The Delta Flyers - Unimatrix Zero Part II

Episode Date: February 27, 2023

The Delta Flyers is a weekly Star Trek: Voyager rewatch & recap podcast hosted by Garrett Wang & Robert Duncan McNeill. Each week Garrett and Robert will rewatch an episode of Voyager starting at the very beginning. This week’s episode is Unimatrix Zero Part II. Garrett and Robbie recap and discuss the episode, and share their insight as series regulars.Unimatrix Zero Part II:The Borg queen captures Janeway and assimilates Tuvok, and Voyager tries to resist a Borg attack with the help of Korok's Klingon forces.We want to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible, starting with our Executive producers Megan Elise & Rebecca McNeillAnd a special thanks to our Ambassadors, the guests who keep coming back, giving their time and energy into making this podcast better and better with their thoughts, input, and inside knowledge: Lisa Klink, Martha Hackett, Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ, Roxann Dawson, Kate Mulgrew, Brannon Braga, & Bryan FullerAdditionally we could not make this podcast available without our Co-Executive Producers: Stephanie Baker, Philipp Havrilla, Kelton Rochelle, Liz Scott, Eve England, Sab Ewell, Sarah A Gubbins, Jason M Okun, Luz R., Marie Burgoyne, Daniel de Rooy, Chris Knapp, Michelle Z, Janet K Harlow, Utopia Science Fiction Magazine, Courtney Lucas, Matthew Gravens, Elaine Ferguson, Brian Barrow, Captain Jeremiah Brown, Heidi Mclellan, Rich Gross, Mary Jac Greer, John Espinosa, Deike Hoffmann, Mike Gu, Anna Post, Shannyn Bourke, Vikki Williams, Kelly Brown, Lee Lisle, Mary Beth Lowe, William McEvoy, Sarah Thompson, Samantha Hunter, Holly Smith, Amy Tudor, Adm. Bill "Seoulman" Yu, KMB, Dominic Burgess, Ashley Stokey, Lori Tharpe, Mary Burch, AJC, Nicholaus Russell, Dominique Weidle, Lisa Robinson, Normandy Madden, Joseph Michael Kuhlman, Darryl Cheng, Alex Mednis, AJ Freeburg, Elizabeth Stanton, Kayla Knilans, Barbara S., Tim Beach, Ariana, Meg Johnson, Victor Ling, Shambhavi Kadam, Holly Schmitt, James H. Morrow, Christopher Arzeberger, Megan Chowning, Tae Phoenix, Nicole Anne Toma, Donna Runyon, Nicholas Albano, Daniel O’Brien, Bronwen Duffield, Brandon May, Andrew Duncan, David Buck, Jeremy Mcgraw, Jason Bonnett, Ali S, Danie Crofoot, Ian Ramsey, Feroza Mehta, Michael Dismuke, Jonathan Brooks, Gemma Laidler, & Rob TraverseAnd our Producers:James Amey, Patrick Carlin, Richard Banaski, Ann Harding, Ann Marie Segal, Chloe E, Nathanial Moon, Carole Patterson, Warren Stine, Jocelyn Pina, Mike Schaible, AJ Provance, Captain Nancy Stout, Claire Deans, Matthew Cutler, Maxine Soloway, Barbara Beck, Species 2571, Aithne Loeblich, Dat Cao, Scott Lakes, Stephen Riegner, Debra Defelice, Tara Polen, Jenna Appleton, Jason Potvin, Cindy Ring, Jason Wang, Gabriel Dominic Girgis, Amber Nighbor, Jamason Isenburg, Mark G Hamilton, Rob Johnson, Maria Rosell, Heather Choe, Michael Bucklin, Lisa Klink, Jennifer Jelf, Justin Weir, Mike Chow, Rachel Shapiro, Eric Kau, Captain Jak Greymoon, David Wei Liu, Clark Ochikubo, David J Manske, Roxane Ray, Amy Rambacher, Jessica B, E.G. Galano, Cindy Holland, Will Forg, Max Wilson, Ryan Tomei, Charlie Faulkner, Estelle Keller, Russell Nemhauser, Lawrence Green, Christian Koch, Lisa Gunn, Lauren Rivers, Shane Pike, Jennifer B, & Dean ChewThank you for your support!“Our creations are protected by copyright, trademark and trade secret laws. Some examples of our creations are the text we use, artwork we create, audio, and video we produce and post. You may not use, reproduce, distribute our creations unless we give you permission. If you have any questions, you can email us at [e-mail].”Our Sponsors:* Check out Mint Mobile: https://mintmobile.com/TDFSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-delta-flyers/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Delta Flyers with Tom and Harry. As we journey through episodes of Star Trek Voyager, your two hosts along this journey are my fellow Voyager actor, who in the year 2000 also directed a season three episode of the show, The Journey of Alan Strange, Mr. Robert Duncan McNeil, and myself, your favorite for Everenson, Garrett Wong. Remember, you can get the full version of this podcast

by signing up to become a patron at patreon.com forward slash the Delta Flyers. Was that your first non-trecht episode that you directed? It was the first thing. So I had been shadowing a lot when we started Voyager. Yes. I shadowed on the show and directed late season two, you know, Sacred Ground, my first episode.

Yes. And then I think it was a couple of years later, I hadn't directed any, you know, I'd made some short films. The battery and nine millimeters of love. I think at this point I just made the battery. But I wanted to direct, you know, I was getting to the place where I'm like, I should be, you know, looking for something in our hiatus that I could direct outside of Star Trek. Yes. And my kids were all young at the time. And I was watching a lot of Nickelodeon was the big one back then. And then Disney. channel was another one, but Nickelodeon had cool stuff in the 90s. Yeah. Yeah. Cool shows. Which you were familiar with because of your three young children that you had. Yes. And there was this one show they loved called The Journey of Alan Strange. And it was about, it was basically like my favorite Martian. It was some kids that meet a, meet an alien who looks like, you know, he looks like a human. It's a lot like resident alien now that I do.

But he looks like a kid. And so they have to hide. him out in their attic and it's all the adventures of like how do they keep him a secret and he's got special powers and blah blah yeah so i was like perfect a kid show half hour and and the the track record of this show and the producer of this show Tommy lynch was really interesting he had had a show called the secret world of Alex Mack before that that was very a cult hit with kids and not just kids. And anyway, so I reached out to them and I said, hey, here's my short film the battery. Here's my Star Trek stuff. Whatever it takes, I want to direct. And I just pushed, had a little help for my agent. Yeah, that's how it happened. So you had no connections in that

office. You just reached out to them. I told my agent, and then my agent reached out to them and set up the first meeting. And then I just stayed on top of it after that. And, And in fact, the one of the line producer, his name is Chip Vuclitch, ended up producing 9mm of love for me. Oh, wow. Like a year or so after I did the Journey of Alan Strange. I love it. And a lot of directors went through that particular showrunner, Tommy Lynch, his shows

like Secret World of Alex Mack and Journey of Alan Strange and the jersey was another one he made, about a magic jersey. and people like Sean Levy, who now produces Stranger Things and directed Night at the Museum and all kinds of stuff. Sean was one of my fellow directors on the kid show. Allison Liddy Brown, who directed us once in, but has gone on to lots of great stuff. Quite a few notable directors cut their teeth on Journey of Allen Strange and with that showrunner. Those kids shows, yeah.

That's, that makes sense. But I do have a question. I never asked you this. but when you first directed Sacred Ground, did you then go out and say, before you directed, did you then say, I need to find an agent for directing jobs?

Like, did you, because as actors, we have a theatrical agent that handles our theatrical auditions as well as our commercial auditions, or maybe we split it up. We have one theatrical agent and one commercial agent.

So explain to me that process of what you, how did you acquire your agent for directing? Well, I was at a small agency called Susan Smith and Associates that had a really classy list of actors, but they had no directors. They had no, and they may have had some writers there. Yes. In fact, I met the writer, Rob Sharonow, who wrote the film The Battery. He'd written a feature of a full-length film called The Battery that he wrote on spec.

