Unity
Stardate: 50614.2
Original Airdate: February 12, 1997
By Christina Luckings
The Story
‘First Officer's log, stardate 50614.2. Ensign Kaplan
and I are returning to Voyager after completing a scouting mission
in the Nekrit Expanse.’
However, the Expanse is wreaking havoc with the navigation systems,
and the pair have to admit that they are lost and flying in circles.
Then they pick up a Federation beacon, and assuming it is Voyager,
set a course for it. The signal is coming from a planet with
a population of over 8000, with no sign of Voyager, then an audio
distress call comes in. Chakotay orders a message buoy launched
before they land to investigate. They are met by a group of robed
aliens who open fire on them. Kaplan is killed in the fight and
Chakotay is badly injured before he are rescued by another group
of aliens and taken inside a bunker.
He wakens to see a human woman, Riley Frazier, and learn that
his shuttle has probably already been taken apart for spares
and technology. She explains that the population here is made
up of many races who had been kidnapped, put in stasis and woke
up to find themselves here. There is a constant fight for resources,
and general anarchy except for her group who have formed a co-operative.
Chakotay offers to help repair their communications array so
he can contact Voyager, before collapsing back on the bed.
‘Captain's log, stardate 50622.4. While Commander Chakotay
scouts for a faster route through the Nekrit Expanse, we are
continuing our month-long journey through this sparsely populated
region.’
Paris is bored, and not afraid to say so until Janeway offers
to let him clean the warp plasma filters. Then Tuvok detects
a vessel ahead. It’s a Borg cube, apparently dead in space,
so the Captain orders a boarding party to investigate and try
and find a weakness while they have this opportunity.
Meanwhile, Chakotay is sampling some of the co-operative’s
home grown vegetables while Riley reminisces about her mother’s
Texas barbeque. He offers to take as many people as possible
on Voyager, and she explains that they want to stay on the planet.
The distress call was for someone to help them with security
upgrades, medical supplies and weapons. She locks the door while
she goes out to work on fixing the array again.
On the cube, Torres and Tuvok are walking through a ghost ship
looking for an access node to get into the main computer. During
their search, they find a perfectly preserved Borg corpse. In
the briefing room later, the officers speculate on what could
have caused the Cube to have been destroyed and abandoned by
the Collective. Natural disaster or defeat by an even more powerful
enemy? The EMH has been given a body to autopsy in an attempt
to find more answers. Janeway orders that they should rendezvous
with Chakotay and Kaplan ahead of schedule.
After resting again, Chakotay gets the urge to go outside, and
tries the door. After a few attempts he gets it to open and steps
out into the daylight to see a group of Borg, including Riley
without her blonde wig. Found out, the truth begins to emerge.
She was assimilated at Wolf 359, and the Cube they were on was
damaged 5 years ago. Disconnected from the Collective, they regained
their personalities, scavenged for useful technology, removed
appliances and began a new life on the planet. Chakotay is annoyed
that she felt she had to lie to him. As a Borg she had not been
in control of her actions and could not be held responsible for
what she had done. He is still willing to help her and her group
despite their origins. Then he collapses again and Orum, the
Romulan medic, helps carry him back inside.
‘Captain's log, supplemental. We've detected a message
buoy launched from Chakotay's shuttle and are heading toward
it. The autopsy of the Borg corpse is underway.’
The EMH is his usual ebullient self as the examination begins,
with Kes assisting and Torres observing. Space preserves a handsome
corpse, he observes, before examining a device on the Borg’s
head. Suddenly it sits up, eyes open and prosthetic arm moving.
He manages to shut it down again, claiming it was merely an autonomic
response to his activating a back-up neuro-electric power cell.
Torres is more concerned at the implications. Suppose the rest
of the Borg on the Cube were suddenly reactivated like that?
Chakotay’s condition is worsening and his life is in danger.
Orum explains the medical applications of the Borg link – the
neuro-electrical field that linked all the Drones not only moved
information around but helped heal physical injuries. The Co-operative
all still have their neural processors in place and have built
a small portable neural transponder so that they can re-link
for short periods. By attaching a small transceiver to the base
of his skull, Chakotay could also be linked, and the group could
heal him. Naturally, the Commander is very resistant to the idea.
They let him think about it for a while, as they make preparations.
With no sign of Voyager, and the Happy Hunting Grounds beckoning,
he allows them to proceed. In the link he hears their thoughts
and sees images of the Co-operative’s lives - their memories
of assimilation, Riley’s childhood with her grandfather
in a field of bluebonnet flowers, landscapes.
Afterwards he wakens to find her sitting with him. The transceiver
is gone and Arum has said his condition is much improved. He
remembers the images he saw and she introduces him to another
residual effect of the link – shared physical sensations.
She strokes her cheek and he feels in on his cheek. He can still
hear her thoughts and they move even closer together.
