Episode Review - Unimatrix Zero - Part II
Reviewed by Andrew Bailey

The episode began with the scene we had all been waiting to see - two of our assimilated crewmembers aboard the Borg cube.  However, I don't think that there were many people out there who were expecting them to be wandering around the cube serving the Borg queen.  The main thing that lead us to realise that this was a plan was Chakotay's comment last time - "Everything's going to plan."   So, the start of the episode was not exactly unexpected - the cliff hanger that we had been waiting for an answer to from last August did not encourage casual viewers to come back as much as cliff hangers like Scorpion.  However, the result of this cliff hanger was better than in Equinox, where we were left with Janeway being attacked by one of the aliens, only to later see in Part II that she got straight back up again.

The first problem that there seemed to be with this episode was that Tuvok was being overcome by the will of the collective - why Tuvok?  Vulcans are supposed to have greater mental discipline, so wouldn't he have been able to resist the will of the collective more than the others?

Once we were at the Central Plexus, things got interesting.  Firstly, there was the fact that the room was orange instead of green, which made the room look impressive, special and unique.  Especially interesting in this scene was the view of the Central Plexus itself and B'Elanna introducing the virus using her assimilation tubules.

Another good point to this episode (and the previous one) was the human side of Seven that we got to see in Unimatrix Zero.  This revealed a new side of Seven to us - one that would never fit in on Voyager, but was nice to see.  It was also a totally understandable and believable part of the storyline.

One of the regular features in two-part/feature-length episodes is the outstanding graphical effects and Unimatrix Zero was no exception.  Two of the best were the explosion of the Borg cube at the end and the destruction of Unimatrix Zero.

Another good twist to the storyline was when Voyager arrived the first time, only to find that the Borg had all the security access codes, because of Tuvok.  This lead to some good continuity throughout the plot and some precious interaction between Tom and Chakotay on Voyager.

One more thing that I liked - Korok arriving on scene in the Borg sphere - this worked very well, as everybody was expecting an attack.

To sum up...

The Good Points

• Graphical Effects - these were superb (you can see more pictures of them in the Pictures Only section).
  
• Seven interaction in Unimatrix Zero - it was nice to see an alternative personality for her.
  
• The arrival of the Korok's Borg Ship - totally unexpected and well written.
  
• The Borg tapping into Voyager's controls with Tuvok's access codes.
  

The Bad Points

• The cliff hanger didn't leave enough untold.
  
• The recovery of Janeway and co. - this was too speedy and too easy.
  
• The Harry Kim comment in Part I - what happened to this?
  
• Tuvok being overcome so quickly.

Overall
A good episode overall, but it didn't live up to the two-part standards that it should have done.  It was good, but not exceptional.

Rating: 6.5/10