And I asked my agent, Susan Smith, she said, oh, this guy, Rob Shernow. as trying to be a writer, maybe you can meet him. And so that's how the battery, my first short film came about. I took his feature length script and I said, hey, let's come up with a short version of this, like an intro, like an origin story of these brothers that are baseball players in his movie, adult baseball players together. But I said, what's their origin story? How did they start?

So we made their childhood story of like how they sort of bonded. Yeah, I needed an agent. And I think I'd left Susan's office around season three or four to move to a bigger off, found a manager and a bigger agent. And yeah, that's how I found the beginnings of my directing. Where'd you move to? From Susan Smith to where? I went to a management company.

I can't even remember the name of it. Didn't work out well. Okay. Ultimately. And the agency was my acting agent then was, I bounced around to a few. different agencies. Okay. But you're not remembering the names of them at this point. I don't even remember my agents. You know, I should know you better and not go down that alley. I just can't remember where I went. I was at Susan Smith's office for a long time. Which again, a very, very well

established and respected boutique agencies, what you would call that. A smaller agency with a with a client list that is arguably a good solid list. And people look at them, oh, these are good actors. Yeah, they had a really strong list. And that was what I loved about it. And then I don't know, I think because of the directing thing, I was trying to look for a different agency. And yeah, yeah, anyway, business, show business.

What agency are you at now? I didn't even have met a little agency called CAA. Okay. So you're at CAA as a director and as a director. And as a, as also as an actor, too? Do they still, no, not really. Just a director and producer. Just directing only.

I don't have an acting agent. I mean, I guess CAA would represent that me. Right. If an acting thing comes along. Right. And your good friend, Mitch Melkinson, my attorney, he's, he's handled any of like the lower decks thing when that came in. That went through Mitch.

No agent on it. Mitch handled that. Okay. Yeah. I got a business show business. It's boring. You know what? I don't know why I haven't done this, but I need to have

lunch with Mitch. Yes, you should. That's son of a gun. First of all, I have to have lunch just to give them crap for giving you all the photos of me in college, my broken tooth on the ski trip, all these things that were part of my past reemerged because of Mitch Melkinson, our connection that we have. And it's funny because I, if I was going to say of all the guys that I was in the fraternity with, like which ones would be a successful guy? Mitch was the

Mitch was the guy that played around all the time. I thought that Mitch was going to end up being a used car salesman. To be honest, I was like, that's what Mitch will do. He'll sell cars. That's the Hollywood attorney is kind of a used car snow in a way. But, you know, but he was such a he was, you know, he had fun.

It just seemed like he didn't take anything seriously. So I thought, you know, Mitchell, yeah, he'll have some retail job. I don't know. He'll own a subway franchise or something like that. He's a named partner at one of the, Yeah. Biggest entertainment law firms in Hollywood. Right.

He's a heavy hitter. He's a heavy hitter, yeah. So I'm proud of him. Yeah. You know, I knew him from his very, very humble beginnings before that. The thing I love most about Mitch Melkinson, my attorney now is he drives. He has an old 195 Corvette, 58 Corvette. Oh, wow.

Vintage. I love it. Vintage, like one of the first models. Yeah. It is cherry. It is a beautiful little. It's gorgeous, huh? Yeah. Did he take you for a ride in the vehicle?

No, I've just seen him, you know, when I've had lunch with him, if he's pulled up in that thing, I'm like, wow, that is a cool car. All right. Okay, so let's talk about this episode. Let's do. This is the sequel to the Unimatrix Zero Part 1. This is Unimatrix Zero Part 2. Yes. This is the second part of it, the season opener for Season 7, basically.

Yeah, so let's go watch this episode, and we'll be right back, everybody, with our recap and discussion of Unimatrix Zero, Part 2. Patreon, patrons, please stay tuned for your bonus material. Hey, everyone, we're back from watching Unimatrix Zero, Part 2, Part 2. Yes, yes. A lot of action. Wow. A lot of action.

I will say I enjoyed this better than the first one. are we opposite oh that's funny that's funny I did oh I enjoyed this better I mean the first one was good it was fine I felt like it was a lot of like

I don't know I feel like things paid off and okay that's fine let's go through it let's agree to disagree we can disagree okay here is my poetry synopsis my haiku synopsis for Unimatrix Zero part two away team Still Borg, Trojan horse was the mission. Sanctuary gone. Nice, nice. Okay, here we go with a limerick poetry synopsis of this entire extravaganza.

Lay it on me, Robbie. Here we go. It's a limerick, by the way. The captain plays an undercover game, while Seven deals with an old flame. No time. No time. For romance, Janeway takes charge of the circumstance, and the Borg may just never be the same. Oh, that's tight and good. That was a very good example for, yeah, that was good. I'll give you a. I'll give you an A. I'll give you an A.

Thank you. All right. 9.6. How's that? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Our teleplay and story kind of the same.

Remains the same. Mike Vahar directed. It was Vahar. Yes. All right. Vahar was, I loved Mike Vahard. He was awesome. He was.

He is. Excuse me. And by the way, I'm going to say, did a great job in this episode. I thought, Vahar is directing. Yeah, good. He's directing. And when we get there, there's a couple of things in particular that I was like, whoa. I agree.

I think I know what you're going to say. Go ahead. Keep going. Our cast is all the same. Yep. Except we have two new editions. We have Andrew Palmer playing the errant drone. Remember when she talks to the drone?

She's like, I can't hear you. And he's in the room with her. Yeah. And he finally says something. Andrew Palmer is his name. I found a lot of stunts for him. Hmm. And his very first job was in 1992, a movie, it looked like a horror movie,

like a low budget called Run Like Hell, then a lot of stunt credits. but the thing that I think I did look and see he was in a bunch of other Star Trek stuff in character makeup and he was in first contact as a Borg stunt person I think so I bet they said

they brought him over who do we have that we've spent the money on a Borg out of that bring them into audition they've only got one line and I bet that's what happened and there was a stunt involved for him too because he gets he lunges at the Borg Queen

hits hit by a force field and falls back into the alcove so it makes sense someone yeah they had a stunt guy from first contacts who had the costume built and that's andrew palmer play the errant drone uh we also have alien man do you remember that there was when the queen or is it the queen or somebody alien man runs into somebody in the unit matrix and he's like where they're like where are you from he's like i don't know i don't know where i'm from it was like his first time there oh no they were asking him like, what ship are you on? Do you know yet? He goes like, I don't know yet. So the virus hadn't been, um, that guy released yet. Yes. Okay. That's alien man. And he was just, uh, you know,

an indie alien guy. He, the actor's name is Clay stores Seth. Okay. And he has this credit and one other. Uh, the only other credit he has. And I think this may have been his first, maybe one of his first jobs. Yeah. Uh, a window that opens. It was a short film. is the only other credit I could find for him. So Clay Storseth, this is his big moment. It is. Showbiz, I think. Yeah.

But that's Clay. That's our additions. Thank you for that. Shall we jump right in? Okay. Let's jump in. We start off with a, well, you know, if you're watching on Netflix, there was a previously, yeah, previously on. There's a previously on, which we never did.

No. Well, no, we've done it once before. Very rare, though. No, every time we have a, you know, we come back from a cliffhanger. We do have something previously on Star Trek Voyager. But I just, I found it to be, I found it to be really good. I found it to be exciting to have a previously one. I wish we had it every week, not just when we have a special cliffhanger episode.

Yeah, would that be nice. Because that would help to keep that continuity. Yes. I hear you. I hear you. So then we have the very first. of the new part of the episode, the second part, is the exterior space shot of the Borg Tactical Cube.

It's flying right at the camera. Yeah, coming right at you. It's flying right at the camera. It was a cool shot out of the gate. I was like, Mike Vahar, nice work. Good job, Mike. Interior, Borg cube. Very cool shot showing the different levels, the camera pans from like one high...

