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Just Between Us G. L. Dartt A fan of Star Trek since the mid-seventies, G. L. Dartt currently writes
J/7 fan fiction, which can be found at her website: Captain's
Quarters. Any comments regarding this column can be sent to greenoaks@ns.sympatico.ca.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of G. L. Dartt and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Alternative Quadrant. Children of the Borg Beginning in the episode Collective, Voyager did a rather ambitious ... for them ... story arc about the crew encountering a Borg cube which was being run by a group of five children. These adolescents were released prematurely from their maturation chambers when the rest of the adult drones died from an unknown pathogen. It was up to Seven to find a way to rescue the Voyager crewmembers they had captured, and also convince these precocious little sociopaths that they no longer had to be of the Collective. The B plot in Ashes to Ashes displayed Seven trying to guide the children who are, apparently now, permanent members of Voyager. The plotline was brought to the forefront again in Child's Play when the oldest, Icheb, was returned to his people. As it turned out, he proved to be a genetic weapon created to deploy the very pathogen which had killed the adult drones on the cube. After a great deal of melodrama, he ended up staying with the crew of Voyager rather than leaving the ship. The final fate of the other children, including a Borg infant which was never mentioned after the initial episode, has yet to be determined. This has actually been a very interesting idea. The concept of children being a significant part of Voyager's society is long overdue, and by bringing on a group of children which range in age, the writers provide themselves with a vast potential of future stories. However, they seem very limited in how they are applying it so far. Probably the most disappointing aspect was the insistence by Janeway that Seven of Nine had to be fully responsible for these Borg children. Disregarding the idea that it is cruel and unusual punishment to demand that one person, who is still finding her own uncertain way in this society, be solely responsible for raising a group of four (and possibly five) essentially dysfunctional children, the writers are also missing the opportunity to involve the other characters into what could be a very useful plot element in developing their personalities. If Voyager is, at this stage in its journey, an independent society of sorts rather than a Starfleet vessel (which seems the argument used whenever Janeway loses track of her marbles), then it is incumbent upon that society to raise these children as a whole. It is certainly illogical to demand that one person try to integrate them into Voyager's society without any help. Indeed, even when Seven asks for help or expresses the opinion that she is incapable of doing this, she is ignored or dismissed. It's almost as if Janeway wants to perform a little experiment on Seven to see where she's at in her development, and how much damage this causes Seven or the children in question, is irrelevant to her. As Chakotay tells Seven, "The captain expects you to keep the children in line." Thus, the captain is cast in an unappealing role yet again, making her appear arrogant, selfish, and shortsighted while Chakotay becomes the hapless mouthpiece of an autocratic leader. Poor Seven, meanwhile, is cast in the role of being suddenly restricted by an overwhelming sense of responsibility while the rest of the crew are shoved to the side regarding something which should have a significant impact on their daily lives and the ship as a whole. One of the largest complaints heard about the show is that it has become too much of a Seven of Nine vehicle while the rest of the characters are ignored. Even the most rabid Seven fans, of which I am one, are becoming bored with storylines which center around her to the exclusion of how she relates to the other characters and how they relate to her. It's not so much that Seven has lots of screen time, it's because the writers are now doing to her in season six what they had done to the other characters in season four and five ... isolate any development that might be undergone and separate it from the other regulars. As a result, the episodes this season are particularly striking in how they fall short in their execution. The Children of the Borg trilogy could have involved all the characters in significant ways, rather than merely placing Seven center stage and putting the rest on the sidelines. Ashes to Ashes would have displayed a much better B story if it had been Seven, Tuvok and Neelix dealing full time with these children rather than making Seven look foolish and lost as she tries to guide them. Child's Play would have been far more interesting if it had not merely been Seven feeling protective of Icheb, but if, instead, it had also been Chakotay demanding that Janeway not hand Icheb over to his people. Indeed, Chakotay is a character that suffers greatly from the fact the writers don't know what to do with him. He is a man without a people, while he and his crew of Maquis outlaws have become good little Starfleet officers with little logical transition. At the same time, his role on the ship has never been truly defined. It should be noted that the Enterprise's Commander Will Riker on The Next Generation also suffered from this latter problem, though neither Commander