Star Trek Retro Review: "Unimatrix Zero" | Borg Episodes

[@patrickdodds7162]

After Borg assimilation: Picard: "They took everything I was. They used me to kill and destroy and I COULDN'T STOP! I should've been able to stop!. But, I wasn't good enough! I wasn't strong enough! I should've been able to stop. Should have...*breaks down crying* Janeway, Torres, and Tuvok: "Meh."

[@guaposneeze]

In fairness to Voyager, the TNG crew invented the Queen and the nanoprobe express assimilation. Voyager may have made some bad decisions. But the biggest changes to the Borg to neuter them conceptually happened in First Contact.

[@Diego-zz1df]

Yeah, Picard was a pussy. I wish we got to see Janeway tell Picard how much she screwed with the Borg and the multiple times she left the Borg Queen with assimilation blue balls and just laugh like it was nothing.

[@jpotter2086]

Picard as a character, had depth. Voayger was, in my viewing experiences, populated by paper dolls.

[@Diego-zz1df]

Personally the worst thing about the Borg in Voyager is seeing the writers try to create compelling antagonists and every now and then succeed quite well. Annorax (Year of Hell), Ransom (Equinox), Kashyk (Counterpoint) and Valen (The Void) were compelling on their own and that one episode where The Doctor encounters the US healthcare system after it achieves sentience and takes over a planet (Critical Care), or the one where The Doctor encounters the horrific consequences of that one time Janeway gave the Hirogen hologram technology (Flesh and Blood) show the writers' talent at creating compelling stories that don't have to rely on the Borg.

[@blueantoid]

As far as Voyager going back to the Borg well so many times... One can imagine the hoard of First Contact props, costumes, and CGI assets burning a hole in the producers' collective pocket. "What do you mean you want to write a story about NEW aliens? What did I buy all those glowy green plasma circles from Spencer's Gifts for, if you weren't going to use them? Get out of my office."

[@creativerealms]

The queen becomes more of a Saturday morning villain every time she shows up.

[@Trevin_Taylor]

How dare you say true things like that!

[@danielland3767]

😂😂😂😂 you ain't right 😅😅😅

[@creativerealms]

Borg Queen: I'll get you next time Janeway, Next time.

[@MLBlue30]

Next time, Janeway! NEXT TIME!! *shakes fist in rage*

[@hingedelephant]

Bwah hah hah hah!

[@darkseid1975]

What frustrated me so much about Voyager is that Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan, and Robert Picardo by themselves are good enough to easily carry a series. But they were let down by the writers and producers. In and of itself, "Starfleet ship stranded away from home" is a vastly more interesting concept than "space station by a wormhole", but the ball was dropped too many times.

[@decepticonpecock]

DS9 committed to it's premise, voyager didn't.

[@ricconway8719]

"Kazon in different costumes." A damning, if accurate indictment.

[@MarcSGA]

100% believe that Voyager writers wrote some episodes knowing Steve would be furious about them publicly decades later

[@tomas5255]

Ooh, are we talking timemachine or premonition?

[@alanpennie]

This two - parter made such an impression on me that I'd completely forgotten it. Impressive to take a pretty neat idea and do so little with it.

[@TheLittleMako]

They should really develop the Doc's anti-borg shot further and include it in the standard Starfleet vaccination panel. Might come in handy in the event of, say, every officer younger than 25 getting remotely assimilated.

[@JimmyNotes]

The idea of a Borg civil war could have been interesting.

[@doneisenbarth]

Can’t believe we’re doing “regeneration” next week. One of the best episodes of Star Trek enterprise. It’s been a long road getting from there to here.

[@matthewhearn9910]

I actually went to school with the little kid Borg in this episode, I thought it was the coolest thing ever that one of my classmates was gonna be in a Star Trek episode. And I watched the episode and remember really liking it. Maybe in part because I was the same age as the little kid Borg in this episode. Never held up as well on later watches.

[@alanpennie]

That's a pretty cool story.

[@Hawqis1]

I'm wondering if Hugh was the cause of the Borg being the way they are everything beyond "I, Borg." If Picard and his staff didn't get compassionate for Hugh, the individuality would have never happened.

[@alanpennie]

Maybe they should actually have referenced Hugh in this story. If they're going to reuse TNG villains they should commit to the bit.

[@Scerttle]

Good to see 55 seconds into the video we have confirmation that Tom Paris is still the POV character.

[@Scerttle]

2:40 Possibly the best crypto bro burn I've heard.

[@thecynicaloptimist1884]

Honestly insane that Plan A of Janeway's strategy was to voluntarily undergo the process that frequently leaves people losing a limb and scars them for life with unfathomable psychological trauma.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Bravo on the callback to the well metaphor. Pulling up buckets of wet mud and calling it water is just beautiful.