Very cool shot. One of our best, one of our best of... I knew you would be impressed by that shot. Very cool shot. Dan Curry, the whole... team. Great job there. Great job there. All of them. We do pick up Tuvok, who's making his way to find Balana Torres or the other members, and he does find Torres. But as they start speaking, we realize that they are drones, but they are now completely aware that they are drones. So they are not

automatons. And Torres has this crazy, like, effect on her voice, right? So it's a sub vocal processor that was installed for her. So now she sounds very robotic. Yeah, she's the only one. And they mention it. They say, now, by the way, let's just stop here for a minute. Because I was like, all right, so they're on the ship. The only thing, the first thought I had is, are they using the virus that they're going to, you know, did they inject them with this virus or something? Because if you are assimilated, we have never had any technology to stop that. Like, this is a huge thing that we've been able to be assimilated and still know. who we are, like, that alone is a game changer that I think is really underplayed in this whole episode, even though it's, you know, it's what drives the other. They were injected. They were injected with something. A nanovirus, we learned later, but I was like. A neural, a neural suppressant. Yeah, so neural suppressant. Yeah. Why can we do that every time we deal with the bore? Like, now, if we have that. We should be eating them like their tic tacks. Like,

everyone should have them. You just pop up in your mouth. This is a huge deal. Yes. That we have you taken your daily neurosuppressant? Yeah, like that, right? You'll never be assimilate. We'll never, now we can fight them much more fairly. But anyway, that seems to get sort of glossed past what a game changer that is. But we use it for this plot. Good catch.

Good catch. I like that. So they're talking, Torres says it's crazy. And you know what sounds like, you know, when you're a kid and the fan is on and you start talking right in front of the fan to make that your voice sound funny? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it did sound like that. Same way.

Yeah. It did. Uh, and Tuvok basically says, hey, uh, let's go. We got to go find Janeway. We got to, uh, we have to make it back to the, to the centralplexus, but we have to make our way to find the central plexus, which I said last episode would be a great band name for us. Yes. Okay.

It sounds like a punk band. Central plexus. Central plexus. On stage now. Um, Voyager bridge. Chkote says that, um, they should have heard something by now. Uh, it's what, 17, 18 minutes now has gone by and Voyager basically just keeps following the queue. at a very safe distance on the bridge the very first shot yes starts below the doctor's legs

and a console and kind of comes up again again we've never done that show well like mike vahar in season seven yeah found a shot we had never done which is cool so mike's on fire that's oh he's in the groove but we do we do learn on the bridge that we're tracking their brain function, but we have not seen any sign of this virus deployed. And, yeah, Chichote calls astrometrics. Seven says that the cube has been damaged, but it should be operational in a couple of hours. She tells Chukote. And Chikote order seven to go back into the Unimatrix zero so that they will know as soon

as this virus is deployed. So, yeah. Yeah. So, and he says something like, go back with your friends and let them, you know, so we, so we know in this thing. She's like, they're not my friends. Yeah. Please call them acquaintances. Yeah.

And I, I feel like this whole story with her love for axiom or whatever is very confusing to me. Robbie, this is, remember in the very beginning we talked about you said you like this one better than the first one? And I said, I said I'm the opposite. I'm the opposite because of this B storyline with her. it doesn't work at all i'll say it right now that it's a storyline that hurts my brain to watch this i'm just going oh no i think it could have worked i think it could have worked but i think it's a combination of just the way that you know how it could have worked this is how it could have worked if they were just friends and they had not consummated and in this meeting they start to i feel it even

more and consummate it you see what i'm saying like this is the next i think the whole thing that that blew it for me as in the last episode when she learned the truth she was so angry at him i don't know how you come back from that yeah it would have been different if she never learned the truth yeah and was like suspecting it and then did have feelings and then he said you know why you're having feelings because we it's in you somewhere we have this love for each other and i didn't want to tell you because i didn't want to you know confuse you but yeah her reaction really backed her into a corner that she couldn't get out of. Yeah, I don't think we ever got out of that previous episode. I don't think we ever recovered from the way that they kind of went into the story. Anyway, correct. All right, so now

we're back in Unimatrix Zero. Chikote has basically ordered seven to go back in there and let everyone know the 411. And is it Karak or is it Korak? Or is it? I think it's Karak. That's his name. Karak is bossing around this Horogen. Well, no, he's prepping everybody. They're like he's prepping everybody. But he tells, he's like ordering. the Herogen. And the Herogen's like, okay. I've never seen as Herogen be that submissive, I got to say. Okay. I've never seen anybody talk to a Herojin and the Herojan go, oh, yes, sir. Sure. Well, maybe that Herojan learned the lesson of teamwork. And there you go. And now they're reformed. They're going to go along with the plan. Seven is looking for her

acquaintance slash old boyfriend. He's not there. He's not there. So, Kurok's like, well, we haven't seen him, so maybe he's dead. I mean, Krox's very matter of fact. It's just like, you're probably dead. He could be dead. And he said he could be dead. And if he died, you know, in battle, then it's an honorable one. Honorable death.

And then all of a sudden, while they're talking about this, you hear this like demons sound. But it's a guy coming out of his regenerate. He's going into his regeneration cycle, right? It was the weirdest sound. I don't remember it from the previous episode. It was like, okay. Oh. It was like, go.

It wasn't the same sound? It was weird. It was weird. I don't remember it from before. I didn't like it. Bad beaming sound. This is where the alien appears. Yeah.

By the way, so he just pops in and they ask him. Yeah, has the virus been deployed? The guy's like, I'm not sure. He goes, do you remember anything? Anything. Your location. What ship you're on? He's like, no, nothing.

So basically the virus has not been deployed. It's still, it's still undeployed. move on to the cube we go back to the cube there's tewok and balana they're looking for the central plexus they see a couple drones walk through kind of a force field in the hallway yep and so they think they're heading towards maybe that that'll be where they should go so they go over and tuvok sort of tests it he like puts his hands yeah because he thinks he's not going to go through it because he's still thinking in his non-drone head basically yeah yeah yeah but his hand goes through is they like cool good so they go in they find uh a room

that's leading them towards the central plexus and there's a drone working on a console and Tuvok's like, I'm going to take care of this. He goes over to Vulcan neck pinch the drone and suddenly the drone turns around. It's Janeway. It's Sharpay Janeway. Yes. Anyway, yes. And she seems pretty normalish. She's very normal. She's not very Borg at all. She's just Janeway with Borg makeup on. That's it. Like Janeway going to a Halloween party on the ship dressed as a Borg. I think that it would have been good if Mike or the actors had discussed. Maybe they did discuss it. Like when we first see them turned into Borg, you know, Roxanne's head turns and she sort of marches like a drone and Yeah, Tuvok's marching like a drone and Janeway's head even turns

the first time we see them, right? Yeah. They are. They never are after that. Like they don't Oh yeah, they don't walk that way. Yeah, they walk like their normal selves. They walk like their normal selves. And I feel like even if they can walk like their normal selves, if they're around anyone else, at least until their covers busted, they would walk. They should still do their thing. Yeah. I will say this, though.

I do believe that since First Contact premiered that movie, those drones walked pretty robotish and slow, okay, clunky. And now, looking at the drones now, you know, they just look, even though they're slower than Janeway and everyone else, how they're walking, they're still faster than they were on First Contact. To me, it seems like their pacing is. Yeah, they're getting more. human walk. Exactly.

Which I miss the old days. I do. And I feel like they didn't really, you know, respect the canon of that movement being very robotic and stiff. So. Yes. Okay. Let us move on. All right. So there's Janeway. And she's trying to find the Plexus, you know,

doesn't want to draw any attention. Torres goes to some panels. She's like, there's an alternate route. It's about 30 meters away. Yeah. And as they're kind of figuring this out, we see, Tuvok is sort of distracted and he hears like the collective voice in his head. And Janeway is like, you okay? And he says his neural suppressant must be wearing off or something.

So this is, we start to see here that Tuvac is not hanging on as strong as Janeway and Boulana. I didn't just feel like that was the right choice though. Writing wise, I would have written it different. I would have had Janeway succumbed to it or Belaana succumbed. to it before Tuvok did, being as Vulcan as he is and how, how, you know, meditative and strong his mind is, he would, and he goes first like that, or maybe his neurosuppressant that was injected by the doctor had a lower dose by mistake. Maybe, maybe the Tuvok physiology is different.