Next morning, three days after Kaplan and Chakotay originally
landed, Voyager arrives at the planet. Janeway cannot immediately
establish communications with her missing crew and Kim tells
her the problem is with the planetary atmosphere, but he will
get it cleaned up. Down in the Co-operative’s compound,
Chakotay is helping Riley finish repairing the communications
array. Orum comes over to express his pleasure at having a new
mind in the link even if it was for such a short time. During
their time together during the night, Chakotay had discovered
what Riley really needs Voyager’s help with – not
just supplies, but a radical solution to the problem of the factions
fighting with each other. Then Arum announces the arrival of
a ship in orbit, and Chakotay suggests that Riley put her plan
to the Captain herself.
So Captain Janeway hears first hand about Riley’s idea
to re-establish the link among all the ex-Borg on the planet
in order to bring peace and harmony. They need someone to reactivate
the neuro-electric generator on the Cube for a few minutes in
order to do this. The idea is not one Janeway is open to, although
she says she will think about it. Chakotay admits that he is
biased towards them because of the link, but he didn’t
sense any hidden agenda while he was sharing their thoughts.
He also admits that as Captain, there are other considerations.
Janeway does not want to help impose the will of a few on the
rest of the population or help create another Collective. Request
denied.
Chakotay breaks the news in the Co-operative’s compound
as the last of the medical supplies are delivered. Riley takes
it well, and once again turns down his offer to take her with
them. On the shuttle he is preoccupied, and Torres offers to
thrash him at hoverball to take his mind off things. Then he
starts to hear the voices of the Co-operative asking for help.
Torres tries to contact Voyager and he stuns her with a phaser,
then sets course for the Cube. In his head, his new friends tell
him that they are under attack. He has to go to module forty
seven alpha, they tell him. Kim reports the change of course
to the Captain, and Voyager goes in pursuit. Tuvok leads the
away team onto the Cube to try and stop him, but despite being
hit by phaser fire, Chakotay fires back and injures Tuvok before
he completes the mission and the power is restored. The attackers
stop in their tracks as they hear the voices of the Co-operative
welcoming them in their heads. The away team grab Chakotay and
leave the Cube as it’s systems come back on line and the
drones begin to reactivate.
When everyone is safely on Voyager, Kim detects that a self-destruct
sequence has been activated on the Cube, and the ship leaves
rapidly. As the fireworks die down, the new Co-operative contact
the ship to apologise for using Chakotay and promise that his
connection really has been severed now. In sickbay the EMH confirms
that the Commander is now his own master again. Nonetheless Chakotay
apologises to his Captain for his actions, and wonders how long
the Co-operative’s good intentions will last now that they
have all that power over the population.
Review:
As promised by the closing scene of Blood Fever, the Borg are
starting to play an important part in Voyager’s journey.
We’re beginning in a positive manner though, with drones
freed from the Collective and basically friendly towards others.
They are independent individuals, but not entirely alone in their
thoughts thanks to technology. Although the upside of the mental
link are always stressed, once you hear them ‘thinking’ in
unity, the old chill is back. The lure of the collective is still
there and resistance is futile. Once you have been a part of
it, you want it again. It is an addiction, and because of the
small link they have established between the group, they have
never got around to completely breaking themselves of it.
They are also still quite keen on the idea of assimilating other
minds into their group, but whatever means possible. How many
times did Riley lie to Chakotay? About the groups origins, about
the link’s after effects – twice! She used him for
her own purposes more than once. Admittedly there was a positive
result for the gallant Commander – his life was in danger
and they saved him - but I have to wonder if Arum’s euphoria
the next morning was because it wasn’t just Riley who was
enjoying his close company the night before? He did say how great
it was to have a new mind in the link even for that short while.
The writers have successfully linked Voyager to both the Next
Generation and Deep Space Nine in one single phrase – Wolf
359, the fateful battle where Starfleet got pummelled thanks
to Picard assimilated as Locutus, and Ben Sisko became a widower.
The Trek Universe is linking up the shows by using a foe common
to two series and a movie. I’m not sure if this is good
or bad. Voyager is supposed to be out there, alone and cut off
from the rest of the Federation, trying to get back home. Now
we’re moving into almost familiar territory. Time will
tell.
Robbie McNeill’s direction is excellent. This is a great
show to watch. The long shots, the camera movements, are all
very well planned. This man has a good future behind the camera
when he decides to give up working in front of it. The next Clint
Eastwood? Who knows.
A superb episode. Watch it.
Grade: 9/10
Cast:
Kate Mulgrew as Kathryn Janeway
Robert Beltran as Chakotay
Roxann Dawson as B'Elanna Torres
Robert Duncan McNeill as Tom Paris
Ethan Phillips as Neelix
Robert Picardo as The Doctor
Tim Russ as Tuvok
Garrett Wang as Harry Kim
Jennifer Lien as Kes
Guest Cast:
Ivar Brogger as Orum
Lori Hallier as Riley Frazier
Susan Patterson as Ensign Kaplan
Creative Staff:
Director: Robert Duncan McNeill
Written By: Kenneth Biller