Spock in The Original Series nor Major Kira Nerys in Deep Space Nine did. It is obvious to even the most casual viewer why that is (though the creators of the show apparently continue to have a blind spot concerning it.) Both Spock and Kira were defined by more than their role as first officer; Spock because he was also the ship's science officer, and Kira because she was also the Bajoran liaison to the space station. Those were situations which provided loads of defining moments for the characters, not just when they were featured in an episode, but also when they were in the lesser role of a support character to the main story. For Riker and Chakotay, however, it's never been determined what exactly a first officer does, so as a result, he's usually sitting there next to the captain, not doing or saying anything of much importance. Or worse, his role is to just 'fill in' until the real leader gets back, making him appear as a 'lesser' version of the main character. Neither role is particularly appealing to the viewer. The writers need to build on the first officer character in other ways, either by specifying his duties in a concrete manner or giving him a purpose outside of being the first officer. Unfortunately, for Chakotay, this had meant throwing random character traits at him in the past two seasons in the desperate hope that one of them would stick. Lately, he's been dubbed an anthropologist and a lover of history, though that hardly explains why he was shown in earlier episodes to disdain his own ancient culture and in fact, would turn his back on his people to enter Starfleet. Rather, the one established key with him should be that he abandoned Starfleet and joined the Maquis because his home planet was attacked by the Cardassians with the entire colony of his people being brutally exterminated. He has become the last of his kind so why not use that? Why not have him develop a parental relationship with Icheb which would not only add a particularly noble shade to his character which has been sorely lacking, but would also give him a lot more to do in terms of drama? In effect, he would be rebuilding his tribe, starting with this boy who has lost his own culture, and giving Chakotay's character a specific purpose. Show him passing on the traditions and rituals of his people, granting him more screen time with the Borg boy (since the Borg seem to be Voyager's apparent flavor of this season and probably next) and would also serve to make his character more appealing on a 'Human' level. Along the same lines, why not provide Harry Kim the same opportunity to be a 'big brother'? The last scene in Ashes to Ashes, where he and Mezoti, the little Borg girl, go off to do nasty things to Tuvok's holoprogram, was actually the most charming the character has appeared in the past two seasons. If the children are going to be an ongoing part of the story, then associate Harry with Mezoti. Give him the personality of being the child's older sibling rather than the immature geek he's been portrayed as for the past two seasons. Making him the perpetual loser has cost his character immeasurably over the course of the series. The twins would provide a perfect opportunity to add to Tuvok's character, as well. The pair seem particularly emotionless and reserved as a species and the security chief is already a father. Use that bit of continuity and have him take responsibility for their integration into the crew of Voyager, thus showing more of a Vulcan way of life (as opposed to making fun of pon farr). The writers are very quick to make the females on this show 'mothers' even when it's not logical to do so. Why not be a little more innovative and make the male characters 'fathers' instead? Indeed, the females are already quite interesting on their own without requiring such a sub-plot. It is the male characters who desperately need development, and creating relationships between them and the children would do just that in a fairly clever manner. Sisko was interesting not just because he was the Emissary, but because he was also a family man, the father of a growing boy. Creating the Children of the Borg was not particularly a bad idea, but if their appearances are limited to only being associated with Seven's character development, then that's a waste. Not only at the expense of the rest of the crew, but for Seven as well. By forcing her character into the traditional role of 'mother' just as the writers seem determined to do with Janeway, they are actually undermining what makes both women so fascinating; their strength and nontraditional roles of power on the ship. There's also the aspect that if a 'featured episode' means the character doesn't interact with the rest of the crew, it's really a futile development. Most viewers want to see the characters grow in relation to each other, not on their own with no connection to anyone else on the show. The Children of the Borg is a perfect example of a plot element which could have provided a uniting element for the characters to deal with each other on an ongoing basis, granting the show an anchor of continuity which has otherwise been lost. This is such an easy improvement for Voyager to make in the future; for the writers to stop thinking in terms of how any given plot affects a 'character', and to start thinking in terms of how it affects all the characters ... though as the show goes into the seventh season, one wonders if even this may be far too little, too late, to grant the show the quality it deserves. |