"The Raven"
Air Date: October 8, 1997
Star Date: Supplemental
10/12/97 Update
10/20/97 Update
10/27/97 Update
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. Once a file hits 100K it's time to give the episode a rest!! You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
As Janeway attempts to negotiate with the B'Omar for passage through their space, Seven experiences disturbing hallucinations in which she is pursued by Borg and a raven. Unexpectedly, her Borg implants reassert themselves, causing Seven to flee Voyager in a stolen shuttle craft. When she violates B'Omar space, the B'Omar tell Janeway that they will see to the destruction of the Borg, pronouncing the matter closed. Obviously, Janeway is unwilling to let the matter rest. She allows Tuvok and Paris to use another shuttle to sneak into B'Omar space. They quickly locate Seven's shuttle and Tuvok beams over with hypospray designed to knock out the addition Borg implant but Seven is ready. Soon, she has Tuvok confined and Paris's shuttle damages. Seven then takes Tuvok to the origin of a homing signal that she has been receiving. Instead of finding a waiting Borg vessel, however, the pair find the crash remains of The Raven--the Federation ship used by Seven's parents to explore the Delta Quadrant, a ship that was partially assimilated by the Borg. She quickly disables the Borg signal that the ship is still emitting.
Meanwhile, the B'Omar show up to express their displeasure but Paris manages to beam Seven and Tuvok to safety as Janeway and Voyager run interference. Afterwards Voyager retreats to take the long way home.
Brash Reflections
Well . . . not exactly a stellar episode but they all can't be winners. A bit contrived for my tastes. Seven's only been on the ship for a short time and they just happen to be in the right area to pick up a homing beacon from the vessel where Seven spent her childhood?! Hmmm.
I gotta tell ya that I think the Voyager crew needs som refresher course in thwarting escapees. They shut down the shuttle bay and no one thinks that it might be a good idea to power down the transporters as well?!
Amazing how the B'Omar armada seemed to forget about Seven for a time so that she could get to the planet. I realize that she pasted five of their ships but there seemed to be a whole lot more of them in the wide shot just before the commercial!
Sometimes, actors have to come in after the footage is shot to redub a line for whatever reason. This episode contains one such obvious occurence. As Tuvok is talking to Seven about going down to the surface of the moon listen to the difference in tone between, "I will accompany you to the surface" and "You don't need to go alone." Big change on that one!
There's more but I'll leave it to you fellow nitpickers.
Phil
Reflections from the Guild
(Note from Phil: I haven't verified these reflections but they sounded good to me!)
Steven Perry: Worst episode of the season.
Talaxians were species 200 something and thus were assimilated early on in Borg existence. So why weren't they assimilated completely?
Neelix has musculature?
Oh, about 100 improbabilities in Seven's escape... she has a magic encryption code, can access the weapon's bay, use the site to site transport... you get the idea.
So Tuvok how can transport through the shields on Seven's shuttle?
Since when did Seven's parents have a ship with a USS designation?
Boy, these ship signals are strong. 40 light years away? No problem.
Heather B. Smith of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario: A great episode! It was good to see Seven more human and vulnerable. And the catsuit is a BIT more tasteful. (Note from Phil: Not exactly the term I'd use for it but . . .)
The part where Neelix was teaching Seven to eat was wonderful! Her comment 'Interesting sensation' -- was that referring to the process of eating or a comment on Neelix's cooking? After all, Neelix said he was going to steam seven's meal and the first thing he did was throw it in a frying pan.
When Paris suggests a plan to get Seven back, the Captain tells Tuvok that the genetic resequencer that Holodoc made should keep Seven sedated until they get back to the ship. Why would a genetic resequencer be a sedative?
Hey -- did the Borg assimilate any Vulcans (species 3259) or not? Seven seemed to have the Vulcan nerve pinch down pretty good when she got Tuvok in the shuttle.
Speaking of shuttles -- 2 went out and... 1 came back. Hmmmmm... Couldn't they have beamed back the one on the moon's surface or something????
Johnson Lai: The shots of Seven's shuttle keeps changing between a Type 6 (commonly used on TNG since Season 5) and a Type 8 (first seen on Voyager, either Season 1 or 2). (Note from Phil: Um . . . I thought Paris's shuttle was the type 8 and Seven the type 6. I thought that was how we were supposed to keep them straight! Then again see more comments about this below!)
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: One wonders why Tuvok didn't attempt a mind meld to find out what 7 o 9 was seeing.
If the Borg assimulated some Talaxians, why didn't they pursue them the same way they pursued the Enterprise and found the Alpha Quadrant. (Note from Phil: Especially if they found them to be good drones!)
7 o 9 does the usual Borg stuff and says "you will assimulated" and all she did was shove Nellix down.
Tuvok has some amazing reflexes to avoid a phaser blast like that. (Note from Phil: I'm thinking that Seven has a thing for Tuvok and she really wasn't trying to hit him.)
Before the shuttle blasts out of the shuttle bay, the door had no marks on it, even though the Ferengi in "False Profits" blasted out of it too.
We see two more shuttles and even worse they leave one behind.
With the fight with 7 o 9, why didn't Tuvok head butt her?
7 o 9 says Tuvok will be assimilated if he came down with her. In "I Borg", Hugh said they assimilate species, not individuals.
I just thought that The Raven was a very odd name
Chris Booton: Good episode! The flashback scenes were done really well, as were the battle scenes.The attitudes of those aliens sure was severe I have heard of strict but theytake that to extremes
As for the nits I noticed
Captain Janeway Mentions Seven of Nine as being on Voyager for 2 months, according to the last episode the events in scorpion occurred only a couple weeks before that episode, suddenly a month and a half have passed!
These aliens do what so many others have done, mainly they act as if though their three fighters are a threat to Voyager.
The regester of the raven begins with NAR, I have nevber heard of this regestry before, the only ones I know of are NCC and NX. (Note from Phil: Couldn't tell ya. Watching fuzzy TV.)
At the end the raven takes several direct hits and only after like 2 dozen of them does it fall appart. Now either that ship is incredibly strong or the Alien ships are so weak they are a joke, and if thats the case are 68 really a threat?
How did the raven get so far? The only explanation is that the borg tractor beamed it to that planet, but why?
Janeway mentions them being 10,000 ly away from borg space, yet in the gift they said it was 9,500 ly ? 500 ly travel? did they get a transwarp conduit working?
Not a nit but an observation, when seven blows through the shuttle bay doors I thought I saw the doors into the bay not to far from the space doors, if this is the case how do they fit all of these shuttles in it? Is it very wide? And when that security guy shoots her and it works why did he not use a higher setting? Certainly he could have stuuned her?
Donald Carlson of Birmingham, AL: All together now: ANOTHER shuttle is lost! A big'un, too.
So, Neelix says he was going to "steam" 7o9's food. Sure looked like "stir fry" to me. And it must have been pre- cooked; he barely warmed it up in the few seconds he swished it around that wok.
Isn't hunger a basic human drive? Why not wait until 7o9 is *hungry* before introducing her to food? Also, hard to believe someone who can handle complicated 23rd century tools would handle a fork like a 3 year old. Didn't her human parents teach her how to eat with utensils?
Interesting that 7o9 had Borg shields. Must be some kind of subdermal system, which would be pretty handy to have nomatter who you were. Ensign Kim better take note of this.
The Raven had yellow eyes? Looked black to me.
Nate Greene, Louisville Ohio: Hi everyone! This episode was absolutly great! At first, I thought it had something to do with "The Crow." Anyway, I do have one nit, Didn't the bridge scene on the raven look like Voyager's bridge. The con and viewscreen looked exactly the same (except for all the damage).
Ryan Michael Smith: In every scene in the holodeck, both Janeway's and Seven's voices have a huge echo. This may be natural for an art studio, but it sounds really unnatural.
This episode gives a new twist on the "don't give the captain a straight answer" syndrome: The two-man assist! First, Chakotay tells the captain that Holo-Doc has something she needs to see. Then he hands her a padd. Why didn't Holo-Doc just write it on the padd? Then Janeway could look shocked and have a better reason to go to sickbay.
Speaking of that scene, it opens with Janeway making a log entry. She says the cargo bay has been Seven's home for the last two months. In the next scene in sickbay, however, Holo-Doc talks about the implants he removed three weeks ago. Why not just remove them all at once? Picard had all his removed at more or less the same time in "The Best of Both Worlds II" (TNG).
As Janeway and Chakotay leave the turbolift, careful viewing shows there is writing on the inner turbolift door. What could it say? "Please Face Forward"? Or "Da da da"?
Chasing Seven, Tuvok leaves the bridge. Chakotay grabs the railing and swings his body around to reach the upper level. The railing bends noticeably while he swings around, almost as if it's not securely fastened to the deck.
A security officer tells the captain that Seven has adapted to their phasers. She tells him to use a random pattern. This really isn't such a good idea to tell him over open comms, given that Seven could very easily eavesdrop.
Seven calls Tuvok "Lieutenant" in the shuttle. As with LaForge, the proper abbreviation is "Commander."
The Raven's dilapidated helm console comes from "All Good Things..." (TNG).
And finally, why is it such a big deal that Seven runs around in a catsuit? She wore something fairly similar as a Borg, even though it had pagers and things attached to it. Besides, it's standard procedure to put a well-endowed woman who's just had major surgery into a tight-fitting catsuit (see Yar, Ishara).
I think that's enough for now. The rest will come to me ten minutes after I leave the computer lab.
Shane Tourtellotte: Without further ado, my ravin' about "The Raven". (Don't tell me the pun didn't occur to you, too. :-) )
For someone instilled with Borg precision, nay, perfection for most of her life, 7o9 makes a lousy nose. Or could it be her imperfect humanity reasserting itself? ;-)
Kinda low on 47s this week. There are two 100-minus-47s(53% polypeptides in 7o9's diet; System Operations 53-something on a briefing room viewscreen[and we've seen it before]), and a 74(Transporter Data 17452, in Sickbay). Come on, creators, one solid 47 a week is all I ask ...
When Tuvok offers to beam down with 7o9, he says "You don't have to go alone," and to show how versatile unassimilated species can be, he says it by ventriloquism. He faces away from us, but his jaw clearly isn't moving. Also, the sound quality changes. An obvious afterthought dub. (Note from Phil: YUP!)
I thought Annika's parents were colonists. Now they're scientists, and her father was performing some experiment that required them to travel a very long way. That might be reconcilable -- if the colony they intended to found was itself the experiment, one in sociology or such.
