'The Raven'

Stardate: Unknown
Written By: Bryan Fuller and Harry Doc Kloor
Directed By: LeVar Burton
Rating: *** (out of 5)

For what it is, �The Raven� isn�t bad, an interesting Seven story and an entertaining action episode.  But while these events concerned Seven, I didn�t really see much use in having these events take place.

Seven knew who her family was, she did remember them and she did remember being aboard the Raven.  All these events did was make us realize how the events took place.  I can understand the emotions that would�ve been seeping through Seven when the Raven was found, and it was creepy when she told the story about �The Men� who took her family away.

But these feelings are soon forgotten and have no lasting effect on the character.  The events should�ve been followed through just that tiny bit more to make it more fulfilling.

�The Raven� had plenty of creepy moments, the Borg flashback scenes where especially creepy, so was Seven�s description of the bird in her personal log.  This episode could�ve been great if it dealt fully about the Raven and it�s assimilation.  (Note: I know we do eventually get to see more about the Raven in �Dark Frontier�)

Imagine how scared you�d be discovering such a powerful and aggressive species and knowing there is no hope for survival.  And those flashback scenes provided the perfect frightening, nightmarish scenes of Seven�s family screaming and trying to fight off the Borg invaders.  I want to see a full episode of that!

The B�Omar added nothing new or exciting as far as aliens go.  They where just the typical �Aggressive, Delta Quadrant, don�t come near our territory or we�ll fire� species.

I can�t believe that Seven blew up the shuttle Bay doors and shot crewmen but didn�t get into trouble.  I guess it doesn�t really matter anyway because by the next episode those nifty engineers will have everything fixed, back to new again.

For some final tidbits, is Seven�s designation different here in �The Raven� than it was in �Scorpion�?  It seemed like that to me.  And it annoyed me that we never got a mention about the Raven at any stage until the final �it all becomes clear� moment but I suppose it keeps the episode more intriguing.

Well, �The Raven� wasn�t bad, there is always room for improvement, a satisfying and pretty easy going hour, but not an overly memorable one.