"Scorpion"
Air Date: May 21, 1997
Star Date: 50984.3
6/9/97 Update
6/2/97 Update
5/26/97 Update
When one of Voyager's long range probes stops transmitting the last image received is of the Borg. Realizing that Voyager has finally reached Borg space, Janeway orders the ship towards the only region of space that seems devoid of Borg energy signatures--codename "the Northwest Passage" by the Voyager crew. Then fifteen Borg cubes races past Voyager and a short time later all their energy signatures stop. Intrigued, Janeway follows after them to find all fifteen destroyed. At least one of the cubes has some kind of bioship attached to it and Janeway asks Chakotay to take an away team for a closer look. On the Borg cube Harry is attacked by the bioship's pilot. Torres quickly returns to team to Voyager and Janeway beats a hasty retreat but holodoc soon reveals that Harry is being eaten alive from a cellular infection deposited during the attack. Even worse, Janeway quickly discovers that there's a reason the Northwest Passage shows no Borg activity. It is overrun by bioship erupting from a quantum singularity and the race in question--known only as Species 8472 to the Borg--has only one credo, "The weak will perish." Desperate, Janeway attempts to parlay holodoc's efforts to save Kim into a "deal with the devil." Holodoc has been able to modify Borg nanoprobes aquired in previous encounters to fight Species 8472. Janeway intends to trade this information for safe passage through Borg space. Unfortunately, in the midst of the negotiations, more Species 8472 ships appears, furious to destroy everything in their path.
Brash Reflections
Well this certainly sounded like a good episode. Very, very exciting! Unfortunately, the leaves are in full bloom around my house which means I pick up my local UPN affiliate even worse that before! So I watched snow and listened to the audio! From what little I saw, it looked like a great episode! Kudos to the creators for a great season ender!
It's difficult to nitpick a show when you can't see it but I did notice one problem. At one point, Voyager is 5 lightyears from the 15 Borg cubes. Janeway sets course at Warp 2. A short time later, Voyager arrives! That's interesting given that--at warp 2--it takes six months to go five light years!
That's it for me and for the third season of Voyager!
Phil
Reflections from the Guild
Rene Charbonneau: This was an awesome episode. There were no surprises, since I knew the entire story about four months ago. But seeing the episode is very different from just reading about it.
Anyway, at the end of the episode, Janeway makes this deal with the Borg : Let us pass through safely in your space, and we'll give you a way to defeat the aliens. Since the Borg have trans-warp drive, shouldn't Janeway's deal have been, Take us to the Alpha Quadrant and we'll give you a way to defeat the aliens?
When Janeway tries to convince the crew that joining forces with the Borg is their only hope, she says, "The Borg asssimilate to gain knowledge. But we investigate and that gives us an edge in this case." This statement implies that the Borg never investigate. Well, in the TNG episode, "Q Who?", when the Enterprise first encounters the Borg, one of the Borg beams over, and "makes a visual inspection of the engine core" and downloads the Enterprise's computer database. Then later the Borg say, "We have analysed your defensive capablilities...you are unable to withstand us." In other words, the Borg investigated if the Enterprise posed any threat to them.
Shane Tourtellotte: Let me be the first(maybe) to note a 47 in Voyager's season finale. The super-race Voyager and the Borg encounter is apparently named Species 8-4-7-2. They don't even try to hide them anymore, do they?
Johnson Lai: When Chakotay first speaks to Janeway in her ready room, she gets up and walks next to the windows. Maybe it's just me but the angle the stars are streaking seem to be wrong. They appear to be moving on an elevated angle to the ship.
When the away team is about to beam out, Torres says she can't get a lock. Weren't they supposed to have an active transporter lock (by that, I believe they meant continuously)?
In the scene when Janeway tells Paris to set course away from the swarm of bio-ships, we can see the blue lights at the bottom of the wall fluctuating (sort of flashing). I noted a similar incident with the blue lights at the back of the bridge in a previous episode as well.
If you haven't seen "Scorpion" yet, it is a VERY AMAZING season finale!
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: At the begining of the episode, Janeway is having a holodeck conversation with Da Vinci. When finished she ends the program. Don't you usually save so you pick up where you left off.
Since when do the Borg have transwarp? If they had this all the time, the entire universe would have been assimilated by now.
Well the answer to how the Borg can assimilate just by touching them has been explained. They do use nanites or as they call it nanoprobes. (Note from Phil: We, of course, they didn't have when they assimilated Picard. Wink, wink.)
One wonders why Holo-Doc didn't anilyze the Borg partss when they first got them.
When the Borg scan Voyager, a cool looking laser light shows up on the bridge. How come we've never seen this before.
I wasn't aware that any Starfleet captain besides Picard encountered the Borg and lived.
And shouldn't Janeway pay more attention to Picard's desciption of the Borg than Amasand's since he was actually a Borg.
The first conversation between Janeway and Chakotey seems like the mother of all KMYF.
Why weren't Chakotey and Kim sweating on the Borg ship. According to First Contact, Borg ships have a higher temperature than humans are used to.
The one Borg attempting to assimilate the 8472 ship should take a hint and quit only after a few tries. (Note from Phil: No one ever said the Borg were very intelligent!)
Janeway tries to beam the away team back to the ship. She says energize and Torres says she can't get a lock on them. She tried to transport them without establishing a lock first. Shouldn't have the line have been, "I lost the lock on them."?
Voyager takes a shot by the 8472. Seeing what it did to the Borg vessels, shouldn't the blast have completely destroyed the ship. And if that's not bad enough, after it's hit, it goes into warp. Don't blasts like these damage the warp drive?
When Janeway is in sickbay, all she says to Kim is "Fight it, Harry". Since this guy looks really bad and probably feels worse, shouldn't she or anyone else try to comfort him a little bit more?
The 8472 ships are seen on the viewscreen. Oddly enough the people on the bridge can actually hear them too.
Why are the 8472 only invading the Delta Quadrant? Shouldn't we be seeing these guys on Deep Space Nine soon? (Note from Phil: Well, we know very little about this race and how they erupt into our space.)
These 8472 aren't very logical. They feel that the weak should be destroyed. What's the point of destroying the universe? At least the Borg have the right idea. Better to take than destroy. (Note from Phil: Well, we know very little about this race and how logical or illogical they are!)
Chakotey talks about a parable. He actually tells a fable.
It's very convient that the Borg cube with the tractor beam on Voyager wasn't destroyed with the others when the planet was destroyed.
When all else failes, the Borg can go back in time and stop 8472 before thaey can do anything.
Darryl Tam: At one point in the episode, they were 5 light years away from the Borg armanda but they went there at warp 2. By my calculations that means that they took 5 months to get there. Also, why were there only flat sheets of Borg wreakage.
Murray Leeder: Interesting..................... the Borg Vs. The Great Big Green CGI Things!
This episode sets a new record for shortest teaser... although "Face Of The Enemy" still holds the record for least dialogue!
We finally get a description of how exactly it is that the Borg assimilation process works. So how come it took so long with Picard? The theory that it's new technology is shot by the fact that the Doctor was examining a forty-year old body.
Harry, Harry, Harry, haven't you seen any horror films? Do NOT NOT NOT look after the weird noises in the dark in the weird place. NEVER!
Some very "Alien" moments in this one... especially when Kim was saying how far away the nasty thing was, just like in "Aliens".
Would I be wrong in remembering Janeway mentioning keeping an open comlink? Seems that the writers forgot about that. A shame... it was a good idea.
Brian O'Marra, Little Rock, AR: Wow!! Excellent episode!! Finally there are multiple Borg vessels the Voyager crew has to deal with instead of just one!!
On to the nits. This episode confirms that the Borg homeworld is in the Delta Quadrant, 70 years away from Federation space. Yet, in the Star Trek TNG episode "Q Who," Q transported the Enterprise D 7000 LY to run into them. If the homeworld is 10 times that distance, wouldn't that make Guinan's warning to Picard at the episode's end: "They're coming!" kind of after the fact.
Also, that raises another issue. If the Borg were able to reach Federation space in about a year (The Best of Both Worlds was about one year after Q Who) which was a distance of 7000 LY, then that would mean it would take them about 10 years to go from the homeworld to the Alpha Quadrant!
Seems to me the Voyager crew has their ticket home right in front of them! Just use their bargaining chip of how to defeat the enemy (8472) in exchange for a trip home!!
Also, I like how Janeway has the Kirk syndrome in this show. Kes senses danger to the away team telepathically so Janeway sends her three chief officers right in the middle of it!! Kim is dying true to Kes' vision!! Reminds me also of Riker doubting Troi in "Samaritan Snare."
5/26/97 Update
Murray Leeder: Obviously there are two "transwarps". One is the thing which the
Excelsior didn't have and the Voth do, and which the Borg manipulate to
travel through space through transwarp conduits (I assume those have to
be planted on both ends)... this explains how they got to the Federation
so fast in "TBOBW" (it is evident that Lore found out from the
un-Collectivized refugees about this and manipulated it for his own
ends). (Note from Phil: Of course, if the Borg have transwarp then we are forced to wonder how the Enterprise pursued it and caught up to it in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2". Hard to catch something that going faster than you when it has a head start!)
The other is what the Voyager shuttle Cochrane had in the episode
(what's the title, I've almost repressed the memory...) "Threshold",
which is Warp 10. These two things are clearly seperate and shouldn't be
confused.
Shouldn't that green scanning beam the Borg have sweep across the
entire ship, not just the bridge?
Shira Karp of Wilmette, IL: A few quick nits on "Scorpion" before the server cuts me off:
On the Borg ship, Chakotay had to tap his communicator pin to talk to
Voyager when there was supposed to be an open com-line.
Janeway's comment about the deactivating the Doctor was heartless and
out of character. She ought to have said something like "If they don't
comply we will threaten to deactivate th Doctor." Robert Picardo had an
excellent response when the otherwise maternal and caring Janeway declared
that if the Borg tried to assimilate Voyager, they would just deactivate
the Doctor.
Kirk syndrome: three senior officers beam to the highly dangerous Borg ship.
If I'm ever up for 48 hours straight, I hope I look as good as Janeway
does. She doesn't even have circles under her eyes!
By the way, I thought this was one of the best episodes of the season.
Kevin Weiler: Great Episode! These last few Voyager shows have really picked up! I
only have two things to report, but I'm not really sure about the first
one.
Is it just me or when the 10 bio-ships attack the Borg planet and ships
the background music sounds a lot like the Imperial March on Star Wars?
Also, in continuing with First Contact, Starfleet can now read Borg
lifesigns.
Todd Felton of Victoria, BC: Voyager enters the "Northwest Passage", and immediately drops out of
warp. Then they detect 15 Borg cubes due to their transwarp signature.