It's rejecting it in some way. Yeah, and it wasn't altered to the right chemical makeup for him. He's starting to go down. He's starting to go down. We go back over to the Unicomplex, and we see that she, the board. or queen is hearing Tuvok. Yeah. And she says something like, I can't, Tuvok or something.

She says something like, she goes, because I heard him, the Vulcan, but he's gone. Why? So she heard him and then she didn't hear him. She's like, why can't I hear the others? So now she's, now she's like, she's, she's learning. They're somehow masked from her. But yet she's getting glimpses of Tuvok for a second. And then he fades out again.

Yeah. All right. And so now we go to Unimatrix, to the virtual reality. And we see some drone searching. There's Tom Morga, our stuntman. Yeah, Tom, that's right. Tom's walking around, and he kind of puts his laser sights on some alien in the bushes.

And so he follows that alien, hits a trip wire. Yep. And like a log comes. Yeah. Yeah, like a gate or something hits him in the head, knocks him onto a rock, and he's dead. Yeah. And I thought, he fritzes out. I thought, well, that was easy.

Like, if we can kill Borg drones with logs. Yes. Like, we don't need all our phaser rifles and, you know, torpedo compil. That's all we need. Hit them with some logs. We just need some log. Sometimes I think the Borg look pretty stupid. Like, sometimes they look like the most evil, dangerous, unbeatable alien in Star Trek history.

And sometimes they look like. Is it Laurel and Hardy for you? Laurel and Hardy. And this was a Laurel and Hardy moment. Good. That was easy. Anyway, Axum has set up these traps. He talks about it.

He, he, uh, but right after that happens, another trap sets, remember? Yes. Yeah. He talks about that trap worked. And then, uh, they hear another trap and they go over and in this net. It's the old net trap. Yeah. The one that pulls you up.

Yeah. In the net is seven of nine. Onica had said. Yeah. And Axom tells the others, leave this one to me. Hmm. This is a very flirty scene. Most definitely.

All the looks going back and forth, you know? Yes, I agree. I was so good. This is where I was confused in the storyline. This is the story. Everything else works for me in this episode. This story does not. Because I was like, wait a minute.

She was so angry at him the last episode. I agree. 1,000%. She did a 180 with this guy completely. In this scene. It's a very, very flirty scene. She tells like, you know, wait for the word on the virus and I should return to camp. And when he released cuts her out of this net, she falls into his arms.

Do you remember that? She like falls into his arms and they have this, this like, I was like, where did this come from? I know. It's crazy. She was just saying, like, I wish you were dead last episode. Yeah, pretty much. I don't understand. We will only be friends.

And that's how she was the last episode. Yes. But she does say after she falls in his arms and has this moment, she's like, I'll go back with you. But no more talking. No more talking. Like, I'm done. Yep.

So he's like, okay. That's all right. But anyway, they go off. So we see there's going to be more there. And now we go back to the cube. Torres is working on this access door to the Nexus Plexus or whatever it's called. Yeah. Tuvok's still like phasing out.

He's like hearing things still. Yeah. See, here's where are you. He starts recalling his life like where he was born. Yeah. He thinks that he can recite details about his life. This will stop this, you know, from how. happening. Yeah. So he's, he's, you know, talking to himself about all these facts about who he

really is. Yeah. Janeway says, you got to stay focused. She, uh, Torres does enter this plexus, the central plexus punk band. Yeah. Duvac does say, look, you, you need to deactivate me if it comes to that. You know, he's, he's trying to, he does let Janeway know in this scene that he has. Yeah. He's like, I'm losing it. Pulled out. Yeah. Yeah. And you're going to have to deactivate me, basically kill me. Yeah. But I love when she finds, you know, the way to get into this room. Yeah.

And the door opens, this puff of smoke comes out. It's like, it was cool looking. Yeah. It was cool, open. It was very theatrical. Very theatrical. It was good for the central Plexus. It's very light and roll.

It needs a little rock and roll, yeah. A little rock and roll smoke machine. I'll go with that. And they go inside. Tuvok hears the queen again. He looks into like a mirror. Like they have mirrors in there. or something. It's like a fun house mirror.

See, that's what most people don't know. Board cubes always have like a fun house component. Have a fun house. It's like a little side thing that most people don't know about. But yeah, yeah. The next scene is the best scene here. This is the scene in the ready room. I want to hear your interpretation of this one.

This is Paris and Chikote. All right. So this scene, the scene you're talking about. This is back on Voyager. Chikote is sitting there at Janeway's desk. Yep. Because he's in charge now. He's number one.

Yeah. And Paris comes in. Yeah. And I thought, what is, what is Tocote doing? Like, is he checking his Instagram or? I don't even know. He seemed very busy. I was like, this is personal work that he's doing.

I don't know. He's really busy. Very busy on the thing. But anyway, Tom's worried about the team. He says the plan was two hours. It's been over two and a half now. Yeah. And Tom says, you know, with the team gone, that makes me acting first officer,

Chakotay. And, you know, I thought I would give you my opinion as acting first officer that, you know, I think you should pull them out before it's too late. This is getting dangerous. Oh, my goodness. Chiquotay is like, well, I say we wait. And I forget the dialogue, but there's a bit of a like, this is old Tom and Chocote stuff. Yeah, I wrote, this is where Tom gives Chocote some sass. Sassy Tom comes out.

Yeah, Tom's a little sassy. He's like, there's a little bite to this, Tom Paris in this scene, for sure. And Chacote, bite, by, barks back a little bit. He bites back. He says, yeah, in normal, in normal situations, this could get you into a lot of trouble, but the way you have spoken to a captain, the way you've, you know, chosen to speak to me. So, and then Paris's bites right back is, well, I learned from the best, saying that he learned the sass that he has from Chacote. Exactly. So, there you go. But it's a nice.

I like the scene. I like this scene, too. Yeah. I had a good time watching this. Now we go back to the cube. Janeway says download the virus. Taurus starts to do it. She uses her hand tubules.

I love that. I know. I wish I had those. From her body, I guess. Yeah, her tubules. I mean, this is the part, like, this is what I don't understand. If we were sent on this mission, she would have to have a piece of technology to download this thing, right? Yeah.

It's not in her. It's not in her bloodstream, but now that she's borgs, suddenly she can just do it with tubules. Yeah. I don't know. There's a lot of like, now that I'm deconstructing this more, maybe my rating will go down. It's going to go. Hey, Garrett, have you been traveling this summer? Oh, my gosh, so much already.

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required, equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only. Speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan, taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. This is where Tuvok hears the queen again. Yes. And he starts talking about his, his daughter's name. Yeah. And then do you hear what the city was where she was born? No, where was it? He said to Paul. Isn't DePaul his wife or the character from Enterprise? Maybe. I'm like, huh? Why would that his wife? That's the city. Yeah. He goes and my, you know, yeah, it's weird. That was, that's very, that's strange. he's losing it he doesn't remember maybe that's what it is he's losing it he's calling his he's saying that is the city wife his wife's name and everything yeah it's all messed up we cut to the

bridge doc sees that tuvac has a problem and then chikote comes down to tom and says hey if i decide to go a little closer i assume my first officer would concur yeah and paris goes yes that's correct so we see there on the so that little bump in the previous scene i feel like i felt you guys should of high-fived or fist-mumped at that point. Or just, yeah, a little something. Hugged it out. Yeah. I love you to go there.

Something like that. Yeah, I like that. We cut to space. We see Voyager hit warp. They are going in closer. Yes. We know that happened. Go to the Plexus.

They put the virus into the Plexus. And then they're getting ready to leave. Our away team's getting ready to leave to contact Voyager, let them know it's done. And Tuvok blocks them. Yeah. But Tuvok, he did say, you know, Captain. you must deactivate me. He was holding on for the very last little grasp of sanity.

And then that's when he... Well, she tries to move towards her. Remember that? And she gets knocked back by a personal force field thing that two-bont shoots out there. And that's when he says, my designation is three of 12. So he becomes full board now. Yep.

Yeah. And then he blocks the queen. I called Janeway the queen. And then he blocks Janeway. Oh, doesn't he knock down Torres? He knocks Torres down. Oh, yeah. He hits her hard.