[@kingdave31]

Here's my in-universe take on this: Sometime between Q-Who and The Best of Both Worlds, some race that was threatened by the Borg tried to disrupt them with a computer virus or something. But it didn't work as intended and instead created a malignant split personality within the collective: the Queen. Unlike the sterile Borg uni-mind that just wanted to endlessly consume technology, the Queen wanted to conquer and dominate. As she slowly took over the collective, they started assimilating people and planets. Eventually she took over completely the way Agent Smith took over the Matrix. But since the Queen was a more singular, individual personality the Borg under her control were weaker than before, and that's why Voyager was always able to defeat them without breaking much of a sweat.

[@alanpennie]

Neat Idea.

[@alissapyrich1891]

That's clever. And way more thought than anyone involved with the show ever devoted to the problem

[@TheRatsintheWalls]

That...actually works. Thanks for the reasonable headcanon.

[@frazerx01]

Thank you for reminding me to say this: I never understood, why B'Elanna, Janeway and Tuvok were absolutely fine after this episode. Yeah i know, Voyager has only setting continuity and character development is hit and miss, but come on! I know the Doctor does miracles (AND has Seven giving him a hand with Borg Knowledge/Nanoprobes). But they are PHYSICALLY ALTERED, even if you somehow (mostly) rebuild my body to its old self, i would be traumatised. I'am not speaking of the psychological component which Picard had to get through, that they so neatly avoided, well...2 out of 3 at least. They were borgified. Do i even have to mention that they luckily retained both of their eyes? And that's just one thing!

[@UltimateSpinDash]

We literally see the Borg drilling something into Janeway's head. And does that mean they all have cortical nodes now? With Seven's failing just one or two episodes later, why was Icheb's the only option?

[@guitarmansegovia]

She says “bring me his cortical array.” We hear, “bring me his screaming head”

[@antney7745]

What she *should* have said: Nothing. The Drone volunteers his cortical array because that's the will of The Collective. But then there wouldn't be any snappy dialogue.

[@alanpennie]

Bring me the head of Alfredo Borgia.

[@joanwerthman4116]

I used to record Voyager to fast forward past the commercials. This was one story where I wound up fast forwarding through most of it because it was boring. You've just done an entertaining job of explaining why it was boring. Plus your summary was a lot more fun.

[@danielland3767]

Funny thing is I never watched the story when I was young, only the tech. Now I see the humor in all these comments l, but I still love the tech in Voyager

[@TheBeef2487]

I've never been able to get past how casually this episode handles assimilation, which should be deeply traumatic. It even often involves amputation. Was Janeway just fine with everyone having their arms sawn off? I don't care how good Starfleet medicine is at making them whole again, the psychological scarring would be horrific.

[@alanpennie]

In Dr Who the process of alteration for cybermen is so horrible that they go insane if separated from their hivemind. And that's a show for children. Unclear why Star Trek should gloss over the horror the way it does.

[@trunkage]

I mean, Picard took one episode to recuperate from being a Borg and seem have his whole body

[@flyingfoamtv2169]

@@trunkageits implied at the end that it will take him a long time to recover, so i always assumed there was a large time jump between the end of best of both worlds and the next episode.

[@erichitsthewoods4612]

I'd like to add that another missed part that should have been in the plot is the body horror of being a borg. Maybe Tuvok could keep his cool but as a human could you imagine waking up with all that crap in your body?

[@alissapyrich1891]

Your articulate contempt for Voyager never fails to bring me joy.

[@elizabethpalladino8301]

Thanks! It's refreshing to see a new video from you that isn't KZbin rehashing previously posted videos for whatever reason.!!! Love your stuff.

[@francoislacombe9071]

"Also, Janeway really doesn't come accross well in this episode at all." Sadly something that happens often with this character.

[@alanpennie]

She had Kirk's imperialistic urge, but with less justification than he usually had.

[@conrad4852]

Yeah.. I have immense respect & admiration for Kate Mulgrew as an actress but sometimes Janeway wasn't well written (when I was kid & teen Mulgrew's acting ability overshadowed those limitations but now that I'm older I see them more).

[@conrad4852]

I still like Voyager, but of the three shows of 90s Trek it is my least favorite.

[@disneywisebear]

I'm super shocked that the Borg Queen didn't assimilate the Voyager and crew with 20 ships. But that wasn't even a threat by the queen as I recall, and it never seemed like problem. The Queen just fine with leaving Voyager alone, which is kinda surprising.

