Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) Survival Instinct (1999) User Reviews

Great Seven of Nine backstory episode

[Hughmanity · 9/10 · 2 February 2021]

This episode did a lot of things well. First it gave us a glimpse of Seven of Nine's life as a drone, second it allowed us to meet some of the other "of Nines" and third it continued the theme of exploring individuality versus the collective, and what that individuality is ultimately worth.

The key to this episode is Seven's drive to always strive for perfection, and yet she is confronted with a past decision that was anything but, and that influenced lives beyond her own. Jeri Ryan does a great job of communicating that realization just through facial expressions. Her reactions say much more than words could, and say it more powerfully. That is the essence of great acting.

Side not to these reviews: I'll never understand why some reviewers spend so much time recapping what happened in the episode. I just watched the episode, that's why I'm here. Why do I need a blow by blow plot summary? Or if I didn't watch the episode yet, why would I want to read the specifics of it before watching it and ruin all the surprises?

Live Long and Prosper

No Win Situation

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 9 September 2018]

Three persons, all former Borg drones, find themselves aboard Voyager. The have a crucial problem. Their thoughts are linked. They have no privacy. They have no independence. Soon after their arrival, they recognize Seven as one of the Borg that were stuck on a planet where she betrayed them, sending them back to the collective. It was her action that sentenced them to what they are now. She can control their fates. The decision as to what to do involves their mortality.

Life in the Collective and out really sucks!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 28 February 2015]

This show is about a group of three Borg drones who were stranded with Seven of Nine eight years earlier. Seven doesn't know it, but the three later escaped the Collective and outside the Collective things STILL suck. This is because these three act as if they have one brain and are unable to shut out each other's thoughts. While they should have approached Seven about this directly, they instead try to kidnap her and force her to help them--but this is soon detected and they are stopped. However, Seven STILL agrees to help them and the four work together to recover their memories about why it is that they are missing memories of eight years ago AND separate. But, this has many unforeseen consequences.

This is a very good episode and helps explore Seven's character more. An interesting plot as well makes this one worth your time.

Apologies are Irrelevant

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 13 June 2013]

For some reason, Ronald D Moore wrote two great Voyager episodes. This is his first offering.

What makes Ron such a great Writer and Producer is his uncanny ability to completely understand all aspects of the Characters he is assigned to write for. He's got Janeway, he's got Paris, he's got Chakotay, Tuvok, Naomi Wildman and even Neelix - But he's got Seven of Sixty-Nine most of all.

What we have here, is "Attached" times Three. Remember when Picard and Crusher were joined at the Brainstem by a paranoid alien race's gadget? Imagine if you had to live that way for a prolonged period - But not with just one other person, but with two others?

Vaughn Armstrong (Lansor) and Tim Kelleher (P'Chan) are joined to Bertila Damas (Marika) in this fashion- All three share a collective of three. Because at one time, they are Borg, and so was Seven. They were all part of her original little subgroup of Borg. But wait, weren't all the other members of Seven's small collective dumped out of the Airlock in Scorpion, Part II? They were, but these original members must have escaped from The Collective before this. Let's just assume for the sake of Continuity, this is what happened- Or, perhaps, they stayed on the Cube while Seven took other Drones to Voyager. However it happened, it is just not significant.

Naomi Wildman sees Seven as family. Are these three also part of Seven's family? They all share one thing in common - They are missing the exact same memories.

This episode explores the processes which may occur when Drones are separated from The Collective and they each start remembering their Individual Pre-Borg Lives. All of them, including Seven, were the only survivors of the crash of a Borg Craft. They all remember what had happened while they waited to be re-assimilated, up to a point, and then it is just Blank. And even Seven had begin remembering who she was - But as she was a child when she was absorbed, she does not see this individuality as the boon the others do. And one encounter with a dying Drone Frightens her.

Our collective's flashbacks reveal that P'Chan was a religious man, Marika was a Bajoran Starfleet Engineer on The Excelsior, and Lansor was a mathematician, who was Fellowshipping with other mathematicians at the time of his assimilation.

These three have escaped the Collective and are trying desperately to become individuals - But this Three-Way attachment, this Collective of Three, cannot sever their link- So they were hoping Seven could help them. Why not just ask her? The Triplet considers this, they must have a consensus before they can act. So they decide to bypass Voyager's security protocols so they can connect to Seven in her Regeneration Kiosk.

But this Mini-Collective had not considered Tuvok's scrutiny of the smallest glitches in the Security Net and he rapidly isolates where it is happening. And Seven herself "Will Not Comply".

When the triad is captured and questioned, Seven decides to try to help them, she does not wish to prevent these three from becoming Individuals.

What is found out is something shocking to Seven, and even more, if the connection is broken the triad cannot survive.

The Doctor wishes to give them back to the Borg for Re-Assimilation - Because he values the continuation of Life. But Seven refuses, and explains to the Doctor the difference between extension of life and Quality of Life. This is one of the Rare times Seven is able to Instruct The Doctor from her Unique point of View.

What this episode offers is that we care about these three former Drones- They were accosted, invaded, caused to act against what they wanted. But Apologies are Irrelevant.

Only Family is relevant.

