Picard - 10 Essential Seven Of Nine Star Trek Episodes
3. Surviving Silence - One
What is a drone supposed to do when they go from billions of voices in their head all the time to none at all? This is the question that the fourth season episode One addresses in what is one of the most unsettling early episodes for Seven.
Voyager must pass through a nebula that would be harmful to the crew. Only Seven and the Doctor remain immune to its effects and so they are called upon as guardians for the month long trip through. Initially things go well and they continue with their routine. However, Seven's hold begins to slip - the silence that the ship now contains is so opposite to the cacophony she spent most of her life as part of. She hallucinates. She panics. She sinks into despair.
Watching Seven go through it parallels the journey that all recovering addicts must take - they go from the need, to the want to be free to the fear of being without (in any which order). Seven had only ever known the collective and this episode offers her the ultimate in cold turkey exercises. The return of the crew helps to ease her out of her suffering with a newfound appreciation but it is clear that she still has farther to go down the road to freedom.