If they were traveling at warp, how come we can see them barely missing
Voyager? Voyager's at sublight speed, did the Borg ships decrease just
to get a close pass of Voyager?
And, of course, a big KMYF moment when Janeway and Chakotay first talk
in the ready room. While they're in there, notice that the stars are
streaking by--but aren't they still only at impulse speed?
Hmmm, Janeway says they'll keep a constant transporter lock on the away
team on the Borg ship. How come when it's time to beam them out,
B'Elanna says that she can't get a lock on them? Shouldn't she ALREADY
have had a lock on them?
The scenes the doctor shows of the Borg implants attacking the blood
cells is titled "Image Enhancement 047" in at least two instances.
Plus, most obviously, there's "Species 8472" with a '47' in it.
Bob Sabatini: I loved this episode!
The creators obviousoly read nitcentral. They had Kes say everything
except "I'm sensing somthing." Good job!
Janeway considers three options- turning around, which may never get them
home, going through, which means certian death, and asking the borg for
safe passage, which is risky at best.
She never conisiders a fourth option- taking the ship out of the plane
of the glaxy, where there are no stars, no planets and no enimies. She
could pass OVER borg space without any damage and only a short detour.
I think the scne at the end, with the 8*47*2{note the emphasis on 47} ships
joining beams on the lead ship and then fireing the combined energy at the
planet was too much like the Deathstar from Star Wars to be a hommage.
I liked the episode, but I don't think I will be kept in suspence for 3
months (unlike Best of Both Worlds)
Lisa Solinas: Whooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I'm not certain where to start. This was an awesome episode,
though a little reminiscent of Bablyon 5. Praying mantises that
infect people with their cells. Squidships [heehee!] that look like
the Shadows....
Ohhhhh, so the Breen have ORGANIC ships, do they? Too bad
the Ravenok's sensors didn't notice this [in "Indiscretion"].
When they see the Borg ships, Chakotay exclaims "My God!"
Since he doesn't believe in God, why would he say this?
The squidships change appearance as they swarm out of the
singularity. I don't..... WAIT! YES! I just remembered! It's footage
of Kazon ships from "Maneuvars"!
[I think]
I cannot fathom why Janeway isn't trying to weasel transwarp
technology out of the Borg.
Guinan will be surprised. She said that you can't reason with the
Borg.
Da Vinci tries to convince Janeway to come and pray with him. [I
like the cross hanging on the wall, by the way] He says that they will
"wake up the abbot and go to the chapel in the sight of God." Does
the abbot like being woken up in the middle of the night?
The nanoprobes in the Borg's fingers latch onto a blood cell and
the person is assimilated within seconds ["First Contact"]. I'm
sorrrrryyyyyyy, but grabbing a single cell cannot assimilate a whole
person. It's just too much.
I also find it hard to believe that the holodoc has to reprogram each
nanoprobe by itself. Why not reprogram a nanoprobe, have the
computer scan it, then replicate buckets of 'em and inject 'em into
Harry?
Chakotay seems to be tongue tied. "I think you better come down to
engineering"; "I think you should see this"; "Go get the captain".
AUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wonder if the squidships, being organic and having neural peptide
thingies, have nerves.
Just a note: If I hear Chakotay say "Kathryn" one more time I will be
forced to bash my TV screen repeatedly.
B'Elanna beams up Chakotay, Tuvok, and a screeching Harry by
checking over their skeletons. Don't the Borg have skeletons? And
wouldn't at least SOME of them have the same minerals as human
bones?
Those dismembered Borg corpses are so obviously plastic.
The glowing green globes on the walls of the Borg ship are plasma globes. Y'know, those globes with the electricity lashing
out, and when you touch it a tendril touches the glass where your
hand is.
I wonder what Da Vinci thought when Signorina Katarina said "I'm
gonna make a deal with the devil".
The Borg ships seem to have gotten smaller.
Tom sure doesn't seem upset despite the fact that his best buddy is
being eaten alive.
Early in the show, Janeway approaches Da Vinci's "flying machine." [BTW, I don't think the
flying machine ever got beyond a piece of paper] Also, Da Vinci's flying machine did not
look in the least like that.
Michael Apple: WOW! WOW! This episode was so cool! WOW! The Borg were great as
usual, and the new species, species 8472, was superb. Kudos to the
creators. They've really ended the season in style.
A Few Observations:
Did the aliens remind you of the "Shadows" from Babylon 5? They had
organic ships, were computer generated spindly aliens, and they believed
that the weak should be eradicated, just as species 8472 do. So when
Leonardo Di Vinci was looking at the shadows on the wall in the holodeck, I
was really amused.
Why does everything happen to poor Harry? He's been killed, kidnapped, infected by alien diseases, and now injected with alien cells that are
eating him alive. If I were he, I would have transported off and joined
the crew of a Talaxian mining freighter. It would be safer.
If Kes has been having premonitions from species 8472 before now, why
didn;t she tell someone? Does she really think that this is something that
one should keep to themselves? It was as if she said "Oh, yeah. That
alien race travelled from an alternate universe and is now bent on
eradicating our entire universe. It must have slipped my mind."
Everyone who thinks Neelix should be promoted to catering officer say
aye: AYE! :)
I liked the argument between Janeway and Chakotay. That WAS an
important decision and I think the acting in that scene was excellent.
Janeway had to deal with the fact that he simply couldn't agree with her
decision, even though he still would obey. Good work, Mulgrew and Beltran.
:)
David D. Porter: Well, *that* was an interesting teaser!
How do they know there's no way around Borg space? What I think they
really mean is that going around would cost way too much time.
Every battle from 'Q Who' to Wolf 359. What about the events of 'I, Borg'
or 'Descent'?
These Starfleet folks never learn. At least one member of the away team
should always be watching behind them.
Well, finally. When the away team starts running from the unknown, they
finally start looking behind them, but only intermittently.
Even if H-doc has only a few of the modified probes, he should start
putting them into Harry. Each one will help slow the infection and buy more
time.
Remarkable how all that planetary debris hitting the Borg ship missed
V-ger.
Brian Straight, Shawnee, Kansas: Just saw it and only caught a couple of nits. (I'll find more when I watch it Sunday Night)
Once again Starfleet crewmembers forget they're in 3-Dimensionnal Space.
When Voyager looks at the N.E. (see nit 2) part of the expanse. Voyager sees
hundreds of bio-ships flying through the portal. She worries and worries
about what to do. How about flying "up" for a few light years, then go
forward again, Janeway?
New defenition- 2DTV2D Space: Since Voyager exsists in a 2-D enviroment (our
TV sets) they can only act in a 2-D enviroment, (as in they can never ever
fly anywhere exept for along the Standard Starfleet Flight Plane.
Janeway and crew keep refering to the area of the expanse to fly through as
the North East corner. WOW!! The compass technology will certainly improve
by the 24th century!! They'll be SO good they can either detect the faint
magnetic feild of Earth (70thousand lt-yrs away), or the field of a nearby
planet, or they can actualy find North in an area without a real up, down or
magnetic poles! (Note from Phil: Um . . . actually, the "Northwest Passage" doesn't refer to compass points so much as it harkens back to an exploration of North America by Europeans to find another route to the Orient--that is, if I recall correctly!)
Reid Joiner from Arkadelphia, AR: Not a nit, just an observation. Was it just me, or did this episode seem rather 'Babylon 5'-esque? Something about the whole episode rang
"B5! B5! B5!" to me... (Note from Phil: This is one of the difficulties for science fiction--which is typically idea-driven. I'm certain there are examples of organic ships well before Babylon 5. In fact, Trek has had two examples of organic ships in "Tin Man" and "Galaxy's Child." But, we as viewers only remember the most recent stuff!)
Bryan Foster, Wellington, AL: Granted I haven't seen this episode yet, but reading some of the
nitpicks so far has got me thinking of one already. If the Species 8472
claim "The Weak will perish" then this brings up the same question when
"Unity" was first leaked. If these beings are so powerful, why were the
Kazon, Ocampa, Vidiians, etc still around? Also, why bother with
transwarp? Why not assimilate the planet where they found that
hyperspace resonator which Tuvok got in trouble for? (Note from Phil: My impression was that Species 8472 just recently erupted into our universe.)
Michael W Baker: The Borg; how many times does the federation have to defeat them,
resist assimilation, and foil their plans before the borg considers them
a threat. Why don't they take action when they are boarded by an away
team? Is the story about the borg only retaliating when they consider
someone a threat just a myth or do the borg only have short term
memories?
Craig Cicero: I'm impressed. Watching this epsidoe was like wathcing First Contact (the
movie) the first time, and having to leave in the middle. I know this is one
episode I'll watch a few times this summer! (As opposed to a couple of hours
before Part 2 airs like usual.)
I hope we see more of Species 8742 on future episodes (DS9?!?).
Just an idle thought: which is more powerful: the Dominion, or the Borg? Or
the Voth? (But wouldn't it be fun to SEE!) (Or what about the Tarquin? or
the Nyrians? or a Kazon/Talaxian/Vidiian/Trabe alliance?) (Hey, I can
dream, can't I?)
As to the nits: (And they're not major. I hope no more emerge from Part 2!)
The Leonardo Da Vinci part seemed unnecessary, except for Janeway's "I'll
make a deal with the Devil." Maybe it'll develop in Part 2. (Although it
would've been nice to have the program earlier. I read that the Creators
axed 2 potential episodes to tighten V'ger up- maybe they had Leo?) (Note from Phil: My understanding is that the Da Vinci character will be a reoccurring bit.)
FINALLY! Another non-humanoid alien! (But they seemed like a cross between
B5's Shadows and Alien's aliens. But, there are only so many ideas...)
The Creator's also seem to copy the Shadows' philosophy with "The weak shall
perish." To be fair, 8472ians regard even the BORG as "weak," but the
Shadows killed off the weak and strengthened the winners... Somehow I doubt
8472's (whatever!) would do that.
Why do we only see Borg Cubes? We saw another configuration in "Descent" (I
think- Dr. Crusher was commanding) and timespheres in FC.... Don't the Borg
know of any other geometric designs? (Like tubes, for cruisers, or
saucers/disks for destroyers, or flat boxes for carriers..... Or whatever.) (Note from Phil: The configuration in "Descent" was probably because of Lore. A cube is a very efficient use of space!)
I hope we see Neelix's new plan in Part 2. (I'll the Creators the benefit of
the doubt. It was an imporatnt scene.)
