Episode Review - Imperfection
Reviewed by Andy Taylor

Plot
This was a pretty easy one to follow. After the Borg kids (bar Icheb) have been settled in a new home, Seven's cortical node is failing, which means that her body is rejecting her Borg implants (not the puny ones that don't mean anything, the ones that could threaten her life if they weren't there). As a result of this, Janeway, Tuvok and Tom look through a Borg debris field and find a node from a dead Borg as suggested by The Doctor. However, simulations show that Seven's body cannot adapt to the new node - it is from a dead drone and has been unused for too long. However, Icheb, who in the meantime has been hoping to be submitted for the Starfleet Academy entrance examinations, embarks upon a crusade to help Seven, and comes up with a solution - he wants to donate his node. Seven is against the idea, but Icheb forces it upon her as he deactivates his node. A complicated operation goes ahead in which Seven is 'repaired,' and Icheb eventually adapts to a 'nodeless' life.

Summary
OK, so that was a very brief synopsis, but that was about it. On the surface, this seemed to be a confusing episode, again involving a fair amount of the famed 'technobabble' (the Borg 'organs,' some medical stuff and the like). In contrast, the story was very simple - Seven was near death, and Icheb risked his own life to save her.

However, it is when one begins to look between the lines that you see how this episode was quite nice. OK, starting the season (or at least being the first episode after the concluding part of the two-part cliff-hanger) with a Seven of Nine episode may be rubbing people's noses in it - she has been the main focus of a lot of Voyager episodes ever since her arrival, but it has become tradition (whether it is showing off perhaps one of Trek's most intriguing characters, or just Jeri Ryan to grab the target demographic at the start of the season is up to you to decide.)

Back to the point though, this was a nice little episode. Not too complicated, induced with the annoying tech-talk, but full of great character moments. The relationship between Seven and Icheb is one explored in detail here, and the two bounce off each other very well. The scenes were Seven is rejecting Icheb's help at the risk of his life, and where Icheb did actually make Seven have his node were very poignant.

There were also great little scenes with Seven and Neelix (playing Kaddis-Kot,) Seven and B'Elanna (where B'Elanna mentioned how difficult patients should stick together), Seven and Janeway (how proud Janeway was of Seven's journey as an individual, and how she exceeded expectations) and Seven and the Doctor (erm, as always), just showing, despite how much certain aspects of the audience hate her, how integral to the society of Voyager she is.

However, there are always downsides to episodes. The emotion wasn't running as high in other outstanding episodes, such as 'Living Witness,' or even 'Timeless.' It was strong, but at the end of the day, everyone onboard that ship knew Seven's contract would be renewed for the season.

Secondly, a small niggle about the Delta Flyer - it was great that reference had been made about this great little ship, especially as Voyager can lack on the continuity side of things (where, by the way, was that Borg baby when the Borg kids went home?) but when did these repairs happen? OK, it may be a production thing (the episode was swapped with 'Drive' for production reasons, and it should become pretty obvious when that episode airs) but you have to find something to make a balanced review!

Final Opinion
A good episode, that was a little plain story-wise, but gave some characters a good characteristic-boost or two.

Rating: 7/10