Drone is a brilliant episode in my opinion. To explain my post title--I always jump out of my seat when the data extraction tubule shoots into Ensign Mulcahy's neck early on in the episode. Few moments in Trek are as jolting! Any thoughts on this ep? I'd definitely put it in VOY's top 10.
Brilliant-ummm, no. VOY's Top Ten- not in my opinion. Drone is a decently done episode but "The Offspring" I thought was a better episode or even "I, Borg". As for Borg themed episodes on VOY, I thought Scorpion was better. Unity was good. The Raven was so-so.
Actually, I prefer DRONE to THE OFFSPRING. The whole subplot abt the Daystrom scientist who wants to take Lal away really distracts from the otherwise affecting stuff in the episode--it misses the chance for true greatness by rehashing Measure of a Man. DRONE stays focused on One's intergration process into the ship's culture and the outside Borg threat organically meshes with the episode's themes.
Drone just droned on... Nah, it was alright. Seven: "BORG DO NOT REPRODUCE IN THIS WAY." Paris: "What about what Commander Riker saw?" Seven: "F^*% RIKER! WHO'S THE EX-BORG HERE?" Janeway: "*Sigh* She's becoming more human all the time."
Since all Riker did was take a peek in a Borg nursery and make visual observations it's fair to asusme he was wrong about the Borg infants, they may have been assimilated on the planet the Enterprise had just found.
Never really liked that episode all that much. Sadly it's been years since I've seen this particular ep, so I can't back up my feelings properly. But I remember that I found it lacking in subtlety. This whole "You're hurting me!" thing... Seven had to learn her lessons in becoming a human over and over and over again, so why was she even remotely capable to teach other Borg?
But if the Borg reproduce only by assimilation then they're a self-limiting threat and not at all the menace to the entire universe they're meant to suggest.
Agreed wholeheartedly. From a purely fanboyish perspective, the episode is also noteable for the Borg-proofing of Voyager's shields.
I really liked this episode and the Borg encounter was done well where they were still a serious threat, long before the repeat return of the Borg in Voyager famously became a joke (less is more, perhaps like the Daleks). And Jeri Ryan gave a inspired performance and so did the tall guy who played One, a naive gentle giant of sorts.
It wasn't a scientist, it was an admiral acting on orders from Starfleet. The question was not over the sentience of Data and Lal, it was over how Lal's development should take place - in isolation on a starship that had other missions to deal with, or in an engineering laboratory that might have been better equipped to deal with an android. The admiral's mistake was his attempts to exclude Data if Lal left, for a variety of reasons mentioned in the ep.