[@graemebart6818]

Right? It makes them seem purely reactive. Sure, it's established they only respond to threats. Wouldn't Voyager even showing up on sensors constitute a threat to them at this point? Borg: ***Vessel detected. Federation; registry NCC 74656. Identification: USS Voyager. Proceed with assimilation.*** Borg in the show: *** Jaunty transwarp whistle ***

[@disneywisebear]

@@graemebart6818 that tracks with Steve’s comments, the Borg became bad guys of the week, not the existential threat to the Federation or the ship like in TNG. I like that they dove into the collective more, like Worf with the Klingons, etc, but they seriously dropped the Oh Sh!t factor.

[@paulonius42]

I'm pretty sure the idea of going back to the well is that you don't want to overuse that resource or run it dry. It's possible that had to do with sacred wells that people believed would bless them, so you didn't want to try to get too many blessings, but I think it's mostly a resource thing. Go back to the well too often, and the well runs dry.

[@Theoddert]

I think Voyager could have used comming up with a new Borg-like species that is deliberately toned down to a) preserve the threat of the Borg b) open up new and interesting dynamics. Imagine a race that saw the Borg comming and realised their only defence was to "boegify" themselves, utilising a collective mind to fight the previously unwinnable battle. They could retain personalities and emotions (removing the need for the queen), maybe some harboured resentment to having to convert their species to survive. Maybe after they fended off the Borg they schism into smaller and smaller subgroups with unique cultures and objectives, you could have entire interactions with "individual" characters that's actually like 6 people or a ship, or even a moon. Could use them for comedy episodes as well becuase each encounter is a chance to effectively re-write what they are

[@normative]

To me this underscores why, pace Steve, introducing the Borg Queen at all was a bad idea. Inevitably it kicked off the degeneration of a really original, terrifyingly alien kind of adversary into just another Evil Overlord with an army of henchmen and all the usual all-too-human Evil Overlord flaws.

[@alanpennie]

Agreed. The Queen was fine in First Contact but they should probably not have used her in Voyager.

[@PaulGuy]

Borg Queen: "Hey, you should really mind your own business. After all, I know that one of the things about your Prime Directive is to not mess with foreign species' development." Janeway: "At what point did I give you the impression that I cared about the Prime Directive?"

[@alanpennie]

Hey rogue drones! Meet the rogue captain.

[@niemandzuhause4897]

Voyagers has to be the most well equipped ship in the fleet. They can lose a shuttle every couple episodes, build the Delta-Flyer anew whenever Tom Paris does some drunk flying and fire about 5 times as many torpedoes as they have aboard.

[@StuffWePlay]

I want to buy a "It's no problem because nothing matters!" Voyager shirt

[@gregoryshipley4637]

The Voyager writers created some of the most interesting sci-fi premises in all of Star Trek, and then didn't execute hardly any into compelling stories. If the Borg were not already exhausted by this point, this could have made a compelling early Seven episode as she rediscovers her individuality. There's a lot of good character potential and emotional weight in the idea- but those are not thing Voyager does.

[@alanpennie]

Have Janeway and the rest of the crew serving some B - plot and give these rogue Borg their own story with Seven. That would have been much better.

[@RadioJosiah]

My brother and I were watching Trek from TNG forward, and BoBW had us tense that entire summer. Jump forward a few years: This episode was not doing it for us. When it got to the reveal of Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres all Borgified, we laughed. We LAUGHED. Because we knew four things: 1) It was all part of the plan-- thanks Chakotay. 2) It was, on its face, an irresponsible, poorly conceived plan. 3) It would magically work out anyway, because it's Voyager. 4) Voyager was trying to top the Locutus cliffhanger by having THREE assimilated crewmembers and NO stakes, which is where the laughter came in. The very idea of intentionally getting yourself assimilated is moronic, no matter what you have in mind. Too many things can go catastrophically wrong. If the Borg and their Queen had borne even the slightest level of competence-- noticing three disconnected drones and rectifying the problem-- the crew would have lost three senior officers and the plan would never have got off the ground because the Borg would have then assimilated all of their knowledge about it. And that's not to mention all of the trauma and body horror from that experience, and the risk of losing an arm and an eye or both. Again, it was easier to start laughing than to take the premise seriously. And it was so insulting to the viewer's intelligence, it could only mean that the writers of Voyager weren't taking their own premise seriously. I view this as the dumbest Borg story, and the lowest point of Voyager as a whole. While some episodes were doubtlessly worse, none of those were attempting to be this consequential. Thank you for articulating the problems so well.

