My #StarTrekVoyager rewatch S4E25 “One”
Awesome! I’ve been looking forward to this one. No pun intended. The Doctor teaching Seven social skills is a dubious proposition at best; this part’s all a bit clumsy.
You know, I vaguely remember this one from 24 years ago. The crew is allergic to a nebula and must cross it in stasis.
“Sub nucleonic radiation” is devastating to organic tissue, but Seven will be okay… because she’s not organic? Still, the Borg drone who had trouble adjusting to brief solitude being utterly isolated is a good setup. The Doctor being in command is also dubious. Or maybe it’s comedy?
The deck full of “coffins” is aptly eerie. Foreshadowing? Cut to Seven on Day 10. Tom sleepwalks. Found unconscious, he should be dead. Tensions are rising, so the EMH prescribes a trip to the holodeck. It’s interesting how Seven uses the trip to the holodeck but the Doctor wants compliance, not creativity.
The plot complication is a welcome distraction. It turns out to be a false alarm. An interesting consequence of the organic matter integrated into the computer systems. Still, it should have been easily foreseen. The Doctor has been knocked offline outside of the sick bay before.
We don’t need to change the rules to manufacture drama. Still, the tension gets ramped up nicely as Seven is increasingly isolated. A chance encounter brings a pilot with sexual-predator vibes onto the ship. Is he a hallucination? Seven is definitely hallucinating now and the ambiance is positively Hitchcockian.
This part is outstanding especially as it culminates with the Doctor going offline. In retrospect, the slow build here worked exceptionally well and the climax is intense. It’s also nice that the episode had consequences; Seven has grown and we don’t merely revert to the status quo. A solid episode and most of my qualms I can dismiss as early hallucinations or forgive for being necessary to set the plot in motion. The pay-off at the end, for example, made the awkward bit in the teaser worthwhile.
This episode will be fun to ponder and revisit. What was real and what wasn’t? I’m not entirely sure.
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