The Good: Decent plot, Fair acting.
The Bad: Make-up special effects, Very light on character development, Borg are uncharacteristically pliable.
The Basics: Retooling Star Trek: Voyager, in "Scorpion, Part II," the ship makes an alliance with the Borg that may be disastrous.
Many people debate where the Star Trek franchise went wrong. After all, once it was a powerful, original franchise that was lauded around the world for its peaceful, inventive vision of the future. By Star Trek: Enterprise, it had mortgaged so much of its past and potential in favor of appealing to the action-adventure science fiction crowd and the Baywatch audience. The use of bodysuits to accent breasts and butts of female characters may have begun in the third season of Star Trek: Voyager, but in the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager, the show committed to that type of vision with the introduction of Seven Of Nine.
Seven Of Nine first appears in "Scorpion, Part II." Following up where season three ended with the Voyager entering Borg territory in "Scorpion, Part I" (reviewed here!). The introduction of Species 8472 in "Scorpion, Part I" put the Borg in play in a situation that necessitated an alliance between the Borg and Voyager. With the threat growing following the alien species wiping out an entire planet, the Borg agree to Janeway's dangerous plan. But the main purpose of "Scorpion, Part II" is to write in Seven Of Nine and continue the phase-out of Kes. I, for one, think that the show made a bad trade.
With the decimation of the nearby planet, the Borg ship with Janeway aboard and Voyager escape the swarm of alien ships. As the Doctor tests the nanoprobes on Harry Kim, Kes begins to suffer from telepathic incursions from the aliens. Tuvok joins Janeway on the Borg cube and resisting their efforts to implant communications devices in the two humans, Janeway and Tuvok are introduced to a single drone who will speak for the collective: Seven Of Nine. The alliance continues to be maintained, but when the Borg require a prototype of the weapon to be built, the Cube is destroyed with the Captain, Tuvok and a handful of Borg escaping its destruction.
Janeway is seriously wounded in the escape and with Chakotay in command of Voyager, tensions rise when the Borg want to make a trip backwards. Chakotay resists the idea of going back and plans to leave the Borg on an alien planet. When the war against the alien species takes a further turn for the worse, the Borg seize control of Voyager and take the ship into fluidic space, the realm of the alien species. Balancing the mission's cost with the idea of the Delta Quadrant being overwhelmed by the aliens, Chakotay and Voyager take the war to the alien species!
While the plot dictates the necessity of the alliance, the very idea that the Borg would be so forward-thinking is somewhat uncharacteristic. In Peter David's brilliant Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Vendetta (reviewed here!), David characterized the Borg appropriately as the omnipresent "now." They assimilate, overwhelm, then move on. They do not truly understand the future and that perspective is a clever one. That the Borg are so altered is somewhat troubling.
Similarly bogus is the way Seven Of Nine threatens Janeway and, later, Chakotay. The sense of extortion is uncharacteristic of the Borg and that illustrates an odd lack of understanding of the initial character design. The Borg have assimilated thousands of races; they are not ripe for character growth. So, when Seven Of Nine starts extorting and threatening the crew, the idea of menace seems odd.
As far as Seven Of Nine goes, her character design continues the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Greatest Hits" concept. Just as B'Elanna is a rewrite of K'Ehleyr and The Emergency Medical Hologram is a continuation on the concept of the holographic Moriarty, Seven Of Nine is a reworking of Hugh Borg from "I, Borg" (reviewed here!). In "Scorpion, Part II," the viewer gets the concept of the character before the main character struggle. Instead, we see her as full Borg. That character might have worked better had Seven Of Nine not seemed so initially emotional even as a Borg.
"Scorpion, Part II" is almost entirely devoid of character development. While the EMH has some cute moments of pride over his medical work with Kim and Janeway, the main character moment comes with Janeway and Chakotay. The two continue the bickering they began in "Part I." Chakotay advocates killing the alliance and when they fight, Janeway's dialogue is annoyingly expository. Pointing out the two battles (internal and external) seems remarkably banal.
While Kate Mulgrew pulls off her role well, Jeri Ryan's entrance into the series is surprisingly emotional. Her dialogue is presented in the least-cold fashion of any Borg. She adds far too much subtext to her deliveries which is utterly unlike the Borg.
Kes's subplot is disposed of ridiculously fast and makes very little sense (i.e. how Kes is not pretty much incapacitated the moment the ship enters fluidic space given that in the Delta Quadrant she is tormented seems a real flaw), but Jennifer Lein makes fine use of her time on screen.
The special effects in "Scorpion, Part II" are good, except the CG-enhanced ones for the infection on Harry Kim's face. That effect is, sadly, laughably bad. Either way, the episode does not come down to effects to either save or kill the episode. This is a plot-heavy second part that makes little sense in the overall context of the Star Trek franchise. While behind-the-scenes the idea to not make Star Trek: Voyager heavily serialized may have been the undoing of the franchise, on-screen the turning point for the franchise may well be "Scorpion, Part II." Sure, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine would continue to endure in creative and amazing ways, but for the show that would succeed it and help define the franchise, the on-screen turn that shakes it up in a way that stops the show from really working is "Scorpion, Part II."
[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek: Voyager - The Complete Fourth Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the gamechanging middle season here!
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4.5/10
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© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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