Star Trek: Voyager — 4x01 — Scorpion, Part II

Aired 1997-09-03

SpaceOpera.com rating:10

Average reader rating:5.88

Factoids

This episode is a candidate for my "Best Episode of Voyager Award".
The opening credits were altered for this episode. Jeri Ryan was credited for Seven of Nine and Jennifer Lien's name for Kes was removed. The Kes character is actually a guest star in this episode!
The diagram Seven shows for the "multikinetic neutronic mine" is actually a picture of the Borg ship from TNG: Descent.
We see Seven of Nine as a young girl and her parents in this episode very, very briefly during Chakotay's invasion of her mind during the "Scorpion" backup plan. Interestingly, all the same actors in the extremely brief flashbacks will be hired again for future episodes. That's some nice preplanning.
This episode establishes that Seven of Nine's given name is Annika.
Borg species designation: 8472, name unknown. The Borg fought a war against them which they almost, but Voyager allied themselves with the Borg to stop the 8472 threat.

Problems

This episode establishes that there are 32 photon torpedoes left on Voyager. Unless they've found some way to manufacture them themselves, this number is WAY too high.
How could Seven of Nine talk over the comm. whilst she was on a depressurized deck?

Synopsis

Voyager gets a new shipmate.

Remarkable scenes

The teaser. Picks up right where part one left off brilliantly.
Janeway and Tuvok aboard the Borg cube.
Seven of Nine's introduction.
Seven of Nine: "Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero-One, but you may call me Seven of Nine."
Seven of Nine: "Your torpedoes are inadequate. They lack the necessary range and dispersive force."
Tuvok: "How did you obtain this information?" Seven: "We are Borg." Tuvok: "Naturally."
Seven of Nine: "If we transport 500 drones onto your vessel, do you believe you could offer sufficient resistance?" Janeway: "We'd die trying."
The Borg ship defending Voyager from species 8472, then sacrificing itself to protect Voyager.
Seven of Nine: "You are erratic. Conflicted. Disorganized. Every decision is debated, every action questioned, every individual entitled to their own small opinion. You lack harmony, cohesion, greatness. It will be your undoing."
Chakotay blowing all the Borg out into space.
The revelation that the Borg started the war with species 8472.
Chakotay to Seven regarding species 8472: "A species as malevolent as your own."
Seven of Nine regarding species 8472: "They are the apex of biological evolution."
The doctor being under appreciated after he healed Janeway.
Janeway: "I won't be caught tinkering with the deflector when those aliens attack."
Janeway: "We're going to war."
Kes, in telepathic contact with species 8472: "They say our galaxy is impure. Its proximity is a threat to their genetic integrity. They said your galaxy will be purged."
Voyager engaging species 8472.
Seven of Nine attempting to take over the ship and Chakotay invading her mind, initiating the "Scorpion" backup plan.

Review

The Chakotay vs. Janeway conflict comes to a head here. Interestingly, I think they're both right. I think Janeway's idea to form an alliance with the Borg was the correct decision and I think the judgment call Chakotay made to end the alliance when he did was correct also. It's something of an irony. The two needed each other. Voyager needed them both in command at certain times. Janeway's too aggressive and Chakotay is too passive. But their combined leadership saved the day. Personally, I thought species 8472 backed off way too quickly. They must have overestimated the Borg's ability to defend themselves with the modified nanoprobes. This isn't necessarily unrealistic, just annoying. I was looking forward to a long and drawn out conflict between the Borg and species 8472 with Voyager entangled in the middle. The writers, however, were not. And it's largely all wrapped up at the end of this episode. In the end, Voyager is still in Borg space, but the Borg are ignoring them. Probably because they have lost so many planets, ships, and drones that they're still rebuilding their society. A single ship in their space would seem inconsequential. Most importantly, Voyager has gained a new crewmember though. A human former Borg.

1 reader comment

Chakotay and Janeway both had good rationale for their different views, but they both turn out to be right about something too: that the Borg would make every effort to assimilate the ship and crew. Janeway believed the key was to hold off on handing the Borg the Doctor's modified nanoprobes until the ship could get through Borg space, which was a good call. Chakotay feared that, once the Borg were aboard Voyager, they would try to assimilate the ship and this also turned out to be a correct instinct. I think both Janeway and Chakotay knew that there was no reason for the Borg to honor any promise to them because, without the threat of Species 8472, such promises would be irrelevant.
Part two handled their conflict a little better, I thought. And I agree that the threat of Species 8472 did end rather suddenly. Maybe they did not think themselves capable of being defeated or having vulnerabilities that other life forms could exploit, so when that happened they opted to play it safe and back away. Clearly, they would not be accustomed to losing people in great numbers. But who knows…
Anyway, they were a very cool idea for a species and the concept behind their war with the Borg was very interesting: the Borg find a species they consider the apex of evolution, try to assimilate it, and end up fighting for their very survival. Definitely a great two-parter and, despite the lukewarm entrance of Seven of Nine, one of the better stories of the series.
by Mike L. Jackson | 05/28/2017 at 9:33 pm