And how did their dinky Federation craft get 60000 light-years, anyway? And fast enough for Annika to have only one birthday aboard?
When Janeway orders the ship into Bomar space, the substitute helm officer replies, "Yes, sir." I didn't think Janeway liked that form of address.
Oh, and what ever happened to the shuttle 7o9 and Tuvok landed on the surface? I don't think they went back for it. That's four shuttles gone in a season six episodes old. At least they could have blown it up on screen, so we could have a proper laugh at it.
Michael Apple: Another strong episode. Jeri Taylor's acting was excellent. Seven of Nine is turning out to be a complex and interesting character. I'd really like her if only she'd get rid of that Catwoman costume.
Nits:
The opening scene on the Holodeck in Da Vinci's workshop really annoyed me. Bringing 7o9 there was a great idea, but what bothers me is what Janeway said. When 7o9 asks about the importance of imagination, Janeway says something in the way of "it brings me pleasure." It reminds me of the first paper I had to turn in for the paleontology course I'm taking this semester. The professor had us write three page papers detailing the reasons why we were taking the class. Then, he took all the papers that said "because it's interesting" or "the class is fun" and gave the authors Fs. That's because the professor, like Seven of Nine, wants details. Janeway should tell 7o9 about how imagination and creativity lead to invention. Da Vinci's workshop was a perfect place to discuss this, yet she never makes the connection while speaking with Seven.
Did 7o9's big escape remind anyone of "The Hunted" (TNG)? Once again, the creators have to find reasons why the ships's equipment doesn't work. Why did they even put the equipment on the ship, if they are just looking for reasons to make it malfunction all the time? It makes no sense to include all these doodads if they are just going to get in the way of the storytelling.
By the way, how did ONE Borg drone cause so much trouble? Good thing there weren't TWO. The ship would have been carved to pieces! :)
Seven must have made some improvements on the shuttle, while on the fly. It strikes several alien ships, yet never explodes. She should teach shuttle construction to the engineering staff.
Why was Voyager so worried about the AOTW's detection net if they could outrun the aliens' puny ships so easily? It's like worrying about tipping off toddlers on tricycles when you are riding a ten speed.
How could the moon Seven goes to be class-M? The gravitation pull of the nearby planet should rip any atmosphere away. (That's why there are no moons with atmospheres in our solar system.)
7o9's parents' ship, "The Raven" is partially Borgified, and is crashed on the class-M moon's surface. When 7o9 and Tuvok are inside the ship, and the aliens in orbit attack, there were no shields to protect them from the blasts, and the ship was already crumbling away. Were the aliens firing low-level warning shots? I can't think of any other reason why the ship wouldn't have been destroyed in one shot.
This episode still doesn't explain how Seven's parents got sixty years from Federation space in only ten. Had 7o9's father been working with experimental warp engine designs? Tuvok should have tried downloading information from the computer. It could have been useful.
NEXT WEEK: Q is going to try mating with Janeway again? Doesn't he ever learn? Oh, wait. It's a repeat. :) (It must be disconcerting for the crew to be going along, then suddenly have a flashback to last season.)
David T. Shaw: I missed the first 20 seconds, did Janeway mention 7's change of clothes? Or was something that just happened? (Note from Phil: I believe it just happened!)
You have a new contender for the "Most Geeky Alien Uniform" award. I know, trying to beat the original Cardassian look with the strange helmet was tough, but the Bohmar (spelling) have to win for having the imagination to put handles on their heads. (On the other hand, it might explain why they are so paranoid and suspicious of outsiders - long ago some aliens came, sold them a complete cargo fleet of second hand clothing rejects, and ran off, leaving the Bohmar the butt of jokes in the entire Delta quadrant.) (Note from Phil: I kept waiting for them to break out the soccer ball.)
So, 7 attacks Nelix and just strolls out of the gallery? Everybody seemed to run to Nelix, and no one tried to stop her. Are the crew members that bad at prioritizing tasks, or were they just scared of getting to near 7. all right, I can handle 7 wandering through the ship more or less at will - she has that nifty Borg shield (why did they ever deactivate that by the way?) and an encyclopaedic knowledge of the Voyager's specs. Not to mention the IFOS. But - she gets into a shuttle, somehow manages to blow the doors of the shuttle bay and zooms on out of their. And manages to reconfigure the shuttle's shields in approximately 3 seconds. [long pause] Ya, right. It is possible to reconfigure the shields to a shuttle, working alone whilst simultaneously piloting it and blowing holes in things. Either the design is remarkable, or 7 is just that good. Makes you wonder about the length of time taken in every other show about reconfiguring shields. (I would have been much happier with 7 deactivating the tractor beam when she was hacking into the other ship's controls. More believable)
Not a nit, just a thought - the Borg seem to have stolen technology from thousands of species -how come they don't have cloaking technology? We suspect they have assimilated at least a few Romulians, and what about the other species? Is it that they have it, but don't use it? ("We are the Borg - Cloaking is irrelevant.") I guess real Borg don't cloak.
So, not only does Voyager have plenty o' shuttles, but seems to have more than one kind - and did you notice that Paris was flying the "sporty" one, the one you just know can go from zero to Warp 3 in 4 seconds?
Once again Harry proves that he has no social skills at all - B'Ellana tweaks him just a little and he completely falls apart.
I found it interesting that when Janeway came into the bridge, the Red Alert lights were on. Yet there was nothing on in the conference room! Is this some sort of Star Fleet design? ("Let's not put Alert status indicators in the Briefing Room. If anyone important is in there, the bridge will call them eventually...")
A real picky nit. Tuvoc said that he *hoped* to get the element of surprise. Hope is an expectation and desire. Desire is an emotion. Therefore Tuvoc can't hope. QED. He should have said that he planned or expected to get the element of surprise.
I would like to add my voice to the chorus of disgust regarding the TV guide entries. All through the episode, you had no idea what good ol' Borgbabe was heading towards, very suspenseful, kudos to the writing staff etc., etc.
So the Bohmar are so paranoid that they track every particle of dust that comes into their space? Must be a new thing - a Federation and a Borg ship both were in their space twenty years ago and they seemed to be pretty obvious to the fact.
No idea unless you read the TV Guide entry were it tells you that she finds her old ship. (And that also allowed me to see how PAL worked - I figure right away that the Borg were flashbacks as soon as I read my TV guide.)
Tough day for 7 - suffers hallucinations, recants her humanity, and then sees her childhood home blown apart and fall into a chasm. Just wasn't worth getting out of bed.
One last comment - this season of Voyager has risen great questions about Borg behaviour. They seem to have travelled vast distances of space without assimilating much of anything. Maybe those cubes are just long range scout ships (they just keep going, assimilating small groups and carry on - the collective then knows enough to pick and choose their next target.) Of course that doesn't explain why the single ship tried to take on the entire Federation in the Best of Both Worlds, but it is the best theory that I could come up with.
Brian Somebody: Voyager scores again! The creators have finally gotten into "the zone", and have made some really GREAT episodes this season!
However it is not without it's nits.
If I was Janeway I'd be mad. Seven stole a '64 (2364, that is :-) Type Six Personnel Shuttle, classic!
Actually I wonder why Voyager dosen't use these more often! They seem to take quite a beating! Also, Janeway sprung for "Optional Equipment Package 'A' " when she got this shuttle, because according to my "Star Trek:TNG Tech. Manual" phasers aren't standard on this paticular shuttle. (only on "specail operations").
The exterior shot of the ship after Seven leaves shows that Voyager's shuttle bay doors are once again whole.
During a couple of the CGI flybys of Seven's shuttle, it didn't look like a Type 6. It looked more like a cross between a Voyager shuttle, and the movie shuttles. It had engines on it that looked like "regular" warp engines, and they were attached to the hull by plyon-outriggers. The Type 6 shuttle had the hexagonal "cigar" warp engines, and were attached directly to the hull. Also in the flybys the shuttle looked sleeker. (Note from Phil: Uh-oh. Maybe Johnson was right! He usually is about this stuff!)
The dedication plaque on the Raven seems bare. Just the name, the motto, and engraving of a Raven. All other plaques seen in Trek, have names, and information on the ship engraved on it.
I have a new Glossary Term for you. "NO Shuttles were Harmed in this Episode" (or NOSHE). This is a NOSHE episode because, well no shuttles were harmed. (By harmed I meaned destroyed, I realise Paris' shuttle took some hits, but since it still ran afterwards, it wasn't harmed).
Kevin Loughlin: Well, that was interesting enough, but it pushes credulity just a tad. How strong was that signal? What are the odds that Annika's original ship was essentially directly in their flight path? Space is big, and 3-dimensional. If the Raven had approached the DQ through nearly any other vector, this episode would not have happened.
Speaking of the Raven, did Janeway mention it in 'The Gift'? If she did, it would have been nice foreshadowing...
For some reason, all through the Seven/Tuvok shuttle scene I kept picking up 'Return of the Jedi' references:
Seven: "I can sense the signal."
Vader: "I have felt his presence, Master."
Seven turns in her chair
Emp: "Guards. Leave us."
Tuvok: "If the signal is so compelling, then leave the vicinity."
Leia: "If you feel he can find you here then leave this place. Run
away!"
(I fudged a few lines here, but I hope you get the idea.)
10/12/97 Update
D.A. Mazzella of St: Las Vegas, NV: Capt. Janeway says Seven has been in the cargo bay for 2 months, and later the Dr. says that he removed the implants only 3 weeks ago.
Claude Zimmerman of Mercersburg, PA: After one viewing of "The Raven", a few things stick out to me: First, what intern did they let design the Bomar? I think maybe Monday
Night Football was on in the background when they came up with this:)
Maybe they hang on hooks on the wall when they sleep?
Also, I thought
maybe we'd get some explaination for the new duds for Seven. I guess
she's developing a taste for individuality in her wardrobe. Hmmm, I have
a sneaking suspicion that no matter the colors, the All Wise Powers That
Be won't let her decide on anything... LOOSE ?! The day she appears in
sackcloth is the day Voyager actually goes a season without destroying a
shuttle.(I was going to say "goes an episode," but , Gasp, we only
damaged one this episode!) Which reminds me, I thought Majel, I mean the
computer said Propulsion systems were offline. Why did Tom have Impulse
by the time Voyager contacted him? You just can't keep that boy down!
And, now to the real nit: When the three tiny little Bomar vessels were
firing on The Raven, didn't the Captain order Chakotay to target their
weapons systems? Why then after only doing 2/3rds of the job does he
stop and tell her that they've disabled two but one is still firing?
