#because Chakotay came by to deliver a report | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chronotrek · 7 years

Text

747. [VOY] Human Error

SCORE:

(4/5 stars)

Seven of Nine is running a new holodeck program to experience more human socialization and emotion. In this simulation, she's had her Borg implants removed and is attempting to embrace her humanity more fully. She comes to a baby shower for B'Elanna and even gives an impressive toast. She gets quarters, starts sleeping in a bed, practices piano and cooking. She even invites Chakotay over for dinner. A holographic Chakotay, that is.

Despite her confidence on the holodeck, she's even more reserved than usual in real life. She avoids going to the actual baby shower, and her attempts at small talk (asking B'Elanna how she does her hair) get met with incredulity. During her weekly physical with the Doctor, he notices her radial shoulder clamp needs repair. She asks if it can be removed instead, but she'd lose the use of her arm. The Doctor wants to begin the procedure right away, but Seven declines because she has "research" to get back to. The Doctor inquires about it, but she gets defensive about her personal life.

Back on the holodeck, her dinner date with holo-Chakotay goes very well, where they quickly forget about the meal and start sucking face. Seven hears a weird mechanical noise go off, but Chakotay doesn't hear anything. Before we know it, they've spent the night together (did we just watch Seven lose her holo-V-card?) and she's woken by the real Chakotay calling her to report to astrometrics. She's late for her shift and snaps at Icheb for using the saying "better late than never." Icheb has picked up a warning transmission that they are in a subspace munitions range and must leave immediately. Obviously, they can't what with warp being out, but her early warning system should still work...

Assuming she actually stays in Astrometrics, which she doesn't, as she returns to the holodeck where she shows her holo-boyfriend her piano technique. She plays very well with a metronome, but Chakotay challenges her to play without one, to inflect her own feeling and to sound less mechanical. The metronome is a not very subtle analogy for her Borg nature holding her back from her humanity, and she begins getting upset as her meter is erratic without it, but Chakotay assures her she's doing fine.

Of course, in ditching work for the holodeck, her sensor calibrations aren't ready when the real Chakotay calls her, and she has to quickly return to Astrometrics to help them out as they dodge the next volley. Voyager takes moderate damage from the volley, and Janeway dresses Seven down for not being at her post. She knows Seven has been spending a lot of time on the holodeck when she's supposed to be on duty, and Seven lies about her activities, stating she was running some treknobabble simulation, but Janeway doesn't appear to believe it.

Seven returns to the holodeck having decided to end it. It's a very interesting choice for her to try to break up with Chakotay inside the program instead of just deleting it, but it shows a significant amount of growth for her to get to this point. Holo-Chakotay is not getting dumped without a fight, and argues that she's only doing this because she got close to someone and is getting scared of her humanity. The argument crescendos and Seven hears that metallic noise again before receiving a sharp pain in her head. She's able to hail the Doctor before she falls unconscious, and he transfers himself to the Holodeck where he sees what she's been up to.

Reviving her in sickbay, the Doctor tells her that her cortical node was shutting down, but he stopped it before it killed her. With the cat being out of the bag, he inquires further as to the nature of her holoprogram, and she explains she was exploring more aspects of her humanity. Ever since Unimatrix Zero she's been trying to recapture the experiences she had there. The Doctor thinks it's a great idea, but she has decided to delete the program because it's distracting her from her duties. The Doctor says that personal lives are supposed to help distract you from work, but you have to find a healthy balance.

Back at work, Voyager is ready to go to warp again, but the warp field distracts a warhead from its target probe and it locks onto Voyager. They throw every trick they have up their sleeves at it, but nothing works (as per usual). But with Seven back at work, she's able to come up with a solution of beaming the detonator out of the warhead just before impact. It cuts very close, but she's able to do it with meters to spare, and the missile impacts without exploding.

The Doctor visits Seven to deliver the bad news. He's figured out what happened with her cortical node, and it was not a malfunction. Borg drones have a failsafe mechanism to shut down if they become too emotional, as it can potentially draw them into individuality. He believes he may be able to fix it, but it will take many surgeries and a long recovery time. Seven retreats within herself and decides she doesn't want the procedure, that her "research" was a waste of time, and the failsafe will keep her from being distracted.

In the hallway, Chakotay sees Seven and stops her for small talk. She wants to get back to work to finish a report. He points out the ship is out of danger and thinks she deserves a little time off. He invites her to join him in the mess hall where Neelix is putting on a cooking lesson, but she declines. "You should try socializing with the crew a little more," he advises. "It might do you some good."

NITPICKS

I find it hard to believe that in Seven's program she'd fail to take into account that Chakotay is vegetarian. In their first date the main course is a rack of lamb, and Chakotay later offers roast chicken. It's the kind of hard data that she wouldn't miss when building the program, particularly if she's pursuing him romantically.

Why wouldn't Seven have an internal metronome? I'm sure she's got CPU system clocks somewhere in her implants.

Why is the real Chakotay looking to cook tenderloin? Did the writers just completely forget that he's a vegetarian?

FAVORITE QUOTES

Seven: A multispectral star chart might enhance this bulkhead. Neelix: Or a painting. Seven: A painting of a star chart.

Doctor: Rock-a-bye baby, in the space dock. When the core blows, the shuttle will rock. When the hull breaks, the shuttle will fall. And down will come baby, shuttle and all. Seven: Are you trying to soothe the infant, or traumatize her?

Chakotay: The metronome is holding you back. It gives you a sense of order, but it also cuts you off from your feelings. Remember when you first came aboard? The thought of disconnecting from the hive mind terrified you. This is no different. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Seven: I can no longer perform my duties efficiently. My personal life has become a distraction. Doctor: It's supposed to be a distraction. You simply have to find the right balance between work and recreation.

#star trek #voyager #voy #chronotrek #chronological #review #human error #seven of nine #chakotay #crack pairing #robert beltran has all the chemistry of glass

0 notes