One (episode)
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(written from a Production point of view)
| "One" | ||
|---|---|---|
| VOY, Episode 4x25 Production number: 193 First aired: 13 May 1998 | ||
| ← | 92nd of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 92nd of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 522nd of 727 released in all | → |
 | ||
| Written By Jeri Taylor Directed By Kenneth Biller | ||
| 51929.3 (2374) | ||
After the rest of the crew is placed in suspended animation to protect them from dangerous radiation, Seven, with only the Doctor for company, is placed in control of the ship.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Teaser
Seven of Nine stands apprehensively in Voyager's mess hall, watching other crew-members as they sit, eat and interact. She approaches a table, at which Lieutenant Torres and Ensign Kim are sitting. She begins to engage them in conversation, but all she does is confuse Kim and, as usual, antagonize Torres. Her manner is brusque, her questions interrogatory, demanding personal information instead of asking.
Suddenly a voice orders: "Computer, freeze program." It is The Doctor. The whole thing is a holographic exercise he developed to teach the former Borg drone social skills. Annoyed, he remonstrates with Seven about her conduct, which, far from making friends, would alienate people en masse. Seven is very uncomfortable with the whole thing and, against his wishes, all but runs for the exit, demanding that the doctor perform his weekly physical examination, something Seven has never volunteered for.
On the bridge, Captain Janeway and the bridge officers watch the viewscreen, looking at a Mutara class nebula they are approaching. The nebula is very large and long-range sensors cannot see beyond it, and they can only see a distance of several light years ahead. Going around it will take far too long, therefore Janeway orders a course through it. But then officer after officer begins to wince with pain, then convulse in agony with burns and sores appear on their faces, necks and hands.
[edit] Act One
Janeway, wracked with pain, orders Lieutenant Paris to reverse course out of the nebula, the presumed cause of the emergency, immediately. Paris tries, but collapses before he can. Lt. Commander Tuvok manages to get to the helm and execute the order. Janeway calls sickbay for emergency medical help. The Doctor is there with Seven, dealing with a barrage of crew-members who are in the same state as the bridge officers. However, he and Seven are unaffected. He dispatches Seven to the bridge with dermal regenerators.
Seconds later, as Voyager dashes away from the nebula, the agony suddenly stops. Seven arrives and administers aid with the regenerators. It is too late for one officer, though: he is seen lying dead, his face burned beyond recognition.
Janeway, after having ordered all stop, meets with Seven in the astrometrics lab, where Seven brings up a sensor scan of the nebula, showing Voyager's position outside of it. She reports that the nebula is at least 110 light years wide. Janeway mentally calculates the durations of courses through and around it: over a month and over a year, respectively. The prospect of adding another year to their several decades-long journey home is unappealing. Janeway, however, is determined; temporal anomalies have not stopped them before; hostile aliens have not stopped them and this nebula won't stop them here either.
She goes and speaks to The Doctor in sickbay about the effects the nebula had on them. He has found that it has massive amounts of subnucleonic radiation which caused the burns and agonizing pain. There is no way to inoculate against the effects. Janeway asks how then they can protect themselves. He suggests putting the crew into stasis for the duration of the flight through the nebula. Janeway is dumbfounded; stasis? For the entire crew? The Doctor responds that he has looked at all options and that this is the only way. The question of who will monitor the ship's systems and make necessary course adjustments while all of the crew is put in stasis comes up. The Doctor volunteers, as he was unaffected. Janeway accepts, but insists he will need a backup in case the radiation begins to affect the holographic systems as well. The Doctor reminds her of only one other crew-member that unaffected, Seven.
Janeway goes to speak to Seven and finds her in her Cargo Bay 2 'quarters'. She fills her in, stressing the seriousness of the task; the lives of the crew will be in her hands. Seven assures her that she is fully capable of this responsibility. Janeway, however, still has doubts; most Humans do not react well to long-term isolation; she acknowledges that, as a former Borg drone, this must be even more difficult for her. She wonders if she could handle it if The Doctor goes offline due to a malfunction. Seven does look rather uncertain, but insists she can do it. Janeway accepts this, but stresses that The Doctor is in command. She leaves to inform the senior staff.
