Scorpion (episode)
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.
| This article is written from the Real World point of view |
 |
| "Scorpion" | ||
|---|---|---|
| VOY, Episode 3x26 Production number: 168 First aired: 21 May 1997 | ||
| ← | 67th of 168 produced in VOY | → |
| ← | 67th of 168 released in VOY | → |
| ← | 473rd of 726 released in all | → |
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| Written By Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed By David Livingston | ||
| 50984.3 (2373) | ||
| Arc: Scorpion (1 of 2) | → | |
On the verge of entering Borg space, the USS Voyager encounters an other-realm alien race even more powerful than the Borg, bent on destroying all life in the galaxy. Captain Janeway is forced to make a deal with the Borg to defeat them. (Season Finale)
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Teaser
In a region of space, two Borg cubes are seen. They are advancing on their next intended targets for assimilation. As they advance, the soulless, multi-track resonant voice of the Borg Collective is heard, heralding, as always, their victims' fate:
"We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is..."
But this time the result is wholly unexpected. Their hail is cut off abruptly as energy beams lash out at the cubes. The cubes are instantly destroyed.
[edit] Act One
On one of USS Voyager's holodecks, Captain Janeway is running her simulation of one of her favorite Earth historical figures, Leonardo Da Vinci. But as she immerses herself in the simulation, she gets an urgent hail from Lt. Commander Chakotay. The First Officer asks her to go to Engineering; there is something she must see. She ends the simulation and leaves the holodeck.
In Engineering, Chakotay and Chief Engineer Lt. Torres are waiting for her. They show her a recording of images transmitted from a probe that was sent out a few months before. The probe had suddenly stopped transmitting, but Torres managed to salvage the last few seconds of transmitted feed.
The Captain views the images, and is stone-faced as a Borg cube fills the screen. The images then change to the interior of the cube, where a Borg drone's emotionless face stares into the imager before taking a prosthetic device to it. Then, nothing.
Janeway turns and stares at the officers, the implications of what she has just seen very clear. The time has come, after three years, to undertake the single most dangerous part of their journey: the crossing of Borg space.
Janeway immediately calls a meeting of the senior staff and explains the situation to them. The enormity of it is not lost on any of them; the space that the Borg control is vast, covering thousands of light years; space in which every planet, species and individual has been assimilated. Millions of Borg ships, from probes to cubes, prowling. This is where they must now go; into the lions' den. But to continue their journey, they have no choice but to do so. It seems a folly to even try; their assimilation would be a certainty. But then Janeway and Chakotay reveal a solution that might just be their salvation.
An astrometric map is pulled up, showing the vast area that is Borg space. But on it there is a meandering region, traversing the entire area, with no Borg activity whatsoever; no planets, no ships, nothing at all. Janeway and Chakotay call it the 'Northwest Passage'. The only problem is it contains many quantum singularities, which would make for a rough ride. But Flight Controller Lt. (J.G.) Paris voices the opinion of all the staff: "Better to ride the rapids than face the hive".
Janeway asks them about readiness. Ops Manager Ensign Kim reports that sensors have been remodulated to check round the clock for Borg transwarp activity. The Doctor, the ship's holographic Chief Medical Officer, reports having minutely scanned the Borg drone corpse they had found months before, and he is close to producing a biological defense. (VOY: "Blood Fever"). Neelix has been working on ways to extend their supplies and replicator rations; they will certainly not be able to replenish supplies in Borg space. Lt. Torres reports that warp propulsion is operating at optimum. Janeway voices her faith in all of them, and ends the meeting.
All over the ship, preparations are finalized; In Engineering, the engines are checked yet again; they cannot afford to stop for any reason whatsoever once they enter Borg space. Lt. Commander Tuvok, Chief Tactical Officer and Security Chief, goes through firearms checks with his security officers. Chakotay and Kim review planned tactical options in case the Borg invade the ship. Every officer and crewman is ready to face this most perilous part of their journey.
In the sickbay, the Doctor and Kes, his medical assistant, are examining the Borg drone corpse.
But suddenly Kes, who is a telepath, experiences a vivid vision of dismembered Borg drone corpses, piled up on one another. She has no idea what this means, but it disturbs her greatly, and she tells the Doctor about it. She experiences these and other frightening visions for the next two hours; visions of dead drones and Voyager's destruction. Tuvok, who is Kes' teacher in honing her telepathy, is informed.