[@FuelDropforthewin]

gotta love how in TNG a single cube can stomp an entire fleet that has been specially outfitted to fight the borg (that did not work out well at all), and in first contact it requires a fleet and a unique insight into the borg to destroy a single cube. Then you have Voyager casually going toe to toe with a TACTICAL cube. The cube that the borg break out when they are done messing around. Talk about a diminished threat. A stranded federation ship, almost a decade out of date, is able to go and take on the borg's primary combat vessel design with relatively low risk.

[@dodgermutt]

The only Borg episodes in Voyager that I enjoyed were the one where it was a flashback to Seven stranded and cut off from the collective with her fellow drones and she screwed them over when their personalities came back because it was the only life she had known, and the one where we see her parents study the Borg until they all get got.

[@marcbarnhill]

“It’s no problem because nothing matters.” 😂

[@pauldiamond1583]

Commenting before I watch the video. Unimatrix zero could have EASILY been a part of the Borg's perfection. Once the queen discovered its existance, she could have expaned it to every drone. Create a utopia (very much a digital representation of "The Nexus" with individuals being able to socialize or enjoy solitude at-will.) Could have been a huge selling point for 'the unification of the galaxy being perfection' or something like that This would also add to the terror of the Borg; it becomes MORE cult-like. They believe they are spreading 'goodness' and 'joy' and 'unification' but it is NOT optional (and not clearly communicated, so people are fearful of it... The gates to paradise is literally a violent assimilation process) Then, when someone is assimilated, they never want to leave. And not because they sre tramatized, but because REALITY becomes a trama.

[@michaelramon2411]

Personally, I really like the Borg Queen's little speech to captive Janeway about how the Queen is willing to sacrifice thousands of "innocent" Borg to stamp out an internal threat to the Collective, while Starfleet's values call for them to care more for a Borg drone's life than the Collective ever will. It's a good value clash.

[@suzanneneilsen1680]

I think the idea of Unimatix Zero is very interesting. Too bad they didn't explore that. At least Jeri Ryan got out of wearing her borg getup for a few days. Back in a previous borg virus episode "Dark Frontier", it was a big deal to steal a transwarp coil. Then all these borg episodes where they could grab a few, and they just walk on by. I guess they had no interest in getting home tomorrow.

[@EilonwyWanderer]

I've recently been making my way through a first watching of all of Voyager in order, and I'm about halfway through S7 at the moment -- so this episode was fairly fresh in my mind. (It's the show I saw the most of when it was airing/I was young, which is why I started with it; moving to DS9 afterwards which I haven't seen any of.) I'm glad to hear you thought Axem was a wet rag too -- I'm never certain if it's a matter of "I'm not attracted to guys" or "that portrayal was unattractive" when it comes to men in media... 😅 Oh, and regarding Paris' comment about "whee, more Borg!" I had the same thought a few episodes later with "Shattered" where Chakotay makes quite a similar quip to Janeway about the frankly ridiculous frequency that they used the Borg as villains throughout the series! Anyway, thanks for helping me cultivate a little snarky voice in the back of my head as company while I make it through the last batch of episodes of Voyager. It's been especially useful as these would be a much harder slog otherwise (I'm looking at you, "Repentance" aka "we solved racial profiling, the entire criminal justice system, AND capital punishment -- all in under an hour of TV!")

[@Alresu]

Disagreed on the "not revealing the inoculation". If they had shown it in the next season it would have felt ad hoc. As if they wrote themselves into a corner and then thought of something the crew might've could've done beforehand but they didn't think about in the writing room quickly enough.

[@paulmackay7265]

If memory serves me correctly,there is an episode that has a ship crewed by disconnected Borgs later....so it is mentioned later.

[@antney7745]

Are you thinking of the TNG episode with Data & Lore? That was a follow-up to the TNG episode with Hugh. There was also a Voyager episode where Chakotay meets a group of free Drones, but that's set in an earlier season before Seven of Nine even joins the crew.

[@patrickdodds7162]

The Vidiians were far more horrifying and formidable Voyager villains than the Borg or the Kazon ever were on this deeply flawed series. It's a shame they always took a backseat. Their backstory and motive was unique and interesting. The scenes when they were truly evil (like in "Faces" and "Deadlock") were TRULY horrifying. And there are outlier characters (like Denara Pel from "Lifesigns") that give the species some intriguing depth. Ultimately, they were another wasted opportunity as their fate of being cured is handled as a throwaway line in season 5's "Think Tank". It's one of seemingly infinite wasted opportunities of Voyager.

[@flyingfoamtv2169]

i also wish the vidiians story ark with the desease was somehow resolved. ideally through voyager curing it.

[@Saiyanprince1114]

This would have been Voyager's best episode if the box actually had been on Harry's chair instead of Tom's.

