VOY S3E17 "Unity" Review By AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

I did not remember this episode at all, and was quite pleasantly surprised by it. I wanted to give it a fantastic rating, but there are some problems (which we'll get to later). But make no mistake, this is a very Good episode. It's actually the only time I can think of that an A plot and a B plot ended up being connected in a surprising and meaningful way.

Chakotay and some redshirt are off doing something in a shuttle and get lost. They head to a planet that is, much to their surprise, inhabited by humans and other familiar Alpha Quadrant species. But it's war-torn, and the redshirt immediately gets herself killed, and Chakotay mortally wounded. It's explained to him that some aliens abducted them all and dropped them here. They are trying to build a society, but it's difficult because there are so many different cultures.



Meanwhile Voyager happens across a disabled Borg cube with a dead crew. There seems to be no immediate threat, so they board it and start snooping around to see if they can learn anything. For added spookiness, they bring one of the Borg on board to poke it with a stick, and the dang thing reanimates and sits bolt upright on the autopsy table. But it is dead, and just needed powered back down. It appears that all the Borg died of electrocution in some sort of accident.

Back on the planet, Chakotay stumbles out of his quarters and discovers that the nice people helping him get better all have Borg implants. Maybe I'm just dense, but I honestly did not see this coming. It was a legitimate plot twist that immediately tied together what Voyager was doing with what was happening on the planet. They weren't just abducted by aliens, they were assimilated. But severed from the collective, they have been functioning on their own ever since. They didn't tell Chakotay because they knew he'd freak. Oh and, remember that mortal wounding that he suffered? Well the only way to save him is to plug him in to a makeshift collective. He's not thrilled, but goes along with it. It turns out to be a great experience for him, and has some awesome residual effects. When his favorite blonde (but actually bald) human gently touches her own cheek, he can feel it. When she brushes her arm, he feels that too. They presumably go on to have an awesome make-out/boning session where they feel not only their own pleasures, but the other person's as well. But maybe the others in their small collective that were involved also feel it? Creepy.

Eventually Voyager finds Chakotay, and his new main squeeze has a request of Janeway. She knows that if only all the various species of inhabitants of the planet could again be connected to a collective, they would get along and they could build themselves a nice civilization. Instead of being connected to an evil Borg collective, they would be a friendly one, sharing in each other's experiences and growing as a society. They just need Janeway's help to fire up the cube for a minute to achieve this. She declines, on the grounds that the idea is completely bonkers, and she's not going to be a part of enslaving a planet against their will. But they didn't really need her permission, because they still have control over Chakotay. Seconds before a band of raiders was going to bust down the door and kill the good guys on the planet, mind-controlled Chakotay flicks on the power to the cube and the entire planet again becomes of one mind. Janeway shrugs, and they fly off.

I really enjoyed this episode, because I like closer looks at my favorite villains: the Borg. One can imagine the Borg starting out in much the same way as this colony. After all, the Borg's goal isn't to be evil. It's to reach perfection. They don't kill people, they bring them along, adding their uniqueness, talents, and knowledge to the group. We consider that to be unethical. But in it's purest form, is it? This woman just ended violence and war on the planet after all. But she also enslaved 80,000 people and stole their free will. She assimilated them, and it's just as unethical as when the Borg do it. I'd love a follow-up on where this society goes after a few decades.

But like I said earlier, there are problems with the episode as well, which I will list here in no particular order:

• So there's really no difference between a dead Borg and a live one? If the cybernetic components can control the humanoid body even if it's dead, then what's the purpose of the living part at all? Why not just build robots?
• What exactly were Chakotay's injuries? Neural whatnow?
• All Chakotay did to fire up THE ENTIRE BORG CUBE was plug in one extension cord. It was just unplugged! All this time!
• The gang on the planet were able to control Chakotay, even though he had no implant, and even though the connection from the collective was severed a day ago, and even though the distance was very far. And yet, no worries that it could happen again because there was no implant, time has passed, and now they are far away.
• Why was it a given that the bands would immediately disassemble the shuttle? How could its parts possibly be more useful than a fully functional shuttlecraft with (presumably) working warp drive, weapons, shields, replicator, and who knows what else?
• FIVE YEARS and the Borg never thought to follow up on that missing cube?

All in all, still a Good episode for the deeper dive into the Borg and raising intriguing ethical questions. I also liked the parallels drawn between the society on the planet and the crew on the ship. They both now see their place in life as their new surroundings. The inhabitants can't understand why the crew wouldn't want to stop traveling and settle down, and the crew can't see why the people stuck on the planet wouldn't want a ride out of there. But they are both just making the best of what has been dealt to them.

Published June 29, 2018.