One last thought: What will Part 2 be called? "Scorpion, Part 2"? "Run,
Sinnerman"? (From a song- it's about a sinner who runs to the Moon, the Sun,
and the Lord for help "Lord, won't you save me", and then goes to the Devil
"The Devil was a waitin'...." Anyway, I have a heavy metal-type version on a
CD and I think it might originally be a folk song... Anybody else heard of
this?)
Oh! On my TV Guide nit, and the response: Um, maybe, I suppose. Somehow
"Borg" seems plural- a mass of connected units, and "Collective" or "Hive"
would be singular. But I won't insist. (But, isn't "Borg" always used as a
plural in the shows unless they say "a Borg"?) Oh well. Can't be right all
the time.....
Josh Truax of Platteville, WI: Chief... For seven years I have waited for Star Trek's creators to do a cliffhanger that tops "The Best of Both Worlds" [TNG]. I won't go so far
as to say this one succeeds (especially since I won't see Part II for
another three months), but it's certainly at least the best cliffhanger
since Locutus of Borg made his appearance on the Enterprise's viewscreen.
Even without the cliffhanger, however, there can be no argument that
Voyager's third season leaves the first two seasons in the dust. Going
into third season, Voyager seemed to be pointed in the right direction
(figuratively as well as literally); it just wasn't *going* in that
direction, at least not as fast as one would have hoped. This season it
finally started really going. Voyager needed to move beyond the Kazon and
the Vidiians (again, both figuratively and literally), and it did. Voyager
needed to find a truly formidable new adversary to replace the Kazon and
Vidiians, and to recapture some of what made TNG great, and it did both by
reintroducing the Borg. Above all else, however, Voyager's writers needed
to take their stories to the next level, and they did so, albeit
sporadically.
Still, there are some issues still left unresolved at third season's end
(besides the outcome of the cliffhanger, of course). I won't discuss *all*
of them here; just the two that concern me most, as a fan and as a
nitpicker:
1) WHITHER J/C? It's been over a year now since their little "camping
trip" together in "Resolutions", and Janeway and Chakotay *still* haven't
gotten around to defining those parameters about their relationship!
Personally, I'd rather they not become outright lovers, but I wish Jeri
Taylor and company would at least quit leaving us hanging like this. Yes,
I realize Taylor's probably just trying to introduce another Picard/Crusher
or Riker/Troi-type relationship to the show, a la TNG; but surely I need
not remind anyone that these are the two top-ranking officers on the ship
we're talking about. Unlike Picard/Crusher or Riker/Troi, the
Janeway/Chakotay relationship has the potential to fundamentally impact the
tenor of the entire series as well. So... make up your minds, people! Are
Janeway and Chakotay in love, or are they not? (Note from Phil: Given the ramifications, I would think Janeway would proceed very cautiously with this decision.)
2) WHAT ABOUT KES? Reports of Jennifer Lien leaving the show early next
season have moved beyond the rumor stage. Shortly after the Voyager issue
of TV Guide went to press, Jeri Taylor confirmed Lien's impending
departure. She also claimed that the writers had somehow managed to write
Kes's swan-song so as to leave the door open for her to return someday.
How in the name of the Prophets are they going to swing that? Are they
going to come up with a creative way to keep her aboard Voyager but
off-camera? Or will they just take the easy way out and kill her off, or
leave her behind somewhere; then bring her back every now and then as a
hologram, or an alternate-timeline character, or a figment of someone's
imagination, or... you get the picture. This could be one of the biggest
tests the Voyager writing staff has ever faced. In light of their recent
smashing successes - not the least of which is the season-ender - I'd like
to think they'll come up with something original...
But... enough about the season gone by already. On to the "Scorpion" nits:
At one point Janeway recites to Chakotay pieces of the logs of other
Starfleet captains who have encountered the Borg. Jean-Luc Picard is among
them, of course, but there are others as well. Let me reiterate that:
There apparently are other captains out there besides Picard who have lived
to tell of their encounters with the Borg.
Now, the only known Borg incident prior to Voyager's arrival in Delta
Quadrant that involved Starfleet captains other than Picard was Wolf 359.
The only known survivors of Wolf 359 were Cmdr. Sisko and others from the
Saratoga escape pod (see "Emissary" [DS9]). Their captain was not among
them; he was killed in the battle.
What does all this mean, you ask? Simply put, it means one of two
things. Either (1) there were, in fact, more survivors of Wolf 359 than
the creators have let on, including several captains (whatever happened to
the captain always going down with the ship?); or (2) there was another
Borg invasion somewhere in between Wolf 359 and the events of "Caretaker",
that the creators have never bothered to tell us about because it didn't
happen to involve either Picard or Sisko. (I've said it before, I'll say it
again: Don't you just hate it when major events in the Star Trek universe
occur without any cameras rolling?)
Of course, that same scene ends with another TLC moment, not to mention yet
more fodder for the Janeway/Chakotay would-be romance (see "Whither J/C?"
above). By show's end, however, their relationship seems to cool
considerably, as they are at odds over Janeway's decision to join forces
with the Borg. To paraphrase a line from "Friday's Child" [TOS], I'll give
you credits to navy beans that by the end of Part II, Janeway and Chakotay
are back to their old, wishy-washy, more-than-friends/less-than-lovers
thing. Here's hoping I'm wrong, and that the creators take this
opportunity to resolve this issue, one way or another, once and for all!
(Yeah, right...)
I'm amazed that when the Voyager crew first saw what these aliens did to
the Borg, not one of them said something to the effect of, "Now they [the
Borg] know what Wolf 359 was like for us."
When Voyager first encounters the aliens' bioship, Janeway tries to get it
away from what remains of the Borg cube. At one point she orders Kim to
try to beam it away. Beam it away? *BEAM* IT AWAY??? That bioship is
*huge!* It's almost as big as Voyager itself. How does she expect Kim to
be able to transport something that size away from the Borg debris?
Later, after Kim gets attacked and infected by the alien, Doc Hologram
places him behind a quarantine forcefield. When Janeway visits him, all
she can do is stand on the other side of the forcefield and say, "Fight it,
Harry. That's an order." Judging by the look on her face, I can only say,
thank the Creator (and the creators, plural) for that forcefield.
Otherwise we'd probably be subjected to the TLC moment to end all TLC
moments!
Uncertain what to do about Voyager's predicament, Janeway consults the
Leonardo da Vinci hologram. He suggests that Janeway "appeal to God" to
guide her to a solution. This gives Janeway another idea: Instead of God,
she will appeal to the devil (i.e. the Borg). She even says so, out loud,
to da Vinci. Wouldn't you have loved to see the look on da Vinci's face
when Janeway tells him this? In da Vinci's time, such talk could have
gotten Janeway beheaded, or burned at the stake, or something along those
lines. Unfortunately, the camera is still on Janeway when the scene fades
to black for the commercial break, so we never get to see what could have
been a priceless reaction shot...
Last, but certainly not least: After seeing how Part I ended, I wonder if
there were any viewers out there who were *not* thinking, "Death Star!"
Jennifer Pope, Longview, WA: So Janeway is willing to get in touch with her
Indian spirit guide, but not with a Christian God?
Chris Kern: Great episode! It will be a long wait this summer....
When did Voyager lose its shields? The tractor beam was able to latch on to
it, and the transporter could pick up Janeway. I may be wrong, but didn't
the Borg have some device to get the shields away in earlier episodes before
the tractor beam cut in?
Jeff Czerniak of Troy, MI: This was a total kick butt episode! It made me even more eager to find nits!
I now have a lot of respect for Dr. Crusher: she removed all the
nano-probes from every single red blood cell in Picard's body!
Did the Borg assimilate transwarp capability from the aliens in "Distant
Origin"?
Why can't Voyager just whip up their own transwarp ( they did it in
"Threshold" ) and fly through Borg space and the Delta Quadrant? They
don't HAVE to go Warp 10, especially when it's not possible. ;)
In my opinion, being killed by Species 8472 is much better then serving
the Borg for who-knows-how-long.
Matthew Chase Maxwell of San Francisco CA: Part 1 of "Scorpion" was a winner! Too much CG (insect-like aliens
are one thing, but their bioships look too much like Babylon 5), but
well written and that's what counts! I'm actually going to miss
"Voyager" over the summer. What a pleasant surprise!
The scene in which Janeway was discussing the thoughts of her fellow
captains with Chakotay was very well done. Serious, yet lively at the
same time. It was followed with a bit of irony when she notes that
"We knew this day would come. We've all had to prepare for it."
Those same thoughts could have been echoed (and perhaps have been) by
the actors, writers, and fans since "Voyager" hit the air!
Another bit of irony (and perhaps prescience): I found "The weak will
perish" to be a weak knock off of "Resistance is futile."
The sculpture made from dead Borg reminded me of Auguste Rodin's
"Gates of Hell!" Gruesome, but cool.
Tuvok tells Chakotay and Kim to lower their weapons to appear
non-threatening while on the Borg ship fragment. Of course, the next
shot we see shows Tuvok with his phaser at the ready.
I can't believe that Dr. Crusher either: A) missed the fact that
Picard had nanoprobes in his system (the captain would be exceedingly
hard to cure absent their removal I would think); or B) failed to
mention it in all of the Borg screen time following the rescue of
Picard in "BoBWII."
Paris answering Janeway's command to head for a Borg cube with a "Yes,
ma'am" was perhaps the first time it was appropriate since
"Caretaker!"
It will be interesting to see how the Borg will implement Voyager's
technology against species 8472. Once 8472 perceives the threat, why
would they come close enough to risk invasion by the nanoprobes? They
possess planet killing technology at a great distance after all.
Yikes!
Best line: "Think good thoughts!" (as the Voyager is scanned by the
Borg) And a response to a fellow nitpicker who wondered why we
haven't seen such a scan before: perhaps this technology was
assimilated since we viewers last encountered the Borg.
Raul Olmeda: They where using the phaser rifle
from "First Contact".
Craig Mason of Fort Edward, NY: I am not sure if this has been noted before, but in this episode I noted different chairs and table in the ready room. Wooden backed chairs, on a
starhip? For a ship low on reserves, where did they come up with these, and
why change?
Marian Perera: Did the Borg "tubules" remind anyone of Wolverine's
claws? WIVRON? The X-Men!
"Scorpion" does for immunology what "Threshold" did
for evolution. First, the doctor talks about making a Borg
vaccine. He would have to expose human, Vulcan, Ocampa,
etc. macrophages, B-cells and T-helper cells to the probes
and prevent the probes from killing these cells. Once the
cells were pumping out antibodies, he would have to make
sure that the probes didn't adapt and change their
configuration to fool the antibodies, then he would have to
make sure that the probes could be broken down by cellular
enzymes. For the sake of the crew, I hope he's just that
good. Then later, he wants to put modified probes into
Harry's bloodstream to target the 8472 cells. I hope he
remembered to maodify the probes to stop them assimilating
Harry's cells, which might be difficult since the probes
seem to target everything that's not Borg.