[@joearnold6881]

I’m so glad I gave up on Vogager early. God they made the borg stupid. It’s like they completely forgot they’re a collective, despite using the word ‘collective’ all the time. The queen was a bad enough idea (immediately lessens the whole borg concept, even if the character as played in the film is fun), but all this stuff completely ruins them if you allow it to exist in your head canon. I do not.

[@gregorymcavoy758]

I always felt that the Borg should be heard and talked about but barely seen for Voyager. Like they have to truly make dangerous detours to go around a Borg cube for example. I always had this image of Voyager trying to lose a cube in an asteroid field and did something like reverse magnetize the quantum field of primitanium ore to fall onto the cube to destroy it. The cube looks destroyed, but a second later like the Terminator out of the rubble damaged but mostly intact still on course for Voyager.

[@bluedotdinosaur]

It's unfortunate that so much of ST Picard was mis-managed, because there were a lot of moments within it that the Borg actually regained a lot of their ominousness. The reclaimed Borg cube was actually very creepy and hostile-feeling. The effort to restore former drones was presented in a way which emphasized the existential and body horror aspect of the Borg which had slowly drained away. When Seven activated the cube by impersonating a Queen body, it felt DANGEROUS. The cube waking up was like a great monster coming to life, and it really felt as if Seven was in great danger of being subsumed and becoming what the Queen originally was in First Contact. Even after all this time it would be possible for the Borg to regain their status as premiere representatives of technological cosmic horror. Despite the mediocre ending of Picard season 3, a different creative team on Discovery explicitly stated on-screen that the Borg still exist in the future. One can only hope that eventually a showrunner understands the actual value in them.

[@FTLNewsFeed]

They did create some unique villains along the way. The Kazon first, but I never really cared about them. The Vidiians, of course nothing really came of them. The Hirogen, the Malon and Species 8472. Ok, maybe that's all that they could do, come up with the aliens but then never actually do anything interesting with them or make them interesting themselves.

[@Niko-hi5my]

Yay! Steve is reviewing a Voyager Borg episode. I already know he'll find it's absolutely fantastic!

[@DawnDavidson]

😂😂😂

[@tweekins]

Unimatrix Zero is mentioned again in Endgame during the bit where Admiral Janeway is teaching a class on the Borg.

[@sloanekuria3249]

Didn't that never happen though?

[@alanpennie]

​@@sloanekuria3249 Quite appropriate really. A story memory wiped for being too silly.

[@tweekins]

It did, in the 'prime timeline'. My theory is, all the Trek which came after that episode is based in the alternate future 'Nu-Trek' that Janeway created/fucked up by weaponizing time travel in Endgame. First series after Voyager was heavy on the war being fought through time. Then time travel rewrote Kirk's life. And the ripples of it all carried through every other series to follow. Too much time travel, no time cops to stop it... because Janeway decided to break the rules so hard that she broke the game.

[@texasyojimbo]

I remember buying a Star Trek fan guide around 1993 (was Season 5 or 6 of TNG at the time, I think; around the time DS9 premiered). Boy howdy did hey push the Borg hard in that. I was 11 and was like "oh wow, these guys seem scary." And I remember the first time I saw Best of Borth Worlds on repeat (one of the TV stations in Orlando - FOX I think - used to air ST:TNG around 4 pm in the afternoon). And that was great. The writers clearly knew the Borg was a big deal, too bad they forgot that.

[@Tyr666Thor]

This is still better than Dark Frontire for me. What wins Unimatrix Zero out for me is that Unimatrix Zero does have some interesting ideas even if it fails to exacute them well. Meanwhile Dark Frontier is both lacking any good ideas but is also exacuted badly.

[@alanpennie]

It's sad. Unimatrix Zero is a really cool idea developed in a really uninteresting way.

[@kirok2011]

slowly catching up on my trek reviews of yours, love it as always , But But But Steve consider this Hugh was liberated was from the borg , he passed that sense of individuality to others as seen in in TNG decent parts 1 and 2 , wouldn't it also make sense some sort of individuality would leaked into other borg drones rather it be conscious and subconscious , so to speak which would of sort of make sense for the premise of this 2 parter ??

[@alanpennie]

Oh the premise is actually a good one. Developing The Borg a bit. It's all the nonsense with Janeway and The Queen which ruins it.

[@mrgreatbigmoose]

What would have really been interesting for me would be exploring, "you think in such 3 dimensional terms". That ineffibility gets the Borg back into the mindset of something incomprehensible and thus beyond your ability to outwit.