He is on the bridge speaking to Janeway and Chakotay about it when, suddenly, the ship begins to tremble. Ensign Kim at the Ops station reports Borg transwarp activity a few light years from their current position, aft. The subspace turbulence gets so severe that they cannot maintain warp and cut to impulse.
Then Kim reports more and more transwarp activity; a Borg vessel is approaching. One sensor detection of a cube is enough for alarm, but the number rises to a staggering fifteen; fifteen Borg cubes are bearing down on them.
Janeway sharply orders them shown on the viewscreen. The enormous vessels are seen rapidly approaching. But they do not attack. Instead, shockingly, they race past them as a full bus speeds past a traveler at a bus stop. One cube slows and scans them, then speeds up to rejoin the others. They soon pass beyond the sensors' visual range, though Kim still has them on the long range sensors. Subspace turbulence dies down. At a complete loss, but extremely thankful, Janeway orders resumption of warp.
Janeway is next seen reviewing data of all Federation vessel encounters with the Borg in her ready room. Chakotay enters. Janeway tells him she has been seeking useful information on the Borg from the logs other Starfleet commanding officers, but has gotten none. Chatokay gently assures her that he and everyone else will support her; whatever is coming, they will face it together. Then Tuvok hails her to come onto the bridge.
She and Chakotay go back onto the bridge, where Tuvok and Kim report that the Borg cubes have suddenly stopped. The reason cannot be detected. Janeway orders Lt. Paris to take them to the coordinates. What they find is even more baffling than before; in fact, it is inconceivable. Every one of the fifteen cubes has been destroyed; sensors show that it was not done by any natural phenomena, but by weapons of unknown origin. The region is filled with gigantic pieces of debris from the annihilated cubes. Lt. Paris, gazing in shock at the viewscreen, asks the question they all have:
"Who could do this to the Borg?"
[edit] Act Two
Janeway, Chakotay and the officers on the bridge simply cannot believe what they are seeing. The Borg are the single strongest, most dangerous power known to the Federation. Borg cubes, their main vessels, are so powerful as to be almost beyond belief. One cube completely destroyed a fleet of thirty-nine of the Federation's most advanced starships at the Battle of Wolf 359, and did not sustain so much as a scratch. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds") Who in creation could possibly have the ability to inflict this kind of damage on them? Ensign Kim takes a very optimistic view; if they can form an alliance with this power, then all their concerns about crossing Borg space would vanish.
But Janeway and Chakotay warn him not to jump to conclusions; this unknown power may be even worse. Tuvok then reports that sensors show some sort of unknown alien technology attached to the remains of one cube. Janeway orders it put on the viewscreen; it shows a mostly-intact cube, but with a strange object, reminiscent of a squid, attached to it.
Kim tries to scan it, but cannot. Transporter locks on it also fail; it is completely impervious to their technology. Kim is, however, able to find that it is partly biological. Janeway is determined to find out what manner of weapon could destroy the Borg so, and who are its wielders. The cube has some atmosphere left, and a few erratic Borg lifesigns. Janeway orders Chakotay to lead an away team to the cube to investigate. Chakotay takes Tuvok and Kim.
The three officers beam aboard the cube and find it a wreck. Dead drones are scattered about. A few work futilely to repair the damage. The officers pick their way through the damage, careful to keep the phaser rifles they carry lowered, lest the Borg see them as threats and react. They follow the readings on their tricorders, moving steadily toward the object attached to the cube's hull.
Then Kim finds a most disturbing sight and calls the other two officers to see it. They gaze upon a pile of dismembered Borg corpses. Tuvok tells them it is exactly as Kes had seen in her vision. They continue forward to the object and find that it has created a gaping hole in the cube's hull and fused onto it. A single drone stands there. Ignoring them, it repeatedly tries to assimilate the thing, plunging in its assimilation tubules, to no effect. The officers enter the object and take scans. It is revealed to be a ship. More than partly biological, as Kim's scans showed, it is alive; a living ship.
A hole is found in one of its walls, leading to another section of the cube. Tuvok says it was made by a Borg disruptor, but the wall is actually repairing itself. They step through to find a drone lying dead. Its face is deformed, as if being consumed by some hideous disease. Kim, who had begun downloading the cube's tactical data into his tricorder, off from the others, hears a loud scraping noise. Hoisting his phaser rifle, he moves to investigate.