A well-written episode

[GreyHunter · 8/10 · 8 January 2020]

As a character study as well as an exploration of the nature of the Borg versus individuality, this episode actually managed to revisit an oft-visited topic since Seven came onto the show (as well as during later TNG) without seeming like a rehash. Waiting for the twist actually kept me interested, and while the twist wasn't extraordinarily shocking or anything, it was very well-done and appropriate to the episode's themes, including the question of guilt.

My only tiny little objection: since Borg can clearly be out of range of the Collective's, well, collective thought -- that was a central premise of the episode, after all -- it seems to me that the logical course of action the trio should have taken was to get as far away from each other as possible. Somehow, I seriously doubt Seven's ad hoc quickfix would be stronger and range farther than the transmissions of the entire Borg collective. Why not pick three different vectors with large angles between them and start going as far as they could as fast as they could until the interlink was interrupted? It seems too obvious a solution for the script not to have at least technobabbled why it wouldn't work.

Survival is insufficient

[tomsly-40015 · 7/10 · 13 January 2024]

Once again a background story about Seven's life as a Borg drone. We meet other drones who once served in the same unimatrix as Seven and were connected to each other in this collective, also with Seven. They too were able to free themselves from assimilation, but are prevented from living their own lives as individuals by the still existing connection between their minds. The three share every thought, every feeling, every memory with each other.

With Seven's help, they try to separate from each other, but it doesn't quite go according to plan. In flashbacks, the viewer learns that after a space capsule crashed, Seven prevented these drones from isolating themselves from the collective. This is a strong character moment for Seven, because from her current perspective - as a drone whose connection to the collective has been severed and who is now an individual - she knows that what she did was wrong back then. She took away their freedom, a freedom that she can now live out herself.

When she is faced with the same choice again at the end - individuality or collective - she is torn between which standards she should use to make her decision. Is it more moral to preserve life at all costs as the doctor says, even if that means merely surviving as a mindless drone in a Borg collective? Or is living a responsible life as a self-determined individual the only way out as Chakotay says, even though this life would only be very short in the end? I think Seven makes the right decision and at least makes up for some of the guilt she took on back then.

Fleeing the collective

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 25 March 2010]

This episode opens with a Borg sphere crashes into a jungle planet, it soon becomes clear that this took place in the past as one of the surviving drones is Seven of Nine. We then return to the present day and find Voyager at a space station where the crew are enjoying some R&R and the locals have been invited to come aboard as a way of fostering good relations. While Seven of Nine is settling down to have dinner with Naomi Wildman a trader approaches her and offers her some Borg parts which came from her unimatrix. After she leaves we learn that the trader was in fact a former drone, however unlike Seven he is still connected to two other drones. At first it seems their intentions towards Seven aren't good but we soon learn they just want to find a way to break the connection so they can live as individuals. As they work with Seven we get several flashbacks to their time on the planet when they lost contact with the collective and started to remember their lives before assimilation. They find that the part of their memory covering the reason they were linked to each other have been erased. When they find out the cause it is quite a shock and leaves the three of them in a coma. The treatment which could free them would mean they will only live a few more weeks, the alternative is to return them to the Collective. Seven is left to make the decision.

This was a good episode which raised interesting moral dilemmas. I liked how the former drones were introduced as a potential threat before revealing they just wanted help. As usual Jeri Ryan does a good job as Seven of Nine.

Solid Seven of Nine episode and interesting Borg related story

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 13 July 2020]

A thought provoking Seven of Nine episode featuring previous life as a drone, with emphasis on actions taken, reasons and consequences. The writers also use the character of The Doctor very well, particularly in a key scene towards the end.

The plot is slightly predictable but pretty good, along with the performances, but what elevates it for me is the focus on her character whilst being part of the collective and watching her react to and reflect on what happened.

It treats all characters respectfully with it's conclusion by not making outcomes too positive or negative.

Makes you wonder how many instinctive decisions you make in life are based on self-preservation and the consequences of actions on others.

Jeri Ryan is on great form along with Robert Picardo.

For me it's a 7.5/10, but I round upwards.

Three things in one episode

[schlagzeugplayer · 10/10 · 21 June 2019]

One: who were 3of9 ,4of9,5of9,6of9 Two : how really disconnected 7of9 is from the Borg. Three : a few months of unabashed individuality is worth a lifetime of blind obedience. This was a great insight into Borgness verses the solitary mind.

One writer should be fired....

[Jodisherman · 3/10 · 24 December 2020]

Whomever wrote the line, "it tastes similar to a bird I once ate" destroyed the experience for me, and should never work as a writer again.

Individuality can really suck sometimes.

[thevacinstaller · 8/10 · 8 February 2023]

SO9 gets to experience that wonderful human emotion known as guilt in this episode. I am giving S09 a pass on this one --- thanks to her inconceivably bad parents S09 was assimilated as a very young child and how daunting would individuality be after a lifetime of being a borg.

I would take the 1 month lifespan over hearing the thoughts of two other individuals constantly.

It is a solid episode with a one sided conflict between re-assimilation and individuality. I half expected Chakotay to say, "You are just messing with me right, of course we are going to give them back individuality..."

I keep wondering about SO9 emotional/sociological development. She should be at child levels, right? That would be so crazy man. Have SO9 behaving like a super genius 7 year old throwing tantrums and being illogical. I guess she does have a innocence about her that ties into that. The episode suggests that SO9 is scared/intimidated by humanity and I find that an interesting subject to explore. Hey, it is scary being human sometimes.