[@AndrewD8Red]

God, I *LOATHE* this episode. But, I dislike most Borg episodes, so that's to be expected. I'd place this one in my bottom twenty episodes of the whole franchise. Dreadful in every way. If anything, it seems like Steve enjoyed this one more than I did, and I'm a fan of Voyager.

[@UltimateSpinDash]

For me, the turning point for the Borg was halfway through Dark Frontier. With or without the Queen (who I think played well off of Data in First Contact), the episode kept the Borg threatening. What saddens me is that with Picard S3 now having ended, that probably closes the door on an adaptation of the Destiny trilogy, which not only ended the Borg story in a satisfying manner but also managed to still have them be super threatening even with the future tech Voyager introduced into the timeline when it returned home.

[@drhibas]

Going back to the Borg in Picard as well. The Borg should get some rest.

[@alanpennie]

Tbf Picard and The Borg are pretty inseparable. Voyager though should really have developed its own villain.

[@alanpennie]

Species 8472 were pretty cool. They should have used them more.

[@drhibas]

@@alanpenniemaybe, but picard was more than a former drone. Both changelings _and_ Borg in season 3? Nah. Spoiled it for me. Lazy writing, they should have skipped the Bort part

[@drhibas]

@@alanpennie yes, neutering the Borg with their weapons rather than time travel would have been preferable

[@andrewmurray1550]

@@alanpennie except their mortal enemy was....the Borg.

[@biercenator]

Oh wow, I hadn't thought of it before, but this is the basic premise of Severance.

[@alanpennie]

It just shows what a great idea Voyager had come up with, and then half - arsed in its usual way.

[@8cupsCoffee]

I really enjoy these, thanks!

[@plasmaburndeath]

Going back to the well, oh well, all should have been well but didn't end as well as people hoped.

[@HebaruSan]

The dreamworld VR clubhouse idea was kind of cute and could have made a nice satisfying 13-minute short

[@bryanrussell6210]

Should've left the Borg alone after Best of Both Worlds. Good review Steve.

[@bcclayta]

No comment to the subject at hand..BUT... I just saw the changeling.. And mirror mirror.. I'm in love again with the original series.. Please pluto t v give me The balance of terror and my day off of work will be complete 🙏 ✨️ 🙂

[@antney7745]

At the start, if the Drones are part of the collective when they wake up, why would The Queen need to ask them anything when they literally share the same mind?

[@Niko-hi5my]

To be fair, you'd have to be assimilated to follow the conversation. Now THAT would be a TV experience!

[@nolarobert]

This episode elicited a 'meh' when I first saw it back during Voyager's original run. I agree that it wasn't great and it wasn't terrible it just was there. It's not an episode that I go back to revisit because I just don't care enough about it to waste my time.

[@alanpennie]

Extremely forgettable.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

I didn't like the Borg Queen becoming an actual ruler of the Borg rather than being a really high-speed processor. That's what she seemed like in First Contact - a massive CPU. In Voyager, however, she was basically this creepy femme fatale. I liked all the actresses who played the Queen, but I felt like putting a face on the Borg like this deprived them of a lot of their menace. They went from being truly alien to being just another villain species.

[@solarisone1082]

She was a creepy femme fatale in First Contact, too. Or did you miss the part where she hit on Data?

[@Kairamek]

I should have known you'd expand on that "back to the well" metaphor. I've watched you long enough to know you'd do that. Well done and my bad.

[@Rigel7WasAlreadyUsed]

Voyager was Star Trek Lite for people who never watched Star Trek. That's why it churned out so many greatest hits covers episodes.

[@johnchedsey1306]

Even as someone who is very fond of Voyager, this is one of the least compelling two parters. Maybe reassimilating Hugh caused the collective to start having issues and made them less formidable. But the 7 love story is very meh and the rest is just okay at best. It's not one of the Voyager episodes that I still think about from time to time.

[@steveng.clinard1766]

Why are Alpha Quadrant species so well represented within the Borg collective, if Voyager and the Borg are so very, very far away from the Alpha Quadrant?

[@Niko-hi5my]

Because the Kazon are 'not worth assimilating' ;)

[@alanpennie]

​@@Niko-hi5my Probably.. The Borg studied them for a while and then noped out. Or maybe forgot they existed because their superpower was being so dull that no one could remember them at all.

[@jane_embers]

It's been a long time since I've seen either of them, but I always kind of felt Dark Frontier was the "bottom of the barrel" or weakest Borg episode. It's almost like... Unimatrix Zero wasn't a bad concept, and had a direct impact on Seven's development that is actually reflected in her character later in the series. But Dark Frontier? I don't think it really contributed any lasting affect on the show or its characters. And its very concept (the Borg need Seven in order to understand why individuals resist joining the collective) seemed unnecessary, weak, and confusing to me, even as a kid.

