A key Borg component in Seven's brain begins shutting down, leading to the possibility that she may be facing the equivalent of a terminal illness.

IN BRIEF

A nicely done allegory on terminal illness, though the Borg crutch and irrelevant action scenes are growing tiresome.

(originally aired October 11, 2000)

Teleplay by Carleton Eastlake and Robert Doherty
Story by Andre Bormanis
Directed by David Livingston

GUEST CAST

Manu Intiraymi - Icheb
Debbie Grattan - Wysanti Female
Marley McClean - Mezoti
Kurt Wetherill - Azan
Cody Wetherill - Rebi
Michael McFall - Salvage Alien #1

RATING (OUT OF 4)

***

ANALYSIS

Warning: This review contains significant spoilers for Star Trek: Voyager's "Imperfection." If you haven't seen the episode yet, beware.

"Imperfection" is said to have grown out of a story pitch based on a true experience involving a kidney transplant -- from both the donating and receiving ends. I can believe that, because this episode has a ring of truth to it. The story concept is a fairly simple one, but the predicament that arises is emotional and difficult, ultimately leading to a seemingly impossible choice.

Still, if you're going to do a terminal illness story, Seven seems like a good choice. With the possible exception of the Doctor, she's probably the character we generally think of as the least "mortal." And, after all, since this is science fiction, a terminal illness with a sci-fi twist seems to lend itself particularly well to Seven's Borg inner workings.

In this case, Seven begins showing symptoms of a severe problem when her cortical node -- responsible for regulating her vital Borg implants -- malfunctions. It cannot be repaired because it is too complex. In theory, its Borg adaptability should lead it to repair itself, but it doesn't. After a brief display of believable denial, Seven realizes that she could very possibly soon be dead.

Some methods for treatment are considered. The most optimistic option is simply replacing the cortical node with a module from another drone. (Although I wonder -- in something as complex as a cortical node, I would expect there would be issues of compatibility from drone to drone; after all, you don't just get a heart transplant from anybody, let alone something that controls your important biological systems.)

This leads Janeway to track down a destroyed Borg ship nearby (how convenient!), from which they might find a dead drone with an undamaged cortical node. Just how many times has Voyager chased after the Borg, anyway? Funny how Chakotay says, "It's not every day we go looking for the Borg." Could've fooled me.

Though competently executed, I could've done without this week's Voyager Action Insert, the gratuitous sequence that serves as an argument that no episode of Voyager is demographic-friendly without some sort of exchange of weapons and/or chase through a debris field. While aboard the damaged Borg vessel we don't run into any Borg drones looking to assimilate our crew members, but instead the stock Hard-Headed Aliens of the Week, who will not listen to two words of reason. "This is *my* debris field," and out come the weapons. How tired I am of this scene.

As usual, I find that I can take this show seriously on its given episodic standalone terms (the terminal illness story is top-drawer), but the credibility of the series as a whole is reduced to a pathetic joke. Voyager and its crew are indestructible; it can be blown up and they assimilated by Borg, and it's always just another day at the office. At least when the Defiant was destroyed on DS9 the writers waited a few episodes before replacing it, and acted as if it were actually a different ship.

But back to the main idea here (to which the episode, fortunately, is wise enough to quickly return after straying for the Action Insert). The core is a genuinely good story. It certainly has more of a heart than "Unimatrix Zero", which was essentially a wind-up action toy. There's some nicely portrayed character work in "Imperfection" that makes a lot of sense. After the initial plan to replace the node fails (any dead drone's node will prove useless, Doc learns), we get scenes where the characters consider the looming possibility of Seven's death. As I said, I liked Seven's brief bit of denial and the fact that it was kept relatively short (Seven is the type to consider the data and then act upon the hard facts at hand); shortly afterward comes the anger, frustration, and ultimately acceptance. The idea of the usually in-control Seven not wanting others to see her in a vulnerable state is particularly believable, and I can completely understand her desire to break out of sickbay.

What's nice in addition to the terminal illness issue is that this story manages to tackle Seven's character from a couple different perspectives. She occupies an interesting position in between Janeway, her mentor, and Icheb, her protege. The fact that Seven might be dying is good also galvanizes the dialog scenes -- highlights include Seven wondering if she has lived up to the captain's hopes of becoming an individual and an apt moment where she points out dead Voyager crew members who were individuals when she was still linked to the hive mind. Another good moment is the issue of Icheb's dependency on Seven, which cuts both ways since, as the episode demonstrates, Seven is independent to a fault.

Overall, "Imperfection" is a solid story with some well-sold emotions and a situation that can be recognized to some degree as real life, even if not necessarily yours or mine. What "Imperfection" is not is particularly unexpected. We've been to similar places with Seven (indeed, we've been probably everywhere with Seven), and even though a Seven/Janeway or Seven/Icheb scene can still be very good, it also feels like an iteration of a Voyager staple.

TUNE IN NEXT WEEK

Get on your marks -- it's the Indy 5 Billion! "Drive".