Just one episode earlier, Tony Robinson (who played 'Garak' on "Star Trek: Deep Space 9") directed. Here in "Unity" Robert Duncan McNeill ('Paris' from "Star Trek: Voyager") directs. Such things were common with the Trek shows--with a variety of actors from the shows getting to direct episodes. Most notably, LeVar Burton (29 episodes) and Jonathan Frakes (from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"14 episodes as well as movies) directed a lot of shows throughout all the later incarnations of "Star Trek" and went on to direct a variety of non-Trek shows.
At the end of the last episode, the Borg's presence in the Delta Quadrant is revealed with Chakotay discovers the corpse of a Borg drone. In "Unity", Chakotay and a 'red shirt' hear a distress call and when they respond, they find a planet peopled by their Swedish adversaries (yes, I know the Borg are NOT Swedish). However, it's a trap and you can guess what happens to the red shirt! Chakotay is rescued by a pretty lady and he learns that a bunch of Alpha Quadrant folks had been brought to this planet long ago. Oddly, it's peopled by all sorts of folks from all different races and planets. In the meantime, Captain Janeway and Voyager find a Borg ship that is apparently dead in space--and Torres says it's like a 'ghost ship'. What's next? See the episode.
Through two and a half seasons, "Star Trek: Voyager" suffered because the ship's enemies were for the most part really uninteresting. Unlike Romulans or Klingons in previous series, the Kazon were not particularly interesting or scary. The closet to interesting villains were the Vidiians but they were never particularly developed in the show. Fortunately, someone must have realized this and from this episode on, the Borg would become a super-serious threat--and the episodes would improve as a result. So, because of this, I really appreciate "Unity". Well worth seeing.