Does Chakotay need a little reasurance? I would think the proper
protocol would be to carry out the Captain's orders before asking for a
pat on the back ;)
There was a least one cute line earlier in the
episode when the one Bomar asked "Are your translators malfunctioning?"
At least they acknowledged them, but it begs the question just how do
those things work with languages never heard before by the Federation
and why are they always compatible with the alien's technology?
Overall,
still an enjoyable episode considering the main goal was probably to set
up extended sequences of Seven marching through the halls. I'll bet
there are already hundreds of scans online from the scenes. By the way,
if I were Nelix I think I'd quit sitting down at the ladies' tables. He
keeps getting trounced ("the Gift").
Walman: Did anyone else notice when Chakotay & Janeway were in the turbo-lift and Janeway says "deck
five" it seem to take an awful long time for the turbo-lift to reach it's destination.
Either that ship is bigger than I thought it was or the turbo-lift is in real need of some
grease!
Trevor Ruppe: I couldn't help but laugh at Janeway as she said she visits the holodeck
to "take her mind off Voyager" and "get away from the 24th century"--all
while wearing a Starfleet uniform! Man, those things must be REALLY
comfortable since the crew even wear them when they're off-duty!
WIVRON: "Phantasms" (TNG)--the ship's unemotional crewmember experiences
spontaneous "daymares."
Which 1940s Flash Gordon film did the AOTW get their outfits from???
YES!!! ANOTHER shuttle lost!!! (Left behind on the M-class moon.) It
just doesn't feel like "Voyager" if they don't lose a shuttle every week!
Dustin Westfall of Fullerton, CA: Where is DaVinci? This is his studio, but he seems to NEVER be there?
Come on, he needs the pay. (If you don't know, the actor who plays him
also played Prof. Arturo on Sliders, before the character died last
season.)
Why does no one in the mess hall call anyone to say that Seven has gone
berserk?
I must say, who trains these security guards? They shoot Seven, see it
doesn't work, then proceed the let her walk by. HELLO?!? Try grabbing
her.
How did Seven get Borg shields onto the shuttle? The shields were green
when battling the B'Omar.
When did the Borg learn to use the neck pinch?
If those were flashbacks, why were they the post-First Contact Borg
(with the new makeup)?
How does this thing still have power after 20 years? Talk about powerful
batteries. (They keep going, and going, and going, ...)
Why are the B'Omar attacking from orbit? Why not do a few low altitude
fly-bys?
Why does Seven have to dust off the dedication plaque to find out what
ship it is? It's written really big on the side of the ship, right next
to the door.
How can Voyager lock onto the weapons systems of the B'Omar, if the
B'Omar are facing away?
I'm sorry, but the last two shots with Seven and Tuvok on the planet
were REALLY obvious blue-screen shots.
Travis McCord: When 7 is on her 'rampage', she's able to get past a lot of the ship's meager
defenses by punching on a nearby control pad... silly question: if she was
definitely being hunted by that point, why didn't they just cut power to the
area's control pads, or transfer control to the bridge?
Later on, Tuvok uses his tricorder to find a way out of the Raven... but when
he gets there, he finds the exit blocked. If the tricorder found the exit,
wouldn't it have read it as blocked?
Paris couldn't lock on to 7 with the shuttle's transporters when they were in
flight because of interference from her Borg implants... so how was she able
to beam off the planet?
And, this episode has one 'bug' that keeps cropping up through the entire
series... what's the rush? (When Paris complains about how their circuitous
route will take weeks) I understand that the crew wants to get home fairly
quickly... but they keep trading off the potential safety of the entire crew
to shave a few weeks or months off a seventy year trip! Isn't there
a point at which they say 'hm... we either get there in one piece in 70 years
and X months (or weeks)... or we risk getting killed to get there in 70 years
even... hmmmm... naah, go around.' (In fact, the dialogue after they
retrieve Tuvok & 7 indicates they took a detour this time!)
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ: You're right, this episdoe was pretty...boring. While the scenes with
7 of 9 eating and such can be cute, they don't stand up to how the
creators have drawn the Borg. The Borg assimilate individuals and
instantly gain all of their knowledge and experience into the
collective. We are led to believe that 7 of 9 has retained this
information, yet she is surprised about the sensation of eating.
wouldn't she already know about this 'sensation' after assimilating the
experience of another being that has eaten? In that case all Borg would
know about this.
On the same note, will 7 of 9 break down one day and tell 'Voyager'
(and hopefully one day the rest of the federation) how to finally
destroy the collective before they come swooping back towards earth (you
know the writers are going to run out of ideas and throw together
another Borg battle movie)?
The writers have written themselves into a corner by making the
federation technology too powerful over the eyars. They now have to got
through great (often sloppy and unbelieveable lengths) to create peril
with this magic technology. There's always some 'interference' or
'encryption code' or some other jiggermerwhatsit screwing up the fed
technology. If everything was clean there'd be no dramatic peril, hence
no episode.
Why do the phasers all of a sudden fire pulses, they've always fired
streams of energy since the pilot of classic trek.
The Voyager really doesn't make too many friends out there do they?
Why is it so difficult to ween 7 of 9 off her Borginess? Picard was
off by the second episode of his season. Granted he still gets a grand
Borg headache once and a while, but never tried to take over on of his
Enterprises.
Finally, in response to Steven Perry's observation about the U.S.S.
Raven...we never actually see the 'U'...it could just be S.S. (like the
S.S. Minnow in 'Gilligan's Island') Also, the two shots of Tuvok and
Seven before they're beamed up to Voyager are really poorly matted.
Alex Otis: Quote the Raven, "Nevermore!"
If Tom and Tuvok weren't supposed to communicate to Voyager, wouldn't
Paris contacting Tuvok cause the same problem?
I guess Seven didn't like Neelix's cooking. I wonder, I Neelix was
assimalated, would all Borg be bad cooks?
Loved the begining in DaVinci's workshop.
Is the schedule wrong or did they just not have a preview? My schedule
says Scientific Method is on next week, but the preview said "The Q and the
Grey". Anyone know which is right? (Note from Phil: I believe it's the rerun.)
James Rioux: A couple of points for "The Raven". (The title could have been
better but we know how much those creators love "The something"
titles.) Anyway...
This may or may not be a nit depending on how you look at it. 7/9
says the Vulcans are Species 3259, and that their distinctiveness
WILL BE ADDED to the Borg. (emphasis mine) This gives the
impression that they have yet to assimilate any Vulcans. But
remember Species 8472 in "Scorpion"? Their number is much larger than
the Vulcans' and they were around just a few episodes ago. Either
they've done a lot of assimilating since meeting the Vulcans
(5213 species to be exact) or there is a problem with their
numbering system.
Also, when 7/9 and Tuvok are trying to escape from the ship, and
looking for a way out, isn't there a large hole in the front of the
bridge? (I assume it's the bridge because the dedication plaque is
there) It looks like they could just climb out there.
Mark Blankenship: In the opening sequence, Janeway and 7of 9 are talking about
imagination. The Captain does something strange. In the discussion,
Janeway ends a sentence with "imagination, pleasure, fantasy." Seven
says that she doesn't see how they are necessary. Janeway then agrees
that "they aren't" but then goes on to refute what she just agreed to,
ending with the idea that the "mind wouldn't be possible without" them.
Sounds kind of necessary to me.
This tendency may be catching because when Harry brings the Captain
seven's translated logs, he says that there was nothing "remarkable"
about them, but later says the last entries "are a bit unusual." The
Captain then proceeds to read a most "remarkable" entry in the log.
(Perhaps we could call this the WISINWIT syndrome. What-I-Said-Is-Not-
What-I-Think).
Michael Apple questioned the moon having an atmosphere and claimed that
no satellite in our solar system has one. Titan, Saturn's moon, has an atmosphere. An mclass environment
might be difficult but not because of that reason.
The Raven had a registry of NAR. The only other vessels that I know of
that had that prefix were the Vico (Hero worship-TNG) and the Nenebek
(Final Mission-TNG). Both of these were mentioned as non-Starfleet
vessels in those episodes so cudos to the Voyager team for getting this
right.
Of course, why it was 70,000-9500-?= 50,000 to 60,000 lys from Fedspace
is another matter indeed. Perhaps "being unconventional" included
hacking the Fed database and learning about the transwarp conduits ;-).
If McGyver were alive and well in the 24th century, he wouldn't use
duck tape, he'd use a force field. It seems you can do just about
anything with one and put one anywhere, regardless of any hardware being
there to emit one. I can see the ad for Win2395: "Where would you like
your force field today?"
I see that BANNED is back in play. The aliens walked right onto the
bridge without as much as a by your leave.
On a similar note, an alien gets up in the middle of the briefing and
uses a Voyager terminal to show the permitted course.
This would qualify as a LOSE (Loss Of Shuttle Episode) since they leave
one behind.
Brian Lombard: In last week's "Revulsion", I noted that you could see the boom mic
in one shot featuring B'Elanna. It must be a recurring problem,
because as Seven and Tuvok first enter the crashed ship, look for one
move above Seven's head.
Seven refers to Vulcans as species 3,000 something. Doesn't this
number seem awfully low? We know from "Scorpion" that the Borg had met
8,472 species. Now go back to Next Gen's "Q Who". Guinan states that
the Borg have been around for "thousands of centuries". They only met
Vulcans about seven years ago, and since then they've mey about 5,000
more? So for all those "thousands of centuries", they only met about
3,000 species? Get my point? Does this seem right?
Last year it was the "Kirkanization" of Janeway. This year it's the
"Kirkanization" of Tuvok. The preview of this episode featured a
flipped shot of our favorite Security Chief, when Janeway said he was
authorized to use whatever force necessary. Readers of the Nitpickers
Guide for Classic Trek will remember that show's tendency to flip
Kirk's reaction shots so he would be looking in the direction a
particular scene called for.
Bob Canada: Phil, you mentioned it was a bit too contrived that Voyager just
happened to pass by the planet where 7 was assimilated. No more
contrived than many, many other Voyager episodes. Despite the fact that
Voyager's 70 years from the Alpha quadrant, they've already encountered
a Ford pickup truck floating in space, Emelia Erhardt, a Cardassian bomb
that B'elanna herself reprogrammed, the aliens who gave Chakotay his
tatoo, a tiny wormhole leading to a Romulan ship, the ancestors of earth
dinosaurs, and probably many others I'm forgetting. Seems like its just
par for the course (Just had a thought--what if Voyager encountered a
disk-shaped ship, that had "Jupiter II" painted on the side of it.