I was thinking, oh, Tom's lady is just getting it from Tuvok right now. But now the queen knows where all three of the away team are and drones appear. Tuvok's gone to the dark side. Some drones appear to help him. And we're on a chase. We basically start a bit of a chase here. Yeah. And we go to the bridge.

We're 40 kilometers within range of... 40,000 kilometers. Sorry, 40,000, 40K, I wrote down. That's, K is short for kilometers. Yeah, 40,000 kilometers within range of this cube. Harry says there's still too much shielding around the plexus. He can't get a lock on them. So we've gone in close, but we can't pull them out.

We go back to the cube. This is where Tuvok knocks out Torres right here. Janeway attempts to run, but he grabs her. and this is where I wrote down like Tuvok isn't Tuvok grabs her he's full board now but her movement is not robotic at all

like if she's trying to keep any cover it's gone. Yeah she's Janeway She's totally Janeway easy for them to see that she is Janeway at the Halloween party dressed as a board that's it yeah okay

back on the bridge Chakotay's like target their shield generators and at this point something happens there's like a Borg torpedo we see coming, which is a cool shot. It's coming right at us, right? Yeah, the queen has seen Voyager approach just before this. We go to the bridge.

Chacote is going to shoot at him, but Paris is commander. Then we go to a screenshot. And we see this like torpedo coming at us. Yeah. But I know for dramatic reasons, it's like, commander, cut to the screen, it's coming. Oh, no. But those torpedoes will be there in like a second. like yeah that was a really slow torpedo you know what that is the slowest torpedo i've ever seen

i'll tell you that's called the borg shame you torpedo where it's going so slowly that you feel so much shame from being hit by it like you should have evaded that there should have been evasive maneuvers and there weren't uh evasive maneuvers in that scene but it's uh big hit but you know what happens though is like we can't someone has um basically accessed our tactical control Yeah, so their shields were down. The queen has somehow tapped into our systems, our shields are down. Well, you know what we learned later. It's because the queen is now in cahoots with Tuvok's brain.

So she gets all the evasive, she gets all the codes and everything from Tuvok's consciousness, basically. So that's how she knows. Cheater. She's a cheater. He's a cheater. We get a big hit, though. The doctor says sensors are down. He's lost the away team.

Harry says, Holbridge is deck five, six, seven. Yeah. Chocote is like reverse course, Paris is, we can't just leave them. Like you're very, you're very passionate. Yeah, because he loves his lady.

He loves the balana. Backhanded by Tuvac. She needs some help. But no, she can handle her own. We go back to the queen and she says, she thanks Tuvok for the help, like you said,

all the information. She starts walking away. And then she turns suddenly. And she's like, I'm losing voices. Yeah, I love the scene. And she's in this push in on her face. She starts listing the voices, you know, the drones that she can't hear anymore. Right.

So we realized that the virus is starting to take effect on all from the central plexus. Yeah, it's been spread out. Thousands now. She's losing thousands of voices. She turns to somebody in the room. And she realizes even one of the board drones in the room in the same room with her. She can't hear his. can't hear him so she walks yeah walks over to that guy um and she basically interrogates him

talks to him and i thought here like if she's really testing him why isn't she first at least trying to telepathy or whatever you know yeah through the collective talk and then start talking yeah she went right to words she did uh he's not responding he's not responding well he's like i'm not alone you can't stop us all because that's after he tries to lunge at her to attack her but that force field knocked him back knocked him back i felt like that line by the way was loop and i don't know if the actor looped it or if loop group looped it or oh you think someone it was not a great loop job of his we're not alone you can't stop us all yeah yeah it was not a great loop number yeah but uh yeah they get him so he's got the virus in

him we go to space the cubes flying by uh we go back inside janeway is in an alcove she's walked in thrown into this org alco with a force field around her she's stuck in there yeah then we cut back outside and we see

the cube entering this unicomplex that cool space station that I thought is that was super cool yeah it is cool but then

isn't there the scene where she makes Janeway's image look non-borg like it goes back to Starfleet

do you remember that yeah what was the I don't know what I don't understand that why she didn't just go talk to her normally

yeah the goes, I altered the transmission to restore your original appearance. I know how vain humans can be. That's the line from the queen to Jane. Yeah, that's the explanation of why she's going to talk to so that we, I think part of it was they didn't want to put Kate in the Borg makeup so much. While she was speaking those lines. Ah. So they had her as a Borg in the other room being transmitted holographically as Janeway's normal look. Yeah. But it means that Kate had to shoot all those lines. when she was in the Borg alcove, in the Borg makeup, and she had to shoot those lines on some kind of green screen or something.

Yeah, yeah. For the other stuff. Right. So, yeah. But at least it looked like Starfleet Janeway versus Borg Queen as opposed to Borg Janeway. Yeah, it was a better visual, I think. Understood.

Okay. They started having this conversation. The queen says, look at this dead drone right here. Yeah. You killed him. blames it on on janeway and she also tells janeway that she knows everything about unimatrix zero and the virus and what you're trying to do so she must have learned all of this from tuvac again right and she says you know i can't fix the virus right now i need an antidote i got to stop

this and if you your doctor created this virus he can find a cure so if you're if you don't agree to help me i'll just assimilate voyager and i'll have your doctor and i did love that intercutting we do cut back to Borg Janeway kind of saying some of the stuff. Janway says no. And so the queen pulls up an image on a monitor of spatial grid 94, cube 60. And she says, see that cube? I can't hear three drones in that queue. And she initiates self-destruct.

She kills them all. How many were in that cube again? I forget how many, but in the first one, she pulls up another one. She says there's 11,000 drones on this one. That's a sphere. That's the sphere, sorry. 11,000 drones 64,000 drones on the cube 64,003 she could not hear

So 60 killed them all Well yeah 63,997 Yeah that's that's rough She's tough It's a bad day The sphere comes up 11,000 drones on the sphere She says there's only one Who's silent

And she destroys that She is cold Holdhearted Holdhearted And she says Now, Janeway, this is all your fault. All these drones are dying. These innocent drones are dying.

And this is your fault for freeing those few drones. And she says, I will destroy all the cubes that have any infected drones. What are you willing to sacrifice, Janeway? Millions. She's like, you know, hundreds, thousands, millions. Janeway is going to need therapy after all the head messing that, you know, the queen is really messing with Janeway's head. Yeah.

Yeah. So she basically gives Janeway an ultimatum. She says, you tell these individuated Borg to rejoin our collective, to rejoin us immediately. And I will spare them. Yeah. Or I'm going to kill millions of drones. Yeah.

And then Janeway says something like, well, they have a choice now. It's up to them. And Queens like, you're, you know, you're using them. And but Janeway does not relent. and she tells the Borg Queen, she's, I don't know, she decides that the Borg Queen should go to Unimatrix Zero. You should see this. Maybe you'll be convinced, you know, she's trying to appeal to her individuality, I guess.

Yeah. And she says, you know, if you just have a taste of individuality, then maybe you won't want to destroy the entire collective. Yeah, because that's what's going to happen. Because if there's one, it's just one voice out of any cube or sphere, it's completely destroyed. So the entire collective would be destroyed if she went through with that. Yes. Yeah.

So then we go to the bridge really quickly. And I love the choreography here. It was like a handheld shot on the bridge. Yeah, it was good. Seven comes in. Harry's repairing things. Paris has a line or something. And it's all kind of one shot.

Seven comes in. She reports that the drones in Unimatrix Zero can now remember. So we know the virus is. working and Chikote says you've got to go back and see if any drones or aboard tactical if 1-38 maybe they could help us. So go find those, you know, the free drones in the virtual place, see if they can help Janeway and our team. So she rushes back to go into her virtual place. But not before. Yes, the doctor. Exactly. The doctor's got to make some modifications to her alcove yeah and uh so they have a long scene here they talk about her double life

or you know being one person here and another person there yeah but the the focus of this scene was her relationship with axiom this is what the doctor is talking to her about pretty much he's talking to her about that but he's also playing a lot of subtext of his own sadness of most definitely but again that be storyline of axiom and seven is what ruined this episode for me or at least what made me feel like this episode is not as good as the first part because of that B storyline. And now we have a scene where they're talking about that B storyline. And yes, the doctor is dealing with his own stuff too. Yeah, I do see that.

