was one which had been considered as the cliffhanger for the third season; this involved duplicates of the Voyager crew. The general premise would go on to be used in the episode "Demon" instead. In this pitch, the duplicates managed to return to the Alpha Quadrant to Deep Space Nine but it turns out to be an invasion. The duplicates idea was shelved once more as the producers felt it would undermine the impact when the real Voyager returned home. A second idea was proposed based on the Starfleet communication the ship received in "Hunters". It would have seen Janeway work out a means to decode the transmission herself, which revealed it to be plans for a "slipstream" drive. Seven was to be wary as the technology had resulted in the destruction of Borg vessels. The pitch would have seen modifications made to Voyager, which enters a slipstream and finds itself on an "intergalactic freeway" with other vessels travelling so fast as to make the ship look like a horse and buggy in comparison. Several other ideas were then proposed. One involved Seven's Borg implants suffering severe side effects from being in the slipstream, but this was discarded as it felt similar to the episode "One", which was due to air immediately prior to the finale. An alternative involved a battle in the slipstream with an alien vessel, which results in that crew abandoning it and Seven suggesting that they use the new ship to take the crew all the way home. Janeway disagrees, but somehow Seven ends up in command of the alien vessel and for some sort of dangerous situation to occur which Janeway must save her from. It was proposed that there was some reason why they attacked Voyager, and Taylor suggested "vengeance", which was well received by the others. The writing team reconvened later that day, after Braga met with executive producer Rick Berman separately. Berman made several suggestions for the plot; that Janeway shouldn't decode the message immediately at the start of the episode, and that the vengeance seeking alien should be decrepit and attempting to deceive the crew. As the group planned out an overview of the idea on a whiteboard, the alien was once again discussed. The idea of having him be of a species which had already been assimilated by the Borg was warmly received, with Menosky suggesting that it could be