In Voyager's sickbay, Kes is carrying a tray when she is suddenly overwhelmed by visions of Kim screaming in abject agony. She drops the tray and collapses. When the Doctor rushes to her and asks what is wrong, she frantically replies that the away team is in grave danger; they need to leave the cube immediately. The Doctor at once hails Captain Janeway and tells her.
On the cube, Kim calls the other two officers to his position; something living is in the vicinity and it is not Borg. Just then Janeway hails and tells them to prepare for immediate return to Voyager. But, on the bridge, Lt. Torres, working at the Ops station, reports that beaming them back is not possible; bio-electric interference from the lifeform, which is approaching the team, is blocking the transporter. She tries to get a lock on the minerals in their skeletons in order to get them.
On the cube, every surviving drone is moving rapidly away from the team's position. The officers level their rifles in the direction of the oncoming lifeform. Suddenly it tears through a wall and enters the corridor. It is tall, large and muscular, with three legs and a triangular head. Immediately it attacks nearby drones, swiping them. They fall, their bodies convulsing. Then it turns and backhands Kim in the chest. He collapses, screaming in sheer, excruciating pain. The creature moves to finish him, but just then Voyager's transporter beam takes him and the other two officers.
On the bridge, Lt. Paris reports that the alien ship is detaching and powering up, seeming to be readying to fire a weapon. Kes, who is also there on the bridge, experiences another vision: one of the creatures, looking at her, communicating with her. Janeway orders Paris to take them out of there at maximum warp.
He obeys, turning the ship away from the cube. But before he can engage the warp engines, the alien ship fires. The shields take the energy bolt, but the ship is heavily buffeted. As soon as it steadies, Paris engages the warp engines. Voyager clears out in an instant. Kes, full of alarm, tells Janeway what the alien told her. It is not the Borg, she warns, that they should be worried about. These aliens who are so easily capable of decimating the Borg are a telepathic species, and have spoken through her. They have a single message: "The weak…will perish."
The implication is clear: after the Borg are destroyed, they plan to move on to other races... and others... and others.
[edit] Act Three
As Voyager continues heading for the Northwest Passage, now only one day away, Janeway enters sickbay and sees the horrific sight of Ensign Kim lying on a bio-bed, paralyzed, yet obviously in agony. The chest area of his uniform is ripped, showing wounds from his attacker's claws. His face, like the face of the drone on the cube, is horribly deformed.
The Doctor tells her that the few alien cells left in the wound the creature had given him are now throughout his entire body. Janeway says he appears as if he is transforming; the Doctor corrects her; the alien cells are not transforming his cells, but consuming them; he is literally being eaten alive, from the inside out. Janeway is horrified to see that he is still conscious. The Doctor frustratedly tells her that he has tried to anesthetize him, but it simply does not work; the alien cells neutralize the anesthetic immediately.
He shows her a scan of the alien DNA. He tells her it is over 100 times denser than human DNA; any chemical or foreign body, living or non-living, which penetrates the cell membrane, is instantly destroyed.
Janeway realizes an important fact: "any foreign body" includes Borg nanoprobes; this is why the Borg cannot assimilate these creatures. But the Doctor says he may have found a way to use Borg nanoprobes to treat Kim; he has hacked into one from the dead drone and reprogrammed it so that the alien cells will not detect it as a foreign body. Thus it can destroy the alien DNA. It will then destroy itself so as not to assimilate the tissue it is in.
But it will take several days to reprogram enough nanoprobes to destroy the alien cells in Kim’s body, and he has no idea if Kim will last that long. Janeway quietly urges Kim to continue fighting. Kim’s only response, the only one he can give, is a single tear.
On the bridge, Tuvok and Lt. Torres show Chakotay a part of the tactical data Kim had gotten from the cube. According to it, the aliens, designated by the Borg as Species 8472, have engaged the Borg twelve times in the last five months and each time the outcome has been the same as what they saw remaining of the fifteen cubes: the Borg were completely destroyed. The Borg are unable to adapt to them or come up with any kind of defense. The Borg only gain knowledge of a species by assimilating members of that species; thus if they cannot assimilate them, they cannot understand or adapt to them.
Chakotay asks if they know where the aliens are coming from. They do, and it is the worst possible news; they pull up a visual and show him. He inhales sharply at what he sees, and tells them to get the captain.
A grim-faced Janeway is seen watching the visual as it shows hundreds of the aliens' ships, streaming forth from the quantum singularities in the Northwest Passage. The reason why the area is totally devoid of Borg is now obvious.