And the doctor's advice to me was very human. It was really good advice and good thoughts. But I felt like I wish they had written his therapy scene here being a counselor, more like, hey, I'm a robot and you're a robot. And let's talk about robots experiences. But he was really talking as if he were human. And I found that to be a little strange. It pulled you out, didn't it?

Yeah. I wish it was more robot talk. Yeah. You know, well, as a robot, I wanted to feel things too, you know. There's been a couple times where the doctors had lines or been in scenes where he comes off very human-like. And you're like, no, that's more, that's not now. That's not the program happening right there.

I don't think it is. I think he should have been the same curious, naive robot that she is in this situation. he might have a little more time under his belt and yeah do you think there was some jealousy from the doctor oh yeah for sure so there was that feelings of like you know yeah he was jealous yes yes well he says i'll say this about axi should he be experiencing that as a program jealousy like that i think he can but i think it would be confusing to him because he does say well that axom he's a very lucky man and that's what every guy that loses out in the game of love says about the other guy. You're basically saying, I think you're awesome.

And I wish you were with me. Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It was a, it was a strange scene at and if that romance storyline had been deeper. If we had been more invested in it, or not so confused by it. Yeah. Then I think this scene would have made more sense to me, but I felt like there's more. Harry, Harry could have been in this scene with seven. Yeah. That would have made more sense. But there's almost more emotion in this scene than there is with Axum, the guy that she's supposed to Oh yeah, most definitely. I agree. I agree. Okay.

Okay, we go back to Unimatrix. They're having a big meeting. Axom's telling them that they need to strike at the Unicomplex and disrupt the collective's communication so they can regroup outside of here. And Seven says, well, you need to help the away team too, Janeway, Torres, and Tuvok. They risk their lives for you guys.

And Korok, at first, doesn't care about that. There's no time for it. Yeah. And then Axom argues, this is, you know, they helped us. This is a matter of honor. You know, I thought honor meant something to you. So then Korok's like, okay, all right, I'll help them. So he goes out to find if there's any drones in the virtual world that might also be in that cube where our team is.

So they are starting to, maybe they can help. see. Seven approaches Axum, though. They talk about how he's on the other side of the galaxy, basically. Yeah, he's in a scout ship in the beta quadrant. Yeah. He's like, so he's nowhere near. In real life, they would never meet. No. She's super vulnerable with him in this scene. Yes. You know, they talk about meeting in real life. Again, this is where I'm just like, how did we get so from there to here. It doesn't connect for me. It's like a it's like a whole other genre of television here. Here's the soap opera right here. Yeah. You know. Okay. And she says something like they won't be able to meet at the ferratham gorge. And she says, oh, it was at the top of our list. So she's

remembering some of this stuff. The ferathom gorg. It's all coming back all the sudden. Right? She knows it all now. And he says, well, maybe we can put fluidic space at the top of our list now. So they're kind of they're working it out. Yeah. There's a little something, something happening. Axum asks if if they never can meet anywhere is this good enough for her? Like, will this be enough?

And she takes his hand and she kisses him. And I think this is Seven's first real kiss, like real kiss on the show. As she kiss, I'm trying to think. Well, she. And the Herogen and the,

I don't know. She kissed me and then she turned into an alien though. So I did. But was it a long? I mean, was it a kiss kiss? This was like, oh, it was.

I don't remember. Oh, okay. All right. We reviewed this earlier. I know. I don't remember. But it was a law. I remember she kissed.

I mean, this is the first time where it's like not a twist. There's no twist. This is a full on romance kiss. Yeah, okay. I don't think she's had any. I'll go with that. Legitimate. Does she kiss the doctor?

I think there might have been a peck or something. But I and I think when she was the lounge singer didn't like the Herojin guy, the Nazis. or somebody try to kiss her or something? What? I don't know. I'm just saying this is the first. Okay, I'll go with that. There's no spin on it.

She's into it. He's into it. This is real romance. This is the first time that I can think of where Seven has had that sort of experience, which I think is kind of important ultimately in the very last scene when she talks with the captain. I think it is important that she feels something that has never happened to her before. Okay. But anyway, big kiss.

kiss moment we're back into unimatrix unimatrix in the jungle part in the forest yeah the forest kids are running around and one kid's crawling around on the ground and crawls over right to the feet of the queen she's there and he goes you're one of the machine people trying to hurt us yeah i love that the machine people yeah and he tries to say the word assimilate and he's like a sism a sisil a civil she's like assimilate. And she says assimilation is like friends. It's like being friends. And you play that boy grown up just doing those lines. Just like

you just did. Just now. Assisicicis. Yeah. She says it's like being friends. And let's just be friends. And you know, it's good to be in a collective and be friends because it's fun. She says made me laugh.

It was. Because the way she said it It was so Borg, you know. Yes, exactly. And she's sort of like Seven's line from child's play. Was it Child's play when she says, fun would now commence. Do you remember that line? So this was the Borg queen version of the Borg's version would now commence. I have one of the note before you go on.

One last note, the alien boy, did you notice his makeup? No. Oh, he had a little. Yes, but here's the thing. I was like, God, that looks familiar. And the more I looked at it, I realized he is the same. of the aliens from the episode Muse where Belona Torres and Harry Kim

crash land on that planet and they're doing the Greek tragedy play and everything like that. All those aliens have what I called, and I in my video reaction for that episode, one of my video reactions, I called them the Venus flytrap aliens because that's what it looks like. It's like a little, you know, it's almost like that shape. That was the same alien. He was a kid of them.

But this doesn't make any sense because there are pre-warp, society. They were in feudal times. They were like swords and arrows and stuff. So you see what I'm saying? But if it was them, the board could have taken some of them. But I think he talked about our ship was shaking when they came at us. Like when we first hear this boy talk in the first episode and the way he's dressed, it's very advanced and modern and a post-warp society. You see what I'm saying? You and Balana left behind some important info and now they're flying spaceships.

Oh, hey, maybe they did sort of reverse engineer a lot of things that we left behind. And they'd be, okay, let's buy that. Let's go with that one. But she also says in the scene to him that she was assimilated when she was a kid. Do you think she was lying? I don't know.

It was pretty legit sounding. I bought it. Okay. Yeah. Because I bought it at first, but then when she says, do you miss your, I miss my parent. Or she says, you know, my parents are with me now because of the collective,

do you miss your parents? Then I thought maybe she said that just to set him up. I don't know if she was really assimilated when she was a kid. You've been watching too much television, Robert Duncan McNeil. I don't believe it. I think it was all part of the con. It was all calling. She's lying to a child.

I'm going to believe it. Okay. I'm going to choose to believe it. She says, my parents are here right now. Could I see my parents? And then she says, sure. And then she says, show me more of this place. And so he says, yeah, there's a great place where you can see everything from a cliff or something.

Yeah. They walk over to this, you know, shot of a lookout. And all I could think of was they're staring at a green screen and the bounce, the light bouncing off the green screen is all over their costumes and faces. It just did not look like a great. really screen to me okay okay didn't did not all right but uh i'm okay with it but all right but it was a pretty view just was fake view it's a fake pretty view but you know it's the it's the thought the count it was pretty here um we go back to the cube and um holographic janeway's there the queen's there queen says that you're not the cube you're in the unicomplex now you know

yeah yeah yeah he's on the cube so that's why she's hollow jane way in the queen's little thing in the queen's layer yeah um but she's talking in the unic complex to holographic janeway and she says that place is primitive she pulls up like a scan of some kind of you know medical scan or something it looks like DNA or something and she says you recognize this and jane was like no and she goes well you should because we've mutated your virus and we've mutated it to kill all the drones that are connected to Unimatrix Zero. Yeah. And unless you convince them to return to the collective,

I'm going to release our mutated virus and it's going to kill them all. So what do you want to do? And Janeway's like, you know what? That's great, but you can't deliver it. You can do whatever you want with that nanovirus, but you can't deliver it because they've all been severed from the collective already.