"Danger, Will Robinson!")
Are the B'Omar a tip of the hat to the B'Omarr Monk, the spidery looking
droid seen just as C3PO enters Jabba's place in "Return of the Jedi?"
Why did Janeway have to push a button to enter the turbolift when she
left 7's cargo bay? I've never seen anyone do that before. I half
expected her to stare up at an arrow in a half-circle above the door,
waiting for an elevator car to arrive. (Note from Phil: This has shown up occasionally in Trek--I believe it even happened once or twice in NextGen.)
Have you ever noticed that from NextGen on, everytime we see any new
non-Federation aliens on board the ship, there always seems to be 2 of
them? Its always the head of the planet and his aide. I know, makeup is
expensive, but just once, I'd like to see 3 or 4 at a time. (Note from Phil: There were three Ulians in "Violations"! ;-)
Federation shuttles really are wonders of effeciency and miniturization.
Despite the fact that they look like they must be largely hollow inside,
they contain:
Warp drive (still can't figure out where the pot-belly-stove-like
reactor is in a shuttle)
Transporters (where do they put the pattern buffer and all that stuff)
Replicators (that's got to take up some room too)
Oxygen tanks (gotta breathe, ya know)
And now Internal Shield Generators, so they can seal off the back of the
shuttle, like the glass partition in a New York cab.
7's log says the raven she sees in her visions has yellow eyes. But the
one they kept showing looked like it had red eyes to me (or does my tv
need adjusting?).
Nice touch when 7 remembers the day she was assimilated. She recounts
the events of trying to hide from the Borg in a frightened little girl
voice, which then turns cold and emotionless when she says, "And then I
was assimilated." She reminded me of Newt, from "ALIENS."
Speaking of shuttles, a few weeks ago, Tom and B'elanna's shuttle took a
light tap to the hull, the structural integrity field failed, and the
shuttle inexplicably exploded. This week 7 actually RAMS 5 or 6 of the
B'Omar ships, and suffers no apparent damage. (Note from Phil: That's because Seven took an older model that has a real steel frame as opposed to the newer variety that has that unibody garbage.)
Christopher Shaffer: This episode also presents the theory that Captain Picard never fully
recovered from his assimilation. Seven of Nine's deactivated Borg
physiology starts to regenerate as the collective calls her back.
She starts hallucinating about being back with the Borg in a way
similar to Picard's flashbacks. Apparently Starfleet knew what they
were doing when keeping Picard at the Romulan Neutral Zone!
Okay. Let me get this straight. 7o9, at a force field, goes to a
wall panel and taps into the tranporter controls and zaps herself
to the other side. Okay. So any hacker that happens to get on
board Voyager can just go to a wall and zap everybody into space?
Interesting. 7o9 can be controlled by the Borg's ability to influence
rogue drones when she had been almost completely "deBorged", but
nothing happened to Hugh and he was still full Borg? (Note from Phil: Ah, but he wanted to remain an individual!! Yeah, I know it ain't a great explanation but it was the best I could do. ;-)
Chris Cappuccio of Burlington, NJ: I'm confused. Seven O'Nine is cruising along on Voyager, and suddenly
"picks up" a homing beacon from a Borg ship. Only it turns out to be a signal
from a Federation ship, which Tuvok later tells her has been "assimilated".
Is this a Federation signal that she's picking up? If so, why is she reading
it as Borg? If it's a Borg signal, what is it doing on a Federation ship? Do
the Borg really assimilate ships the way they do people? ("I am Voyager
shuttlecraft 6 of Infinity. Tractors are irrelevant.") I thought the Borg just
stripped ships down.
And talking of Seven picking up the signal, why did the Doctor leave receivers
in her?
And how exactly does a Borg implant travel along under her skin and pop out
of the top of her hand *without any blood*? (and why doesn't her skin turn
gray and why doesn't she grow any extra implants and where do those shields
get generated from and...)
And how exactly have the Bohmar(sp) heard of the Borg if they're 10,000
light-years from Borg space? (or the real question: since the Borg have
obviously been here before, how did the Bohmar escape assimilation? Is there
some secret weapon that everyone in the DQ has that no one's bothered to
mention to Janeway?)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time we actually see
Seven of Nine sit down? I knew there had to be some important reason for
changing her outfit. ;-)
One more thing - I used to think that those flashing lights in the turbolift
were meant to indicate direction and number of floors traveled. Now I realize
they're merely decorative. Janeway and Chakotay board the 'lift from Cargo
Bay 2 (not sure what deck, isn't it 10?) and Janeway says "Deck 5". The lights
start moving from the bottom to the top (meaning they're moving *down*) and
I stopped counting them at 20 (OK, it's not on Deck 10, it's on Deck -15). (Note from Phil: I don't know that we have a canonical reference for the location of Deck 2 but the turbolift did travel a long time.)
Matt Nelson: Not bad. An episode you could watch without thinking too much. =)
You know, the Borg must be fond of that spidery thing that pops out
of the skin. A real good shock-inducer. We see it in the nightmare
sequence of First Contact, and again in the mess hall scene here.
So.. Did I miss some dialogue? Did Holodoc remove that implant from
her hand? Because in the end, in the scene with Tuvok, it was gone.
I dunno, I was reading a new Mage, Astro City, Bone, and Toyfare
while I was watching.
Carla Bandeira, Voorhees, NJ: Wonderful Ep, in my opinion. At first
I was dreading it as "another catsuit" episode, but it turned out to be
well written, well acted, and an interesting way to introduce us to
Seven's assimilation experience.
Now it's time to pick a few nits...
Okay, so Seven stole a shuttle, blew a hole through the shuttle
bay doors (I thought that I heard somewhere that there was something in
the ship that kept phasers inactive unless that something was
deactivated by the senior staff, or something... but then again, that
rule has been broken so many times that even if it did exist, I guess
it's invalid now), and then Tom chased her in another shuttle, and
_then_ they come back with only one shuttle. Did I miss something?
Also, when the ship was being attacked, couldn't they have had their own
shuttle beam them up? I understand that Tom was having trouble with the
transporters, but Tuvok and Seven didn't know that. They could have at
least tried... or maybe they just forgot...
Okay, is it me, or did that little girl who played Annika look
more like an eight-year old than a six year old? Maybe she was big for
her age.... And I dunno, but this is the first time that it really
struck me... The Borg assimilated a six year old?!?!?! I've always seen
adult Borg, except for those babies in TNG. I gues the Borg had no idea
what they were in for when they took a six year old on-- Can you picture
it? "Bedtime is irrelevant." Or maybe the Borg reply "Resistance is
futile... you will regenerate...."
Roger Sorensen of St. Cloud, MN: Seven goes to deck ten to access the shuttlebay, however the shuttle bay floor is on deck eleven. Was she trying to enter via the bay (presumed)
control room?
De-nitting the previously nitted: The NAR registry has shown up on a
couple other occasions: the DY-500 'Mariposa' (TNG Up the Long Ladder)
and the USS Vico (TNG Hero Worship). So, if CC is "cruiser class" and X
is "experimental," what could AR be? *something*/Research?
Scott Newton of New Brunswick, NJ: WIVRON: In "Brothers," Data defeats the Ent-D's security systems in order to
hijack the ship after he had been summoned. In "The Raven," 7 defeats
Voyager's security systems in order to escape after she had been
summoned.
In "The Gift," Janeway says that 7's parents had little use for the
Federation and didn't even file a flight plan before they left. It took
Janeway a lot of digging just to find a record of them. In this episode,
7's parents were scientists on a Federation starship, and Janeway says
they were well known. This isn't just a changed premise, this is a
180-degree turn around!
So how did the Raven get so far into the DQ? And without being detected
by the B'Omar? Did the Federation have any records of this ship being
lost? If they did, why didn't Janeway access them once she realized the
significance of the raven in 7's visions?
7 was assimilated when she was 6 years old, but she remembers nothing of
how to eat with a fork? Didn't her parents teach her? (My two-year-old
niece knows how to feed herself.)
7 knows all the tech specs on Voyager, not to mention all the knowledge
of the collective, yet she has to ask once the Doctor starts spuouting
medical technobabble.
At one point, Janeway reads from a padd which, as far as I can see, is
completely blank.
Once again, Janeway sends two senior officers off by themselves in a
shuttle into dangerous territory, without so much as a single strongarm
to protect them. (I know, I know, extras are expensive, especially when
they speak.)
Not really a nit, but was 7's parents' ship called _Raven_ or _The
Raven_? If it was the latter, I believe that this is the first time a
Federation ship had "the" in its name.
KMYF: Several times between Janeway and 7, especially in the teaser.
When Janeway and Chuckles are in the turbolift, it makes a noise I never
heard before.
Tuvok tries to get the element of
surprise by beaming into the shuttle. Smooth move, considering it takes
2-3 seconds to beam in. (Remember Picard and Riker having that same
discussion in "11001001"?)
With all the restrictions the B'Omar wanted to put on the Voyager, would
they really be saving any time by passing through their space?
NANJAT: It would have been nice to have seen more of 7's human parents
-- a hologram, a log entry, anything. I was waiting for a big emotional
scene when 7 sees her parents, but it never came. Don't get me wrong;
the creators accomplished a lot in terms of developing her character in
this episode. But they could have done a lot more. (I know -- time! Oh
well, there are always future episodes.)
GREAT LINES WE'LL NEVER HEAR: In the mess hall, after 7 decks Neelix,
one of the crew in the mess hall should have said: "Hey, come on! I know
his cooking stinks, but that's no reason to hit the guy!"
Derek Giromini of Richardson, TX: Was I the only person who figured out that she was relived the
long-suppressed childhood trauma of being chased by the Borg on her
parents' ship?
Jacob Boxer: This episode has some interesting nits.
The first one concerns the location of Sickbay and the Mess Hall. Dialogue
indicates that the Mess Hall is on deck 6 and Sickbay is on deck 5. Macrocosm
establishes both to be on deck 2. Decks 5 adn 6 were mentioned in other
episodes as their locations, but they don't seem to be consistent.
The next nit occurs when 7 of 9 steals the shuttle. (Great scene!!!!!). She
actually RAMS ships with that little shuttle. Judging by the color of the
shields and the sound effects, I assume she modified them. Also, the shield
sound effects are VERY similar to the sound effects they use when they raise
a forcefield.
My final comment is in regards to the number of shuttlecraft carried aboard
Voyager.
