6.19 child’s play

A Voyager science fair highlights the talents of the children on board, in particular, those of Icheb, the older boy recently rescued from the Borg (see the episode ‘collective’). His special talent for science strengthens his strong bond with Seven; she is visibly disappointed when Janeway tells her that his parents have been found, and he is to be returned to them. Icheb doesn’t remember his parents and does not want to leave Voyager, but Janeway asks Seven to aid in the transition. Icheb’s parents apparently love him very much and want to  him back. Initially, the boy resists, but he begins to see that his scientific skill is needed to help his people, who have been devastated by the Borg (it seems that their homeworld sits right near a trans-warp conduit from which Borg ships routinely emerge). Icheb decides to stay, and Seven accepts that, until one of the other children mentions that Icheb was assimilated on board a vessel, not on the planet’s surface, as was stated by his father. The dates also don’t match up to the Borg cube’s database, so Seven asks Janeway to go back to investigate more. Meanwhile, we are seeing that the parents are up to something no good. Voyager finds that the boy has been sedated and is heading for the trans-warp conduit. He has been genetically bred since birth to carry the Borg-killing virus; a task that his parents and other Benari see as necessary to defend themselves against the Borg. Voyager is able to intercept Icheb’s ship and beam him aboard just before a Borg sphere appears and locks both in a tractor beam. Unable to escape, Seven beams a torpedo to the Benari vessel set to detonate just as it is tractored within the ship, and just before Voyager is dragged inside. Back on Voyager, Icheb grapples with the notion that he let his parents down, that it may have been his destiny to be assimilated by the Borg. Seven tells him that he may choose to fight the Borg, but that it must be his choice, not something he is born into.

A solid episode. If you are not watching the clock, you may think it is going to end when Seven says goodbye to Icheb (and it would have been a decent episode even without the twist).