So too bad. Ha-ha. And that's when the queen says, oh, yeah, I can also get to them in one other way. I can release this mutated nanovirus by going to Unimatrix Zero myself and releasing it there. And that will end them. And so Janeway's like, huh, uh, so the queen basically says, I'll spare their lives,

but you've got to convince them to come back. This is your choice. This is your choice. Another, the ultimatum is further reinforced in this scene. She is cold. She is cold. We go back to the bridge. The warp core is back online.

Neelix is there. Yes. We don't see Neelix. the bridge in the middle of action that often. Never. I just think they wanted to put him in here somewhere. He's served coffee and sandwiches and all kinds of things on the bridge, but he doesn't do this, right? I feel like in the last episode, he was in one scene but didn't say anything, like the ready

room scene, a briefing room scene or something. Wow. So he's, they haven't had much for Neelix in a couple of episodes. It was nice to see him up there. It is. He says, we've got sensors back online. Harry says, someone has tapped into our holographic systems. It's the Borg.

And then the doctor calls. And says, someone's here to see you, commander. You might want to come on down. We go to Sick Bay. Chocote enters, and it's Hollow Janeway in Sylvay. And she says, you know, they've proposed this compromise. They're going to release this mutated virus that will kill all the drones. And we also intercut with the Borg Janeway.

So we know that the Borg Janeway is back on the cube or wherever. And she's being projected as herself there. And she says, she says, unimatrix zero can no longer exist. Basically, that's an order. Yeah. And then she, have I made myself clear, commander? Have I made myself clear?

Is what she says. Yeah. And he agrees. And then she disappears. And seven in the doctor, like, what was that? doing what's that. They didn't know what the next going on. It's like she's issued this, you know, kill order. How can we do this? Right. And here's a great J.C. moment. Yeah. Chocote says, didn't you hear Udematrix Zero can no longer exist. So we know that he has a connection. He

understands her where everyone else doesn't. So yes. We go back to the bridge and Tom is in the captain's chair. I know. That was nice. First time. I think that's No, that's not the first time. You've been there before. No, you have. Really? Yes, you have. I promise.

At least one episode. Well, we're in season seven now, Robbie. You don't think you've manned the bridge once in the- I don't think I have ever been in- All right, I'm going to find a scene, okay? And I don't think so. I think this is the first- You're going to owe me a Pepsi or a Coke if I'm right.

Okay. Okay. All right. Tom's in the chair, though. We do see a Borg's fear approaching. Yeah, we're nervous. Yeah, at first we're nervous, and then we cut over. And it's battle stations is what Paris says.

But it's Korok. It's Korok. Is it Korok or Karak? Korok. I don't know. He's, he's, he's, yeah. Can we just call him K to the O, to the R to the O to the K? No, sorry.

We're not going to do that. It's just corok. That sounds much harder. He's Karok. But he's a man of his word. He said he would help. He's back in his board look. He's taken command of that entire sphere.

So he, look at that. He says, we've come to join you in battle, which is a really very satisfying moment to have an ally for the U.S. We don't know what the plan is. Yeah, because all we know is, we just got some guy that's going to be there with us. Chikote knows, but he's not telling anybody yet because he only speaks in romantically with Janeway.

Yes. But we go to the bridge. Chakotay's back. He calls seven in Astromatrix. says we're almost there. Have you isolated the frequency? She says, yes, almost. Chakotay says, get Khorak.

We go to his sphere. He receives this interlink frequency, interlink frequency. And Chocote tells Kark, wait for my signal. We go back to Unitrix Zero. And Axum is there. And he's telling people, like, you've got to get out of here. We can't be here when this happens. And we're going to have to make a sacrifice.

Yeah. So all this is happening fast. We go back to the bridge. Chucote says, it's time, Korok. We cut outside of his sphere, Korok's fear, and it's powering weapons. We cut over to Voyager. Voyager's powering its weapons, too. It's like it's our array dish, I guess.

Because what we're sending out is this. The deflector array, right? The deflector array. Yeah, they're powering up on both the sphere and Voyager. We go back to the Unimatrix, Axum sending the last. ones off this virtual world. It's starting to sort of what we're doing as I are we sending out yeah, aren't we sending out something to disrupt the the frequency that unit matrix zero exists on yeah, right? We're trying to do that to eliminate it. Exactly. Yes. Yes. We're basically

destroying this virtual world so that she can't kill everybody. Correct. And it'll preserve these these individuated borgs right. Yeah. Back to the cube. Yep. And we're back to, uh, Well, I guess it's the... The queen's chamber. Yeah, the queen's chamber. The queen actually notices something's happening, right? That's when she's like, you know, what are they doing? And Jane Wayne's like, well, you wanted to destroy Unimatrix Zero.

We're just lending you a hand. So there we have it. Yeah. Yeah, she doesn't compromise. She doesn't make a deal with her. They're going to destroy the virtual world so that the queen can't infect everyone with their mutation. Yeah, because the queen's like, get me the virus. because she's ready to infect everybody.

She's going to go in there. And Janeway's like, well, you're too late. There's no one left to infect. Everyone's gone already. And the queen even tries to grab her, Janeway, but she's a hologram. Is that in this scene? Oh, that's right. Yeah.

She does that little, oh, I'm going to show you. I'm going to. Who's boss? This is a hologram, queen. We go out to space. There's a space fly by. We're firing at the cube. Yeah.

And here I was, this is where I'm confused, because the unicorns, complex and the queen's lair, all of a sudden, we're firing at the cube where Janeway was. So is, I guess, Janeway's still on the cube? She is still on the cube, correct. Where's the queen? The queen is on the unit complex. She's always been in the unit complex. She's never been in the cube because when she's talking with Janeway, she's talking with the hollow

image of Janeway. So they dropped off the queen to hang out in her castle and then the cube took off again? It just seems weird that the cube was it. I thought the cube came into the unicomplex, and we never saw it leave, and then suddenly here, it's out on its own again. Do you know what I mean? No. I don't think we saw that. No, because in the first episode, we were looking for, we wanted to spread the virus by getting to the central plexus of a Borg vessel.

And then they were like, okay, what's the closest Borg vessel? And they looked and they said, oh, there's one that's pretty close, but it's a. Bork tactical vessel and the doctor's like, well, everyone's like, well, you could have picked a different target. Well, that's the best target we can pick. So what I'm saying is when they went, when the way team, the way team went over, they got infected and assimilated in that tactical vessel that's out. Here's my confusion.

Here's my confusion. There was one shot where the cube was flying through space by itself. Yeah. And then shortly after that, there was a shot of the unicomplex. Yeah. And I did see a cube flying through. flying by like it looked like it's the same cube? Oh, yeah, no.

It never was. Never was. Never was. See, that's confusing to me. Okay, now this is that change your rating too now? Yeah, it goes back up. Goes back up. No.

Okay, fine. I don't know. All right. They fired the cube. Okay, we're back with the tactical cube where Janeway really is. Yes. They fired this cube and then we go back to the Queens layer. and the hologram is starting to Fritz.

Karak is also joining in on this battle now. Yes, Karak is there. Voyager's firing. Karak is firing. Inside the cube. We see that Balana is freed from her, however, she was detained. And she pulls up a monitor and sees Voyagers outside. And we go into astrometrics during this battle.

Seven runs out of astrometrics, back to the bridge. Neelix is still there. Yay, Neelix. Team Neelix. Neelix says, we have picked up the away team. So he's scanning, finds the away team. Harry tries to lock onto their biosignatures, but he still can't penetrate their shields.