With the appearance of the 2 battling shuttles in this episode, that brings
the grand total to around 7. These are the only 2 which we have seen that
haven't been destroyed.
One comment, I do like 7 of 9's new uniform!
Mitch Nozka: GOOD EPISODE!
Of course, since 7 of 9 is in the credits, she wouldnt go back and also
even though the hardware regrew on her body, shes still a loveable
non-assimilating human after all.
Brian Henley:
Perhaps it's just me, but when Seven was having flashbacks about the Borg
siezing her father, then her mother, then herself, I thought the Borg
were moving faster, and a little more maliciously then we are used to.
Particularly in the shot where two Borg are reaching out towards the
camera (Annika's POV) Is it just me, or are we used to seeing the Borg
moving a little more mechanically? In that shot, the Borg reminde me of
"Decent"
Bryan Foster of Wellington AL: [Concerning Michael Apple's comments about "Jeri Taylor's acting",]: Shoulnd't that be Jeri RYAN? Jeri Taylor is a producer or something. (Note from Phil: In fact, Jeri Taylor is a executive producer of Voyager!)
Lisa Solinas: The Raven sustained phaser fire. Scuse me, but I could give
that a good smack with one hand and it would fall to bits. It
could NOT stand up that long to phaser fire.
Alright, it IS a better jumpsuit. Brown looks better than silver.
Note: Seven is approximately 24.
So the Borg assimilated some Talaxians, hmm? Well, if Neelix
is a good example, I can see why there are still un-Borgish
Talaxians ["You will not enhance us. You will not be
assimilated"]
In response to "Were some Vulcans assimilated?", the answer is
"probably." Remember Wolf 359? There were Vulcans in those
crews. [Take a good look at Sisko's commander in "Emissary".]
Murray J.D. Leeder: I can't believe they had superintelligent Seven play cabbagehead in the
opening scene!
Chakotay's conversation with Janeway on Seven still being a member of
the collective, a fact though it may be, still shows little
consideration of Hugh.
Tuvok's "hope", an emotion, is explainable. This is because hope is a
"higher" emotion, I believe, and Vulcans only object to "lower"
emotions. For a good discussion of this, read "The Metaphysics of Star
Trek".
OKAY, premise nitpicking time. Anneka looked just like she did when she
was assimilated as in the picture from DS5 (or whichever it was). That's
fine, so the Borg assimilated them midway and piloted the Raven for some
reason all the way to the DQ (and I don't mean to Dairy Queen!). BUT
Seven said something about her father saying that the ship will crash,
implying that they crashed on that very planet! SO The Raven made it all
that way in a space of years, while Voyager needs 50+ years to get back!
NOW THAT'S A TRICK!
George Padovan of Bridgewater, NJ: A very good episode! I enjoyed seeing more and more character
development of Seven! The story and special effects definitely had
improved this season, and I have high hopes it'll continue!
Duh, can't the security team, that fired at Seven at the turbolift, move
after firing? They just sit there and allow Seven to shoot them. And
they called themselves 'security' people?
W.B. Dillon: Not so much nits as observations:
In the opening scene, Janeway is talking to Seven about creativity
etc. and about how she likes to hang loose by sculpting. First,
isn't it odd that Janeway would be spending her leisure time IN HER
UNIFORM? Second, she says she likes to go to the holodeck to forget
about Voyager for a while. Does it seem like a good idea for the
captain of a lost starship to forget about the ship, even for a
little while? If I was resposible for all those people in the middle
of nowhere, Voyager would always be on my mind.
Did anyone else notice that the B'omar ships where a re-use of
the USS Aeon, the future timeship from "Future's End"?
I so far have stayed out of the whole "How many shuttles has
Voyager destroyed" discussion, but I have to bring this up. Seven
escapes in an old Type 6 shuttlecraft like the ones used frequently
in TNG. Tuvok and Paris chase her in the new "speedboat" shuttle used
on the show before. Add to that the Type 8 Shuttle used in
"Resolutions",
and we discover that Voyager has THREE different types of shuttles on
board. Considering Voyager only had five shuttles on board to begin
with (or so I've heard), does it seem right that they would have so many
different varieties? (Note from Phil: Um . . . if Voyager only had three shuttles onboard to begin with, shouldn't they be out of shuttles by now?!)
In the proud tradition of Major Kira, they have Seven dressed in a
nice set of three-inch heels. You can see them as she strolls out of
the messhall.
When Tuvok and Seven are on the bridge of the Raven, it shows what's
the viewscreen torn away to reveal the outside. I was always under the
impression that the viewscreen is just that, a viewscreen; not a
window. Speaking of which, why didn't Tuvok and Seven escape through
there instead of digging to get out?
Sydney Carton: Chris Booton says that the Raven's NAR reg. was a nit. I don't think
it's a nit, but a good idea on the creator's part. Think about it: It's
a Federation-type vessel, but according to Seven it sounds like it was
privately owned. So, the ship has a registry number as Federation
vessels do, but it has NAR rather than NCC or NX to indicate it's not
Starfleet or some other military/public vessel. This might also explain
how Starfleet regs jumped from 2000-something to the 74000's! The
economy's booming and everyone's buying a family runabout! :)
Roland Spickermann: Good acting on 7/9's part. I noticed, especially, that her whole
vocabulary changed -- less precise, more childlike -- in addition to her
behavior, when she regressed onboard the wreckage of the Raven itself.
A nice touch.
Now we know why Kes only threw them a little way instead of all the way
home, and why she threw them in this direction: so 7/9 could find the
ship, and undergo some therapy!
Finally: given that this Sovereignty in Voyager's way tracks every
little particle of dust that passes through their space, they should
have known about the Raven's wreck in their space, too. Why, then, did
they behave as if they had never heard of the Federation before?
(Perhaps that has to do with the 7/9's dad's unconventional theories,
too: poof! and suddenly your someplace else in the galaxay. That would
be an interesting plot angle, especially because it ties so many loose
ends together.)
Tony H Forbes: When she first goes wacko, 7/9 sprouts a Borg implant on her hand.
Later when she and Tuvok explore the Raven, it's gone.
7/9 refers to Tuvok as "Lieutenant". Didn't he get promoted? He's
wearing Lt. Commander pips. Actually, I haven't paid attention to the
opening credits to see if that has been changed.
How to stop 7/9...hmmm...well, why don't they shoot her with bullets?
Or get the ten heaviest guys on the ship and just jump on her.
There is also a BIG time jump from where Tuvok and Paris leave Voyager,
to where they observe the firefight, to where they cacth up with 7/9.
Okay: can anyone guess what this year's catch phrase is? It's
"reasserting itself" As in, "Her humanity is reasserting itself." Or,
"Whoops! It looks like her Borg stuff is reasserting itself!"
Voyager is once again making a bad name for itself with the Delta
Quadrant.
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: I also noticed all the Borg ID tags on the species on Voyager...Vulcans
(3259), Talaxians (218)... One question and maybe not a nit....The last
species to be numbered was 8472. Does it seem a little inefficient to
partially assimilate species in the Delta Quadrant (Talaxians have a low
number) Then partially assimilate species in the Alpha Quadrant (Vulcans have
a middle high number), then go back in the Delta Quadrant to battle 8472?
Seems we have alot of time to kill trapsing from quadrant to quadrant now, do
we?? Wouldn't they attempt assimilating their own neighboring species before
venturing out further??
One nit was when 7 shoves Neelix in the mess hall. All the crewmembers rush
to him and guess what? No one goes after 7!
So one tiny Borg implant (the one appearing on her hand) can cause her to put
up a forcefield to repel all attack, and outsmart the Voyager crew by
escaping? What are those tubes and dozens of other implants the Borgs lumber
with good for? Looks?
Later, when the B'Omar threaten Voyager, Janeway orders Chakotay to "target
their weapon systems." A few minutes later she tells him: "target their
weapons' array." Maybe these are two different orders but no action was taken
between them. It seems like a duplicate piece of dialog thrown in as a
suspense builder.
Stephen Mendenhall: I didn't remember the name of the ship being mentioned before, and I
don't know why I didn't make the connection when they did mention "20
years."
So why didn't the original personalities of the Borg in I
Borg and "Descent" come out?
The name of the aliens bothered me. Bomars? But in "The Galileo 7",
I think, one of the guys was named Boma. Too close. But how many
folks in the production end remember things like that??(Grin.)
It's all right with me if Voyager doesn't uncover some Terrible
Secret; the Bomars are just regular military types. But they should have
been a little more strange in their requests, like "you have to spend your time
watching videos of our Glorious Emperor singing, dancing and playing
the violin at the same time." (Grin.)
Jeff Carpenter of Springfield, VA: What's with the PADDs? Look when Janeway reads off that one in the cargo bay. It's a dark room, but even more importent, it's a dark display!
Have you ever tried to play a Gameboy in the dark? Why are these super
computers not equiped with backlight displays?
There's also lot of talk about the shuttles. Let's not mess with what
types of shuttles are what. The only official records we have are the Next
Gen Tech Manual, which is old enough to not have the upgrades for the
shuttles, ticorders, space suits, and all the phasers. It's really not that
official anymore, and so trying to say what should look like what is really
guesswork at this point. At least untill they update the book...
Everyone keeps sending you the 47's. I think that a lot of people don't understand them. (Note from Phil:
http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~schlock/the47s.html will explain it all.)
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: Lastly, since we're numbering species and 8472 was the most recent (they were
at war with this provoked species that wouldn't assimilate quietly), one
wonders how much time has elapsed from species 1! No way to tell.
Clearly the Borg have been around a while. Yet, in Star Trek TNG episode "Q
Who" the Enterprise is flung by Q 7000LY to meet this foe. Because of this
encounter, Guinan says that they will be coming. In other words, they now
know about the federation. Excuse me? They will be coming? If the Vulcans
(which are federation members were assimilated as 3259, less than half of the
history of the Borg's existence, didn't they already come many years ago??
Even assuming that it was the human race was until this episode unknown to
the Borg and now is vulnerable to an impending invasion, you would think the
Vulcans would have said something to the federation president about this new
enemy to warn them. In other words, they should have been expecting the Borg
all along!
Further, and Phil, correct my faulty recollection on the classic Trek
episode, but I believe it was "The Immunity Syndrome" in which Spock said
that when the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid was destroyed by the giant amoeba,
Vulcans had in their recent memory no conqueror. They cried out in
astonishment. Wouldn't the Borg nearly qualifyas a conqueror?? (Note from Phil: I believe it was "The Immunity Syndrome!")