In the briefing room, Janeway outlines the plan to the senior officers. The officers are uneasy about this, especially Commander Chakotay who points out Seven's insubordinate and rebellious track record ever since she came to Voyager. Janeway understands his concerns, but points out that not only do they not have any other choice but that she also really believes that, in spite of her insolence, Seven really wants to do well by them. She trusts her to do this. Janeway gives the crew The Doctor's assurances that it is quite safe to be put into stasis, pointing out that he and Seven will monitor their vital signs several times every day; they will go into stasis and when they wake up, they will be on the other side of the nebula. She dismisses them until 17:00 hours, at which time the procedure will be done. She herself will announce it to the rest of the crew.
At 17:00 hours, on Deck 14, one by one, all crew-members are put into stasis chambers. Paris is the most agitated of all, but The Doctor assures him that all will be well. Should an emergency occur in which he revives and needs to get out, Janeway informs him, he can unlock the unit from the inside. Still very nervous, he goes in. Janeway, as Captain, is the last to be put into stasis.
[edit] Act Two
Ten days into the nebula. Seven has created an efficient routine that sees her performing duties of maintenance, monitoring the crew and regenerating at specific times. She is seen entering the dark, empty mess hall, where she has the computer replicate one of her preferred nutritional supplements which she sits and drinks. Next, she goes to the bridge and makes a course adjustment. She can do it manually, but, for the sound of its voice as it responds, she has the computer do it. On her way down a corridor, she finds Lt. Paris on the floor, unconscious. Apparently he let himself out of his stasis unit. She calls the Doctor who checks him out and returns him to his stasis chamber.
But the isolation is wearing on both of them. They begin to bicker. The Doctor insists they go to the holodeck for another social lesson, but Seven angrily insists she has no time for frivolous pursuits. They snap at each other about how irritable they have noticed each other getting, before finally indeed storming off to the holodeck after the Doctor orders her there.
This time, Seven is much more successful, but, to The Doctor, her approach is no more than a cop-out; instead of mixing and mingling, she engages in a discussion about warp theory, using the captain and others to find a way to fix technical issues they are experiencing; something which in turn annoys The Doctor yet again, leading to more bickering.
Then the computer sounds a warning: emergency problem with the antimatter, which could lead to a warp core breach. They rush to Engineering, but find it is a false alarm. The subnucleonic radiation from the nebula has begun to affect the bio-neural gel packs that comprise the computer's processing circuitry. As a result, the computer is detecting false signals.
[edit] Act Three
They enter the Jefferies tube system and manually trace the affected gel packs, On finding one, they remove it and The Doctor prepares to take it to sickbay for study. Then, to his horror, he begins to fritz: the radiation is affecting his mobile emitter. He needs to return to sickbay immediately before he goes offline. He and Seven race back there, and fortunately make it back on time. The Doctor is saved, but this brings up the concern Janeway had at the beginning: The mobile emitter is malfunctioning. The Doctor can no longer leave sickbay and so it will be up to Seven to take care of everything. What's more, the effect of the radiation on the systems may cause him to go offline even in sickbay. Can Seven continue on alone? She is visibly disturbed by the prospect, but resolutely promises The Doctor she will continue on alone if she must.
Twenty-nine days into the nebula, Seven, now working by herself, continues her daily routine. But, unlike before, she is clearly showing signs of strain and irritation. On the bridge, she tries to have the computer make a course correction, but now even the sound of the computer's voice, which she had depended on for company, seems to be deserting her; it takes several seconds to respond, then, when it does, the voice disintegrates. It tries to make the correction and fails. Seven does it manually, then has the computer diagnose itself. It reports that one third of the gel pack relays are non-functional. She has it perform a rerouting of processor signals to bypass them. Then she finds that they still have about six days and five hours to go through the nebula. She takes heart because this does not seem too long, she can hold out she believes. While on her way to Engineering, she hears anguished cries from Lt. Paris who seems to have escaped his stasis chamber again, but when she goes to Deck 14, she notices that all is as it should be.
[edit] Act Four
In the Sickbay, The Doctor informs Seven that he has scanned for but found no alien lifeform aboard. He still cannot leave sickbay and instructs her to arm herself and track Lo-Tarik down by herself. She looks uncertain, but when The Doctor asks her compassionately if she is frightened, she grits her teeth and calls upon her Borg heritage for Borg do not know fear.