Kes tells her that they have been communicating with her further. Their new messages are even more frightening than the first. They are from another realm where only they live; there are no other lifeforms there. Their campaign against the Borg is only the beginning. They keep repeating that "The weak will perish". It is an invasion; they intend to destroy every living thing in the entire Milky Way. Janeway immediately orders Lt. Paris to come about and return to a position five light years away from the Passage, then all stop. She and Chakotay go to her ready room.
In her ready room, Janeway and Chakotay discuss their next move. The Northwest Passage is now out of the question; entering would mean certain death. So the only options they have now are to either take their chances crossing Borg space outside the Passage and "face the hive", or not go in at all and remain in the Delta Quadrant indefinitely. Janeway is very much inclined to take the first option; she simply cannot bring herself to give up or to tell the crew to do so.
Chakotay tries to inject some optimism, saying that they may yet find another way home. He advises her to get some rest, and leaves her to somberly ponder her next decision. She tries to relax via her Da Vinci holodeck simulation. But the decision she must make weighs too heavily.
But then, in a flash of inspiration, a possible solution presents itself. She immediately calls a meeting with the senior staff.
[edit] Act Four
In the briefing room, Janeway outlines her plan: a deal with the Borg, against their enemy. The officers are incredulous. She outlines the rationale: Voyager has the solution the Borg need to defeat Species 8472; the Doctor's reprogrammed nanoprobes. These could be made into a biological weapon against the species.
And if the Borg were to simply assimilate Voyager for the technical data to create the weapon themselves? The Doctor would be the only one to have the information; he would delete himself and it as well. The Borg are being exterminated; they would not sacrifice this chance to save themselves in order to assimilate one ship and its crew. The Doctor points out that the research is highly experimental; he is not even sure it will work on Ensign Kim. But Janeway sees this as their only chance, and is confident it will work. She orders Paris to find the nearest assimilated system and set a course for it, and dismisses the meeting.
During the meeting, however, Chakotay is quiet. He remains behind after the others have left and, using a parable about a scorpion and a fox, tells her what he thinks: it is suicide. The discussion becomes a heated argument. He outlines the problems: firstly, they have no guarantee that the Borg will keep their hands off them after they get the information. And, secondly, they would be giving an advantage to a race guilty of murdering billions, helping them to carry out the horrific abomination of assimilation on yet another species. "It's wrong!" he adamantly tells her. She responds that they may be doing the galaxy a favor, given the threat the species represents, a threat much greater than the Borg. She tells him her mind is made up, and asks him pointedly if she has his support. He responds that as her First Officer, she will have his obedience, but not his support; not for this. She dismisses him sadly, but her resolve is unshaken.
Voyager arrives at an assimilated system. Several Borg cubes are in the area. Immediately one of the enormous vessels closes on them. The usual chilling hail from the Collective, informing them of their intended fate of being assimilated, comes through, and the cube seizes them in a tractor beam.
Janeway responds that they have tactical information about Species 8472 and offers to negotiate for it. The Collective refuses. Janeway has Torres transmit to it a sample of the research, showing the 8472 cells being destroyed by the Borg nanoprobes. She tells it that this is a sample of the data, and threatens to destroy it if the Collective does not listen to what she has to say. There is a long pause. She presses the point, telling the Collective that she knows it is being destroyed. This information can save it. She again offers to negotiate. But as she speaks, she is transported to the cube, and finds herself on a catwalk spanning the gargantuan interior of the vessel.
The Collective instructs her to state her demands. She lays them out; there is only one: safe passage through Borg space in exchange for the data, once they are safely through and out the other side, untouched and unassimilated. The Collective finds this unacceptable; Borg space is vast; the data is needed now. She refuses, telling them that the data is their only guarantee against assimilation. The Collective will only get it once Voyager is safely beyond Borg space. Silence ensues as the Collective considers.
It instructs her to state her proposal. Her idea is for them to work together as Voyager traverses Borg space to craft a bio-weapon using the data. She is in the middle of outlining this when the cube is violently shaken.
An 8472 ship is attacking. On Voyager's bridge, Tuvok informs Chakotay, in command in the absence of the Captain, that a quantum singularity has opened 20,000 kilometers away, and more of the ships are coming through behind this one. The cube's shields are weakening, but not enough to beam Janeway back.
