Picard - 10 Essential Seven Of Nine Star Trek Episodes

Dark Frontier serves as both backstory and a daring raid against the Borg. The feature length exploration of the Hansen family offers not only clues in evading the Borg but also shows the dogged determination of Seven's parents that led to their assimilation by the species they so desperately wanted to meet.

As a child, Annika Hansen is a normal little girl, pulled away from everything she knows by her loving, if obsessed, parents. They discuss how there is no going back as they continue their journey, seemingly mirroring the adult Seven's resentment of both the Collective and often the Voyager crew. Their journey serves as a study point in the run up to an attempt by the Voyager crew to steal essential Borg technology to get home faster. It falls on Seven to help find a way to pull off the mission.

The episode re-introduces viewers to the Borg Queen, played to perfection in Star Trek: First Contact by Alice Krige, and here played by Susanna Thompson. She is a different type of Queen - colder, less sensual and evoking true fear. However she still has a place in her cold, mechanical heart for Seven. She wants her to come home and be one with the collective again. Seven agrees to return.

While of course it would end with Seven's return to Voyager, Dark Frontier remains the key story line for understanding Seven of Nine. She is offered the chance to return to perfection and she takes it, no matter how hesitant or fearful that return is. She is saved by the reminder that her new family love her.

She stands with the Queen and the drone who had been her father in another life. The Borg tried to destroy everything that was Annika Hansen as it did with her parents. Janeway comes to save her, solidifying Seven's role as her ward, her friend, her daughter. If there is one story that needs to be seen before Star Trek Picard, it is this one.