right at the moment she entered the alliance. I suppose that's saying they both ate and kept the cake. Still, Janeway should have taken precautions against the scorpion effect from the start. But when she suddenly recovers they mend fences and proceeds to do just that, which saves them from Borg assimilation once the threat from Species 8472 is dealt with.
If there is anything I can complain about in this episode it has to do with the relative ease and speed in which they manage to inflict damage to Species 8472. The Doctor's modified and weaponized nano-probes works like a charm. The same goes for how unbelievably quickly Janeway and Kim are cured. That reduced the tension despite the ship having entered the "fluidic space" of Species 8472, where they should have been immediately destroyed. Species 8472 could destroy entire planets for Christ's sake! Oh well…
But summing up, I still give
Scorpion, Part II a grade of
10-, almost as excellent as part one. (And since Seven of Nine has now joined the show, I change the grades to her awfully nice bum.)
4-02 The GiftThe Gift has the task of dealing with two plot-lines, the de-assimilation of Seven of Nine and the departure of Kes. The first one is really riveting and engaging, the second one unfortunately gets short-changed.
The scenes between Janeway and Seven are nothing short of stellar. The former Borg drone feels lost and helpless without the collective, and doesn't want to be a real human again. Janeway makes the case for getting Seven her individuality back, and ironically she has to force that upon her. Growing up among the Borg Seven has never really experienced free will, except as a young child named Annika (yay, a Swedish name) Hansen, and now free will will be thrust upon her. At least Seven throws the term hypocrite at Janeway. Jeri Ryan does an excellent job portraying the conflicted Seven here. It's not her fault that the end scene is a bit rushed when Seven suddenly looks like a super model and apparently has accepted her new fate.
The second plot featuring Kes was a big disappointment. Everything happened so quickly and suddenly that there was no breathing room. While we had seen Kes develop mental abilities over the course of the show, in the span of one televised hour she went from minor telekinesis to becoming an energy being. Plot-wise it was all too convenient, especially as she not only left but also hurled Voyager 9,500 light-years away from Borg space, shaving ten years off their trip home. I get that they had to find a reason to ditch the Kes character, but this was much too rushed. There weren't even time for proper good byes. Also, the ship lost not just Kes but another shuttle (the eighth I believe) in the process.
Despite the unsatisfactory Kes story I give
The Gift a grade of
8- out of 10.