Nine of the ships are seen. They converge in a star pattern, eight forming a ring around one in the center. They head toward the assimilated planet. The eight in the ring fire on the one in the middle. It is not destroyed; instead it collects the energy and channels it into one devastatingly powerful bolt, directed at the planet. The planet glows red, fireballs erupt on its surface, and then it explodes, totally obliterated. All the Borg cubes in the vicinity are destroyed, except for the one holding Voyager. The cube is seen hurtling away at high warp, just ahead of the explosion, Voyager still held firmly in its tractor beam.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
"In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason."
- - Captain Picard, log entry read by Captain Janeway
"There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly, he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said 'No, if I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown.' The scorpion assured him, 'If I did that, we'd both drown.' So the fox thought about it, and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim, but half way across the river the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, 'Why did you do that? Now you'll drown too.' 'I couldn't help it,' said the scorpion, 'it's my nature'."
- - Chakotay, to Janeway as he objects to her plan to ally with the Borg
"There are times, Katharina, when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. I stare at it, the hours pass, the world around me drops away... Replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination."
- - Leonardo da Vinci (holodeck)
"There's a path before me... the only way home. And on either side, mortal enemies bent on destroying each other. If I attempt to pass between them... I'll be destroyed as well. But to turn around... that would end all hope of ever getting home."
- - Janeway, to Da Vinci on the Holodeck
"What if I made an appeal... to the Devil?"
- - Janeway, as she considers an alliance with the Borg
"The weak will perish!"
- - Species 8472, as stated by Kes from one of her telepathic encounters
"We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is fu..."
- - Borg, before being destroyed by Species 8472
[edit] Background Information
- "Scorpion" gets its name from the parable Chakotay shares with Janeway after briefing the crew on her plan to form a temporary alliance with the Borg.
- This episode marks the final appearance of Jennifer Lien (Kes) as a regular cast member.
- The interior Borg cube matte shot in the final scene was recycled from Star Trek: First Contact, with the bridge and Janeway superimposed over it.
- The robot that Leonardo Da Vinci is working on in Captain Janeway's holodeck program of his workshop is based on a real work that Da Vinci created. Although the final drawings of the robot are lost (if they ever existed), preliminary sketches have been input into computer simulations that confirms that they were indeed meant to be a mechanical man. While the sketches were known of, it was not until the 1950s that a professor from the University of California realized what they were meant to be. For more information, please see Leonardo's robot at Wikipedia or Lodestar's Lair.
- Janeway points out to Da Vinci: "Someone once said... all invention is but an extension of the body of man...". This "someone" is Marshall McLuhan popular for his studies in media theory. One of his theses is that all media are just extensions of our human body. For example a radio is an extension of the ear, binoculars an extension of our eyes. This theory directly relates to the character of the Borg.
- The idea for "Scorpion" was a last minute idea and written in a week. Originally "Year of Hell" was going to be the finale, but with the choice made to shake up the cast in season 4, this episode was the result. (Delta Quadrant, David McIntee, 2000)
- This episode has one of the shortest teasers in Star Trek, at just under twenty seconds.
- This episode marks the beginning of the development of tension in the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay, which culminates in Chakotay considering mutiny in the season 6 premiere "Equinox, Part II".
- This episode marks the third time in Star Trek that an end-of-season cliffhanger story had revolved around the Borg - the previous occasions being TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds" and TNG: "Descent". Coincidentally, the former of those two episodes had bridged TNG's third and fourth seasons, just as "Scorpion" bridges the equivalent seasons of VOY.
[edit] Video and DVD releases
- UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.13, 20 October 1997.
- In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 2 (with "Year of Hell"), catalogue number VHR 5072, 18 September 2000.
- As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection.
- As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg collection.
[edit] Links and References
[edit] Guest Star
[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars
[edit] References
Achilles; Amasov; assimilation tubule; Battle of Wolf 359; bioship; Borg Collective; Borg cube; Breen; cardinal; electrodynamic fluid; Endeavour, USS; Enterprise-D, USS; fluidic space; goose grease; gravimetric distortions; Hickman; Hephaestus; Hercules; horse; Kes; nanoprobe; "Northwest Passage"; oak; Jean-Luc Picard; polaron beam; Q; Santa Croce; scudi; Species 8472; Species 8472 bioship; starling; Tale of the Scorpion; telepathy; transwarp; Wolf 359
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