Star Trek: Voyager (TV Series) The Raven (1997) User Reviews

Return to Borg?

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 19 January 2010]

Voyager and her crew may be far from Borg space but Seven is starting to hear the call of her people in the form of strange hallucinations in which she is being chased by Borg who wish to assimilate her as well as a raven. While eating her first proper meal her Borg personality takes over and she steals a shuttle to head to the source of the signal which triggered her hallucinations.

This happens at a rather bad time; Captain Janeway is trying to negotiate passage through B'omar space. These are not a particularly friendly race and are already saying Voyager must take an indirect route through their space to avoid going near any inhabited planet. Not surprisingly they are not happy to have a Borg heading into their space and tell Janeway that Voyager may not enter their space and that they will destroy the shuttle with Seven on board. Never one to give up on a crew member Janeway sends Tuvok and Paris after her. When Tuvok beams over to Seven's shuttle he is captured but manages to gain her confidence and goes with her when they find the source of the Borg signal... a place Seven has been before many years ago.

This was a pretty good episode even if the B'omar had an alien-of-the-week feel about them. Jeri Ryan is good in the role of Seven of Nine, her character is really growing on me. It was nice to learn a bit more of her back story.

Mystery of the Raven

[spasek · 8/10 · 7 March 2021]

I am enjoying this part of Season 4 that sees Seven continually trying to adapt to human life. Even something as rudimentary as "eating" is finally introduced, with an amusing lesson from Neelix about how to eat!

I'm glad that the writers chose to make Seven's transition a journey rather than simply using one or two episodes to have her quicky embrace her humanity. Self-discovery has always been the deeper, underlining theme of Star Trek. Perhaps even more so than simple star exploration.

Jeri Ryan does a very good job of giving us a Seven who is struggling to deal with her life before as a Borg and her current life as a human who is still trying to adapt.

In this episode, her past catches up, and we are finally given Seven's origin story in a fantastic bit of storytelling in regard to how Seven is able to confront her past as a child who is eventually assimilated. This ended up being a very compelling episode.

Costumes that are had to look at

[Bronco46 · 6/10 · 15 November 2017]

The story itself is pretty good. Seven is experiencing hallucinations. And is feeling an irresistible pull. All of this is going on while the captain is engaged in negotiations that would allow them to navigate through the space claimed by a race (the Bomar) that doesn't like their territory being violated. Seven of Nine then made things worse by taking a shuttle and charging into Bomar space. Needless to say, negotiations come to an end. And everyone is chasing Seven. For different reasons. And seeking different outcomes. We learn more about Sevens family and there's some pretty good action. But the episode is marred by the ridiculous costumes for the Bomar. For some reason, someone thought it would be a good idea to have Bomar costumes include wearing coat hangers on their heads. They're not really coat hangers. But, they do have some kind of silly looking wire head gear wrapped around their heads. Some have colored inserts in ear-like projections that a part of this headgear. For me, every second these people are on screen. It takes away from the overall quality of this episode. I can only imagine how silly the people actually having to wear these costumes must feel.

Good Star Trek

[mullins-brandon · 10/10 · 12 June 2010]

There are times when Voyager feels like a cheap imitation of the TNG, and there are times when Voyager is good, fun and unique. This is one of the later. This episode explores the re-adaptation of Seven of Nine's humanity.

The episode touches on several aspects of the adjustment, thrilling the viewer intellectually. and somewhat emotionally. The light scientific discussion of theoretical psychological side effects of once being Borg and being returned to humanity are fun and captivating.

There is some nice symbolism, a good bit of action, and a few interesting diplomatic moments. Not an episode to miss in this writer's opinion.

Borg Tentacles

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 30 August 2018]

We are still dealing with Seven's transitioning to human. She apparently has some regenerative cells that are holding her back, even with the Doc's best efforts. She goes on a rampage, but her assaults aren't deadly. She has visions that drive her to explore her past. One really interesting thing that detracts from this episode are the aliens who are about as ridiculous in appearance as any can be. It's as if a junior high drama club with virtually no funds were given the task of creating aliens.

Seven is having a meltdown...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 February 2015]

Captain Janeway is going through some very complicated negotiations with some super-annoying people called the B'omar. The B'omar act like they want to help Voyager and will allow it to go through its territory BUT the longer the negotiations go, the more intractable and difficult they seem. It's made a lot worse by Seven of Nine, as she seems to be having a nervous breakdown of sorts and she's receiving some odd images in her mind. In the midst of the negotiations, she goes nuts, steals a shuttle and goes flying into B'omar space. So much for diplomacy.

This is an okay episode of the series. Seven gets to explore her roots and not a whole lot more occurs in this one. Not bad--but also not all that interesting and little is accomplished.

Yas, Bryan Fuller!

[grotsky_af · 9/10 · 13 November 2020]

I love this episode. Well-balanced comedy/tragedy ratio, great performances from Jeri Ryan and Tim Russ as usual (Tuvok/Seven scenes have a really interesting rhythm imo, and the actors have such good chemistry), and a quick intro to the REAL villains of Voyager: The Hansens.

Seven's conflict.

[thevacinstaller · 6/10 · 9 August 2021]

This reminded me a lot of the data episode from TNG when he gets called back to his creators house.

The episode is essentially an internal battle between Seven's borg self and her human self. I am assuming that the borg homing signal was actually just Seven's desire to find the 'raven'. The writing was a bit messy in explaining that but that's what I am going with. I'm confused --- I just remember her borg components starting to reassert themselves during the mess room scene with Neelix ----- why would a borg homing signal have her go back to the raven wreckage?

I like what the episode attempts to do ----- Seven having conflict between her two personalities but it is only a partial success to me. Maybe it was the pacing or the undercooked B-Plot not being tied into the A plot in any fashion but the episode didn't have much of an impact to me.

Enjoyable Seven of Nine episode

[snoozejonc · 8/10 · 22 March 2023]

Seven goes rogue in a protected area of space.

This is a solid character focussed episode.

Seven's backstory and development is the main purpose of this one and the plot achieves this in an interesting way. There are aspects of it that go a bit too far in reestablishing the character's humanity, which does not quite fit with subsequent depictions of her acting more like an ex-drone. However, is a fairly compelling plot in its own right.

A sequence where Seven has some Borg-like action moments is exciting and gives the character a certain coolness, but it's her scenes with Tuvok that for me are the highlights. Both Jeri Ryan and Tim Russ do memorable work.

The award for most annoying alien characters of the season so far goes to the Bomar who look, sound and act ridiculous in most scenes, but serve the writers purpose making Seven's journey less straightforward than it could be.

Was it the right creative decision to cover this backstory so early in one episode? I'm not so sure. I think a bit more intrigue could have been developed with a build up over several episodes. I would have portrayed her as having visions that grow more intense in different episodes as the season progressed before addressing her origins in a later episode.

Some of the visuals are very well done, particularly those associated with the crashed starship.

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

Overall It's Worth Watching IMO

[beanslegit · 7/10 · 11 February 2021]

Seven of Nine is a great addition to the crew. I find her very fascinating for some reason... :P

Still in the process of regaining her humanity, she goes a bit banaynay with hallucinations and goes rogue in a shuttle.

Meanwhile Janeway is negotiating with this weeks a**hole alien race to get across their space (anyone else getting sick of that plot?)

This alien race also looks incredibly dumb. They have what appears to be coat hangers looped around their faces... I have no idea how that garbage got greenlit because I just can't take it seriously. And as usual they are unreasoning d***heads about everything, instead of just letting Voyager go on it's way.

Not a bad episode but not fantastic. Good one for Seven of Nine fans hehe