Dan Rudolph: Also, Janeway mentioned ravens having yellow eyes. The one in the close-up
seemed to have brown eyes. Of course, my color might just be set wrong.
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: Why were the B'Omar allowed to follow Janeway and Chakotay to the bridge
after the captain was hailed by Tuvok? I would think any information
which might damage their chances of gaining admittance to B'Omar space
would be kept under wraps. Receiving a briefing out of ear shot of the
B'Omar seems a logical precaution. I believe I also noticed the actress
who played Kes' daughter in "Before and After" in the cargo bay just
before Kim and Torres have their conversation. These were the only nits
I notice which were not heretofore mentioned, but I will make a few
other observations.
The scene between Neelix and Seven was my favorite of Neelix in the
series thus far. His compassion in the face of obviously troubling
information was commendable. He chose to see Seven as a former Borg and
a current shipmate, and help continue her journey toward becoming fully
human. I even liked the scene once Seven began eating. My first
instinct was to be annoyed with Neelix antics (an old habit I'm going to
have to reevaluate), but upon reflection, his actions were not a bad way
to handle the situation. Seven is for all intents and purposes a child
having her first meal. Kudos to Ethan Philips. The implant coming out
of Seven's hand was also great -- shade's of Picard's cheek in "ST:
First Contact."
The scenes between Tuvok and Seven were also quite good. Tim Russ is
usually on target and Jeri Ryan continues to impress me with her
abilities. This is the second time in three episodes that Tuvok has had
to talk someone back to reality. Perhaps he should double as ship's
counselor!
One more thing, was anyone else expecting the B'Omar to begin calling
balls and strikes?
Joshua Truax: Well, I finally got to see "The Raven" on Saturday night (its Wednesday
airing was pre-empted by the baseball playoffs)... and it was worth the
extra wait. In fact, I thought it was the best episode so far this
season, including the premiere. Not that it was free of nits, of
course...
First... is J/C finally a dead issue, once and for all? Last season's
sort-of-lovebirds, Janeway and Chakotay have had a number of scenes
alone together (read: opportunities to flirt with one another) this
season, including this episode, and they haven't done so once. Yes, the
season is still young, so J/C could easily rear its head again, but one
can always hope that things are as they appear: that the creators
realized that playing Cupid with the captain and first officer of a
starship was a [silly] idea, and tossed it upon the scrap heap of all the
other [silly] ideas they've hatched and discarded over the years, such as
warp speed limits and the Troi-Worf would-be romance on TNG...
Now that that's off my chest, on to the "real" nits: At one point during
the opening scene with Janeway and 7/9 in da Vinci's workshop, Janeway
pauses to wipe some clay off her hands with a rag. Is this really
necessary? This is holographic clay we're talking about, mind you.
Won't it all disappear from her hands whenever she decides to leave the
holodeck?
During her first on-camera meeting with the Bomar delegation, Janeway
thanks them for granting Voyager passage through their space, saying
that it will knock three months off their trip home. Then the Bomar
spell out their terms. Voyager is not to exceed Warp 3, must follow a
circuitous route around certain regions of Bomar space, and must submit
to occasional Bomar inspections. This creates two nits. First, how can
Janeway say that passing through Bomar space will shorten their trip
home before knowing the Bomar's terms, or the route the Bomar have laid
out for them? After learning all this, it could very well be that going
around Bomar space at high warp would be faster than following the
Bomar's proposed route at Warp 3. This brings me to the second nit: Why
doesn't anyone even bring up this possibility? After all, if going
through Bomar space on their terms would end up not saving any time,
it's not really worth pursuing... except as a plot-driving mechanism, of
course.
Next week: a rerun?! I guess UPN doesn't want new Voyager episodes to
have to compete with the baseball playoffs, so they're showing "The Q
and the Grey" again. (As you may recall, UPN did the same thing last
season during the baseball playoffs as well.) Not that I should
complain; "The Q and the Grey" is still my favorite Voyager episode so
far. My only question is, how are Kate Mulgrew & John de Lancie going
to top it next time around?
Joe Griffin: Does this count, Phil?
Once upon a midnight dreary,
While I nodded, nearly napping,
(Each stanza has eight syllables in each line except the FOURTH which
has SEVEN.) (Note from Phil: Ummmm . . . .)
More notes on nits, and I stay firmly in character for the first one: [Concerning the echo in the art studio,]
Yes, it is natural for a large space with stone walls to have a long
reverberation time. Kudos to Trek's sound design team.
[Concerning moons and atmospheres,] This from the University of Arizona "NinePlanets" website:
"Recent observations with HST reveal that Europa has a very tenuous
atmosphere (1e-11 bar) composed of oxygen. Of the 61 moons in the solar
system only four others (Io, Ganymede, Titan and Triton) are known to
have atmospheres."
FYI, Io, Ganymede, and Europa are moons of Jupiter, Titan orbits Saturn,
and Triton orbits Neptune.
Simon de Vet: A few good nits, and some comments.
The question we're all wondering: Why did 7's outfit change? If it was any other
character i could understand, but the old one was supposed to serve some function for
regeneration, or something. Of course the real reason I've heard was tha this episode called
for her to sit down which was previously impossible (Really!)
Why did the ship fall apart like it did? From the scene
where it falls off the cliff, and the previous scenes, it seems to be nicely cut up into
thin slices. What would have caused this?
The ship was "partially assimilated" Did anyone
see this at all? Or inside evidence of the slicing? (Note from Phil: Didn't it have the "lumpies" on the outside of the ship?)
Was this ship CGI? I think that VOY
might have taken a step back (Hooray!) and used a model. You can CGI a nice, sleek ship, but
not one falling off a cfill. And on a side note, did it remind anyone of the Jenolan?
Comment: About large moons not having atmospheres: Titan, a moon of Saturn and the target of
the controversial Cassini probe has a very thick atmosphere, and it's near a much larger
moon than the Voyager moon was. Granted, Titan is far from M-class, but there is no real
reason why a moon cannot have an atmosphere. A moon is nothing special, it prety much a
planet that orbits another planet, instead of the sun. Some moons in our own systen are as
large as Mercury and (maybe, I forget) Mars. Though I doubt the M-classiness (Is that a
word? No. Too bad) of the moon. While it was nice to show no plant life, and make it look
like our stereotypical moon, what would have produced all the O2? Hmmm? (nit nit nit nit
nit)
So the ship now has a gaping hole in the shuttlebay, eh? My bet is that this will have
lasting repercussions for months to come. (HA!) About shuttles fitting into the bay. I am
making a scale model of Voyager, and based on the size of the bay, and the to scale size of
an equivilant scaled shuttle, at most 4 shuttles could fit in there side by side. And
Voyager does not have 2 shuttlebays, despite mentions of "Shuttle Bay 2". Hmmmm...
Kurt Harbaugh, IL: Just one nit I noticed that I'm surprised no one else saw. In several
shots that showed Paris piloting the shuttle, you can clearly see stars
through the window to his right. Despite the fact that ALL exterior shots
show the shuttle moving, they NEVER MOVE! (Maybe he gets motion sickness and
taped up a picture of stars to give the illusion of staying still?)
Brian Dominguez, Oswego, NY: I'll join the ranks of those who wonder what happened to Seven and Tuvok's shuttle. I wonder if a scene was cut due to time.
I decided to leave it up to my imagination and figured that Voyager
engulfed their shuttle.
But it all seems to me that a scene or two was cut away. Did they crash
land? If they did, they didn't look the worse for wear. Did they beam
down? Then why not beam back up?
If they didn't get the other shuttle--I wish Janeway would
show some concern.
Derek Moffitt: Now there are *four* Borg cubicles in Cargo Bay 2! I tell you, Seven is
assimilating the ship!
In the TNG episode with Soren and the J'nii (sp?), Geordi says that the
shuttlecraft doesn't have phasers, but he added them for that mission. On
the other hand, that shuttle also has only 1250-millicochrane warp
nacelles--warp 1.05, for cryin' out loud--so maybe Starfleet has just
upgraded their shuttle fleets rather drastically in recent years. (That
would also explain how the shuttle collides with several B'Omar ships hard
enough to disable them without even getting a scratch!)
When Seven's trying to get into the shuttlebay, she uses a site-to-site
transport. When Tuvok tries to beam Seven off her shuttle, he can't
because her Borg implants interfere with the transporter lock. At the end
of the episode, the Voyager beams Seven up from the moon. Something
doesn't add up here. (Note from Phil: Maybe Seven simply commanded her implants to scramble the transporter lock?)
For the first time in any Star Trek ever, they *intentionally* beam
through the shields! Tuvok tells Paris to "remodulate the transporter" so
he can beam to Seven's shuttle. What exactly is that supposed to mean,
anyway--we've never heard of modulating the transporter before, have we?
And is this classified as a YATA or a LEAN? (Probably the writers are just
sick of this nit turning up all the time, so they decided to "invent" a
technology that will let them beam through. Let's see if Voyager ever has
trouble beaming through shields again.)
Seven's Vulcan neck pinch looked really fake. Until Tuvok suddenly
collapsed, we thought she was just trying to push him down.
How did Tuvok and Seven manage to get so far away from the Raven so fast?
One minute they're climbing out of the ship, the next they're watching
from the other side of the chasm as it falls in.
Kim sure learned to read Borg awfully quickly. Speaking of which, where's
that UT when you really need it?
There's another guy in the cargo bay in a blue uniform! Now, while not
everyone in a blue uniform is a medical specialist (Dax, for example),
they are supposed to specialise in the biological sciences. So shouldn't
that guy be more qualified as a field medic than Tom Paris? After all,
Tom only had two semesters of biology at the Academy!
And now, the invasion of the anti-nits:
There are only two different shuttles shown in the episode: Seven's (with
the hexagonal nacelles attached to the shuttle) and Tom's (with the
smooth nacelles out on pylons--it looks like the Cochrane). The reason
for some of the confusion may be that (1) there's an exterior shot of
Tom's shuttle immediately followed by an interior shot of Seven's, which
is not Trek's usual convention, and (2) Tom's shuttle has a very pointy
nose, but when seen head-on, it looks much shorter. The only actual
shuttlecraft nit in the episode is the shot of Tom's shuttle just after
the computer says that propulsion is offline; this shot is a mirror image,
and the "74656" on the side of the shuttle can clearly be seen backwards.
(Hey, does that count as a 47?)
