Child's Play

*** (3 stars out of 5)
Hey, great title! Is Brad Dourif in this one? I don't see Chucky anywhere... oh. It's another Borg Babies adventure.

One of Seven's gaggle of Borg geese is ready to leave the nest. They've found Icheb's parents... on his homeworld of Brunali. Always the last place you look!

Having been a surrogate mommy for some weeks now, Seven of Nine is reluctant to dump starry-eyed burgeoning astronomer Icheb onto his dirt-clod farming parents. Not least because his dad is mercenary Badger from Firefly. Yes, my nerdlings, it's Mark Sheppard! World-Conqueror Manservant Neville from 'The Middleman' himself. Shifty Van Devious to his friends. What could he be up to?

It's good to be back with your birth parents. At least it would be if they hadn't secretly been genetic engineers who grew Icheb specifically to
infect and destroy the Borg from within. And if they weren't already stuffing him back into the wrapping and re-gifting him.

"Child's Play" tells a sobering story and proves a powerful point: ST:TNG made aliens by putting weirdness on their foreheads. Lately, prosthetic noses are a sure sign of aliens! That's all. Sorry, not a powerful point after all.  You'll have to forgive me, I'm off to the Calgary Expo for nerdgasms like the chance to spot Mark "Canton Everett Delaware III" Sheppard. Don't wait up.