Gee...Picard didn't mention Hugh!
The gas clouds on the Borg ship must have been
sentient, they were kind enough not to affect - or even
touch - Chakotay, Kim and Tuvok.
Janeway does with the devil what she wouldn't do
with the Kazon. I was waiting for this dialogue :
Janeway : We're going to make an alliance with the
Borg.
Chakotay : Does that mean I get to have unity with
the Borg Queen again?
Janeway : Sure! Go replicate a blond wig.
Alas, it never happened.
I read somewhere that Jennifer Lien was leaving the
show. Maybe that won't be such a bad thing, because Kes
wasn't Kes here, she was a Troi imitation.
Shouldn't Harry be wearing one of those blue
sickbay suits?
I'm going to be wondering about the
Borg/Voyager alliance all summer. That means it was a
good episode!
Jessica Greenlee: It was a fun episode. But--there seems to be a flaw in Janeway's plan.
Finally, there is something destroying the Borg. Decimating them. And
she wants to help the Borg? Granted, the creature doing the destroying
is pretty nasty, but she already has a good idea how to attack it.
Shouldn't she just let species 8472 _have_ the borg? Then she can form
an alliance with one or the other of the advanced races in the Delta
Quadrent to stop Species 8472. As it is, she's planning on helping the
Borg not only survive but assimilate a highly dangerous species that the
Borg can then use in assimilating any other species.
Also, why do the Borg tell Janeway that crossing their territory would
take too long? Even if Janeway doesn't know about the transwarp
capabilities, the Borg do. They can whisk Voyager across in no time,
have the information, assimilate species 8472, and go assimilate someone
else.
Brian Lombard: When did Neelix become such an expert on the Borg? During that
staff meeting he seemed to know more than I expected him too.
What an interesting time for Kes to develop her new ability. Hasn't
Voyager encountered telepathic beings before, in "Cold Fire", and
the one with the Bothans (brain cramp here, can't remember title).
How come she never had flashes before?
In case anyone thinks Kim or Janeway might not survive, let me
assure you hat they will. I saw Robert Duncan McNeill recently and he
confirmed that the entire cast would be returning next season.
Mike Wyzard of Lomita, CA: Hey, Holodoc, did you consider putting Harry in STASIS? That's been used before with people that have terribly virulent infections.
I don't remember the exact name of the procedure that B'elanna uses to
beam the away team back to V'ger, but she said something like locking
onto their skeletal tissue. Wouldn't that leave behind piles of boneless
flesh? (pardon the mental image this may draw you)
And why didn't they bring along a pattern enhancer on the away mission?
Why do I get the feeling that the season premiere for next season will
include Janeway saying to Chakotay, "I guess we were both wrong."
(regarding their disagreement over strategy)
Gregg Wiggins: I watched the season-ending cliff-hanger last-night (oops-getting-
carried-away-with hyphens) and while I'm no computer person, and while
I AM on drugs right now (calm down, folks, they're muscle relaxants
for a pinched nerve) there was something I didn't really understand
about Capt. Janeway's strategy:
So, they loaded all the data on the modified assimilation-thingy
nanites into the Doctor's program, and if there's a problem they'll
then erase the data by (too bad Picardo, I hope you weren't counting
on the residuals to send the kids to college) erasing the Doctor's
program. Two questions:
1)- Couldn't they have just put all that information into a computer
file with a name like "c:\borgwant.wpd" and erase THAT if need be,
saving the Doctor for the inevitable boo-boos that an active crew will
accumulate gallivanting through the Delta Quadrant?
2)- Don't they think the Borg would have assimilated the latest
version of Norton Utilities or some other type of recovery software
that could bring back a supposedly "erased" program?
I'd have bought the concept if they'd loaded the data into a PADD or a
tricorder and set that under a phaser held by someone with an itchy
trigger finger, or rigged a "dead man's switch" with the computer;
e.g. if under attack from a Borg vessel, vaporize the data when the
shields fail.
And, I have to confess that when I first saw the "bioships" my initial
reaction was, "Ahh, so THIS is where the Vorlons went when they left
Babylon 5!"
Karen Fischer: First off, wonderful season finale.
Now for the real nit. I always thought that when a red alert was
called the whole ship would darken and the red lights would flash. Now,
during a red alert, Janeway has Chakotay follow her into her ready
room, where low and behold we see regular lighting. Shouldn't the
Captain's ready room also be in red alert mode? Especially considering
that there are windows (Or portholes, as it were). It would seem to
make sense that every area of the ship would be darkened during a red
alert, especially where there are windows.
Mike Konczewski of Havertown, PA: I will say this about two-part episodes: they do give a scriptwriter the luxury of character and plot development. I enjoyed the interplay
between Chakotay and Janeway; Robert Beltran usually doesn't get this
much opportunity to shine. Of course, the downside of this episode is
that I have to wait 4 months for closure! I was screaming in
frustration at the end. Good job, folks, you have me hooked.
You called it right: Kes is not only the babe, she's Troi! "Do you
sense anything, Couns....uh, Kes?" How convenient.
I'm a little confused about Kes's visions. First they seem like
premonitions, then Kes says "I've been in psychic contact with the
aliens for some time," indicating to me that these visions are,
instead, telepathic messages. So does this mean the aliens are
precognitive, or is Kes a precog and a telepath to boot? Or are the
aliens just sending her messages of what they hope will happen? If
this is the case, the aliens are good guesser; they predicted how
Harry would scream after he was infected.
Voyager's flight through the remains of the destroyed Borg cubes was
very reminiscent of the Enterprise's flight through the aftermath of
Wolf 359. A nice twist.
Thanks to the Holodoc, we now know how the Borg were able to
assimilate the Enterprise's crew so quickly in ST: First
Contact--BorgNanites! The question is, when and how do they get
fitted out with their accessories--the leather clothes, the arm
enhancements, the cool holograph eyepatch, etc.
Janeway's second scene with Leonardo supports a theory I've had for a
while, that the crew (and most members of Star Fleet) are agnostic.
When Leonardo suggests they pray for divine inspiration, Janeway's
turns him down with a "oh, don't be silly, you superstitious primitive
you" smile. I find it amazing that only the non-Earth people
(Bajorans, Vulcans, Klingons, and so on) seem to have a system of
belief that could pass for a religion. Are the producers trying to
say that no Earth born religious belief will surrive into the the 24th
century (didn't the original Enterprise have a chapel in "Balance of
Terror"?)? I am not a religious person myself, but it seems likely
that there will continue to be persons that would want to seek comfort
and support from belief in a higher being (I have to insert a
congrats to the Babylon 5 folks for having a Jewish character in the
future). (Note from Phil: B5 also has the monks!)
In the past, Janeway has made a big deal about the Doctor being a part
of the crew, even going to the extent of rescuing him ("Future's
End"). But when discussing her proposed deal with the Borg, she sure
seems pretty casual about deleting his program as a last resort.
Would she be this ready to destroy another crewmember? What if only
Harry Kim knew how to defeat the aliens; would she just a casually
suggest killing him as a last resort?
What's the big deal about B'Llanna's "skeletal lock?" In the past,
even as far back as the original series, Scotty used to beam up people
just by lifesigns. Isn't "skeletal lock" a variation on that theme?
It sounds like a dangerour version, too; I was waiting for just 3
skeletons to appear on the pad (and I thought that's why Harry was
screaming in pain).
Harvey H. Kitzman: An excellent episode! Not without nits, though...
How can the Borg function without their Queen? Since they
are so inter-dependent, wouldn't her loss adversely affect all Borg? (Note from Phil: We must be thinking three-dimensionally!)
Was that a KMYF moment between Janeway and Chakotay or what?
How come Chakotay didn't have telepathic contact with the
Borg as in "Unity" or like Picard did in STFC. I suppose it could be
because Chakotay was never fully assimilated.....
When Picard was plugged in, how come he didn't access
transwarp technology and give it to Starfleet? Or for that matter, why
didn't Chakotay get it from the dinosaurs in "Distant Origin"? I know, then
there would be no Voyager show.
Isn't Janeway violating the Prime Directive by helping the Borg?
Why is there a specific Borg territory? Wouldn't they have
assimilated the whole Dleta Quadrant prior to attempting the Alpha Quadrant?
They seem to be pretty methodical creatures.
How come we haven't seem any creatures other than humans as
Borg? The only time we saw a Romulan Borg was in "Unity".
Don't you love that dependable (NOT) Transporter Lock?
Almost as good as the Warp Core Ejection Control.
Shane Tourtellotte: Great Line nomination, done in proper Chief Nitpicker style: We are the
Borg ... Resistance is -- WHAM ZAP CRUNCH POW KA-BLAM KA-BLOOEY!
A Stardate is given for this episode: 50984.3.
Look at it this way: Only three months to go before the season
premiere. :-)
The Doctor says that the first bodily tissue attacked by Borg nanoprobes is the blood.
Blood is not tissue.
The Borg armada goes from being 5.8 light-years from Voyager to 2.1 light-years distant in
something like a minute. This from ships that Enterprise was able to catch up to in "The
Best of Both Worlds". Even if you buy the lame transwarp explanation, why is it you can see
them as they pass Voyager? They should be moving so fast, relative to the impulse-crawling
Feds, that they don't even show a blur. (I'm talking hundreds of billions of kilometers per
second. Fast!)
How does Captain Janeway have access to captains' *personal* log entries? And why does the
one she's reading have a Classic Trek-style, four digits before the decimal stardate?
Endeavour's captain is named Amisov(sp?, but important). Is that a sly science-fiction
in-reference, slightly juggling the name Asimov?
Janeway jokes that imitating the Captain must violate some Starfleet protocol. You didn't
seem this concerned when they were mutinying against you in the holodeck! With all due
respect, Kathryn, lighten up! ;-)
All I can say about that first Janeway-Chakotay scene is: KMYTF! (Kiss Me, You Tattooed
Fool!)
The away team members beam into the Borg wreck, then turn to check behind their backs.
Wouldn't it be a better tactical formation to get in a circle, covering each other's backs,
before beaming over? Am I really smarter than Tuvok?!? (Or Braga and Menosky?)
Kes has a vision in Sickbay, and declares that Kim's in danger. According to Kim, she said
that they're *all* going to die, so why is she so horrified about seeing it happen to just
one of them?
See how many times you can shout "Shoot it!" between the moment the 8472-ite appears and the
moment it attacks Kim. I got up to ten.
