I do have to wonder if seeing the credit "written by Ronald D. Moore" appear at the start of the episode is colouring my opinion, but I really quite enjoyed this. It felt epic and emotional, and the strong focus on characters was markedly different from what I'm getting used to seeing on Voyager.
It was helped no end by some good casting in the roles of the three ex-Borg, and along with Jeri Ryan they all had chemistry as a group. I found myself getting quite wrapped up in the tale unfolding. It all lead to a difficult decision with a somewhat bittersweet outcome, the mark of classic Star Trek. I found the dialogue to be a step up from usual with some much more natural and heartfelt discussions between characters - and again, I wonder if my mind is just attributing that to the fact that I know that Ron Moore wrote this, or if it actually is genuinely of a higher quality.
At the same time, it's another Borg episode and by this point it's a real struggle to make them at all interesting. Seven herself is so good purely for the fact that she isn't a Borg and is rediscovering her individuality, so when we go back to a previous time it feels like it falls into a certain predictable pattern. Fortunately, this remains separate from the entire Collective.
It's interesting to read the comments Ron Moore himself has made about his short time working on Voyager, and how upset he was with the whole experience which caused him to quit fairly soon after this. At any rate, I would be delighted for the show to go more in the direction suggested here with the focus on character development over action.
Review by LeftHandedGuitaristBlockedParent2018-08-20T21:14:49Z
I do have to wonder if seeing the credit "written by Ronald D. Moore" appear at the start of the episode is colouring my opinion, but I really quite enjoyed this. It felt epic and emotional, and the strong focus on characters was markedly different from what I'm getting used to seeing on Voyager.
It was helped no end by some good casting in the roles of the three ex-Borg, and along with Jeri Ryan they all had chemistry as a group. I found myself getting quite wrapped up in the tale unfolding. It all lead to a difficult decision with a somewhat bittersweet outcome, the mark of classic Star Trek. I found the dialogue to be a step up from usual with some much more natural and heartfelt discussions between characters - and again, I wonder if my mind is just attributing that to the fact that I know that Ron Moore wrote this, or if it actually is genuinely of a higher quality.
At the same time, it's another Borg episode and by this point it's a real struggle to make them at all interesting. Seven herself is so good purely for the fact that she isn't a Borg and is rediscovering her individuality, so when we go back to a previous time it feels like it falls into a certain predictable pattern. Fortunately, this remains separate from the entire Collective.
It's interesting to read the comments Ron Moore himself has made about his short time working on Voyager, and how upset he was with the whole experience which caused him to quit fairly soon after this. At any rate, I would be delighted for the show to go more in the direction suggested here with the focus on character development over action.