[@deaks25]

I can't disagree with any of Steve's thoughts on this episode. The worst part is, Unimatrix Zero as a concept had some fascinating ideas, and if the 'proper' Borg had been a spectre in the darkness, lurking just beyond the boundary of Unimatrix Zero, it could have been a really interesting story; old enemies like humans, Romulan's and Klingon's now united in their common situation and Voyager helping the drones to secure it from ever being found could have preserved the Borg as a faceless, unbeatable entity; the only way to 'beat' the Collective is to stay hidden. I'm pretty sure it's not a lack of any creativity on behalf of the Voyager writers; some of the stories we hear these days suggests they wanted to do interesting things, but between the ridiculous deadlines and timescales, budgets and executive meddling, they were often hamstrung with probably regular "We want more Borg episodes" coming from the higher-ups. As much as I like Voyager, I'm not blind to it's failings and Unimatrix Zero is an easy but legitimate target for highlighting them. You win this round of Voyager-bashing Steve, but we will continue to resist.

[@alanpennie]

Well put. The squandered potential of this story is infuriating to consider.

[@susanscott8653]

Sounds like the writers were suffering from the same thing Enterprise did. 😕

[@aaronsugar7228]

When you get to ENT: Regeneration please do a segment where you try to write Archer's ( and Phlox's) debrief after the encounter. What did Starfleet take from the experience, and what got mothballed.

[@susanscott8653]

All that information about the Borg probably got put in a report and deleted the next time their computers were upgraded. Happens all the time. 🙄

[@StormsparkPegasus]

This was so ridiculous. Borg Queen: "I'm going to blow up my own ships if you don't stop. Trust me, I'll do it!". Janeway should've been like "LOL, please go ahead."

[@pseudonym6387]

I *think* the initial implication of "going back to the well" is "going back to the well so often that it runs dry". Whether Voyager did that with the Borg is subjective.

[@kayleighlehrman9566]

I'd like to see your pitch for a DS9, Voyager, or Enterprise film. Imagine it's the late 90s or early 2000s, and you have the chance to pitch a movie to Paramount executives featuring the cast and characters from one of the post-TNG series. What would you do? What characters would you want to explore?

[@miyahollands6136]

Well, when you first come across a new biological threat, that you have no antidote for. This could become a serious problem, which could ruin Christmas! But, with enough exposure, an antidote can be developed. 🤔 so, does that mean Voyager was in lockdown, being all alone? P.S. Poor Harry, I bet he went off to his quarters and cried himself to sleep, the day Tom, someone who should be in jail, gets promoted right in front of him. I bet he thought to himself, while alone in his bed "that joke would have been very funny, if only I had a chair to put a box on!" What does Harry have to do, to get a chair around here - Die! Again! 🤷‍♀️

[@PaulMcElligott]

If TNG is Led Zeppelin’s original albums, then VOY was always like a greatest hits album recorded by a cover band. Some of the covers are pretty good, some okay, some… woof. If “Best of Both Worlds” was TNG’s “Stairway to Heaven,” then “Unimatrix Zero” was “Stairway to Heaven” performed on kazoo and ukulele. By people who can’t play either the kazoo or ukulele.

[@uosdwiSrdewoH]

Asking for explanations from Voyager is, like the Borg would say, a silly idea. It's somewhat fortunate that Battlestar Galactica didn't run at the same time as Voyager because they actually did what Voyager should have. Things had consequences. Yes, they also took far more damage than they should have been able to sustain but at least you saw the series try and deal with all that in a somewhat realistic fashion. Voyager comes across all the more ridiculous by comparison when half the ship is gone in one episode only for it to be fine the next. Nobody dies from exhaustion because they're on duty for like 20 years without a break and they never run out of food, power or materials. Makes things slightly less dramatic when there are no stakes.

[@michaeldeboer]

I've always dislikes this unused potential in Voyager, but as time goes by I do like how I can just turn on an episode of Voyager without continuity, just select a story I like without baggage. In spite of everything, it's a thing I have grown to like about Voyager. I love DS9 more but it's always better in sequence. The intended effect of non-continuity to return it to TNG format after DS9 does have some benefits. But it also leads to issues of course.

[@alanpennie]

​@@michaeldeboer Voyager as Steve says is a perfectly fine show. You can generally expect a perfectly good episode. What makes it frustrating is stories like this one where they come up with a really good idea and then throw it away.

