Voyager S4E2 "The Gift" Review by AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

A battle-scarred Voyager, still mostly green from Borg infiltration after the events of "Scorpion" has a pressing matter to deal with in the cargo hold. The liaison between the Borg and the crew, Seven of Nine, is still on board. Though now separated from the collective, she is still feisty as ever. She demands to be returned to the collective, but we all know that's not going to happen. So instead The Doctor knocks her out and takes her to sickbay to begin the de-Borgification process. He pulls the captain in when he realizes that he is facing an ethical dilemma. She'll die if he does nothing, and if he continues to coax her back to humankind, he's clearly acting against the patient's stated wishes. We soon find out that The Doctor's programming hierarchy must place following orders over medical ethics when suddenly with an "Aye, Captain!" the conversation abruptly ends and he continues indiscriminately plucking machinery off her body.



While working on Seven, The Doctor and Kes nearly lose her, but she is rescued by some sort of magical power on the part of Kes. She has no explanation, but can somehow spot the issue on the microscopic level, and even correct it just by using her mind. Tuvok witnesses this, and sees it as an invitation to continue mentoring her, even though the whole situation is clearly above his head. He shows her a lamp, and she says she can see particles smaller than atoms. I don't see how Tuvok is helpful to her anymore, but nevertheless he tries.

In the mess hall, we get an interesting exchange between Neelix and Kes. It's basically the break up talk that for some reason was never given to us after "Warlord," which left everyone confused on the state of their relationship. Neelix hints that she had to move on because he was holding her back, and she basically agrees. But in light of her current situation, the insinuation is not insulting. Rather, it's just stating the obvious. She tells him that she loves him, and they have a laugh and playfully blame the whole thing on Neelix's cooking. Then she turns into some sort of ghost figure and nearly destroys the bulkheads on three decks while showing off how she can melt a card table with her mind.

Seven first thing in the morning. Yeesh.

Meanwhile our recovering drone is still insisting that she doesn't want to become human, and will betray the crew. The captain sees this as a greenlight to let her loose around the ship tinkering with things, and before you know it she's trying to contact the collective. Kes zaps Seven to stop her with her new superpowers or whatever. Into the brig Seven goes, where Janeway tells her that she is calling the shots now, and that eventually she will no longer wish to rejoin the Borg. Seven points out that holding her captive, and forcing her to become human puts Janeway in the same category as the Borg. Both are assimilating a species against its will. But then Seven has a breakdown and they both awkwardly hold each other after a bit of a cry, and we see that Janeway's maternal instincts are kicking into overdrive, and she isn't likely to give up on her adopted Borg child anytime soon.

All the while Kes is continuing to endanger the ship by turning into a beam of light or whatever, so it becomes clear to everyone that she needs to go (also because they haven't written anything for her for next week, and so they really need to wrap this up). So with conduits exploding, Janeway rushes her to a shuttle. She stops just long enough for one last mind-meld with Tuvok, which proves worthless. Just before she bursts, needlessly taking out a shuttle with her, she tells them that she's giving them a gift. Suddenly the ship is going faster than can be possible, and they find themselves, according to Paris, "nine point five thousand" light years away. So Kes has taken about a decade off their trip, and sent them clear of Borg space. That's pretty cool. Also The Doctor has "managed to balanced functionality and aesthetics" enough so that Seven of Nine is hot now, and has dressed her up like a dominatrix. So that's nice too.

For assimilating a drone into the human species, for finally getting an acknowledgement of what happened with Kes and Neelix, and for making a ten year jump in their voyage, I'd say that this episode is Good Trek.

Published Mar 17, 2017