The conn ensign on the bridge does *not* call Janeway "sir." Turn up the
volume and listen closely, and you will hear her say "Aye, Captain." (The
Nitpicker's Local had to rewind this scene seven times before we settled
this argument.)
Tuvok *can* duck Seven's phaser shot. Of course he can't move faster than
the beam itself, but he can see her pointing the phaser at him and move
back behind the corner of the wall.
Doug Bruzzone: One wonders why, when attacking, Voyager doesn't have shuttles just ram
the alien ships!?(They have more than enough)
Joseph E. Buss of Cicero, IL: Imagine you are the Bomar squad leader. You have four targets - A
Starship in Orbit, A shuttle in Orbit, A shuttle on the Ground, and a 20 year
old wreck on the ground. Which do you fire on first. Well, if you are a
Voyager writer, a wreck is your priority target, even after the Starship
starts firing on you.
The Bomars are paranoids, and rightfully so, given they have the Borg
collective as a neighbor. So they don't want a starship flying through,
scanning their facilities. The solution Janeway doesn't suggest. The one
Picard came up with in "The Wounded" -let some observers ride along. But
hey, she had ten years cut off the trip, and she has to lose that time.
David D. Porter: Do Borg dream of electric birds? (With apologies to Philip K. Dick.
Those who don't get it should look up the inspiration for the movie Blade
Runner.)
Why should 7 have to take a list of nutritional requirements to
Neelix? Hasn't he figured out what humans need to eat in the last
three-plus years? (On second thought . . .) (Note from Phil: Perhaps Seven's nutritional requirements are a bit skewed because of the Borg implants?!)
That convoluted flight plan is silly. At least twice, V-ger can be
given a shortcut which will reveal less to them than the original route.
One must wonder why the Borg bothered to assimilate any Talaxians.
Other than being 'excellent drones,' what did they have to offer?
Neelix should have warned 7 not to stick the fork too far into her
mouth for fear of stabbing herself. I also wonder, if she is so unused to
swallowing, what she's been doing with her excess saliva. Has she been
spitting all over the ship?
Great line: 'Are your translators malfunctioning?'
'Can you get there before she does,' Captain? One word: transporter.
If one Fed shuttle can knock out five Bomar so easily, the Bomar can't
be too awful tough.
7's statement that Vulcan's distinctiveness 'will be added' implies
that no Vulcans had been assimilated before she left the collective. If
that is so, *when and how* did she learn the neck pinch?
Wonder if 7 will go back to being called Annika?
Kind of refreshing that two of the last three epsiodes had no 'B'
plot. (Note from Phil: Yup!)
10/20/97 Update
John Berggren: In the new episode of VOYAGER, THE RAVEN, we see that Seven's
implants are regenerating. At the very least, a new implant pops out of
her right hand while she's eating.
Later in the episode, when Tuvok encounters her on the shuttle,
and wanders with her through the abandoned Starfleet Vessel. The
implant is gone. No matter how hard I look, I cannot see it. I know
for a fact that she did not have an opportunity to visit sick bay on her
rampage and have it removed. So the only possibility here is a special
effects error (since the return of the implant looked quite computerized
in the first place) they neglected to "Draw" it in again.
What do you think the odds are that we will see this implant in
the next episode? (Note from Phil: Zero.)
Matthew Chiappardi: Someone mentioned that John Ryes-Davies is dead, and I'm pretty sure he
is not. (Note from Phil: Um . . . can find this comment in the file but I might have missed it so I included the correction! ;-)
Michael Apple: When I sent in my nits on "The Raven", I mistakenly commented on "Jeri
Taylor's acting". Obviously, I meant Jeri Ryan, because Jeri Taylor is the
executive producer of Voyager. Oh, well. Sorry about the mistake. (Note from Phil: No problem! We're all human. As long as we're on the subject of Taylor/Ryan, one wonders how Jeri Taylor would like it if she had to wander around Paramount offices wearing an oufit like Seven's.)
Clay: Claude Zimmerman of Mercersburg, PA asked about how the Universal Translator
worked. He could look in the Enterprise D Tech manual and in it there is a
detailed description of the process the computer uses to translate. There is
a device that allows the alien technology and Federation technology to work
together. I can't remember the name but it is in the Star Trek Omnipedia and
Encyclopedia. The Federation device matches the configuration (or something
like that) of the information processing and the way the alien technology
works.
In your most recent additions to the guild reflections on "The Raven", Bob
Canada mentions that some aliens gave Chakotay his Tattoo. That is not true.
In the ep with the aliens that Chakotay meets, who turn out to be the sky
spirits of Chakotay's tribe, we see in the flashbacks of his childhood that
an old Indian tribe that he and his father's group meet in the jungle give
Chakotay that tattoo. (Note from Phil: I think Bob meant to say that the aliens who inspired Chakotay's tattoo had already appeared on Voyager.)
Murray Leeder: Joe Griffin's assertion is not entirely correct. Actually, none of the
stanzas of "The Raven" has either eight syllables, and only the closing
line of each verse has . This is because Poe did not write:
Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered weak and weary
Instead he wrote:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
O'er many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore
So there are actually 16 syllables in most lines, not 8. I
assume Mr. Griffin realizes this, but I just love to nitpick.....
Simon de Vet: There is a ST top ten list somewhere of "Things You Will Never See on Star Trek" One entry is: "A strange new alien race turns out to be a familiar old alien race wearing a silly
hat." Well, it happened! Best line of the episode, maybe even the series: If you listen
carefully, after 7 has a thingie pop out of her hand, threaten to assimilate Neelix, push
him down, and storm out of the room, one crew member says, quietly "Did you see that?" I
started laughing. Hilarious!
Corey G Hesselberg: I know we can find reasonable excuses for 7's skin tight uniform but the
thing that bothers me the most are the HIGH HEELS! What possible reason
other that the un-Star Trek related one can there be for high heels? Is
there some kind of borg height standard that she needed to meet? I
just noticed them in Raven so I'm not sure if she wore them before. (Note from Phil: No doubt this is some highly advanced form of Borg technology that reshapes the calf muscle to make it more visually appealing to the Borg drones.)
Brian Straight, Shawnee, Kansas: Last week Mark Blakenship says McGyver wouldn't use "duck tape" in thr 24th century. I hate to nit a nitpicker, but this is a common mistake in
tape-lore. It's actually "duct" tape, as in a heating duct. (Note from Phil: Actually, you can buy Duck Tape at Walmart . . . today! By the 24th century is will probably all be known as duck tape. Snicker, snicker)
A firend of mine claimed that the motto for the Raven was "Nevermore" I meant
to check on this but I didn't catch the local re-run in time. Oh, well maybe
next time.
Also in response to the discussion on moons with atmospheres. Yes, moons can
have atmosheres, and concieveably could have m-class atmosphres. All they
need is liquid water (which I believe was found on Jupiter's Europa
recently!), nad ice was found on our moon, a thick enough atmosphere to hold
in heat, and matain a suitable pressure; and have temperatures with in
acceptable ranges to have liquid water. Not that far fethced! Unfortuantly
since only half a moon faces the sun at a time (the other half NEVER sees the
sun), so the moon would only be half-class-m. Although since the federation
has weather controls, they could heat the other half to acceptable levels.
Shinichi Evans of San Diego, CA: Interesting idea - Borg assimilations are extremely painful and traumatic, especially for small children (like Annika, the younger
Seven).
Another interesting idea - Some aliens (the B'mar)are so secretive that
they plot a convoluted flight plan for Voyager along with some
stipulations: no surveying, no exploring, no contact with populated
worlds in their space
I see Seven of Nine has a new catsuit (very nice color on her). I
wonder when she's going to wear a dress or something not so form fitting
(I guess never).
The first thought that came to my mind when Seven of Nine and Tuvok are
stuggling inside the shuttle craft (before she renders him unconscious)
was "Shall we dance?" After Tuvok is "knocked out", he gets to put his
head on her shoulder. I guess that's something Harry hasn't been able
to do yet.
Gareth Wilson: I'm surprised that 7 of 9 had to be taught how to swallow by Neelix.
Swallowing is a very basic reflex that develops even before birth. I'm
not sure why the Borg would bother to supress it. (Note from Phil: The ways of the Borg are vast and mysterious. They probably consider it wasted mechanical energy and have one of those little dentist suction tubes to take care of the saliva. We should listen for that slurping sound next time the Borg are on the screen!)
Aaron Nadler of New Cumberland, PA: Did you see Chakotay wiggle the bridge railing when he swung around to take Tuvok's place when he leaves to go after 7 of 9?
What did you think of the new Catsuit? You can still see the robo-thong
and rib plates underneath! (Note from Phil: Well . . . I can't. Still watching fuzzy TV.)
Lars P. Ormberg of Rimbey Alberta: What drama! What action! What suspense! Between TV guide and a lying preview I had 0 suprises for the episode. Oh well...
Why does the mother-daughter relationship between Janeway and 7 seem so
forced? It seems almost as forced as the early Janeway-Kes
relationship, which itself is almost as forced as the Worf-Dax
relationship.
So every time we meet a new species, 7 is going to quote a Species #?
That's going to get annoying. Somebody should teach her some manners
about spouting off in front of another alien. Or at the very least
reveal our number...
How does Janeway feel safe about being so far from Borg space? Aren't
they going to Earth? Don't the Borg go to Earth? I could just see
Paris "Sir, the Borg are turning on their signal light...the Borg are
passing us...". Maybe Voyager should be ready for one so at least they
can tell the Federation where the ship is.
Funny, but I thought that the Borg shield generators were part of their
armour. Must be a metabolic function.
First the Doctor, now 7 of 9. LaForge and Crusher named Hugh when he
was a temporary guest for 5 days (even when he was up for destruction).
Did Starfleet put up regulations regarding the naming of
computer-manipulated sentients?
More proof that the shuttlecraft is the more powerful ship Starfleet has
in the Delta Quadrant. After a few moments of modifications, not only
does 7's shuttle have ram-capable shields and phasers, but rear firing
phasers as well. Outstanding.
I am already sick of 7's Vulcan/android like behaviour. Without the
Borg connection, she has a lowly human brain with bad memory like the
rest of us. Why weren't the Talaxians "species two hundred and
something, I can't really remember"?
Why was "The Raven" Borgified? The Borg don't assimilate vessels, they
cut them up "like a roast" as Riker put it. Of course, the Borg don't
assimilate individuals either, yet 7 is under the opinion that fellow
traveller Tuvok is in danger on the planet.
