VOY - Collective

[MerelyAFan]

https://sfdebris.com/videos/startrek/v935.php

Icheb always felt like Voyager's Jake Sisko, there not so much for his own development (though he did get some later) but more for giving depth to Seven. And for the most part it worked, as outside a Naomi Wildman, someone like him made the most sense for her to a mentor.

Though this episode does point to the amusing escalation of Voyager with TNG. On the latter show the crew essentially sheltered one Borg whom eventually went back to the Collective within the same episode. The former however picks up Borg like they're stray dogs they find the on the side of the road. Presumably if the show had gone to season 8, Janeway would have included an invitation for any Borg looking for a place to crash in the standard hail.

[clearspira]

Add this to the list of episodes that i thought Chuck had already reviewed.

Like all things Voyager, it is the show where potential goes to die. Because you could have used the Borg kids to great effect, but lets be honest, only Icheb and Mezoti ever really get any screen time and the latter only as a bit of a well-natured brat. Kind of like how I imagine the Borg version of Hermione Granger would act. Oh, and the baby evaporates into thin air between this episode and the next ffs.

I kind of think it would have been nice to see a grown up Icheb and Naomi get together in PIC. But well... if VOY is where potential goes to die, PIC is where hope goes to die so that couldn't have happened.

[Mabus]

Yeah, his fate in Picard is something that will sadly overshadow any good development he got in VOY. It's like the S8 of GoT, you just can't ignore it no matter how much you try.
I always found it confusing what happened with the Cube at the end of the episode, I thought they just abandoned it for some reason, didn't know it explode later.
I do like the follow-up to this episode in "Child's Play", that the pathogen that disabled the Cube wasn't some random space microbe, but rather anti-Borg weapon, with a nice reference to TNG, where at one point they theorized using nanites to fight the Borg.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Watching Picard a second time, I thought the actor sounded like him, and it's easy enough to get a semblance of someone like 20 years removed from the original carnation.

Really though, I wasn't of the mind to define him by his death scene. I kind of need to look the needle nose twerp in the face (as in watching Voyager). Boy did the actor sound like him though.

[J!!]

He died as he lived: as a naritive tool to facilitate 7's character development.

[FaxModem1]

It is rather sad that Icheb, as a character, is defined by tragedy. Assimilated by the Borg, parents sent him out to die via Borg as a weapon, killed while being with his only friend q(and resurrected), gives up his implant so that Seven doesn't die, and then harvested by Romulans.

I'd much prefer that q came back and rescued him, because fuck, that guy deserves some happiness.

[Sir Will]

Yeah, Icheb sure had it rough.

He died as he lived: as a naritive tool to facilitate 7's character development.

lol, you're not wrong.

[Freeverse]

Icheb is an element of Voyager that I basically forgot about before revisiting the series years later and finding him actually pretty compelling. I mean, the actor doesn't have any blow-out performances or big dramatic character pieces, but I think he's decent enough that the stories surrounding him are enhanced.

Also, hey, the Borg kids being on the ship is a status quo change, which everyone knows Voyager doesn't have. So if you don't like them, you're in luck, according to Voyager's detractors they don't exist!

I kid. Voyager does have continuity issues, I just feel people often exaggerate them.

[bigman6969]

All I want to know is when the Ectum Ray will be fired.

[CrypticMirror]

Poor Icheb, fridged so that Seven can be a dark and gritty murderess because apparently revenge is considered to be adult and real. It is the anti-Trek message. At least it wasn't animated.