The Doctor puts Kim behind a protective forcefield, presumably to prevent airborne spread of
the infection. If so, shouldn't Chakotay and Tuvok be stuck behind the barrier too? Or
whoever was in the transporter room when they beamed aboard? They were potentially exposed.
The image of 8472-ite cells is on a screen titled "Image Enhancement 047".
The shadows on Leonardo's wall are steady. However, they're being cast by candles, which
should give them a considerble flicker.
Last episode, we saw holo-Chakotay starting a mutiny to get home faster. This episode, he's
the one arguing that they shouldn't be in such a hurry. Things sure do change.
I saw three vessels in the Borg-inhabited system, but Tuvok reports that one is approaching.
Wouldn't it be more like the hive-minded Borg for all of them to approach? Just wondering.
The Borg-inhabited planet we see looks nothing like our glimpse of Borg Earth in ST-FC.
Yet another "M*A*S*H" reference. Torres broadcasts a sample of The Doctor's work
reprogramming Borg nanoprobes on Subspace Frequency 4077.
Paul Steele of Springfield, VA: Janeway seemed totally out of character. I really think the writers are having a hard time writing for her character. I think they keep
straddling a fence about her temperament/motivation. For example: Why
investigate what destroyed the Borg? Just stay in the Northwest
passage and dash for home. Why, after everything she read about the
Borg, would Janeway think that striking a deal with the Borg was the
best alternative? I think a better piece of writing to get us to the
same point would have been for Janeway to agree to turn around and
look for another way home (after meeting species 8-4-7-2. Then, while
trying to get back out of Borg space they run into a few Borg ships
that bring them to the brink of assimilation. At that point Janeway
could have had a Pickard-Style flash of insight that results in her
bargaining with the Borg. In that case, it would have been their ONLY
alternative.
Next, I don't understand why everyone has a problem seeing the Borg
using "new" technology (i.e. assimilating through touch unlike
Pickard; and using the new "light-beam" scanner). The whole premise
of the Borg is that they assimilate species AND their technologies!
Since they are a collective, they can share this new knowledge in
order for every cube to benefit from any assimilation.
Also, I find it amazing that Janeway thinks that the Holo-matrix can
be wiped-clean quickly and efficiently enough to prevent the Borg from
gaining the info by force. Didn't we learn in "Worst Case Scenario"
that nothing can be completely concealed from a good hacker!
Thomas Hurst of Las Vegas, NV: In the season finale episode of Voyager, I would mention that Leonardo
Da Vinci was left-handed, while the actor playing him, while tinkering
around his workshop, clearly appears to be right-handed. Not
definative, but likely, anyway.
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ: I'm going to have to cough up a disagreement on the kudos going out to the creators for this episode. Don't get me wrong, it had some GREAT
qualities, but it seemed a little straightfoward, no sharp plot twists
or anything.
However, the creators are finally taking advantage of having a show in
the Delta Quadrant by showing us some really cool, non-humanoid, really
alien aliens. It is probably one of the better cliffhangers IMO because
I'm actually wondering what is going to happen in September (or August
if the UPN scheduling people get itchy trigger fingers again).
Now, what the page is for...
Where is the Borg Queen through all this? I'd expect her to take a
personal interest in this swarm of unstoppable invaders. Is her death
in "First Contact" the end of her? Am I thinking too 3 dimensionally?
Did the collective invent her just to assimilate the earth (knowing
humans would target her and they could then swoop in and do the job)?
Did the creators drop her for the reason you stated in your review of
STVIII (it compromises the Borg's threat)? Maybe she'll show up next
season.
The CG dimensions of the cubes looked a little off. The Voyager is a
small ship, yet it looked pretty big next to the cubes (maybe they're
small cubes).
I wonder if the personal log of Picard that Janeway read showed up in a
previous "Next Generation" episode.
The scene with Janeway inside the Borg ship looked terrible, you
noticed the ultramat effect big time.
How can the aliens come from quantam singularites if, according to
Steven Hawking, singularties are masses of matter with infinite mass and
density yet occupying an infitesimally small area of space? Doesn't
seem like a portal to me. (However, this is 20th century science v. 24
th century science).
All in all pretty good, kudos to the creators for a technically
magnificent epsiode. The lighting, music, and computer art (for the
space shots) gave it a real dark and creepy feeling. It had a feeling
of 'we've never been here' and 'impending doom' etc.
Tony Trimboli of Mesa, AZ: Excellent episode, although most Borg episodes usually are. Interesting
about the moral dilemna that Chakotay brings up about giving the Borg a
weapon. There is one major flaw in his logic though. If they let species
8472 (really blatant 47, kind of getting annoying now) destroy the Borg, yes
they get rid of a dangerous, evil enemy of the Federation, but now they let
an even worse enemy run loose. Not sure where they come from, but based on
the fact they are using a quantum singularity for transport, it would be
safe to assume that they could probably make their way into the alpha
quadrant. They would be a worse threat than the Borg, as it seems that they
are more agressive.
I'm a little dismayed at how easily they destroyed the Borg. In the original
encounter with the Borg when Q sent the Enterprise into their space, the
Enterprise was able to severely damage the Borg ship. Once the Borg made
repairs, they adapted their shields so that the Enterprise's weapons were
useless against them. The Borg didn't have to assimilate anybody from the
Enterprise to make this change, so why aren't they able to adapt to this new
energy beam? Also, with all of the cultures that they assimilated the Borg
should have enough knowledge of military strategy to be able to defeat
anybody. Battles and wars aren't always won by who has the biggest, baddest
weapons.
Another nit, considering that the Borg are in a battle for their life, why
would they bother trying to assimilate a small ship like Voyager? I would
think that the priority would be to deal with this new enemy.
One last nit, since the Delta Quadrant seems to be full of many advanced
species, and Voyager has managed to make it into Borg space in a relatively
short period of time, why haven't the Borg assimilated the area where
Voyager first came from? They should have at least assimilated the Kazon,
unless maybe the Kazon's hair styles clashed with the Borg uniforms ;-)
Philip Blaiklock: All I can say is that this is probably the best Voyager I have seen yet.
It was so gut wrenching, and it seems the show keeps on getting better
and better. From that teaser, you know you're in for it.
Now on to the nits. Not a whole lot here (I am still so overwhelmed by
this ep), but at one point Janeway says the armada is 2.1(?) ly away,
yet they have slowed to impulse and get there in seconds. I'm sorry,
but that would take 2 YEARS!!
I noted one person saying that the Borg could travel back in time like
FC. If I remember correctly, FC does not happen until "this summer" in
the timeline of the series, as DS9 just went to the new uniforms only a
few months ago. One could postulate that the Borg have yet to
"assimilate" time travel. Or maybe they did try going back, but they
could not stop the bioships from coming out of the singularity.
Oh yeah...why a quantum SINGULARITY?? That is literally a point in
space!! Nothing could fly through that!!!
Jeff Carpenter of Springfield, VA: A few nitpickers have said the Borg could get Voyager home. Now, I'm sure getting a ride home with the Borg would be a great time saver, but I
couldn't help wondering how it would look to come cruising on home with a
Borg cube. "Blast it, Janeway...You fail your first mission by getting lost,
then you slack off for three years, non of which we really care about, mind
you; but now you go and bring the Borg back AGIAN. Do you know how hard it
is to get these guys to leave!?"
Clay: I have to mention once more that the fact they weren't sweating if I remember
the ep right was the fact of the starfleet material as I mentioned before.
Brian Spangler of Philadelphia, PA: When Chakotay, Tuvok and Kim were inspecting the Borg ship, at one point Chakotay sent harry off to get some computer information. Does this
really make the best tactical sense? Chakotay has previously been inside
a Borg ship and been mind-controlled through the computer setup. We
found out in "Displaced" that Tuvok is a real whiz with alien computer
systems. So why send the one person who doesn't know the system to
figure it out?
Matt Cotnoir: Why is it that when the 15 Borg ships fly by Voyager, it is shown
tumbling as if it was caught in some kind of turbluence? I know that real
fighter planes can get caught up in each others turbulence (as seen in Top
Gun), but this can't happen in space. There's no air to cause any turbulence. (Note from Phil: I think that was supposed to be some kind of subspace turbulence.)
The away team doesn't listen to their own advice for very long. Tuvok
tells everyone to lower their weapons, then they proceed to walk around the
next corner with their weapons raised
Have you (or anybody else for that matter) ever heard or played the
arcade game Soul Edge? I won't get into the details of it hear except to
say that it's a really cool game. Anyway, the last stage of that game
looks a lot like the destroyed Borg fragments that Voyager flies
through...it was really quite cool to look at.
Did Jean-Luc Picard every say in an episode that which was attributed to
him in this episode??? I can't seem to place it anywhere. (Note from Phil: Not that I know of but it was a personal log and he had plenty of it to record it off camera!)
Toni Mattis: About the fox and scorpion "parable." It is a variation of a much
better joke. A scorpion meets a frog and asks him to take him across
the river. The frog says that the scorpion will sting him and he will
die. The scorpion says that he won't because he would drown. The frog
agrees and they set out. Just before they reach the shore, the scorpion
stings the frog. As they sink into the river, the frog asks why. The
scorpion says, "Because this is the Middle East."
Paul Lalli of Feeding Hills, MA: When Janeway was looking at the log entries of other captains, Chakotay
walks in. After their discussion about "mimmicking the greats", Janeway
hits a button or two on the viewscreen. It sounds like the screen shut
off, but whent the camera changes views, the screen shows the same
screen it did when Chakotay walked in. (of course, you won't be able to
verify this due to superfuzzy TV, but another guild member can probably
do it.)
On the Borg wreckage, one Borg is attempting to assimilate the bioship.
It looks as though it is getting shocked or damaged somehow everytime it
tries. But when Doc explains why the Borg can't assimilate 8472, it's
because of their great immune system, he says nothing of attacking the
assimiater.
Charles Sylvia: I think I really enjoyed this episode. I've been complaining since
Voyager began how all the way in the Delta Quadrant the aliens look
basically human. With CG techology you can create just about anything
so there's really no excuse. Finally they put that CG technology of
theirs to good use and created a really cool looking non-humanoid
alien.
The only thing is, I think a lot of the CG shots of the exterior of
Voyager looked a little too...well, CG.
In this episode for some reason Voyager just HAS to go through the North
West Passage because Borg Space is just too big and there's no way
around it. I just don't buy that. Space is too large and extends in
infinite directions, there has to be some way to go in a different
direction so they don't need to go directly through Borg space. And the
term "Borg space" deserves some criticism too. How can there be "Borg
space" The Borg don't go by any boundaries or treaties. Shouldn't Borg
Space always be expanding? I wonder why the entire galaxy hasn't been
assimilated by now.
