Sunday, December 23, 2007

Seven of Nine crew integration

In my opinion the way they integrated Seven of Nine into the crew was stupid. Having the doctor teach her how to socialize did not make sense to me considering the doctor wasn't human or even a biological entity. No matter how well he was programed, he was not human and did not have the types of experiences a human/humanoid would have had. For example, he simulated eating and drink but did not require them in the same way that a physical being would. I know that he volunteered to teach her but him being the choice they decided upon did not make sense. There are multiple reasons why I think this but a major one would be because a lot of the crew members thought he had bad bed side manners and wasn't particularly good at socializing.

If I were the person with the decision on how to integrate her into the crew, I would have assigned her quarters with a female crew member. I would not have isolated her by putting her in the cargo bay (or I'd have converted part of the bay see this post). I'd have given the person assigned with her orders to become her friend and help her integrate with the crew. Otherwise I'd have had her be roommates with me.

Seven of Nines upbringing with the Borg made her extremely gifted in some ways but it also left her emotionally and socially stunted. She had the body of an adult and a gifted mind but emotionally and socially she was a child. She needed someone to be with her and help guide her. Yes I know the doctor and the captain did but a more effective way would have been to pair her with someone who can be with her often and who was biological in nature. Someone who could and would know to explain to her how to sit and chew (things she did not know as shown by other episodes and things the doctor would not think about since he does not require doing either).

A similar subject also dealing with crew integration, They expected too much from her. They appeared to either treat her like a machine or expect her to act human. Both of which does not make sense. She may have been born a human and has human DNA but she was raised by the Borg. The Borg will have influenced her a lot and that influence will effect her for her entire life. Helping her along and guiding her while she finds out who and what she wants to be makes sense but expecting her to be like a normal human doesn't. The best they should expect from her is along the lines of what a human/vulcan hybrid raised on Vulcan who now lives with regular humans.

How they treated her at first after she had just been taken from the collective also didn't make sense to me. She had just been disconnected from hearing the thoughts of billions, was in a situation she did not understand, and had been forcibly taken from the only home she has known against her will. She should have had lots of counseling. Counseling given to telepaths who suddenly lost their telepathic abilities since for all practical purposes that did happen to her, she had shared her thoughts with trillions of individuals and now her thoughts were hers and hers alone. Counseling given to people who were raised by their kidnappers and now see the kidnappers as their parents. Counseling given to people raised by other species similar to the counseling given to people who are raised by wolves or apes that you sometimes hear about. Counseling for the inevitable nightmares/guilt that she will have when she realizes what she has done as a Borg. Sure the crew was under staffed but the do have holographic technology and likely have counselors programmed in. While I realize that most people would find her therapy sessions to be boring, hence the reason they would not put them on the show, they still could have alluded to them or made mention of some type. I also realize that Seven would have seen them as an inefficient waste of time, but she should still have attended them.

They treated her like a star fleet officer in that they ordered her to do things instead of asking her to do things. An example of this is that she was ordered to give her nanoprobes to save a member of species 8472 in the episode Prey. She did not want to. It was her right to deny the use of her nanoprobes because she was not a member of star fleet. A star fleet officer signed up to be a part of star fleet and has to obey the captain. I do realize that Star fleet is for all practical purposes the Federations military and that civilians have to obey the Captains of ships. The reason I find ordering her around to be unfair is because she was not part of star fleet nor a civilian who decided to be on the ship. She was a civilian taken under duress. Unlike civilian volunteers who are generally given the choice of leaving, she is not given a choice to leave the ship. The order was also unethical. They basically said we want your blood so that we can use it to help the enemies of your race. I would not be surprised that from Seven's point of view she was a slave to the Borg and now she is a slave of the Federation but where the Borg make it clear she has no choice in what she does the Federation gives her the illusion of freedom (not really what the Federation does but it is one possible point of view she could have). There were times in which she should not have been aloud to make her own decisions for her own good but there were also times in which they ordered her to do stuff where she should have been given the choice of what to do.

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