Recap / Star Trek: Voyager S4 E24: "Hope and Fear"

This can't possibly be a trap, right?

While Captain Janeway is busy trying to restore the message in the data block that Starfleet has transmitted using the Hirogen relay network, an alien by the name of Arturis is brought on board to be given safe passage. Claiming to be a living universal translator, Arturis offers to help with the restoration of the data block, which results in a message about a ship that was supposedly sent to the Delta Quadrant by Starfleet, the U.S.S. Dauntless. The ship possesses a revolutionary technology called the "quantum slipstream drive", which has the capability of far exceeding conventional warp factors and potentially reducing the Voyager crew's remaining trip home to about three months.

However, as the Voyager crew inspects the new ship and tries to become familiar with it, Ensign Harry Kim discovers that the Dauntless isn't what it appears to be, and Janeway restores a message that Arturis claimed was unrecoverable which indicates that Starfleet never sent the ship at all. Arturis reveals that the ship was a trap intended to capture Voyager's crew and send them straight into Borg-occupied space to be assimilated as Borg, to punish them for Captain Janeway's decision to side with the Borg against Species 8472 (see "Scorpion").

Unable to capture the entire crew, Arturis settles for abducting only Janeway and Seven of Nine, and takes them through the slipstream back into Borg space. Voyager manages to follow the Dauntless through the slipstream and rescue Janeway and Seven from Arturis before he can enter Borg space, where Arturis and the Dauntless are presumably assimilated upon arrival.

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This episode provides examples of:

• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Seven and Janeway in the brig.
• Aliens Speaking English: Arturis doesn't need a universal translator—he is one.
• Arc Number: Admiral Hayes says the Dauntless conducted 47 trial runs of the slipstream drive before they sent it to the Delta Quadrant.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  Arturis: This is what you wanted all along, isn't it? To go back to your Collective? You should thank me!
• Bittersweet Ending: In the end, the Voyager crew learns how to reproduce a quantum slipstream drive that later proves instrumental in hastening the trip home, but Arturis cannot forgive the Voyager crew for the inadvertent assimilation of his race; instead of attempting to rebuild with his people, he attempts a Pyrrhic Victory to get Janeway and Seven assimilated by the Borg along with himself, but fails, and resigns himself to the fate he had initially escaped from. Janeway and her crew now also have to live with the fact that they enabled the Borg to wipe out another civilization due to their alliance against Species 8472 during the events of "Scorpion".
• Book Ends: Seven and Janeway playing Velocity.
• Call-Back:
  • After being thrown in the brig by Arturis, Janeway reminds Seven of their confrontation in the brig in "The Gift".
  • In "Scorpion", Chakotay warned Janeway that providing the Borg with a weapon against Species 8472 would lead to the assimilation of innocent species.
  • The Starfleet admiral in the message is Admiral Hayes, who ordered Picard and the Enterprise-E to patrol the Neutral Zone while he led the defensive battle against the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact. The film never said whether he'd survived after his ship was destroyed, but apparently he did.
• The Chains of Commanding:
  Janeway: I'm your captain. That means I can't always be your friend.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The encrypted message from Starfleet that Voyager received in "Hunters".
  • Janeway tells the crew to see about adapting the Quantum Slipstream Drive so they can bring Voyager with them. This comes in handy when Chakotay has to chase after his kidnapped Captain.
• Continuity Nod: Seven flinches when Janeway first goes to adjust her cortical node, a possible reference to "Retrospect".
• Conversation Cut: Between the Captain's Log and Seven of Nine's personal log, showing Janeway's hopes and Seven's fears.
• Cool Starship: Putting aside the fact that it's a trap for the Voyager crew, a quantum-slipstream starship that can cross the galaxy in a matter of months is pretty damn cool.
• Corrupted Data: Arturis tells Janeway that part of the message is too degraded to be decrypted. Good thing Janeway takes another crack at it, as it's the part that proves Arturis a liar.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  Janeway: In case I never get a chance to say this — I realize that I've been hard on you at times. But it was never out of anger, or regret that I brought you on board. I'm your Captain. That means I can't always be your friend. Understand?
  Seven: No. However, if we are assimilated, our thoughts will become one, and I'm sure I will understand perfectly. (off Janeway's look) A joke, Captain. You told me to work on my sense of humor.
• Despair Event Horizon: When the Borg no longer had to worry about Species 8472, Arturis says his entire species ultimately suffered this.
  Arturis: The outer colonies were the first to fall; 23 in a matter of hours. Our sentry vessels tossed aside. No defense against the storm. And by the time they had surrounded our star system, hundreds of cubes. We had already surrendered to our own terror.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Janeway and Seven's relationship continues to be very much like a parent dealing with an angsty teenager. In this case, Seven proposing to leave the ship plays exactly like a teenager threatening to run away from home, despite having no clear plans about where they're going to go.
• Did Not Think This Through: Seven confronts Janeway and tells her she's not going with them to the Alpha Quadrant.
  Janeway: What would you do? Go back to the Collective?
  Seven: I don't know.
  Janeway: Then what, exactly, do you have in mind?
  Seven: I don't know.
  Janeway: That's my point. You're asking me to cast you adrift in the Delta Quadrant alone, without support. I wouldn't grant that request to any member of this crew because it's too dangerous.
  Seven: I will survive.
  Janeway: On what — Borg perfection?
• Do Anything Drone: Seven's nanoprobes save the day yet again.
• Earth Is the Center of the Universe: For the crew, but not Seven.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: B'Elanna stops Arturis from 'accidentally' hitting the Big Red Icon that will engage the slipstream drive.
• Face Assimilation With Dignity: Surrounded by Borg cubes, Arturis waits in the command chair for the inevitable.
• Fictional Sport: Velocity is first shown here. It can only be described as competitive skeet shooting combined with dodgeball... using phasers.
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Roll credits on Seven firing at the Velocity disc as it flies toward the screen.
• Forged Message: Arturis manipulates the message from Starfleet to make it look like they'd sent the Dauntless, as a trap for the Voyager crew.
• Forgotten Phlebotinum: Averted as Seven wants to keep working on the Quantum Slipstream Drive. This leads to the events of "Timeless". (It also gets a namecheck 900 years later in DISCO: "That Hope Is You, Pt 1," where the technology is reliable, but the fuel source is so scarce as to be practically unattainable. So far the drive's only reliable use is in the not-precisely-canon relaunch novels.)
• Fragile Speedster: The Dauntless may be extremely fast with her quantum slipstream drive, but her Deflector Shields are no match for a few torpedoes from Voyager.
• Friendship Moment: From Harry, B'Elanna and Captain Janeway to Seven.
• Gallows Humor: Right before Seven tries to take control of Arturis' ship, Seven jokes that she will better understand Janeway's motivations if they end up assimilated.
• Glamor Failure: How Harry discovers the truth about the Dauntless. While poking around engineering he accidentally shorts out a panel, which briefly changes from Starfleet-style to alien tech.
• Gunship Rescue: Voyager and a few photon torpedoes.
• Gut Feeling:
  • For once someone justifies this trope as more than just "follow your hunch because it feels right" when Seven questions Janeway's claim of "intuition" in hitting the target before she could see it. Janeway explains that the intuition was founded on the sound of the disc and knowing its angle of trajectory before she did her Unnecessary Combat Roll, therefore she could reasonably guess where it would be.
  • When Janeway is suspicious and keeps working on decrypting the message, she notes with irony that it's only intuition if she's right. She is.
• Handwave: Arturis dismisses the technology used to mimic the Starfleet vessel as "beyond your comprehension."
• Headbutting Heroes: Seven vs. Janeway.
• Hope Spot:
  • The heavily-encrypted message from Starfleet Command, that has been a plot point since "Hunters". Turns out it's just an apology video from Admiral Hayes and some maps of the Delta Quadrant. Janeway getting her hopes up, only to have them dashed yet again, could well be behind her subsequent Heroic BSoD in "Night".
  • According to Arturis, Species 8472 began waging war on the Borg just as the Collective was closing in on his species. As he says, the war was their last hope to survive.
• Hyperspeed Escape: Arturis and the Dauntless pull one on Voyager—until our heroes respond with a Hyperspeed Ambush.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Janeway's response to Arturis' What the Hell, Hero? speech.