The inner shields. Yeah, the inner shields, exactly. So Chakotay calls Kurok. And Karek says, I'm trying to help you with the shield thing. I'm working on it. I'm working on it. We go to cargo bay, seven runs into her alcove. She starts to go into her virtual world,

and there she is on the Unimatrix. but this time it's destabilizing it's like fritz is everywhere it's but there's only one person left is axiom so she finds him and they have this huge conversation and once again it's the soap opera again the soap opera she's like i feel like you know we wasted our time together we could have been so much more and he says you know it gave us a chance to be together again and i will find you i will find you yeah and then he disappears nice scene but why is it there you know that's the whole thing go ahead so be well i think you've got to wrap this up for her to have you've got to wrap this up for her to have the the mindset she has at the very end of course agreed agreed

he has to leave somewhere but he does say to her axon does say i'll find you i'll find you he says twice he says i'll find you and then i'll find you again and they fritz out they come back into they wake up from the regeneration yeah we go back to the cube so after i'll find you in tears and heartbreak. We got back to the cube and Balana is kicking, but she takes out this drone with something. She looks good. Yeah. Roxanne did great. She destabilizes the shields. So the thing that we've been trying to, you know, get through to lock onto their biosignatures. Yeah. Now she's helping us from the inside. Shields are down. Chikote says energize and we don't know because right after what, right when he says energized, you see the cube just explode. Everything is just blowing up. And the space shot when

the cube is blowing up, we don't know if they got them or not. When the cube is blowing up the space shot, I love the shockwave pushing Voyager. Yes. Yes. And the sphere. Yeah. Yeah. Bojure and the sphere got pushed forward from the shock wave. Exactly. That was pretty cool. We go in the transporter room. Yay. The team is saved. Yeah. But they're still bored. Imagine how, I mean, I guess we kind of glossed over this, but that it exploded because the queen was the one who initiated self-destruct on that cube. She was like, okay, this is my final ace in the hole. That's how it blows up, right? So it wasn't really, it wasn't really because of the...

The shots that we fired. Yeah, no, no, got to make that clear. So she's cold, but, you know, our heroes are saved. They're beamed on to them. Team is saved. They're getting helped. They're, you know, down on the ground. They're all weak and, you know. There's a phalanx of medical personnel in their teal green uniforms rushing towards

them to help them. Then we go to fly by. We see Voyager and the sphere flying together. but then they sort of part ways. They take off in their own directions. We hear a doctor's log, medical log, where he says it's been 48 hours since they

came back. Over this log, we see him scanning Tuvok. He says, Belon and the captain are on the men, but Tuvok needs more time. And here I thought, all right, so Tuvok was the one who was the weaker one of this away team, but I thought

Vulcans had this super strong physiology. But I guess my takeaway is ladies have a little something extra. Because the ladies were the ones that handled this. Even Vulcans are not quite as tough as the ladies. So I love it. Hats off to Bologna and Janeway. All the ladies in the house say, whoop, okay. Awesome. And by the way, the other thing, it could have been the reason that Janeway is so strong and resilient, you see her drinking coffee. in sick bay. It could be the coffee. She's drinking it. I don't know. I'm not going to say the coffee is a miracle drug, but I'm not going to not say it. I love coffee. I know you love coffee. And it's

so interesting because both you and Rebecca drink coffee, correct? Yes, we do. And both Megan and I drink tea and that's it. We do not drink coffee. Oh, wow. Yes. Interesting. I know. Very interesting. Yes. Like you can't imagine your life without coffee, right? No, I cannot. But I am violently ill when I drink coffee. Like my stomach starts churning like I'm like yeah, it's like someone poisoned me. Like I'm sitting there going, oh God. And then my heartbeat is racing really. So my heartbeat races fast.

My stomach is churning and turning and twisting and knots at the same time. It's the worst. Oh, no, man. Don't do it. Yeah, I can't do it. No coffee. It smells great. She sure does.

She sure does. And that's why she was okay with this Borg situation. And, you know, I think Tuvok drinks tea. as well. Yes. So I'm just going to say. Yes. If you want to battle the Borg, you better be a coffee drinker.

You better like coffee. You better like coffee. And I am envious of whenever, you know, you talk about coffee with such relish that I am envious of you. I'm like, God, I wish I could process that. If my body could take it, I would drink it. I would be on your team. I'd be team coffee.

Team coffee. But my body is like, no, bueno. So I have to back off, unfortunately. Tea's probably better for you. Anyway. Final scene. Final scene is sick bag. She's drinking, yeah, she's drinking coffee.

Seven comes in. Yeah. Says Karak finished repairs and he's contacted all the former drones. And when Janeway sits up, she makes this sort of, ooh, ah, sound. And it was looped. And I was like, that's a classic Janeway. Oh, ah. It's like, there's something.

Janeway's, whenever Janeway has pain, pain, it comes out almost with like, guttural sounds. It doesn't sound like paint. It's weird. I agree. Kate can do that. But she does have that as she sits up in the scene and it was looped. So I wonder what she did in when she was filming the scene that they felt the need to loop.

I don't think she from just the O-A. It was looped. I don't think she remember what she did. No. She just showed up and just did that. Anyway, after the O'A, she sits up, they talk. And basically, Janeway's like, the resistance is alive and kicking. And she says the collective may never be the same.

The writers put in this one line, right, from Janeway. And she says, if I ever imply it's been easy on you, these last few years talking to Seven, remind me about today. Seven says noted. And the end of it is when Seven says, if I ever imply that he was nothing more than a friend talking about Axum, remind me about. today so the writers employed this sort of reciprocal line this scene pulls the whole two-parter together for me so this was what made you rate this episode better than the original one

because i feel like seven even though i don't like her story yes it was a story where she went through yeah experiencing on some level some real human um emotions she made that she never huge progress and that was hard that being human and feeling, you know, grief and sadness and love and all of that is hard. That human experience is hard. And Janeway felt like the Borg experience is hard. That is a hard world to, you know, exist in. And so, yeah, they both reminding each other like, I see you. I get you. This life, you know, I didn't get it until, until I had this experience. By the way, at the very end, the credits come up, and it says Rick Berman and Ken Biller. This was Ken's first show running.

Oh, that's right. And took over this year. Took over the whole dag-gum thing, didn't he? And he went from like story editor, I think, the first season. All the way to executive producer. He went from the very bottom to the very top in terms of writer, yeah, seniority. That's how Star Trek works. Yeah.

And Hollywood works. Yeah. Sometimes it does. And this was a good, very good. run for Ken Biller for sure. Most definitely. My lesson is in this last scene. My lesson is sometimes you just have to walk in another person's shoes to feel their true experience. And that last scene to me brought it all together in a good way. So yeah, that's my lesson. What about you? I concur with you 1,000%. That's why the programs like wife swap are so engaging in people learn from

them is because they you know the moms go to one of the family and they live they live the life of a yeah a family that that is basically the opposite so you've got the one neat and tidy family and the one messy family and the parents swap over like that so yeah you have to learn yeah same idea from that idea yeah okay my rating I can't remember what I gave the last one I feel like it was seven point something I think I'm going to give this an 8.2 this was a good episode for me I I feel like I liked it slightly better than the last one, but I don't remember my rating on the last one. Okay.

Okay. This one is an 8.2 for me. It was pretty good. And I drop from my 8 something. I think I was 8.3 for the other one. And then now I dropped down to 7. Oh, no, I'll go 6.8. I'm going to go pretty low.

Oh, wow. I'm going to drop a little. Wow. Look at you. That axiom storyline. Just no. No. And I'm not trying to be like Harry.

Like, Harry should have been the guy for seven. and I'm going to downplay this episode because Harry didn't get that what he should have had, you know. I'm just going to say 6.9. Okay, what is it? The Captain and Admiral average rating for Unimatrix Zero Part 2 is

7.4. 7.4. You were pretty close. I was higher. Yeah, I enjoyed this one. This was fun. I think Mike Veher did an awesome job. Yes, he did. He did. If I'm going to rate off of Mike Vahar's directing, I'm going to go 9.6.

Yeah, he did an awesome job. He did a really good job. Well, good. There you go. There you go. Season 7 has begun. Oh, my gosh. We are in the home stretch right now.

This is crazy. Thank you, everyone, for tuning in to our recap and discussion of Unimatrix Zero, part two, which is the season opener. Season 7, we're in the final season. Voyager. How exciting. Yeah. Join us next week when we talk about the second episode of season seven, which is imperfection. Imperfection.

Okay. Sounds like a boring episode again. Yeah. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of borg stuff this season. I think so. I think so. We'll see. See you then. You know, B.

Bhopal, B, Bhopal, B, Bhopal, B, B, Bhop,

B, B, Bhop, B, B, B, I'm going to be able to be.