The only other complaint I have towards this episode is that it's sort
of the downfall of the Borg. They've always been my favorite enemy in
Star Trek. They were ruthless and extremely powerful. One single Borg
Cube destroyed 39 StarFleet vessels and was seconds away from
assimilating Earth. In this episode we see entire Borg cubes get
destroyed in one shot. It's sort of demeaning to my favorite enemies.
But I suppose eventually the writers had to make an even more powerful
bad guy.
On a final note, I wonder why the crew of Voyager or the crew of the
Enterprise just doesn't attempt to contact the Q Continuum for help.
Surely Q could help them through this situation and since Janeway now
knows him "personally" it shouldn't be too hard for her to manipulate
him to do as she wants. After all, I've pretty much lost my respect for
Q as well after the last two Q episodes of Voyager.
Lisa Solinas: It's hard to tell, but when the Borg planet explodes, it looks like it tosses several Borg
cubes from the core.
Janeway, why are you standing up in the Borg cube? The INTELLIGENT thing to do would
be to crouch down and keep a tight hold on the rails!
Craig Mason: I have reviewed the previous episode before "Scorpion", and they are the
same chairs and table. I guess they do not have wooden backs, but some
sort of brewn coloredfabric or velor. They still don't look right. Are
the same chairs and table since "Caretaker"? (Note from Phil: Couldn't tell ya! Fuzzy TV.)
Jim Ferris: Although endless comparisons will be made between this and "The Best of
Both Worlds", there are just to many similarities to not be ignored.
Befriending the Borg is not a good idea. For almost 10 years now we've
been given to believe that the Borg are the Federation's one unbeatable
adversary. I LIKE the Borg as they are...menacing, fearsome, powerful,
virtually indestructable. 8472 lack character and don't have a very
menacing facade. The previous VOYAGER episode of the Borg softened them up
way too much. Now we're going to befriend them. They're taking away the
single biggest threat the Federation has ever known...you NEED a good,
constant enemy. This falls into the same line as killing Eddington on DS9.
He was a GREAT adversary, and I was sorry to see him go. Why don't we all
cuddle up with Darth Vader while we're at it?
There's nothing from stopping the Borg from scanning Voyager and TAKING
the Holo-Doc's plan right from the memory core. Then again, this would put
Janeway in a less-suspenseful (I wasn't exactly sitting on the edge of my
seat) position. She doesn't realize just how she's not the big and
powerful compared to them.
Scott Vogt, Cedar Rapids,IA: Phil, I've read you and others believe these nanoprobes from the Borg to be new technology. I do not believe this. Someone above me pointed out
the Borg skeleton the doc has is thirty years old. Perhaps you believe
it's new because of the seemingly drawn out process of Picard's
assimilation. Look at Picard's kidnapping in "TBOBW p.1". A Borg sticks
something in his neck. At the time, I believed it to be some sort of
sedative, but perhaps not. Or Locutus may be the key. You see, they
weren't just after another drone with Picard. The Queen wanted an equal.
So perhaps the nanoprobes were counterproductive to that goal. That
could explain why the doc wouldn't already know about them from reports
filed by Dr. Beverly Chrusher. She didn't know because Picard didn't
have them.
Also, I agree with your disappointment over the Borg Queen. But it could
explain why the Borg won't attack until you're a threat. To oversee the
entire collective, you can't stop and examine every little thing around
you.
Mark Bowman: Although this was an exiting episode, the graphics looked too "cartoony". I
admit that I like watching Saturday morning cartoons and I am a fan of shows like
"Reboot" that are done in total CGI, however these graphics didn't seem apropriate for
a dramatic Star Trek episode. The old Borg FX from 7years ago were much better.
Michael Gurwitz of Washington, DC: I can't think of any substantive nits, other that to say that when the mean new alien takes a swipe at the Borg and knocks them all down, the
effects weren't particularly convincing. But hey, it beats Ray
Harryhausen stop-motion (no offense, Ray).
Jacob Boxer: When the doctor says he will insert the Nano-devices into Kim, what happens
to them? He said that the Borg's Nano-devices are not removable. That means
Harry will be walking around with these little mechanical things inside of
him for the rest of his life. He'll be part Borg. (Note from Phil: I supposed that better than being part-dead. ;-)
Pearce Family: What would happen if the Borg were unable to stop the ID4-like
aliens because Janeway insists on safe-passage FIRST. Well, then if the
borg can't stop the aliens in time, all of the borg will be destroyed and
so how is Janeway and co. supposed to get past the ID4-like dudes without
an alliance?
And how is having an alliance with the borg supposed to do
anything? Obviously this other race is much more powerful then the borg, so
it's unlikely that the borg will even be able to ensure a safe passage for
Voyager.
I think Voyager's writers have watched 'Alien' too many times.
First Janeway doing the whole bit in 'Macrosm' and now these
computer-animated ID4 wanna-be aliens.
Leonardo DiVinci sure looked a lot like Santa Claus.
I don't think Janeway's 'impersonation' of Picard was all that
great. Personally I was thinking more along the lines of Kathryn Hepburn.
Eric Brasure: "Harry, Harry, Harry, haven't you seen any horror films? Do NOT NOT NOT
look after the weird noises in the dark in the weird place. NEVER!"
A comment on this: Too bad Paris didn't go over with the away team,
seeing as how he's a 20th century b-movie buff!
Ryan McDaniel of Fairfax, VA: A little thing about transwarp. I don't think any of us but the creators
(and perhaps not even them!) know anything about it. Now, I know that in
"Threshold" we saw Paris break Warp 10 and do the whole "be everywhere,
everywhen, everything in the universe at the same time" thing, but apparantly
it doesn't work that way. THIS IS NOT A NIT. I just think that it takes the
writers some time to develop their ideas. Since "Threshold" we've seen two
races with transwarp technology (the dinos in "Distant Origin" and now the
Borg), and, while it does seem to move them very quickly, they can't just pop
up anywhere they feel like. I guess Warp 11 is just a speed after all. On
reflection, Riker's Enterprise (at Warp 13!) in "All Good Things..." could
only go so fast - it couldn't just arrive on the scene, it had to get there.
So that's my idea, anyway. Thanks for listening,
Matt McLauchlin: The dialogue from most of the episode before they discover the 8472s seems to
indicate our heroes are moving towards the Northwest Passage at all deliberate
speed. But during the conference, the stars aren't moving!
When Janeway was talking during the conference, she says that the ship will be
prepared to engage the Borg in battle. At this point, I went, "Hello? HELLO??!
These things can cut right through your shields! A SINGLE ONE smashed through
most of Starfleet! It came within a hairsbreadth of destroying Earth and you, a
DAMAGED SHIP, are going to be READY for them? No wonder everyone was so into
that Maquis takeover game last week!" (Sort of like your rant when Sisko said he
was going to be "ready" for the Jem'Hadar. How about we make a new acronym for
this? How about FFFFISTBOARM? For Fee Fie Fo Fum, I Smell The Blood Of A Ready
Man (or Ma'am).)
Right after the red alert scene, my brother told me that the bridge lights were
blue, not red. I didn't notice, but it sounds plausible. Remember from "The
37's" that alert status blue means they're landing.
Chakotay says that Janeway does a good Picard impression. Um, no.
To travel 5.8 light years at warp 2 would take a good seven months.
Why are all those dead Borg in a huge pile? I thought they vaporized when they
died. Besides, who stacked them there? The 8472s? Why?
How about a second new acronym: ICGALOT. I Can't Get A Lock On Them. Useful and
ubiquitous for creating dramatic tension.
How can Voyager escape unscathed from a bolt of the 8472's weapon? These guys
destroyed a cube in one shot!
Holodoc says that Kim contracted the 8472 infection through a chest wound. I
thought he got hit in the head!
Midway through this episode, when Janeway remarks that she should trust Kes'
intuition, I quipped that Kes is like a combination of Troi and Guinan, except
she doesn't wear big hats or say "I sense anger." Imagine my surprise when Kes
reports on the 8472's emotions and says, drumroll, "I feel hatred"!! (well, to
all intents and purposes the same). What's next? Is she gonna borrow a headgear
design from the Nyrians?
Third acronym: HAKIGIA: Harry Kim Gets It Again. Think about it. He's been
impaled in "Caretaker", killed twice in "Emanations", eaten by Grendel in
"Heroes and Demons", arrested and blown up in "Non Sequitur", sucked into space
in "Deadlock", charged with murder and knocked on his tuchas multiple times in
"The Chute", grabbed and fondled by Amazon sex goddesses in "Favorite Son",
twisted in "Twisted", and now eaten alive by 8472 microbes! Poor guy, you gotta
feel for him!
Gonna be a long, long, *long*, LONG summer!
Matt Nelson: First of all... WOW! Never since "Best of Both Worlds" have I
eagerly awaited a second part so much! Visually compelling,
excellent storyline (even if it did borrow a scene or two from First
Contact, but who cares?) and just plain exciting. Awesome teaser
shot.
The stars in Janeway's window are streaking at an awfully funny
angle. Somehow this just doesn't seem right.
That Borg trying to assimilate the big ship sure seemed frustrated.
I half expected him to say something like this:
Borg: (tries to assimilate ship)
Kevin Rudolph, Medical Lake, WA: Great Line: "What if I made a deal... with the Devil?"
Janeway doesn't seem to be thinking very far ahead here. She's
giving the Borg a way to assimilate these really nasty powerful
aliens, right? So they'll now have these really UGLY Borg running
around with an even more improved cellular infiltration technique,
and possibly even assmilated biological ships. Isn't this possibly a
really really BAD idea? These guys would be unstoppable! I can just
see it now:
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Lower your shields and
surrender your vessels. Your biological and technological
distinctiveness will be added to our own. Your culture will adapt to
service ours. THE WEAK WILL PERISH." Then they open fire on Picard
and good-bye Enterprise-E!
Jeff Frederick: At the beginning of the episode the crew
discovers they are "approaching" Borg space right? If that is so, then
where did the Borg armada come from? They approached Voyager from behind
at transwarp right? We know Voyager had only enountered one planet in
the last 3 years that the Borg had visited. so where did these cubes
come from? Speaking of...why HAVEN'T the Borg explored their own area
of space farther? Voyager hasn't come all that far through the Delta
quadrant have they? Haven't they run into quite a few species the Borg
SHOULD have found by now? And finally...the Borg send 15, count 'em 15
cubes to attack species 8472. That's pretty impressive, since they only
sent 1, 1!?!? to assimilate the entire federation! I think the
federation should be insulted myself.
Matt McLauchlin of Westmount, Quebec, Canada: Did the thick beam destroying the planet and the two cubes getting blown up, but
the one with the important person zooming away at the last moment, remind anyone
of ID4? (Think: White House goes foom, but Air Force One gets away.)