She moves cautiously through the corridors, armed with a phaser rifle. She hears the echoing voices of crew-members calling for help. She also hears Lo-Tarik call her over the comm, taunting her, asking again about her unusual name. When she does not answer, he mockingly makes her race to Engineering by threatening to collapse the structural integrity around the warp coils. In engineering, he informs her of his location: the bridge, where he can do just about anything over there. She hallucinates, seeing Lt. Paris and Ensign Kim crawling in agony, then going up in flames. When she rushes to them, they vanish. Lo-Tarik continues to taunt her. But she turns the tables on him, cutting off oxygen to the bridge. She listens with satisfaction as he gasps for oxygen, then goes silent. She informs The Doctor, who congratulates her. He has fixed his mobile emitter, and is marching briskly to Engineering to join her.
The doors open, but to her surprise, in steps an unharmed Lo-Tarik. She fires at him but he is unaffected, merely stepping forward, mocking her as a weak former Borg drone whose days of power are long gone; someone who thought she could be Human but failed at it miserably. He tells her that she is Borg, that this is what she was meant to be: one of many. But now she is alone, weak, pathetic. The Doctor approaches her who appears to be talking to empty space. She tells him about Lo-Tarik but the Doctor ensures her that no one is there and that she is hallucinating. That is when she realizes that she was imagining Lo-Tarik just as she has been imagining Lt. Paris and the others crying for help. The Doctor has an explanation from his examination of the radiation-affected gel packs: they degraded the packs' synaptic relays; the radiation is doing the same to her Borg implants, altering the neurotransmitter level in her sensory nodes. The Doctor offers to try to modify her implants to stop the hallucinations. She agrees, remembering a time as a drone when she was cut off from the Borg Collective for several hours, and the fear she had felt; the same fear and panic she is experiencing now.
Then suddenly, the Primary EPS Conduits overload and The Doctor again begins to fritz, because his mobile emitter is tied to the EPS conduits. The computer warns that secondary systems are failing and The Doctor tells Seven that she has to repair the EPS conduits and that everything depends on her now. She frantically states that she cannot function alone, but the Doctor says that she has to. He will not be damaged, but he will go offline and will remain off until they are out of the nebula. Terror-stricken and shaken to the core, Seven all of a sudden finds herself alone on the ship.
[edit] Act Five
Days pass. Seven, despite her terror, continues to work, keeping the power on and the ship moving. Her only company now is her hallucinations; hallucinations which echo her own fears about being Human. As she works in Astrometrics to try to plot a faster course out of the nebula, she is joined by an imagined, radiation-burned Ensign Kim, who mocks her efforts. She has about 17 more hours to go, which Kim mocks is an eternity.
She heads for the bridge, but she sees corridors lit Borg-green, and a Borg drone following her, coldly berating her for leaving the Collective. It tells her that her decision to leave the Collective was foolish because now she is alone, only one, human, weak, pathetic - part of an imperfect human race; that she will and cannot survive without the Collective. She says that she will adapt as an individual but the Borg keeps repeating that she is only one, alone, pathetic, one among many, weak for a Borg cannot be one, she will die as one, detached, isolated. She insists that she is an individual and finally escapes the Borg who keeps repeating to her that she will die alone. In a turbolift, Lo-Tarik appears and urges her to go back to the Collective, stating that the Borg drone just right now was right about her. She sees the doors open to the inside of a Borg vessel. She hears the echoing, multi-track resonant voice of the Collective, telling her that resistance is futile. She resolutely ignores it all and continues to the bridge.
On the bridge, she hallucinates Captain Janeway and several senior officers, all burned from radiation, talking to her, mocking her, putting her down as she attempts to keep things together. She will never hold up, they say; the crew will die because of her failure, she will fall apart before they leave the nebula they say. Janeway takes the blame sardonically: she trusted her, she says, but she should have known better.
