Infinite Regress

Jerry Ryan is a talented actress but was only given limited breadth in the Voyager series. In this ep though we get to see her talents and she delivers. Otherwise the ep fits in the lines of the typical series ep.

When Voyager nears some debris from a Borg vessel, Seven of Nine begins acting very strangely. Suddenly, she begins switching from one personality to another. In between she's normal (or as normal as Seven can be) but it sure is becoming annoying! What's causing this mental breakdown and what can fix it? The Doctor thinks it's caused by a bad case of the Ankaran Flu. However, the know-it-all Doctor soon seems incapable of curing Seven so he calls in a specialist, 'Dr.' Tuvok.

Whether this is a good or bad episode, it must have been a challenge and rather fun for Jeri Ryan to act in this show. Her Seven of Nine is a wild emotional roller-coaster and she sure gets a chance to emote and show her stuff!

This show is okay and worth seeing. The Captain's behavior through the show, however, is odd (as often is the case) and seems to make little sense in light of the power and evil of the Borg. I cannot imagine any real person doing anything to disrupt the aliens from their plan. Yet another case where she acts more like a person reading a script than someone you can believe will exist in the 24th century. Her character is the weak link in this particular show-- everyone else is just fine and Ryan did a fine job in acting nutty!

I haven't had much occasion to watch any of the "Voyager" episodes---my preference has always been the original series---but this one grabbed my attention. It was a beautifully written story,centering on the trials and tribulations of Seven of Nine as she grappled with an invasion of multiple personalities that threatened to actually destroy her, and Jeri Ryan turned in a real tour de force of a performance. And when that doctor, who has a tendency to shoot off his mouth too much, was unsuccessful in his attempts to remedy the situation he had to step back and let the Vulcan, Tuvok, have a go at it---and Tuvok performed a dramatic Vulcan mind-fusion (very much like the one Spock used in "The Paradise Syndrome", by the way) as he joined Seven in successfully driving off the invaders. Electrifying, to say the least---but then I have always thoroughly enjoyed any and all mind-meld sequences in Trek. An additional comment: Someone once asked why Tuvok needed two hours to prepare. Answer: he needed that extra time because he knew what he was going up against, what he had to do if he were going to rescue Seven of Nine from the life-threatening predicament she was in. He was going all-out with the most powerful and most stressful of all the mind-melds---the Vulcan mind-fusion. He knew it was going to be a very rough ride, and indeed it was---but he had help from B'Elanna Torres in engineering who worked to destroy that Borg machine. Once it was gone, he was able to join his mind with Seven's in a full meld and pull her out of that mess. And after a wnek or so of recuperation in her regeneration chamber she was herself again.

Seven of Nine starts to hear voices and display varying personalities.

This is a reasonably good episode with a memorable turn from Jeri Ryan. The writers give her the opportunity showcase great range with an episode that further humanises her character during the journey back to individuality.

The best scenes involve Seven either in multiple-personality mode or exchanging dialogue with the character Naomi Wildman. I also enjoyed the pivotal mind-meld sequence which is very well made by the film crew and conveys what is happening with visual storytelling.

I was not particularly intrigued by the scenes involving the main antagonists, the vinculam and associated technobabble, but the main focus is on Seven.

Ryan is on top form along with Robert Picardo. A young Scarlett Pomers also makes a good contribution.

A Borg vinculum (never heard that term before - basically it is some sort of central computer core of a Borg cube) causes Seven to split into several different personalities. Instead of being humorless and distanced, Jeri Ryan can show her acting talent by impersonating a small child, a Klingon, a Ferengi, a Vulcan... but because those splits come quicker each time, there is a risk, that Seven may lose her own personality soon. The Voyager crew salvages the Vinculum and discover, that it has been infected by a virus. Since they are unable to destroy it and prevent Seven from splitting into other personalities, they search for the last species, that has been assimilated by this Borg vessel.

When they encounter this species, they admit that they have created this virus and intentiously infected the Borg to destroy them. They argue with Janeway to return them the Vinculum so the virus can spread to the next Borg cube but Janeway wants to first cure Seven before she hands over the thingy and even risks to be destroyed by the aliens.

The story and Jeri Ryan's performance are quite good in this episode, but still some twists don't make sense. For example when Tuvok tries to mind meld with Seven to prevent her from losing her own self. What we see then is a distorted metaphor of her mind where dozens of different species seem to be eager to throw Seven into a deep pit. Tuvok though doesn't really stop those guys, his mind meld is quite pointless. Seven survives not because of Tuvok but because the crew was able to sever the connection to the Vinculum before the other personalities overpowered her.

Also, Seven says, that it doesn't matter if they get distance to this computer core because it sends its messages in subspace and will reach her no matter what. But at the end, they hand this vinculum over to the alien species. Most likely they will activate it again. Their whole purpose has been, to lure other Borg cubes to it so it can spread its virus to them. Once they would activate it though, Seven should be affected right away again. But obviously the writers haven't thought about this loophole.