Star Trek Best Trek

Unimatrix Zero

In case you skip it...

This two-parter features a daring infiltration of a Borg ship for reasons that don’t make much sense and are difficult to care about. It’s not really worth the time to watch, but there are some things worth knowing about.

First, since he’s been good for over a year, Tom Paris gets his rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade reinstated.

Tom with his second pip back.

Second, the Delta Flyer is destroyed in the attack against the Borg.

The Delta Flyer explodes.

This is a pointless stunt because its destruction has zero impact on the episode’s story and they just immediately build a new one offscreen between episodes, but this actually causes a confusing inconsistency in the next couple of episodes.

The first episode after the two-parter is “Imperfection”, followed by “Drive” - but the events of “Imperfection” clearly take place after the events of “Drive”. The most obvious inconsistency is that “Imperfection” references the destruction of the original Delta Flyer, but also features another Delta Flyer with no explanation. “Drive” also features the new Flyer but acknowledges that it is a replacement.

Finally, it’s established that there is a Borg resistance in the form of a small percentage of drones who are linked via something known as Unimatrix Zero and have somehow regained their individuality. Much of the plot of this two-parter involves liberating those drones from the collective and preventing the Borg Queen from destroying them.