The computer warns that propulsion is going offline. The mocking crew turns to her again, wondering if she can do it. The computer tells her that they have another 41 minutes to go until the ship clears the nebula. Janeway says that it is too long and that she won't make it. Seven tries rerouting power from every non-essential system and environmental controls to the engines, but no avail because propulsion system failure is still in progress. The ship goes dead in space. Desperate to get it moving again, she has an idea. The hallucinated officers discuss it in mocking tones: she is going to have to reroute power from the stasis chambers to the engines. But, they sneer, that will kill some of the crew, although they doubt that this would bother her too much, after all, she has already killed a few million, would a few more matter? Seven has the computer reroute power from ten of the stasis units to the propulsion system and resume course. This works and the engines come back online. The crew laugh at her, because now the crew members he disconnected will die, but they all knew it anyway, they knew she didn't care about them.
Then she races to Deck 14. A hallucinated 'Janeway' meets her there, mocking her decision. She sees the ten affected chambers, smoking, their occupants writhing in death-throes. ‘Janeway’ taunts her to save them, if she can. She has eleven more minutes to go through the nebula. Seven orders the computer to cut life-support on all decks and reroute available power to the affected units. The computer acknowledges. 'Janeway' taunts her with the fact that Seven has now ensured her own death: no oxygen, no heat. Finally, as heat and oxygen rapidly vanish, Seven sinks down in a corner, defiantly saying that she is Seven of Nine, that she is alone, but that she will adapt. She passes out.
A flash of white light.
She awakens to find herself surrounded by the Doctor, Captain Janeway and Chakotay; not hallucinations this time but real and smiling at her, informing her that she was successful in getting the ship through the nebula. Chakotay tells her that she is the one they nearly lost. When they left the nebula, The Doctor came back online and found her, restarted life-support and woke the crew. A very pleased Doctor tells her she did well and that he is proud of her. She whispers that she is glad she was able to help.
Later, when things are back to normal again, Seven enters the mess hall and looks around as crew-members sit, eat and interact. Not a simulation but real this time. She sees B'Elanna, Tom, and Harry sitting together and asks whether she may join them. Her social lessons with The Doctor bear fruit. She tells them that she felt the need for companionship. Paris jokes that after a month with only the Doctor for company he can understand that. She tells Harry and B'Elanna about how The Doctor had to put Paris back in his stasis unit four times after he got out. They laugh and rib him good-naturedly. He responds that he has never liked closed spaces. Seven notes that maybe he just disliked being alone.
[edit] Log Entries
- Personal log, Seven of Nine, stardate 51929.3. This is the tenth day of our journey through the Mutara Nebula. I've created an efficient daily routine.
- Personal log, Seven of Nine, stardate 51932.4. The twenty-ninth day in the Mutara Nebula. I believe I'm beginning to feel the effects of this prolonged isolation. My dreams have been... disturbing, but I'm determined to fulfill my responsibilities. With the Doctor confined to sickbay, I have taken on increasing duties. Ship's systems are beginning to require constant maintenance in order to avert disaster. This morning I must... purge the auxiliary plasma vents. End log.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"We’ve come 15,000 light-years. We haven’t been stopped by temporal anomalies, warp core breaches, or hostile aliens. And I’ll be damned if we're going to be stopped by a nebula."
- - Janeway
"The Doctor will be in command. You will follow his instructions just as you would follow mine."
"Follow the orders of a hologram?"
- - Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine
"Look at the fact that here's someone who's butted horns with you from the moment she came on board; who disregards authority and actively disobeys orders when she doesn't agree with them."
"And this is the person I'm giving responsibility for the lives of this entire crew. I suppose you want me to tell you I'm not crazy."
"In a nutshell."
- - Chakotay and Captain Janeway
"Holodecks are a pointless endeavor, fulfilling some human need to fantasize. I have no such need."
"What you need is some editorial skill in your self expression. Between impulse and action there´s a realm of good taste begging for your acquaintance."
"I find your self expression ponderous."
"And I cant put up with this for another month!"
- - The Doctor and Seven of Nine, bickering.
"Come on, Tom. Sleepy time."
"What if we... had to get out in a hurry?"
"You can unlock the unit from inside, Tom."
"Do I detect a hint of claustrophobia, Lieutenant?"
- - Harry Kim, Tom Paris and The Doctor
"Why do they have to design these things like coffins?"
"Should we replicate you a teddy bear?"
- - Tom Paris and Harry Kim
"Seven of Nine to the Doctor."