[@happyninja42]

Hey Steve, I was wondering but did you ever do a Retro Review for DS9:Duet? I didn't see it anywhere on your channel, and I don't recall you singling it out for a deep dive, but I'd really love to see you do that episode. That's probably the episode that single handedly made me reconsider the quality and depth of DS9's writing, and the story it was trying to tell. The acting was just SO good from both of them. The amount of emotional damage and impact was fantastic. Think you could maybe do an ep on that one please? Anyway love the content, keep up the good work!

[@michaelramon2411]

The Retro Review batches tend to have themes (all the pilot episodes; episodes with guest characters from other series; major Borg episodes), but I'm sure he'll get to it eventually.

[@brian.the.archivist]

Bro! How many sharks can we line up this time?

[@parlertrick]

Steve which is worse in your opinion. The borg queen in these episodes or the flash karaoke session in Picard season 2?

[@Mallory-Malkovich]

I liked _Voyager_ a lot as a kid, but your incisive critiques have been steadily pushing it down in my _Star Trek_ rankings. I was trying to remember what I loved about it, and I think the answer is I was 14 when Seven of Nine joined the cast. There were a lot of great _ideas_ in Voyager, but also a lot of weak execution of those ideas.

[@UkyoSensuke]

I love Voyager, but every criticism you have of this episode, and Voyager's ruination of the Borg, are completely valid.

[@shenhurst]

They need to get Kate Mulgrew into the recording booth to record her lines for an appearance on ST:LD in which she says, “Have we met? Twenty-five years ago I helped my future self erase 25 years of history just because it didn’t turn out quite how I wanted it to; I do not give a shit.” 😂

[@disky01]

This episode feels like what would happen if Batman Forever-era Joel Schumacher wrote and directed an episode of Star Trek.

[@PassportKings]

The borg is to Star Trek what Bill Goldberg is to WCW . Some people are better and scarier when they stfu. "Resistance is futile" and "who's next" should have been the only words they ever uttered.

[@DarthAzabrush]

"Are you kidding? This is Voyager. Being assimilated here is basically Man Flu"

[@darkhalf75]

I know i have seen it, but I don't remember it, but that is the case with a lot of Voyager episodes

[@fluffycritter]

You should call these sorts of reviews "The Captain's Slog"

[@robinburt5735]

The main thing that sticks with me rom that episode is that "Axom" or however it is spelled says "I'm on a cube bordering Fluidic space" we all know that fluidic space is in another dimension so how can it have a border? Gah bugs me

[@toychristopher]

Maybe the introduction of the Queen by the collective in First Contact is a cautionary tale of the danger of even creating a figurehead leader. The idea of having a queen corrupted the borg and slowly destroyed the collective, turning them into the easily beaten enemy they are seen as in later seasons of Voyager.

[@SnarkNSass]

If you are the expert I turn to for Star Trek, and you don't know the actual name of The Little Wrist Tubes... I'm feeling very vulnerable right now.😢 😂😂😂😂🖖🏻

[@SteveShives]

They're called assimilation tubules, but "little wrist tubes" is more fun and fits the tone of the summary I'm doing better, I think.

[@SnarkNSass]

@@SteveShives agreed 💯... It got me to giggling 🤣😂

[@KoRntech]

Ya they made the borg so boring with this episode, jargon tossed on the story wall like ketchup. Had there been new factions of independent Borg it might have lead to an interesting follow up episode be it a civil war or simply alpha quadrant sworm enemies duking it out.

[@PassportKings]

Before voyager, I thought returning to human after being "borgafied" would be as complicated as returning Robocop to Alex Murphy. I thought it would be almost impossible and involve a lot of suffering, bone regeneration, loss of memory and prying metal objects out of flesh leaving permanent scars. Now adays, returning to human is like getting a tetanus shot. 😅

[@alanbear6505]

Even the characters go blasé about the Borg. “Look! A lone Borg ship! Let’s beam over and steal their stuff.” “They won’t like that.” “Who cares? It’s only the Borg.” (For the record: I liked voyager but yeah, they ruined the Borg.)

[@johngingras]

The Voyager Writer's Room: Let's get some pizzas and rent "The Matrix" this weekend! *the weekend passes* TVWR: So, is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking? Writer 1: Let's do a Matrix episode! Writer 2: Let's do a Matrix episode! Writer 3: Let's do a Matrix episode! Writer 4: Let's do a Weekend At Bernie's episode! Writer 4: Uh, I mean, let's do a Matrix episode!

[@travismoore7938]

I remember not liking Unimatrix Zero on first showing. They really reduced the threat of the Borg on Voyager. I was pretty disappointed.

[@aaronhemme8913]

Voyager cut off the Borg's cybernetic balls.