Customer Reviews

Star Trek - Voyager, Episodes 68 & 69: Scorpion [VHS]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Intense, fast moving, powerful, these are only a few adjectives that describe what leads Captain Katherine Janeway to forge an alliance with the Federation's worst enemy, the Borg and the events that follow. Tensions run high as the crew of Voyager discovers that there is something that even the Borg fear, Species 8472. Faced with few alternative, Janeway seeks an agreement with the Collective in order to assure Voyager's safe passage and survival. At Janeway's request the Borg select a representative to communicate with the crew, Seven of Nine. So is introduced one of the most memorable and complex characters in the Start Trek universe.

There are numerous twist and turns as the crew of Voyager battle Species 8472, each other, and try to stay one step a head of being assimilated by you know who.

This one gets a 5 out of 5

SCORPION part I&II
This two-part television episode of Star Trek's Voyager series easily out classes the vast bulk of science fiction feature length films produced over the last twenty years. The production values re-define what television is capable of, the story itself is stunning, and the performances of the cast are exceptionally compelling. This is pure science fiction with heart and soul that stands on it's own and will appeal even to people not particularly enthused with Star Trek.

Voyager, a ship thrown literally to the opposite side of the Galaxy and faced with what could be a 70+ year trip home finds their journey back blocked by a vast area of space inhabited by THE BORG, a cybernetic collective consciousness consisting of trillions of people, entire cultures, "assimilated" over hundreds of centuries for use as mere parts in a machine concerned only with enhancing what it regards as it's "perfection" by absorbing, not only the bodies, but minds, memories, and experiences, of all those it meets that it considers "relevant". It can't be negotiated with, it can't be reasoned with, fought, or outrun. For over two hundred thousand years The Borg have been unstoppable.
Now Voyager has discovered what may very well be a life-form even more horrifying than The Borg. They're forced to make a choice- hide, and give up any hope of ever getting home, or join in an un-holy alliance with one of these two murderous nightmares in an attempt to destroy one and evade the other.
This is a fast paced, intelligent story, that even non-Trek fans aren't likely to forget any time soon that makes a fine addition to any science fiction collection.

Wow! Yes! Voyager on video--finally! This is my very favorite Voyager episode. Jeri Ryan is chillingly Borg, and the Borg themselves had not yet become a Voyager cliche. We are treated to some well-executed (if not first-rate-scripted) conflict between Janeway and Chakotay that is just too rare anymore. And we can't forget Species 8472, that turned out to be easily evaded and reasoned with in Season Five (and then disappeared altogether in Season Six!) but are presented here in adequately "spooky" fashion. All in all, "Scorpion" has more substance than the average episode (especially lately), and successfully introduced one of the most memorable Star Trek characters: Seven of Nine. If you like the Borg, if you like Seven, or even if you're a "J/C" fan, you'll find that resistance to "Scorpion" is, well, futile.

Every time the Borg find their way into an episode they are different, and rightly so (or else all humans would have been assimilated by now!). This episode is full of action and suspense. I really like how they added the subplot of Kes seeing visions of the future and the destruction of Voyager -- it was really chilling and haunting, even though we all knew that Voyager wasn't really going to be destroyed. A thoroughly enjoyable episode!

I just love how this episode started. BOOM Borg Cubes blowing to bits and we wounder what did it? It was Species 8472 one of Voyager's greatest ememy's and they are not only a threat to the Voyager crew but the Powerful Borg Collective and the whole Gallexy! What a great two part episode! If you never seen this episode then buy it!!!

Ok first of all there was no Borg Queen like the other review below said. That episode is Dark Frontier. This episode is the one where they meet 7 of 9. The borg ship were very good and were even better than Best of Both Worlds. Great story line too.

The Borg provided some of the very best episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," so it is not surprising that when "Star Trek: Voyager" needed a jump in the ratings going into its fourth season the producers returned to the Borg. However, no doubt inspired by the poignant story of a Borg named Hugh, the came up with something much better than a short-term fix in the two parts of "Scorpion," the episodes that ended Season 3 and started Season 4.

In Episode 68, "Scorpion, Part I" (Written by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky, Aired May 21, 1997) "Voyager" is trying to move through the "Northwest Passage," a corridor through Borg space. Everyone is understandably nervous and Kes (Jennifer Lien) is having visions of dead Borg and "Voyager" being destroyed. However, when "Voyager" encounters a fleet of Borg cubes the Federation ship is ignored. Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) has the Borg vessels tracked by sensors and is stunned when their power signatures terminate. Investigating the wreckage there is the signature of an unknown weapon; another indication that there is something out that worse that the Borg. When the Away Team is attacked Kes gets a telepathic warning about the weak perishing, the "Voyager" crew is introduced to the alien life forms known to the Borg as Species 8742 and it is clear they are here to invade Borg space big time.