"Go ahead."
"Lieutenant Paris has left his stasis unit and is unconscious."
"I'll be right there. Apparently, he's more claustrophobic than I thought."
- - Seven of Nine and The Doctor
"If you had even the slightest sense of humor, you'd realize I was making a small joke."
"Very small."
- - The Doctor and Seven of Nine
"It's not unheard of for people to come out of stasis and start wandering. Leave it to Mr. Paris to be just as much trouble now as when he's awake."
- - The Doctor
"These tubes certainly weren't designed with creature comfort in mind."
- - The Doctor while crawling through Jefferies tube
"I can complain if I want to, It's comforting."
...
"Well, this journey certainly has not lacked excitement. I can´t complain about being bored."
"Since you find it comforting, you´ll undoubtedly find something else to complain about."
"No doubt, you really should try it."
- - The Doctor and Seven of Nine, more bickering.
"Seven, are you... frightened?"
"I am Borg."
- - The Doctor and Seven of Nine
(Doctor's program flickers, begins to degrade) "I have to get back to sickbay!" (program flickers again) "Hurry!"
"I am hurrying."
"If the mobile emitter goes off-line while I'm out of sickbay my program may be irretrievable!"
"Don't panic. It's counterproductive."
"That's easy for you to say. You're not facing cybernetic oblivion!" (program flickers yet again) "If that happens again, I'm a goner!"
- - The Doctor and Seven of Nine
(The Doctor gives a sigh of relief) "Home, sweet sickbay, I never thought I'd be so happy to see these walls."
- - The Doctor, after reaching sickbay when his mobile emitter started to fail
"NO!!!"
- - Seven of Nine, after The Doctor goes off-line.
"I am Seven of Nine, I am alone. But I will adapt, I will..."
- - Seven of Nine, before passing out
(The computer's voice slows and deepens, returns to normal, then deepens again) "Warning. Deuterium tank levels are fluctuating beyond acceptable tolerances."
"The computer sounds like it needs a stimulant."
- - The Computer and The Doctor, after Seven neglected to perform her maintenance duties.
"I hope you're not afraid of the dark."
- - Tragis to Seven of Nine
"Neelix, this soup is great. What is it?"
"It's my secret recipe. I've never told anyone what's in it."
"Why does that make me nervous?"
"Oh, come on, Tom. Where's your sense of adventure?"
"Not in my stomach."
- - Harry Kim, Neelix, Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres
"I... felt the need for companionship."
"Well, after a month with only the Doc for company, I can understand that."
- - Seven of Nine and Tom Paris
[edit] Background Information
- The original pitch for this episode came from James Swallow, being the first British writer to submit a story for Star Trek. In the atlas Star Trek: Star Charts, the Mutara-class nebula has been named the Swallow Nebula in his honor.
- A similar storyline occurred in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Doctor's Orders", when Doctor Phlox was forced to take control of the ship on his own to pilot it through a nebula and began to hallucinate.
- The episode also has many similarities to a previous Voyager episode, "Persistence of Vision", which features The Doctor working closely with Kes while the rest of the crew is incapacitated by hallucinations.
- It is mentioned that the ship has traveled 15,000 light years toward home.
- This episode marks the one and only time in the entire run of the series when an actual video monitor was used with a companel in the corridor complex. For every other instance where motion graphics were seen on a companel display, they were added in post-production. (citation needed • edit)
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4.13, catalogue number VHR 4634, 28 December 1998.
- As part of the VOY Season 4 DVD collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Stars
[edit] Uncredited Co-Star
- Tarik Ergin as Ayala
[edit] References
14 Beta 7; antipsychotic; bio-neural circuitry; bio-neural gel pack; Borg; Borg Collective; Borg drone; cardiopulmonary system; cargo bay; Chi 14; cloaking device; command processor; dermal regenerator; electro-optic modulator; EM stress parameters; EPS conduit; force field; helium; Jefferies tube; Maquis; microfusion chamber; mobile emitter; Mutara class; nanoprobe; nebula; neurode; parisses squares; phaser rifle; sensory nodes; South Carolina; stasis; subnucleonic radiation; subspace field matrix; tennis; volleyball; warp core breach; warp field
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