• Implausible Deniability: When his ruse is discovered, Arturis tries to claim that he saw Seven modify parts of the message and insists they'll find proof if they search her logs. Janeway knows it's bogus without even looking at it, because he's asking her to believe Seven somehow procured an entire starship from nowhere.
• Improvised Lockpick: Janeway removes a microfilament from her commbadge to rewire Seven's cortical implant so she can walk through the Forcefield Door.
• Irrevocable Order: Arturis burns out the navigation controls to make rerouting the ship impossible, rather than risk Janeway and Seven stopping the ship somehow. Then Voyager turns up.
• Ironic Echo Cut: Chakotay says that if he knows the Captain, she's already got a plan of escape. Cut to Janeway and Seven behind a forcefield, admitting they can't think of a way out.
• Kirk Summation: Janeway tries this on Arturis, encouraging him to look past revenge. He responds with a Shut Up, Kirk! and a phaser shot, just when Voyager beams Janeway and Seven aboard.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Arturis intended to get the entire Voyager crew, but he succeeds in capturing Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine—the woman who made the Enemy Mine decision and a former Borg drone.
• Ludicrous Speed: The slipstream.
• Made of Iron: Arturis' people are obviously tougher than they look: he survives being shot by a phaser on a high enough setting that it burns through his shirt, but is seemingly none the worse for wear afterward, even able to overpower two Security officers at once.
• Multicultural Alien Planet: Harry Kim mentions that Earth has hundreds of alien races living on it.
• My Brain Is Big: Arturis has a big head, as benefits a living computer (but where are the heat-radiating fins?)
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Seven gained too much knowledge of the ship with Arturis' help, enabling her to sabotage the Quantum Slipstream drive, slowing it enough for Voyager to catch up.
• Non-Malicious Monster: Arturis sees the Borg as a force of nature.
  "You don't feel anger toward a storm on the horizon; you just avoid it."
• No Sense of Personal Space: Janeway pets Tuvok a lot while talking to him in private.
• Nothing Personal: Arturis doesn't hold a grudge against Seven, or even the Borg Collective in general. With Captain Janeway though, It's Personal.
  "I don't blame them. They were just drones, acting with their Collective instinct. (points at Janeway) YOU...YOU HAD A CHOICE!"
• Old Windbag: Admiral Hayes, according to Janeway.
• Omniglot: Arturis is a "living universal translator" who knows over 4000 languages.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Seven to Janeway. Also, Arturis to Janeway, as part of his Motive Rant.
• Red Herring: The encrypted message from Starfleet Command that Janeway's been trying to decode since "Hunters"? Turns out it's just a collection of long range star maps of the Delta Quadrant and an apology video from Admiral Hayes.
• Revenge: Arturis' motivation for the whole scheme, to pay back Voyager for their turning the tide in the Borg vs. Species 8472 war.
• Reverse the Polarity:
  B'Elanna: Try reversing the quantum field's polarity.
• Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: In the end, as they start their new game, Seven's phaser hits the camera, which fades to the end credits.
• Shooting Gallery: Velocity is a game in which the players have to shoot a self-propelled, ricocheting energy Frisbee with phasers.
• Single-Biome Planet: In what's likely an in-joke re this trope, Harry when singing the praises of Earth mentions that it's got "every ecosystem you could imagine."
• Skewed Priorities: Arturis argues that if Janeway had seen "beyond the bow of her own ship," then she would've recognized that a number of species native to the Delta Quadrant were rooting for Species 8472 to eliminate the most persistent threat in the region.
• Sore Loser: Seven is not happy when Janeway beats her at Velocity. She demands a rematch and, when Janeway refuses, accuses her of only doing so because Seven has greater stamina and will win in the long term.
• Status Quo Is God: After sorting out the Problem of the Week and getting Voyager another 300 light years closer to home, the Quantum Slipstream collapses and they conclude that the risk to Voyager's structural integrity means they can't chance using it again — at least until "Timeless" in the following season, whereupon it is more successful but still ultimately unusable.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Seven is faced with this if she returns to Earth.
• Techno Babble: More fun with the concept.
  Arturis: It's just a matter of extracting the iconometric elements and triaxilating a recursion matrix.
  Janeway: Now why didn't I think of that?
• There Are No Coincidences: Voyager meets an alien genius who can decode the Starfleet message in a matter of minutes, revealing some nearby coordinates where a prototype Starfleet vessel is waiting to take them home. Janeway lampshades that this seems Too Good to Be True, and is later proven correct.
• This Is Unforgivable!: When Janeway uncovers that Arturis put one over on her and her crew, needless to say, she is pissed. At the climax, however, she forgoes this attitude and tries to give Arturis one last chance for redemption, which he refuses.
• This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Deliberately invoked by Arturis, who may very likely have orchestrated this whole situation in the first place. He made contact with the Voyager crew and gained their trust, because he just happened to be around when the universal translator failed, his exceptional language skills being exactly what was needed to help them out.
• Title Drop: Averted; Janeway talks about "hope and caution" in response to the Starfleet vessel. The fear is from Seven of Nine.
• The Triple:
  • Done for a Rule of Threes, first as a joke, then seriously.
    Janeway: Admiral Hayes. Good man. Fine officer. Bit of a windbag.
  • And more seriously during Seven's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Janeway.
    "Your desire to explore space is inefficient! Your need for familial connections is a weakness! Your infatuation with this planet is irrational!"
  • Janeway of course doesn't take this lying down.
    "This isn't about your independence or your superiority...this is about your fear."
• Too Good to Be True: Janeway finds it a little too convenient that a shiny new Starfleet ship that could ferry everyone home in a few months just dropped into her lap. Not to mention that it somehow auto-piloted itself all the way across a galaxy where dangerous anomalies and hostile aliens are a weekly occurrence, and it sat adrift for who-knows-how-long without being scavenged by someone else.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: The quantum slipstream upgrades to Voyager. They succeed, but prove to be too dangerous for continued use — at least until "Timeless" in the following season, as well as the expanded Star Trek Novel 'Verse.
• Verbal Backspace:
  Janeway: Sounds like you're starting to embrace your humanity.
  Seven: No. (Beat) But nothing is impossible.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Captain Janeway gets this from Arturis, who blames her for the decision to back the Borg against Species 8472. As the latter were forced to retreat, the Borg were able to go on and assimilate his world. Janeway counters that at the time, she considered Species 8472 a far greater threat because of their outright omnicidal campaign of conquest.
• When She Smiles: Seven of Nine favours Kim with a warm smile when he says things won't be the same without her.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Arturis does this too late; his phaser beam passes through Janeway's body as she's beamed off the ship.