Despite all the modifications, doesn't 7's shuttle have a working sensor
array? The kind that tells her what the Bomar sensors did, that there's
a ship on the surface?
The Bomar don't just have poor tactical choices in targets (crashed
wreck over Voyager and the shuttles) but they have a bad aim. They just
seem to hit the rocks around The Raven. That broken up ship (that fell
piece by piece off a cliff) wasn't damaged at all by all the weapons
fire. Must have been the partially assimilated part of the ship that
was assimilated by Borg who don't assimilate ships.
First Ferengi, now 7. When is the crew going to learn to tie a long
rope (Con Air style) to shuttles to prevent unauthorized flyaways?
Maybe Janeway should post a security officer in the bay.
So after decades without real food, the Doctor starts her off with
Neelix products? Is he trying to give her reason to stay in her
cubicle?
What kind of cargo does Voyager have in Cargo Bay 2? There seems to be
a lot of it around the Borg equipment down there, and it's all in
Starfleet containers. Was that there since "Caretaker?". I can just
see an upcoming episode, with supplies low, searching for stock. The
crew finally come upon a massive stockpile of supplies, enough to last
two years. But they can't fit any on because they realize that the
cargo bays have been packed full of the same supplies for years...
I don't think that the Vulcans should have been assimilated, in the same
way that Chakotay's Borg friend shouldn't have existed. After all, the
crews at Wolf 359 were more destroyed than assimilated. Of course,
taking into account the usual violating of the Borg concept, this isn't
a suprise.
The Bomar set the worse courses in the world. They want to minimize the
impact of Voyager, so they give Voyager a long course at slow speeds?
Wouldn't they want to just keep Voyager in a sort of straight line at
high speeds so their citizens and Voyager stay separate?
If The Raven came using a transwarp conduit, I suggest Voyager find it.
Kamin: Okay, gotta say that Jeri Ryan really impressed me this week, but onto
the nits...
A Borg asterisk-thingie(like the one on Picard's face in First Contact)
popped out of Seven's wrist. Assuming the writers have chosen not to
break the most fundamental physical law, that pesky buggar about matter
neither being created or destroyed, where did the metal come from?
Ditto the Doc's comment about "13% of the [technobabble] regenerating."
The only guess I care to hazard was that Seven was munching on the hull
when Mama Janeway wasn't looking. (Note from Phil: Or the Borg nanotechnology was creating metal molecules one at a time!)
Seven's journal mentioned a bird with a big yellow eye. Didn't the bird
from her dream have a big BLACK eye?
Now, sadly, I must nit other nits.
Someone else mentioned the Borg not assimilating individuals. Well,
they've never hesitated to if there was a perceived need--Locutus, and
the E-E crew in first contact. (Note from Phil: In the first episode that featured the Borg, "Q Who" Q clearly stated that the Borg weren't interested in the crew only the ship's technology. And in "Best of Both Worlds," Riker is stunned that the Borg want Picard. In fact, Picard's assimilation in BOBW is one of the shockers.)
Simon Crowley: Brian Lombard mentioned Tuvok's reaction shot being reversed. Anyone
notice that the shuttle was reversed? At one point, the shuttle flies
across the screen, L-to-R, and the "74656" was backwards! HAHAHA!!
Oh, regarding the registry # on V-ger, the hexadecimal equivalent of
74565 (minor permutation), is 12345. Coincedence? I dunno....
Chris Ng: In the scene where Janeway and Chakotay go
from the Cargo Bay to...uh...wherever it was, something very strange
happens to the turbolift. You know how those stripes of light go up or
down the sides of the lift to show its moving? Well, something like
seventeen of 'em stripe their way up (or was it down? I didn't record the
episode...) during the ride. Now, assuming that each stripe is a deck
(that seems to fit the term TURBOlift), that makes SEVENTEEN DECKS!!! And
Voyager is only 15 decks in the first place!!!
Oh, and here's something interesting: On the Good Ol' Enterprise-D, the
turboshafts went HORIZONTALLY as well as vertically. Why didn't we ever
see a continuous stream of light, besides the stripes going up and down?
(I know, I know, BIDLC. Because it DOESN'T look cool. 8)
Dale Buettner of Lexington, KY: Are this season's episode's especially full of
nits, or is the Guild just especially anxious to nitpick new episodes after
having the summer off? At any rate, I thought I'd get in a few nits before this
file is frozen. Was anyone else bothered by the constant use of the word
'implants' to describe the new Borg machinery that 7 of 9 was 'growing'? I
would think that the word 'implant' should be reserved for something that is
actually 'implanted' like brea.. (well, you know what I mean). Holodoc used
the term Borg organelles, which seems to be a little more accurate. Also,
Tuvok not only didn't surprise 7 of 9 when he beamed over to her shuttle, but
she was standing in the back of the shuttle waiting for him when she should
have been flying the shuttle and operating the weapons that put Tom's shuttle
out of commission. How did she know Tuvok was coming, SRTS. (Note from Phil: Or she expected the tactic!)
J. Andrew Keith of Greensburg PA: Just a note in response to some of the debates raging on these pages . . . (Note from Phil: Not sure "raging" is the right word but moving right along. ;-)
A class-M moon is perfectly acceptable if we assume the primary is a
superjovian world. However, having seen any number of Classic Trek
episodes where even the asteroids were given breathable atmospheres, I
doubt that anyone behind Voyager was being all that fussy about
justifying such a moon.
It's reasonable to assume that a small party of exploring Vulcans might
have been assimilated long, long ago. This needn't violate the
statements in The Immunity Syndrome, since the Vulcan race need never
have known that some of their number met something nasty -- their
telepathic range isn't THAT good.
Do we have to assume the Borg numbers represent a straight numeric
progression? Suppose 8472 means the race was encountered on the eighth
day of the fourth month of the seventy second year, or something equally
esoteric. Notice that the numbers are generally reeled off as a string
of individual numerals. It wasn't "Species eight thousand four hundred
seventy two," if I'm remembering properly. (admittedly I could be
forgetting something . . .)
I doubt I could come up with any actual nits that haven't already been
pointed out. I would like to concur with those who wonder how Raven
could have ended up so coincidentally along the Voyager flight path.
Also, it seems mighty strange to me that the Borg are making strenuous
efforts to visit Sector 0-0-1 and assimilate things there when we now
can see clearly they've not come close to assimilating their own back
yard.
I very much enjoy watching the Nitpickers do their thing from week to
week. Keep up the good work!
John Bibb of Garland, TX: Roger Sorensen asked what NAR stood for. Could it be Non-Aligned
Registery? Since the vessels were not StarFleet, this makes sense to
me. (Note from Phil: Now there's an idea! Makes sense to me too!)
10/27/97 Update
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: Looks like we're faced with more last season reruns so I decided to follow-up my submission from about two weeks ago.
I raised an uncertainty about when the Borg assimilated species "1." I said
it was difficult to tell. Actually it isn't. In "Q Who," it was learned that
the Borg are only interested in technology.
Then a year or so later, in "The Best of Both Worlds" they now assimilate
civilizations. In fact, I believe Picard in that episode acknowledged that
the Borg changed since their last encounter, thus confirming it! So, sometime
between these two episodes, I guess the Borg assimilated species #1!
So the Borg have been assimilating species for only eight years?? With
species 8472 the most recent to be numbered, that would mean these Borg
assimilate 1000 species a year?? Wow! three species a day! Now that's fast!!
That would mean then the Vulcans were assimilated about five years ago (3259)
during the end of Star Trek TNG's fifth season or the beginning of its sixth!
Funny, but we all seemed to miss that!!
How's this for a possible explanation: Once more continuity in our Star Trek
world fails!
I guess the creators can take these kinds of liberties to change the habits
of the Borg to suit the plot of a given episode (assimilate technology, then
assimilate civilizations, now assimilate individuals!) Of course, we as
nitpickers also get to point that out to them! (wink wink!)
Mark Blankenship of Greenville, TX: Brian Straight of Kansas mentioned that moons have a dark side that NEVER sees the Sun. This is a misconception possibly held over from the days
that astronomers thought that Mercury's day and year were the same and
therefore orbited with the same hemisphere always facing the Sun (and
probably the misconception was also encouraged by inaccurate references
like Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"). Astronomers used to compare
Mercury's supposed arrangement to our Moon, which always presents the
same face toward EARTH. The Moon, however, presents the totality of its
surface to the Sun over the full period of its orbit. As of this
writing I am unaware of any solar system body that has such a "dark"
side. What would make a moon being class M difficult? One problem
would be the size of the primary planet, which could eclipse the moon
for up to days at a time.
Another factor would be the moon's orbit. As the moon orbits its
primary planet, it would vary its distance from the star more than a
class M planet might. To use Titan for an example, Titan's orbit around
Saturn has radius of 1.3 million km and takes 16 days to orbit Saturn.
This means that, starting at a point with Titan closest to the Sun,
every 8 days this moon varies its distance from the Sun by 2.6 million
km. Such an mclass moon would thus have all the weather seasons in 16
days and might not offer much of a chance for life.
As for the duct/duck tape, I always thought it was well known that
this was what you used when you wanted to "duck" doing the actual,
correct and proper repair job :-). Besides that, I live right across the
highway from a Wal-mart Supercenter, and THAT is the brand I buy.
Joe Griffin: [Concerning a 47 and Poe's The Raven,] Yep, Murray, I certainly do realize this. Knew it when I did the math. Fudged the numbers, in fact. And since the episode from which I'm
drawing my inspiration actually has nothing to do with the Poe story, it
don't matter anyway. Just an amusing side note which arose out of a
misguided attempt to kludge a 47...whatevah.
Bob Canada: The past few weeks there's been much discussion in Nitland about Jeri
Ryan's ultra-tight silver catsuit, and how it was SO tight that she
couldn't even sit down, and that that's why they changed it to the new
brown version, so that she could actually sit down for a scene. Well,
the latest issue of Cinescape magazine has a picture of Ms. Ryan in the
silver catsuit, and she's sitting down--sort of. She doesn't look very
comfortable, and its a pretty awkward pose (and its very un-Borglike),
but I think it could be counted as sitting, so...maybe all the unable to
sit stories were false.
PLEASE NOTE: This file is frozen. Once a file hits 100K it's time to give the episode a rest!! You're welcome to send in addition nits and I will keep them on file but I won't be adding to this file any longer unless something really spectacular comes in!
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "The Raven". Please include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide is you aren't one already!)
while I pondered, weak and weary
O'er many a quaint and curious B
Suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping
Rapping at my chamber door.
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.