"Drone"
comments? pforooghi@compusmart.ab.ca
Yet another one of my all-time favorite episodes is "Drone". Again, this was a very poignant, thought-provoking episode, which helped Seven to grow as well as learn more about humanity. The lesson, unfortunately, was a painful one, as she comes face to face with two of the worst human experiences- grief and loss.
It is interesting to me how this episode starts out. Seven is practicing how to smile. What this says to me is that she thinks this is the most salient feature of humanity - joy and happiness. If she masters this skill, then she is on her way. However, at the end of the episode, in the same reflective surface, she has a terrible look of grief and sadness on her face. Unfortunately, she wasn’t practicing - her pain was all too real. So, this episode is book-ended by two emotions - happiness and grief. A statement on life? Indeed, the two extremes of human emotion are joy and pain, everything else falls somewhere between this spectrum. Seven got to experience the dichotomy of joy/pain in this episode, however, it was the pain of losing someone she cared about which affected her most keenly.
For lack of a better term, I will refer to One as Seven’s child. In essence, he was, no matter how he came to be. A random convergence of technology, as One put it, yet the feelings he evokes in Seven are all too maternal. Seven’s maternal feelings came shining through in a scene where she was giving One a tour of the ship, and they stopped off at engineering. As One was explaining something very intricate to B'Elanna, the camera panned to Seven, and her expression was very telling. She was beaming with pride over One’s intelligence and competence, just like any mother would. I found that moment to be very touching, considering Seven has never felt that way before. As the episode progresses, and her bond with One solidifies, more love and affection can be seen in Seven’s eyes for her "offspring". The most blatant mention of Seven being One’s mother was by the doctor, which was one of the most amusing moments in the episode. He said that One had his mother’s sense of humour. Well, that sure was the truth! But, it did point out how in many ways, One and Seven were similar, just like many children and mothers are. As Seven begins to realize this, her affection for One deepens.
At the same time, we all know that the more you care about someone, the more it hurts to lose them. Seven learns this the hard way, unfortunately, when One decides to sacrifice his own life for her sake as well as the ship’s. That was a very moving scene, when Seven was imploring One to let the Doctor help him. It also served to show how very much One had grown to love Seven as well, to the point of willing to sacrifice his own life for her. Their love and affection for one another was very clear in this scene. Ultimately, One does die, and Seven is left with a broken heart.
Cut to her going back to the Cargo Bay, and looking at her own reflection. No need for affectation here, the pain in her face is very real, unrehearsed, and acutely felt. To sum up, in this episode, Seven comes full circle. From her first experiences with love, joy, and pride in a loved one, to her first bitter taste of pain and loss. One wonders if she wished she were still a Drone, incapable of feeling, and therefore, incapable of being hurt. I wouldn’t blame her if she felt that way at that moment; we all have during painful times in our life. In the end, we decide that its better to have feelings, to love, than to be devoid of emotion and incapable of love. Even if it means experiencing unimaginable grief somewhere along the way. I would venture to say that Seven would agree with this.
Another superb episode, deserving of four comm badges.
