"One is the loneliest number..."
The Doctor's portable emitter becomes fused with Borg technology and organic material and starts to develop into an advanced Borg drone.This episode provides examples of:
- Adaptive Ability:
- This facet of Borg technology is what creates One. After a Teleporter accident swaps some of Seven's nanoprobes into the Doctor's 29th century mobile emitter, the nanoprobes find themselves in an unfamiliar environment and immediately set about adapting the technology to create a drone. The result is a Borg drone five centuries more advanced than anything in the current galaxy.
- This also works against the crew later. When Seven disables the beacon that would have alerted the Borg to One's presence, his implants respond by generating another.
- Attack Reflector: The Borg use a feedback pulse against Voyager's phasers.
- Badass Boast: One's response to the Borg's "You Will Be Assimilated" spiel: "My technology is superior. Stop your attack or I will destroy you." He backs it up quite nicely.
- Even before then, Seven tries to warn One about what the Borg would do to him. His response? "They will fail."
- Book Ends: Seven of Nine looking into a mirror. The first time, she's practicing her smiles. The second time, she sees her own grief over One's death.
- Downer Ending: One dies from his injuries after destroying the Borg ship, and quite willingly on his part, as the collective knowing of his existence means Voyager would be in constant danger and assimilating a 29th century drone would make the Borg that much more powerful. Or as One puts it, "I should not exist." Seven is, obviously, heartbroken.Seven: You are hurting me!
One: You will adapt. - Express Delivery: A 29th-century Borg drone goes from tissue sample to fetus to full-grown adult in a day, much faster than even the standard Borg maturation chambers.
- Fanservice: B'Elanna has a Toplessness from the Back moment when she strips off for her sonic shower. Unfortunately only the Doctor sees her sexy front.
- Foreshadowing:
- Seven's suggestion to Tom about designing a larger shuttle leads to the creation of the Delta Flyer in "Extreme Risk".
- The Doctor is taking up holophotography, which becomes significant in "Latent Image".
- Harry mentioning that not even a Borg ship could survive inside the nebula.
- The Gadfly: Chakotay congratulates Ensign Kim on his running of the 'night' shift, then innocently asks if it's true he makes the crew call him "Captain Kim".
- Heroic Sacrifice: The drone sacrifices himself to destroy the Borg sphere and save Voyager.
- Heroic Suicide: Having been retrieved from the wreckage of the Borg sphere, One puts up a force field to prevent the Doctor from treating his critical injuries and allows himself to die. This is because he knows that his continued existence will put the Voyager crew in jeopardy, since the Borg will be determined to assimilate him.
- Hologram Projection Imperfection: Everyone is relieved at their Teleportation Rescue, until the Doctor starts flickering.
- How About a Smile?: Seven is practising her smiling when the Doctor barges into her Cargo Bay. He appears not to have noticed, until he asks her to pose for a group shot. "And smile...like I know you can."
- Infinite Supplies: They lost another shuttle (but this only incites them to build a bigger and tougher shuttle in a later episode).
- Ironic Echo: Seven is really feeling her humanity when One decides to make his Heroic Sacrifice. Before, when he almost broke her arm trying to assimilate as much information as possible, she said, "You are hurting me," and he relented. After the sphere blows up in the nebula, One is dying, and refusing the Doctor's treatment with his personal shields; as before, though with heretofore unseen emotion, she says, "You are hurting me..." But this time, the Armor refuses to be dented, as One says, with much affection, "You will adapt," and dies.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: The Doctor: "I'm a doctor, not a peeping tom."
- Locked Out of the Loop: Seven elects to avoid telling One about the Borg, in spite of his desire to learn. So, he decides to call them up himself and see what they're like...
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Seven wakes up the moment her Borg systems sense the proximity of other Borg systems. Chakotay thinks It's Probably Nothing, but agrees to scan the area for Borg. It happens again when Ensign Mulcahey is attacked. By that time Chakotay has realised the Borg is on the ship, and dispatches a well-armed security team.
- Naked Freak-Out: When the Doctor interrupts B'Elanna's sonic shower by turning on the two-way Video Phone while she's naked, she hurriedly covers herself with a Modesty Towel while the Doctor nonchalantly replies he's a doctor and she has nothing he hasn't seen before. She promptly throws the towel at the Video Phone in annoyance.
- Not a Morning Person: B'Elanna leaves the Doctor's emitter in the Science Lab so the computer can run a diagnostic on it. At exactly 0600 she's woken by an impatient Doctor who wants his emitter back as soon as possible.B'Elanna: (Death Glare) The one day...I get to sleep in...EMH: You're worried about a few more seconds of unconsciousness? My freedom is at stake!
- Oh, Crap!: Everyone on the bridge when One and then Seven start hearing the Collective calling to them. Fortunately, neither one gives in.
- Our Showers Are Different: In the future we will have sonic showers. With a two-way Video Phone. Gene Roddenberry would be proud.
- P.O.V. Cam: Once the Borg fetus is revealed, we get a green P.O.V shot of everyone peering in and discussing him, implying he's capable of understanding their speech even at that stage of development.
- Rousseau Was Right: When Seven first links with the (as yet) unnamed drone, he starts forcibly probing her memories and won't stop—until she says, "You are hurting me." He then disengages.
- Sickly Green Glow: Ensign Mulcahey enters the Science Lab and finds it glowing green. He grabs a tricorder and goes in for a closer look, only to get nabbed by a couple of Borg tubules. Fortunately he doesn't get assimilated; it was only taking a bio-sample.
- Some Kind of Force Field: One that deflects Harry's scans of the science lab. And has a Borg signature.
- Space Clouds: The proto-nebula.
- Status Quo Is God: The fact that One has the Doctor's mobile emitter in his brain means that he's basically doomed from the beginning.
- Super Prototype: While created by accident, One can be considered an advanced prototype, made using 29th century technology that makes him far more technologically advanced than anyone in the galaxy, Federation, Borg, or otherwise.
- Teleporter Accident: During an emergency transport, Seven's Borg nanoprobes get merged with the Doctor's mobile emitter. It could have been worse as B'Elanna fell on top of the Doctor during a Screen Shake — they could have had a half-Klingon holographic doctor!
- Teleporters and Transporters: One has this built into himself.
- Too Cool to Live: One determines that as long as he exists, Voyager will be a target of the Borg. So when he is critically injured, he refuses treatment, and allows himself to die.
- Tragic One-Shot Character: One.
- Tron Lines: One has these on his person.
- The Un-Smile: Seven is practicing her smiling.
- Uterine Replicator: Tuvok and Seven enter the Science Lab to find a Borg maturation chamber.
- Video Call Fail: But why would you put one in your sonic shower in the first place?
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?:
- Ensign Mulcahey, while he isn't killed, is never seen again after his DNA is sampled by the Borg technology. Seems very odd since he's technically the drone's father. He will be mentioned in three more episodes but not appear onscreen.
- After the plot starts to revolve around One, the Doctor's portable emitter gets only one brief mention. Since he has it back again in the following episodes though, it's logical to assume that they managed to retrieve it in an intact/repairable state out of One's corpse.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: Faced with either killing the rapidly-growing Borg baby or studying it, Janeway chooses the latter.
- You Are Number 6: The drone is called One.
