Story: Child's Play
Written By: Raf Green
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 2000
You get the sense sometimes that the writers of Voyager would come up with some storyline...like they’d plant the seed for an arc in some episode, and then instead of actually working on the arc...they just ditched it and said “fuck it skip to the end!” That is the case with this episode. A few episodes ago, Voyager picked up some Borg children, and they would serve as surrogate children for Seven. They had one B-story about Seven and the kids in the previous episode, now they are already doing an episode where she has to return one of them to his proper parents. We are supposed to feel for Seven and her feeling of losing this kid...and we are supposed to feel for the kid who doesn’t want to leave Voyager...but we haven’t gotten to know this kid or his relationship to Seven at all. They forgot to do any storylines about that before doing the end of the story. Typical lazy writers on this show...they get story ideas but forget to do the legwork in character and story development to make their payoff episode worthwhile at all.
I would have really dug a season arc about Seven and these kids and then have the inevitable end where she must take them home, and the awkward situation that presents. But they rushed it, got right to the end and I felt less for the characters as a result.
My gripes aside...I did like this episode. It was a solid enough story and Ryan does a good job with the material...it is just a shame that I really didn’t care if the kid went or stayed...I didn’t really know him, so who cares. I also feel lukewarm to the end in which Icheb is a weapon against the Borg. It makes sense, but I was sort of digging the idea that Seven’s issues with the parents were purely based on her own misgivings about losing Icheb, making her reservations to be proven true sort of discounted the story. They do that a lot though. And it wasn’t entirely unsuccessful. I dunno.
NEXT TIME: Inefficient Crewmembers
Written By: Raf Green
Series: Star Trek: Voyager
Year: 2000
You get the sense sometimes that the writers of Voyager would come up with some storyline...like they’d plant the seed for an arc in some episode, and then instead of actually working on the arc...they just ditched it and said “fuck it skip to the end!” That is the case with this episode. A few episodes ago, Voyager picked up some Borg children, and they would serve as surrogate children for Seven. They had one B-story about Seven and the kids in the previous episode, now they are already doing an episode where she has to return one of them to his proper parents. We are supposed to feel for Seven and her feeling of losing this kid...and we are supposed to feel for the kid who doesn’t want to leave Voyager...but we haven’t gotten to know this kid or his relationship to Seven at all. They forgot to do any storylines about that before doing the end of the story. Typical lazy writers on this show...they get story ideas but forget to do the legwork in character and story development to make their payoff episode worthwhile at all.
My gripes aside...I did like this episode. It was a solid enough story and Ryan does a good job with the material...it is just a shame that I really didn’t care if the kid went or stayed...I didn’t really know him, so who cares. I also feel lukewarm to the end in which Icheb is a weapon against the Borg. It makes sense, but I was sort of digging the idea that Seven’s issues with the parents were purely based on her own misgivings about losing Icheb, making her reservations to be proven true sort of discounted the story. They do that a lot though. And it wasn’t entirely unsuccessful. I dunno.
NEXT TIME: Inefficient Crewmembers