My Random Journey Through Trek #25

Voyager
S6 The Voyager Conspiracy

In The Voyager Conspiracy we have another Seven story as she explores her former Borg ability to analyze every scrap of data a cube or the collective acquires which is sadly missing from the ability of Voyager. She builds an addition to her alcove to allow her to process data which has been ignored and as she sifts through reports, observations and scan results she begins to draw conclusions that have no bearing to how known events had played out. Slowly but surely her suspicions take root amongst the crew and doubt and mistrust bloom leading to a potential explosive confrontation when not if one or another party act on the information she has provided.

The Voyager Conspiracy is not that bad a Seven episode at all, it clearly indicates how information by itself can never really standalone nor that when viewed in conjunction with other elements is guaranteed to provide a clearer picture of events. It was clever to have Seven come to two very different conclusions based on basically the same information yet disappointing to see the various crew members so easily convinced despite spending so much time on Voyager and living with the people who could not have kept all these plans secret for so long. In that respect maybe a being with more life experience would recognise the winding path they were going down and dismiss the more dubious conclusions but Seven is still very young in terms of social dynamics but again annoying she convinced so many so easily.

Tash played by Albie Selznick

I did like young Naomi played by Scarlett Pomers and her interaction with Seven was always fun, the fleas were also an interesting consequence of space travel and I suppose that initial success linking facts together would reinforce Seven's confidence in her abilities. I had to look up the reference to the "Jankata Accord" and processing 30 million teraquads seems like a lot of hard work and to be honest makes Data look less and less impressive year after year :)
Tri Cobalt weapons, cloaked starships, invasion of the Delta Quadrant, year long project, collusion with known and as yet unknown races all make a good story but if Seven had slowed down just a little and engaged her own mind she may have seen through the fog of paranoia and confusion.
Overall I enjoyed the episode, it stands alone quite well and I can easily overlook how some of the characters act and of course they did make use of yet another alien device to jump a few light years closer to home. High points were Naomi with Seven and Janeway's from the heart laying out the truth of the last few years in the same manner Seven had used but in a much softer and compelling way which eventually brings Seven around. Oh yes, coffee not poisoned any more than usual :)

IMDB
Rating 7