First Eddington's "lucky loonie" in "Blaze of Glory" (DS9), now the Northwest
Passage. Two Canada references in as many shows! This has got to be a record of
some kind, since you'd NEVER GUESS THE WORLD'S SECOND BIGGEST COUNTRY EXISTS by
watching most US tv, even though WE'RE YOUR NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOUR and BIGGEST
TRADING PARTNER and WE'RE BIGGER THAN YOU and WE'VE GOT THE WORLD'S HIGHEST
QUALITY OF LIFE... [Matthew. Shut up. Take your lithium.]
John Reese of Austin, TX: The Borg have probably suffered from the most inconsistent writing of any species on Star Trek in terms of changed premises. I spotted a nit right
away in the very short teaser. The Borg gave their usual "Resistance is
futile" speech, then immediately got blown away. This makes it seem like
the standard speech is just a bluff on the part of the Borg. In "Q Who" it
showed the Borg meticulously examining the Enterprise for hours before
coming to the conclusion that their defensive capabilities were not up to
par. It made them seem like a very practical race that actually considered
seriously the possibility that a new race they encountered might be more
powerful. This just makes them seem arrogant. (At least they seemed to have
dropped the idea that the Borg are controlled by a central Queen! Some
premises deserve to be changed.)
When the Doctor showed the graphic of the red blood cells being attacked by
nanoprobes, I thought, what's the point of that? The nanoprobes are
supposed to alter DNA, and red corpuscles have none. Red blood cells have
no nuclei, that's why they're flat. I supposed they could be just going
along for the ride, to reach other parts of the body, BUT... when they
showed the alien cells, they looked like corpuscles as well (although they
weren't red), but the Doctor said they were PACKED with DNA. I suppose the
alien's physiology could be radically different from hours, but then why
would the cells look so similar?
An observation: When the Voyager crew first entered the alien ship, the
music was reminiscent of the ST:TOS episode, "Wink of an Eye".
Specifically, to use the technical musical term, there was a half-step
descending parallel portamento on muted trombones (whew!). It sounded
almost as if it might have been a joke, for it wasn't repeated.
They say those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it.
Chakotay obviously knows recent history much better than Janeway, for he
remembers that the last two times they tried to form an alliance with
someone (the Kazon and the Traeb) the results were disastrous. Janeway
appears to have forgotten this.
This was a much better finish to the season than last year. I have no idea
what's coming next!
Jeff Muscato: I find it highly unlikely that the borg's nanoprobe injector can pierce any
alloy or force field! I mean, that's a bold statement. I can't think of
specific scientific statements to back it up, but it just seems unrealistic.
If they have the technology to push something through a force field, I
wonder why the Borg in Decent didn't punch through the brig field. The
doctor should have said it can pierce a "level [whatever] force field" like
so we would know that they couldn't punch through a ship's shields with
those dinky little needles! As far as alloys, I'm sure there's something --
the carbon-neutronium from the Dyson sphere comes to mind -- that they can't
punch through! Seriously, though, if they possess the technology to punch
through any alloy, why did they only dent the sickbay door in First Contact?
I think they really just screwed up when the holodoc said that; there's
really no way that it can pierce any alloy or force field...
Also, concerning these nanoprobes, is there a reason why they have
to be injected? If you sprinkled them on someone's skin, couldn't they
climb through the skin? So couldn't the Borg just have a launch that shoots
lots of them a across the room, like a shotgun shooting buckshot?
Vicki Strzembosz: I just loved this episode. I only got to watch it once
because I had to lend my tape to a friend who forgot to set up her VCR.
I want to see that scene where Janeway says, "Then I really am alone."
over again. Did it look to you as though she were going to cry? Why
didn't he hug her?!?! Why didn't he kiss her?!?! Probably a good thing
for the ratings that they wrote it the way they did. Look how
Moonlighting went to hell after they got too explicit. Better to have
the viewers wondering and lusting for more than to kill the goose that
laid the golden egg.
Because you have mentioned the closed captioning
before, I fooled around with my TV to check it out. I watched it that
way for a while and noted lots of inconsistancies. Since I have never
used this feature I don't know how common failure to transcribe verbatum
really is. One example: Janeway states "When Q first put the Enterprise
in the path of the first cube..." The closed captioning says "...in the
path of the first Q" In another part Tuvok uses the word "Swiftly" but
the closed captioning used the word "Quickly". The Tuvok substitution
means nothing, but the Janeway one makes no
sense.
Simon Crowley of Edmonton, AB: An OK episode, the best Voyager-Borg one yet. But (more than) a few nits:
I seem to recall the Borg NOT HAVING lifesigns. So why are we constantly
scanning for (and finding) them?
Just 'cause there's an atmosphere on the Borg wreck doesn't mean there's
livable temperatures. Shouldn't they scan for that, too?
And since when are Type III phasers so dang big? Where are they getting
these new weapons?! Next thing you know, they WILL have new grey-top
uniforms.
Great scenes: "Curious." "Not the word I had in mind."
Harry Kim screaming—again.
Yes, Captain, just DROP Troi—I mean, Kes—on the floor. She won't get
hurt. The bridge's thick shag carpet will protect her (sarcasm).
Quantum singularity is fancy-talk for a black hole. That is NOT black.
And one last thing: watch for a Chakotay-Janeway romance next season.
Every time they talk, there's a KMYF moment for you, right there.
Matt Thomas, Grand Junction, CO: When I was watching Scorpion tonight, I noticed a similarity to "The Best o' Both Worlds 2" When Voyager goes through the Borg graveyard, the
scene looks exactly like the TNG one, and the music is also almost the
same!
Diane Thomas: In response to someone's comment about the nifty borg scan this episode,
I'd have to say that since the borg seem to be constantly aquiring new
and better technoligy, maybe this type of scan is just all around better
(V'Ger used it in ST:TMP).
One wonders what is keeping the Borg from A) Doing their wonderful job
of adapting to the alien weapons and/or alien biology (you'd think
they'd design those nanoprobes to adapt in-process, what Holodock did
doesn't seem like a BIG leap), and B) The stupid 8472 from just wiping
out the borg. They obviously have the resources, I guess both sides must
like to mass big fleets and go BOOM...
One ship did a real effective job of beating the borg senseless, why do
the borg continue to allow them to bring in more and more ships? They
should mass ALL of their resources and attempt to stop them now, the
longer the wait the harder it gets.
The borg "collective" voice seems less then collective when Janeway is
nogoitating with them. They've most definantly been fiddling with the
voice and the borg "comments", the borg talk really fast and give
abreviated speeches (I guess the audience would get tired of the long
drawn out monologs they normally give).
One would think the Borg could just beam the entire crew out and then
assimlate the ship and holodock with no interference. It really isn't in
the borg's nature to negotiate.
Truely amazing how Voyager manages to survive their first attack from
the bioprobe. If any of the Borg had been able to get away with that
kind of knowlage then they'd have already defeated 8472.
6/2/97 Update
Richard Steenbergen: [Concerning Tuvok's instructions for the away team to lower their weapon to appear non-threatening,] Of course we should note that the borg on TNG didn't get upset when ya aimed
at them, only when you fired at their power distribution nodes. Seems Tuvock
didn't read his security reports very well.
[Concerning using Borg transwarp to get through Borg Territory,]
I've seen several people comment on this. I do believe that Janeway said
"Let us pass through your territory" which implies under their own power.
I'm fairly certain that if they hadn't been interrupted the subject of the
borg providing the transportation would have come up.
[Concerning Janeway, the Borg and the Prime Directive,] The prime directive does SOOOOOOOOO not apply to the borg. A) They ain't a
developing civilization B) They do NOT need protection against interference
C) They should get a prime directive to keep from interfering with US! =)
[Concerning blood being the first thing that the Borg attack,] Not to mention that maybe going after the brain tissue might be more
effective then turning blood cells grey (how do you make a blood cell work
"for" the borg?)
Personally I find it amazing the Borg couldn't catch onto something Holodoc
did in 30 seconds "I changed the nanoprobe to appear to be an 8472 cell"
well hey that might be a good idea for ALL assimilations. Not to mention
there is a REAL problem of the borg getting their asses wooped WAY before
they get a chance to "stick" it to 8472. I would have prefered to have some
discussion on the type of weaponary used against the Borg and it seems odd
that they don't adapt to this type of weaponary like they did to phasers
(remember the Enterprise did a good deal of dammage with their first attack
in Q Who).
[Concerning the plot,] They can't stretch Voyagers giving the Borg the secret, the borg
winning, and Voyager getting away into an hour, so I expect some plot twists
in the next one (would have been better if you couldn't have predicted the
entire thing from watching the preview).
[Concerning the impossibility of flying through a quantum singularity,]
Perhaps such a technically advanced race is able to make it into a temporary
portal or perhaps beam themselves through it.
[Concerning the Borg attempting to assimilate Species 8472], It seems like the Borg soldiers should either fry from being disconnected
from the collective or else maybe go try to stop the invaders. What happened
to that nice little mechanical arm with lots-o-strength and jappy
electricity (I guess compaired to those CG critters they're not much of a
match. Maybe Lore had a good idea with those wrist mounted phasers).
BTW On the continuation if I don't see some Borg ships attempting to put up
a fight and firing back on the 8472 (if for no other reason then to see the
special effects!!!) I will be sorely disappointed.
Was it just me or did the Borg speech seem really disjointed (just designed
to give reminders of what they should say, not bore the audience?). They
seem to mention "Resistance is futile" at the drop of a hat, and no longer
do their "blah blah is irrelivent". That was the pattern, they'd announce
who they were and that you were toast, you'd say "Hah you wish", they'd say
"Wishing is irrelivent, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile".
I really miss "We have analysised your vessels defensive capabilities, you
are unable to resist us." Not to mention the voices are VERY VERY VERY
different! Ahghg!!! Maybe the creators should watching some BoBW tapes!
[Concerning the assimilation nanites,] Thank god (uhh ohh is that forbidden by ST?) the Borg havn't assimilated the
blow dart yet. They really have a distaste of long-distance weapons, no
phasers either.
[Concerning transwarp,] I think there is a great deal of misunderstanding on this subject. The
warp scale is setup so that as you get closer to warp 10 your speed
increases exponentionally. Ex: Warp 9.99999 is many thousands of times
faster then Warp 9.9999. Of course this kind of scale naturally leads
those who are less mentally endowed to say "I wanna go Warp 10". If they
didn't have a Warp scale and just said "Set course for the Alpha
Quadrant, 9000x the speed of light" you wouldn't here anyone saying "I
wanna go Warp Infinity" would ya? To add some spice to life, the
creators devised a little theory that says since warp 10 is infinite
speed, you would occupy all points in the universe simultaniously. This
really has very little to do with transwarp. Transwarp is just another
kind of warp drive thats much more efficient, not warp 10. So the Borg
can get places much faster, but they still can't occupy all points in
the universe at the same time. This seems to be a point where many
people are confused.
