The alliance of Voyager with the Borg, to overcome Species 8472, is working... but not without friction. As Janeway and Chakotay continue to clash over how to handle the situation, a "representative" from the Borg collective is chosen to interact with the humans. Will the Borg betray them at the first opportunity?
It sure seems like in the run-up to this episode, no one was especially happy about the Seven of Nine situation. A vocal contingent was complaining on BBS forums and at Trek conventions about how unnecessary "T&A" was being forced into the show. UPN executives were reportedly confused and upset that the character didn't look anything like they'd been promised in her first appearance. Actress Jeri Ryan, who had auditioned with scenes reflecting Seven's eventual position with the crew, hadn't exactly realized that she'd have to play full Borg in her first episode.
The seeds of behind-the-scenes resentment, which would eventually bloom in full, were planted here. Kate Mulgrew would ultimately come to feel that the Powers That Be were taking her show away from her by bringing in some new, sexy thing to upstage her. And to make room, they were unceremoniously shoving out the door a very young and relatively inexperienced actress with mental health issues. (More on that in my next "flashback review.")
But you hardly see any of that on the screen. Perhaps you might feel the Voyager crew is being oddly uncaring about Kes' telepathic distress in this episode... but no more so than they are in throwing Harry Kim right back to work the moment he's recovered from the trauma of almost being "bio-assimilated" by Species 8472. (Physically, anyway. The mental trauma is given no mention.) Yet it's not as though the episode is so action-packed that it doesn't have time for any character moments; it's just that there's only time for some of the characters.
The conflict between Chakotay and Janeway in this episode truly is interesting here. Taking Janeway out of action to allow Chakotay to back out of a plan he never really believed in makes for great conflict -- though I do wish both sides of their argument were more forcefully presented. Janeway is right that the entire galaxy is at stake here, and so risks need to be taken. Chakotay is right that the Borg are going to double-cross them, and no one knows better than him how collective Borg thought creates that inevitable end. It all plays well if you know the characters and bring your own subtext; it just would have been nice if the episode had more time to put more of the subtext into "text."
Seven of Nine isn't really the character she'd come to be, but she does get a number of chilling threats and fun "we are Borg" ("you're being stupid") moments. The Borg adapt and assimilate techniques of coercion: after being forced by Janeway to cooperate, they in turn force Chakotay's hand by transporting Voyager to their enemy's "fluidic space." And along the way, the Doctor gets a couple of fun quips.
But there are some very inelegant moments in the writing as well. The Borg aboard Voyager know well in advance that they're going to be blown out into space, but take no steps to adapt in advance to this information. A trip to Leonardo da Vinci's workship without Leonardo himself feels weird. And in the end, our heroes stupidly decide to remove any Borg tech upgrades, purely for television reasons of keeping the ship looking the same. (How about for justification: "if we leave any Borg tech connected to our ship, that's a risky access point the Borg could use against us in the future"?)
Other observations:
- The show isn't being coy about its cast changes at all. Jennifer Lien is out of the main credits (bumped to "Also Starring") and Jeri Ryan is in. Plus, a long and lingering shot of Seven of Nine at the end of the episode is meant to tell you she's here to stay (in case you missed all those other clues, or the summer media blitz that preceded the new character's arrival).
- CG of this time period remains hit and miss. Species 8472 looks a little better than in the third season finale (those eyes are quite creepy), but Voyager itself looks pretty rough in several shots.
- Fans counting Voyager's stash of photon torpedoes were flummoxed by this episode. The number given here is higher than it should be by subtracting everything used since the last time a number was given.
Officially, this is the second part of a two-part episode -- and it does resolve the Species 8472 cliffhanger of last season. (Arguably, too easily.) But unofficially, this is the middle part of a three parter that's really setting up the new landscape for Star Trek: Voyager. As such, it kind of has that "not entirely satisfying" feeling that middles of trilogies so often have. I give "Scorpion, Part II" a B.
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