This means Janeway has to make one of those gigantic choices that comes at the end of a season: either retreat into the Delta Quadrant and forget about getting home while any of them are still alive because they have to go the long way round, or try to race "Voyager" by the Borg and avoid being assimilated. Obviously she has to choose the latter, but Janeway comes up with a third option. At the crucial moment we find out that this story is (all together now) to be continued...

Episode 59, "Scorpion, Part 2" (Written by Braga & Menosky, Aired September 3, 1997) finds "Voyager" in a temporary alliance with the Borg. Unwilling to have a neuro-transceiver installed in her brain, Janeway is assigned a Borg representative who can communicate with them verbally. The assigned drone is introduced as Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). This is an episode where a lot of things start happening pretty fast, and at the heart of it all is the question of whether Seven of Nine and the rest of the collective can be trusted.

Of course, we now know in retrospect that beyond introducing Species 8742 as playmates for the Borg and everybody else in the Delta Quadrant, these two episodes added Seven of Nine to the "Voyager" crew. Beyond the obvious attraction of Jeri Ryan in a form fitting uniform, we have a character who is resisting becoming human. After the examples of the Data, Odo, and the Doctor, all of whom fit in the Pinocchio mold to various degrees, it was sort of nice to get back to the Spockian notion of rejecting being human as the best of all possible worlds.

But even without the addition of Seven of Nine the "Scorpion" two-parter would be classic "Voyager" episodes. There is a lot of action jammed into both parts and the situation is constantly changing so it is not even close to being predictable. The human drama is rather negligible this time around, but these episodes hold up well against anything else in "Voyager" history, including the grand finale.

SCORPION part I&II
This two-part television episode of Star Trek's Voyager series easily out classes the vast bulk of science fiction feature length films produced over the last twenty years. The production values re-define what television is capable of, the story itself is stunning, and the performances of the cast are exceptionally compelling. This is pure science fiction with heart and soul that stands on it's own and will appeal even to people not particularly enthused with Star Trek.

Voyager, a ship thrown literally to the opposite side of the Galaxy and faced with what could be a 70+ year trip home finds their journey back blocked by a vast area of space inhabited by THE BORG, a cybernetic collective consciousness consisting of trillions of people, entire cultures, "assimilated" over hundreds of centuries for use as mere parts in a machine concerned only with enhancing what it regards as it's "perfection" by absorbing, not only the bodies, but minds, memories, and experiences, of all those it meets that it considers "relevant". It can't be negotiated with, it can't be reasoned with, fought, or outrun. For over two hundred thousand years The Borg have been unstoppable.
Now Voyager has discovered what may very well be a life-form even more horrifying than The Borg. They're forced to make a choice- hide, and give up any hope of ever getting home, or join in an un-holy alliance with one of these two murderous nightmares in an attempt to destroy one and evade the other.
This is a fast paced, intelligent story, that even non-Trek fans aren't likely to forget any time soon that makes a fine addition to any science fiction collection.

I like very much the episode "Scorpion", because it's full of action and suspense. In this episode, the crew of the "Voyager" reaches a zone of the Delta Quadrant inhabited by the Borg, and discovers that the Borg are fighting against an alien species (the species 8472) who comes from another universe. The 8472s are very aggressive and powerful, and want not only to defeat the Borg, but also conquest the galaxy. Because of this fact, Captain Janeway takes a difficult decision: she forms an alliance with the Borg, to fight together against the 8472s, although she knew that the Borg could assimilate her crew. The alliance begins, but each part is suspicious of the other. After the birth of the alliance, Janeway meets Seven of Nine, a Borg woman of human origin, who has been charged, by the Borg Collective, to help the federal astronauts to fight the 8472s. The fascinating plot of the episode, arises from this complex situation. The action present in the plot, is originated by the fact that the astronauts of "Voyager" fight hardly against the species 8472 and the Borg. The suspence is originated by the decision taken by Janeway, that puts the crew of the "Voyager" in a difficult situation.

The actors play their parts well. Kate Mulgrew gives to the character of Janeway the virtues of bravery and intelligence. Robert Beltran is a Chakotay resolute and loyal, but also able to dissent from Janeway. Jeri Ryan gives to the character of Seven of Nine an insensitive behaviour, that is accordant with the "robotic" nature of the character.

Voyager must travel through Borg space on its way home to earth. They find a Borg-free passage but meet a deadly enemy refered to as 6379 that can blow up 15 Borg cubes with no difficulty. Kim is infected with the disease of this organic alien, which seems to eat him from the inside, when he investigates a organic ship which appears to be deserted. The Borg can not assimilate this alien into the collective and so no nothing about it. Can Captain Janeway use this advantage of knowledge to nogotiate with the Borg so that they can travel safely through Borg space and defeat the enemy at the same time?