'Dark Frontier'

Stardate: 52619.2
Written By: Brannon Braga and Joe Menonsky
Part 1 Directed By: Cliff Bole
Part 2 Directed By: Terry Windell
Rating: **** (out of 5)

Star Trek tele-movies have a trend of being classic material. Look at TNG's "Unification" and "All Good Things." and DS9's "The Way of the Warrior" and "What You Leave Behind." Voyager's first contribution to the tele-movie arena gives an enjoyable ride through Borg infested territory and some good character work, but ultimately it is flawed and allows itself to loose an epic feel by being a normal contained episode that will undoubtedly be forgotten next time.

The first problem I have with "Dark Frontier" is the term 'tele-movie'. "Dark Frontier" is just two episodes stuck together like any normal cliffhanger. That wouldn't be so much a problem if you couldn't notice. But unfortunately you do because there are two directors, one for each part and at halfway point you loose the feel you had from the scene before. There isn't much difference in direction from each part but it is noticeable at halfway point which destroys the 'event' feel.

But that's rather trivial as it's the story that makes any episode what it is. The plot is quite good and manages to incorporate a decent amount of action and drama. I liked the use of Seven's parents to help move part of the story along. The continuity errors that many people complain about (the Borg being known about before TNG's "Q-Who," why the Queen is still alive?) didn't concern me too much. The intricate details you can either imagine them yourself or vouch that those are plot points to be revisited in the future.

Now onto the good points. "Dark Frontier" doesn't fall into the trap of being fluff, nor of being an action flick. It has the right amount of drama, action, and suspense. Well, most of these apply to most of the episode, but not all.

The scenes with Seven's parents are often quite tense and a little creepy. I found the scene with the regenerating Borg Drone on the Raven creepy because it just shows that the Hansens don't know what they are dealing with. What I didn't like with the Hansen's story was lack of a proper conclusion. Because we don't see the fate of the Hansen's occur it lacks any emotion it should. The scenes from "The Raven" were some of the scariest Borg scenes ever done, why could we have seen the horror of the Hansen's being assimilated like that? This would make the Borg seem so much of a threat, such a scary force of nature.

The Borg do get some good creepy-ness throughout the episode, although not as much as I would've liked. Watching a planet-wide assimilation was quite a good experience to watch. It was as interesting as it was horrific. The other scenes of the inside of a Cube were good however not that good.

The scenes between Janeway and Seven show how much has changed since "The Gift." Seven is no longer a victim of being an individual and Janeway is no longer Seven's enemy. They each have a good understanding of each other. Voyager's care of Seven shows brilliantly through Janeway when Seven decides to stay with the collective and Janeway says "I'm not leaving without you." Great stuff from the writers and actors.

Seven and the Borg Queen however aren't as well done because you never get a good understanding of what the Queen is trying to do. The Queen says she has planted Seven on Voyager to later be extracted, that Seven is the first Borg to return to individuality and that she wants Seven to help while the Borg assimilate humanity. Seven's assimilated father is shown to Seven, and that's meant to make her cooperate? None of that seems very logical nor very plausible for obvious reasons. Seven was planted on Voyager, yet how could the collective know that Species 8472 was going to attack them? Seven can't be the first Borg to become an individual because we've seen them (remember Hugh and his bunch from "I, Borg" and "Descent"?) unless she means something else and that is a badly written line. Finally, the Borg have tried to assimilate humanity twice using only one measly ship. What not use a million ships? The Dominion has done a better job of destroying the Alpha and Beta Quadrants than the Borg have done destroying measly little Earth!

The other reason why the Seven and Borg Queen scenes don't work is because of the character of the Queen, the way she's written. It's erratic and doesn't seem right. She is trying to get Seven to stay with the collective and yet shows her the assimilation of a planet? She says that compassion is irrelevant and yet stops the destruction of one alien ship because of Seven's pleas? What is the Queen trying to say and what do the writers want the Queen to convey? The Queen is not a treacherous Vorta, nor is she a mindless Borg Drone, so what was her motive?

I believe that "Dark Frontier" wasted a lot of much needed time, especially by showing an entire segment of holographic heist which could've been put to better use with a better ending or showing the Hansen's assimilation.

A clich� among Trek cliffhangers continues here, "Dark Frontier" has a good setup but fails to deliver a decent resolution. I suppose the climax is not bad but it certainly isn't the "epic showdown between Janeway and the Borg Queen" like I expected, like others expected. Janeway goes into the Queens chamber and simply fires at the Queens communications node and then they are out, hardly dramatic and hardly epic. The Borg guarding the Queen doesn't really pose much of a threat either.

We, the audience, know that when the Borg Queen is killed the other drones die also like in "First Contact." Janeway of course didn't know that but what was stopping her from firing at the Queen? Macho Janeway sometimes does the most dangerous things and yet isn't all that heroic when you think she would be.

After Seven is rescued the chase is on. The Queens ship chases the Delta Flyer into a Transwarp Conduit. But why? Didn't the Borg Queen want Seven? Wouldn't it be more logical of the Queen to take over Voyager once Seven has returned? The ultimate destruction of the Queens' ship occurs without much a fight but simply the closing of the Transwarp Conduit in the Borg's face. So does that mean this Borg Queen is dead?

I'd also like to know exactly what all this was supposed to mean. The ending of the episode hardly was a fitting conclusion to the events, was this trying to show how Seven has become attached to Voyager? Was it loyalty? Friendship? This is another reason why "Dark Frontier" almost slips into the action-flick area.

The acting was a standout point here. While it was mainly Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan and Susanna Thompson these three managed to work around any writing faults and produce a damn good performance. The rest of the cast was quite good including Kirk Bailey and Laura Stepp as Seven's parents who are overacted but acceptable.

"Dark Frontier" had some of the greatest CGI ever done on Voyager. "Timeless" showed us how detailed the CGI can get, and "Dark Frontier" was close if not better! The Borg Complex was a wonderfully detailed CGI creation. The Teaser sequences were well done and succeeded greatly in quick action. The Borg Queens' assembly, while a little cheesy and artificial was smoother that the "First Contact" one and looked more real although not as daunting. All the debris flying out of the Transwarp Conduit was good too.

The sets were good also. The Borg interior sets lacked the dark shadows and gloom, which I believe Borg ships should have more of instead of all that green light. The Raven interior was surprisingly detailed considering the entire thing was used only a little.

The music was absolutely superb!! I loved it! From beginning to end the music was just brilliant! David Bell revises his often used theme (used distinctly in DS9's "Rocks and Shoals," "Sacrifice of Angels" and "Tacking into the Wind") into a standout musical performance that's adds great atmosphere to many key scenes.

The comm badge thing near the beginning was simply dumb and not performed well either. The scene with Naomi and Janeway was a standout in my opinion, especially when Naomi was hiding behind Tuvok!

Tying up my rather lengthy review; "Dark Frontier" is simply a flawed but enjoyable episode.