Thoughts: J. Paul Boehmer played a prominent guest role just nine episodes prior in “The Killing Game”, as a holographic Nazi officer. So, his inclusion here as a prominent guest Borg is a little distracting for me... I keep expecting this drone to heil the Borg.

Anyway, it's clear from the ratings that everyone loves this episode much more than I do, and that's perfectly fine! It's okay to be an outlier every now and then, just like I am in this case. Ignoring the “transporter whoopsie” trope, which I've ignored plenty of times in other episodes, it's just... this episode continues Voyager's nerfing of the Borg. Picard understood the implications and dangers of his crew getting attached to a single drone, even if he came around to their way of thinking in the end. Here, Janeway sort of just flippantly keeps One around like an enjoyable little curiosity without once acknowledging the grave dangers of his existence. His tech is 500 years more advanced than the Borg currently have – if the Borg were to successfully assimilate him, it would make the Federation's greatest threat beyond unstoppable. It could literally lead to the entire galaxy being assimilated. This isn't some cute and innocent “baby Borg,” it is a fully-functioning adult Borg drone with extremely advanced and dangerous technology, but Janeway seems to treat it like the former. I think she'd probably do better getting a puppy; I hear they're easier to housebreak than the Borg, anyway.

Thoughts: I really wish they had flipped this episode around and made the Delta Flyer plot the main story, or maybe even saved the Torres story for another episode entirely.

Thoughts: Why only two stars? Let's step out of the Star Trek Universe for just a moment. Do you know why most of the aliens on this show have one head, two arms, and two legs? Obviously it's so they can use real, human actors to play their parts. I guess I have to put the rest of this behind a spoiler tag so I don't ruin the “reveal” for this episode. Spoiler » So, if you're going to spend the money to create a CGI alien that has three legs and looks nothing like a humanoid, I think you need to accept the fact that our heroes aren't going to interact with them in the same way that they interact with a human actor wearing prosthetic head ridges or pointy ears. So when you take a very-alien species like 8472 and just “make them human” for the sake of an episode, you erase that truly alien feeling, and you end up with scenes like the one in this episode where it's just a bunch of humanoids talking around a conference table – you forget how different they really are. THAT is my objection to this episode. Species 8472, only seen in two previous stories, shrouded in mystery, stronger than the Borg, difficult to communicate with ... has just been nerfed down to a kindly old gardener having an argument in a conference room. Give me a break.

Thoughts: The best part of this episode is the look on Neelix's face when the Doctor says he's glad to see him.

Mildly intriguing: The Borg designate a number to each species that they encounter. For example, the Talaxians are Species 218 and the Vulcans are Species 3259. While not explicitly stated, it seems like the designations are chronological, with each newly-discovered species receiving the next higher number designation. If that is the case, then we learn something very interesting in this episode. Apparently the Ferengi have been designated Species 180 – a very low number considering that Humans were given Species number 5618. There must be an interesting story behind how the Borg came to encounter a Ferengi so long before Humans.

Thoughts: The scene towards the end with all the people yelling and screaming really rustles my jimmies. I know it's supposed to be cacophonous, but it's a little much.

Thoughts: This is one of Voyager's very few attempts to do a lighthearted/comedy episode, and they do a great job with it. It is delightful to watch the campy 1930s vision of the future, poking fun at the show's own genre. Janeway takes to her new role wonderfully, with the occasional eye-roll at the pure silliness of her situation. This episode is much more enjoyable than that stupid Ferengi episode that was such a farce that it failed to be funny. I'm giving this episode a General Award for being out of the norm and an enjoyable adventure in black and white that makes fun of science-fiction as a genre.

Thoughts: This is one of my favorites, and I think it's mostly just because I really enjoy the performance of special guest star Lori Petty.

Thoughts: This is a fine story with a great concept. Seven is forced to face her own past as Janeway launches an ambitious plan to steal a Borg trans-warp coil. This episode is the first story to feature the Borg Queen after her introduction in the film Star Trek: First Contact. Still, I just can't give this five stars because it is part of Voyager's nerfing of the Borg. Somehow, the Hansons came up with all this cool anti-Borg tech all by themselves, tech that the finest minds at Starfleet couldn't come up with, and despite having assimilated the Hansons and all their technology, the Borg are still vulnerable to it.

Thoughts: This episode gets a ⚑︎ penalty flag because it's not really a Voyager episode. I honestly don't know how to rate this one. It's anything but “average,” but is it good or bad? On the one hand, it is a good story, enjoyable to watch, even. On the other hand, it's like watching a completely different show – how can I rate it in comparison to the rest of the series?

Thoughts: Braxton's line, “I gave up trying to keep my tenses straight years ago” would have been funnier as “I'll be giving up trying to have kept my tenses straight years ago.”

Thoughts: It's time for another lesson about how important Starfleet principles and morals are! In fact, they're SO important, that when someone violates them, they must be brought to justice by any means necessary, including violating Starfleet principles! Listen, what Ransom did is obviously wrong and immoral; I'm not defending him. But then Janeway goes off the deep end and Chakotay just backs down when he's told to go to his room without supper. It took Ransom to come back to his senses and do the right thing for Janeway to come back from the edge, herself. Sure, it's an interesting concept for a story, but generally speaking, we don't want to see our hero doing bad things. At the very least, if she's going to do bad things, we should have had more time to see her afterwards, reflecting on the things she did and perhaps expressing regret in order to redeem herself a little bit. Instead, the episode just wraps up and we never really talk about this again. Honestly, between this and Janeway's actions (by proxy) in “Course: Oblivion”, I really am starting to think that her obsessions are dangerous and that she may not be fit for command.

Anyway, despite all that, this is still a pretty good two-parter. With the introduction of a second Federation ship and a second captain, we sort of secretly know that neither of those things are going to last beyond this story. Even the junior officers who get absorbed into Voyager's crew are never seen or heard from again. Oh come on, that's not a spoiler. You knew perfectly well that none of these new characters were going to last beyond this story.