10 Best Star Trek: Voyager Episodes
8. Dark Frontier
Susanna Thompson is a colder, more mechanical Borg Queen than the one audiences met in Star Trek: First Contact. She is absolutely determined to get Seven of Nine back from Voyager. She bargains that Voyager's safety will be sufficient as the price, which works - for a time.
Dark Frontier explores the backstory of the Hansen family, with little Annika Hansen growing up to be Seven. Her parents were exo-biologists who were determined to study the Borg, leading to their eventual assimilation. Despite their naivety in underestimating the Collective, their research proves to be vital to the crew of Voyager.
The episode belongs to Jeri Ryan. Although well established as a member of the crew by the fifth season, she had continued to face social obstacles preventing her from accepting her place on the ship. This feature-length story offers Ryan her one of her finest turns as Seven, ending with the character firmly integrated with the rest of the people on the ship.
Though the Borg would come to be overused in Star Trek: Voyager, this episode is an excellent example where every box is ticked. It also serves to knock a few years from the return journey, thanks to a handy transwarp coil.