Searching for a way to remove the Diviner's weapon, the crew infiltrate a Borg ship.
Tropes:
- Adaptive Ability: Predictably, Dal manages to take down a total of one Borg before the rest adapt to the phasers and become unstoppable.
- Affably Evil: The Borg Collective is surprisingly polite when speaking with Zero.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: When Zero is assimilated into the Collective, their bluish-purple glow changes to a Sickly Green Glow, and reverts to normal when Gwyn talks them down.
- Continuity Nod:
- Janeway is forced to switch to tea by Dr. Noum. In "Endgame", Future Janeway told her past self that she had switched to tea a while back, though likely under different circumstances.
- A neurolytic pathogen is responsible for disabling the Borg Cube. Future Janeway in the Voyager finale "Endgame" can likely be thanked for that, though viruses disabled Borg Cubes on several other occasions.
- Melee combat is marginally more effective on the Borg than energy weapons, as in Star Trek: First Contact. Gwyn even forms her Morph Weapon into a bat'leth. As the poor security officer in that film learned, however, they also find out it's a bad idea to fight super-strong cyborgs that outnumber you.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Upon seeing the Borg Cube for the first time, the kids have no idea what they're looking at or if it's even a ship. They react with confusion rather than terror and panic (whereas Holographic Janeway and the audience have their internal Red Alert klaxons revving up).
- Upon finding the destroyed remains of the relay station from last episode, Janeway vows to stop the one responsible. She has no idea that he's currently recovering in her sickbay.
- Eye Awaken: The episode ends with the Diviner in the medbay on Janeway's ship, supplied with an IV drip of his life support fluid, as his brain activity is shown on the monitor going from red to blue before he wakes up.
- Giant Mook: One of the Borg is a much larger, horned humanoid about the same size as Rok, and easily overpowers her.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The crew does this with Zero after they've been assimilated into the Collective. It takes a bit, but Zero manages to break free, disabling the drones in the process.
- Internal Reveal:
- Gwyn gets the crew up to speed on the origins of the Diviner and the nature of the weapon he placed on the ship.
- The crew discovers the weapon beneath the bridge.
- Janeway sees the remains of the comm relay that destroyed itself last episode and realizes that Chakotay is no longer in command of the Protostar.
- It Can Think: The weapon, called the Living Construct, defends itself and resists attempts at removal. For the foreseeable future, it's stuck where it is.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Upon first seeing the Borg Cube, Dal exclaims "What the hell-o!"
- Logical Weakness: Zero belongs to a non-corporeal species, so the Borg can't assimilate them by their usual methods. They have to resort to active mind control, which proves vulnerable to Gwyn's "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight.
- Must Have Caffeine: Janeway is not happy about giving up coffee in favor of tea. She demands a second (i.e. pro-coffee) opinion.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played for comedy when a shocked Asencia notices that Janeway's drinking tea instead of coffee.
- Oh, Crap!: Holographic Janeway has a subdued one upon seeing the Borg Cube. While she's a facsimile of the real Janeway, she still knows from Janeway's own experiences and those of Starfleet as a whole exactly how much trouble they're all in.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Borg for the Prodigy kids (and ironically much like the Collective was to the Federation in "Q Who").
- Run or Die: Holo-Janeway's advice for a bunch of untrained kids on how to deal with the Borg."I'm an advisor, and I'm advising you to run away as fast as you can!"''
- Unusual User Interface: To the dismay of the crew, the vinculum doesn't have an external interface. Zero has to plug into an alcove and access the hive mind directly.
- Villain Decay: Zigzagged, if arguably justified. The Borg here are portrayed closer to their pre-Voyager characterization and the accompanying menace. But given the family friendly-nature of Prodigy, it's also only pushed so far.
- Wham Line: Played for laughs when Janeway shockingly orders tea rather than her normal coffee (especially for audience members old enough to remember Voyager and this running gag).
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The crew risk a Borg Cube to find a way to stop the Living Construct, but all they learn is its name and even the Borg don't have the knowledge to remove it, even if they cared to.