Dan McClintock of Grand Junction, CO: Interesting how far television technology has gone in the last five
years. Remember the time when all the aliens Trek crew members met were
bipedal? In a way, the new three-legged aliens remind me of a cross
between Lt. Arrex, the navigator in the Star Trek cartoons, and that
three-legged "pet" on that Saturday morning kids show last year.
I hope in the future, because of the technology, we'll get to see some
even more interesting aliens.
And by the way, did you get the same "Babaylon 5" feeling from this
episode that I did?
Tom Elmore, Columbia SC: Given Chakotay's objections to Janeway's plans to talk to the Borg,
and last week's episode, I can't help but to wonder if we are being set
up for a crew muitiny, especialy in lieu of rumours of an alledged cast
shake-up.
Personally, if I was Janeway I would have gone with DeVinci to visit
the monks and pray. the placing of the cross in the same scene with
Janeway's face when she say's "I'm going to make a deal with the devil"
was a slap in the face to Chrisitians especialy in lieu of her earlier
comments. I realize and appreciate the fact that Star Trek has always
tried to remain neutral on the subject of religion, I feel the crossed
the line on this one, and as a Christian, I am not a happy camper. (Note from Phil: Actually, there have been other times when Trek has been just as antagonistic toward religion but, honestly, what do you expect? This is a product from Hollywood! It's a place that peddles flesh and transitory distractions for the sole purpose of making money. It's not exactly know for it's strong moral and ethical commitments! ;-)
They say the Doctor can not be assilimated, yet we have been told
that the Borg assimilate technology. Therefore it seems to me that the
Doctor can be assimilated.
Overall I thought it was one of the best Vpyager episodes to date, and
certainly vintage Star Trek. I can't wait to see the conclusion in the
fall.
Corey Hines, Hamilton, ON: I have wondered this ever since the
beginning of the series. Is the Gamma Quadrant closer to the AQ than
the DQ? Is Borg space also block the way to the GQ? When thinking of
another way to get home, set course to the GQ and go through the
wormhole to DS9. The wormhole can never be destroyed and one would
think taking on the Jem'Hadar would be easier than taking on the Borg or
8472. (Note from Phil: Janeway and the crew of the Voyager either don't want to face the Dominion or they have forgotten that there is a stable worm hole in the Gamma Quadrant!)
Myles Hildebrand: I must say Phil that many people in the Guild are way too uptight about the
changes in the Borg. The Borg assimilate and adapt, so they are bound to
evolve. They used to do surgery to assimilate, now they've developed
nanoprobes. New genetics could mean they are swifter. Conventional warp
gives way to transwarp conduits. Put Lore in charge of a cube and you get
an art deco style thing. So it isn't unusual that Picard had no nanites in
him in BOBW but all Borg now use them.
Erin Hunt of High Point, NC: Lisa Solinas said that Chakotay shouldn't have said "My God" when he saw
the Borg ships because he doesn't believe in God. This is probably just
a cultural expression that people say without thinking about what it
means.
JoAnna Renae Walsvik: Wow, what a cliffhanger! Voyager's best so far, IMHO! On to the
nits:
In reply to Jeff Czerniak's observation that he would rather be
killed by Species 8472, I'd have to agree. That statement reminded me of
a Serious Interpretation I did for speech in eight grade, "The Bet" by
Anton Chekov. A bit different, perhaps, but basically the same concept.
Also, referring to Mike Konczewski's agnostic theory, I'd have to
disagree. I think that the reason no human shows religion is that the
writers are afraid that if they show any kind of tendency towards one
religion or another, they'll get many angry letters from minority
religions claiming that Voyager or Star Trek in general is biased against
that particular religion, therefore effectively losing some of their
viewing audience. An easy solution would be to make everyone Amish, but
somehow I don't think that would be advisable. ;)
Has B'Elanna's hair changed again? It seems longer and curled
under at the ends. Well, I like it.
And speaking of the good lieutenant, "I just thought it up." Oh,
really? And Janeway accepts this? True, she didn't have very many other
options, but Janeway didn't even look apprehensive. I certainly would.
And somehow it seems inconceivable that in all the years that Starfleet
has had transporter technology, no one had previously thought this up. I
guess B'Elanna's just too smart.
I must disagree with Janeway. Chakotay had a very valid point
when he stated that she doesn't know when to back down. And NEVER tell a
crewmember, even a holographic one, that you're prepared to permanently
delete them if the need arises. Didn't the doctor say in a first-season
ep that he wanted to be treated as an officer and not a hypospray?
"Doctor, if the Borg wave a stick at us, you die." Oh, THAT'S comforting.
Not that I want Voyager to find a nice planet and settle down, (god forbid
a Voyager version of "Full House", complete with a Michelle-Kes and a
Neelix-Kimmy) but surely she could have rephrased her statement. Kathryn,
dear, you can't be right all of the time.
The lone tear that trickled down Harry "Most-Likely-Never-To-
Have-A-Boring-Personal-Log" Kim's face was very, very touching and
effective. I nearly cried myself.
And, finally, why, oh why did Chakotay pick HARRY? Surely he
could have found someone more experienced, say B'Elanna or Helm Boy, to
accompany him to the Borg Vessel/Bioship. Poor Harry, the writers pick on
him mercilessly. Must be Chekov Syndrome.
Joshua E Miller: Yes it's season finale time when the creators throw every gimmick
at us trying to make us watch, Watch, WATCH! A war with the Dominion?
An encounter with the Borg? Oh Boy! What a LOOOONG summer it shall be!
In regard to "Scorpion" A slam bang great action/adventure/brainy
episode! Just the right Mix! The music has to be the best I've heard on
VOYAGER (cept for the Oldies in LIFESIGNS!)
But NO ONE is PERFECT! Eh Phil?
On to the Nitpicking!
Does Species 8472 seem like a low number to you. Wouldn't you
think the Borg would categorize species in order? Has the Borg really
only encountered 8,472 species? Seems awfully low.....these boys need to
get assimilating! There's lots of catching up to do (I personally would
like to see the Borg assimilate the founders...How do you assimilate
liquid?)
I think the Borg miss their Queen! They seem awfully
wordy.....Janeway has a conversation with them.....what happened to
irrelevant? Everything's irrelevant, right? It must be that the borg
decided that reading the Dictionary was relevant....I know that they face
destruction, but why should they fear it? that would imply EMOTION! The
Borg are "emotionless killers" assimilating what they deem useful. If
they faced destruction, I seriously doubt they would really
care....unless the emotions of the assimilated species is interfering
(perhaps they assimilated ONE too many Betazoids!)
I don't think those nodes that Harry gets the Borg Tactical stuff
look like the nodes that Riker and Shelby phasered out of existence in B
of BW! (although they do look First Contact-ish)
And Harry downloaded the Borg tactical Info? And understood it?
I find this hard to believe! If you don't believe me, use Windows
Notepad to open something like Solitaire.Exe......Can you understand it
in Notepad? No, because you don't have the "right" application. In fact
if you save it in Notepad, it corrupts your Exe file.......and I won't
even mention translating some files between Windows 3.x, 95 and
Macintosh...... (Note from Phil: Apparently, in the future, all races use the same file format!)
How did the Borg beam Janeway off the ship. Just before engaging
the Borg, Janeway orders shields up, and then the Borg lock on with the
tractor beam. But in B of BW, the Borg had to get past the shields
first...then the Borg could lock on (...remember Geordi "Borg Tractor
beam attempting to lock on....rotating shield frequencies.....shields
down to xx%..xx%....xx%.....0%....Borg have locked on") So the Borg just
locked on to VOYAGER and then beamed the Captain off while the VOYAGER's
shields were up? B'elanna! I'm disappointed!
I couldn't help but think....When Janeway said..."When we engage
the Borg, I'm confident that we will be ready for them" I think I heard
those word before....yes....from 39 other Captains.....too bad most of
them are dead now....as for their crew.......the casualties of Wolf
359..... Janeway must have TOO MUCH confidence in her crew (leave it to
Kathryn to reverse odds from 39 to 1 to 1 to God knows how many and STILL
expect to win!)
I know the Da Vinci parts were an effort to "educate" the
audience (like that Gothic novel that flopped in the First
Season).....but I think the creators need to do away with it...it really
slows down action in an episode like this!
POSSIBLE OUTCOME IN PART II
Chakotay manages to free the VOYAGER from the grips of the Borg ship and
flies off leaving the Captain on the Cube. Deciding that Janeway was
wrong, he commands the ship and leads it to a planet on which the crew
has decided to permanently settle, only to find it is inhabited by a
group of castaways including the "Skipper" and "Maryann".
Zachary M. Vogt of St. Louis, MO: When it comes to a nit,
ya always wonder how small is too small, but when it comes to trekkers I
guess we're never sastified, and it's our mission in life to make sure
everyone knows it. Now this may sound dumb, but I would've felt a whole
lot better, had the Doctor changed his line from, "I've examined every
square millimeter of the Borg corpse we recovered" to, "I've examined
every CUBIC millimeter of the Borg corpse we recovered". I'm weird that
way. These kind of things keep me up at night.
I've noticed a few of you out there seem to jump to the conclusion that
just because a few starfleet captains had made a log entrys about the
Borg, that that some how neccessitates that they survived the battle.
I'm not convinced. How hard is it to believe that they arrived at the
scene, told the computer to make a log entry stating how bad these
mothers were, then were proven right as they got blown out of the sky,
leaving nothing behind but the Starfleet equivilent of a black box.
Richard Steenbergen: Concerning Species 8742's future,] $10 says they'll be like the swarm, the Borg will either assimlate them
or more likely they're end up retreating to their universe (can't have
the borg getting TOO powerful).
[Concerning who's more powerful, the Borg or the Dominion or . . .] Makes ya wonder why the Borg are willing to go such great distances to
hunt down the Federation when there are so many worlds ripe for the
plucking nearby their central space. A LOT of the Delta quadrant is weak
and able to be beat up by Voyager, the Borg should just run them down.
Perhaps is has something to do with the Borgs sudden switch from
scoop-and-serve planet hopping to "lets take over and polute the
atmosphere" planetary campouts. In order to do this they'd have to
assimilate the population of the planets (the humanoid planets anyhow,
never seen any non-REAL-huminoid looking borg, wonder what they do with
the rest) as shifting billions of soldiers around would be impractical
even for the borg. I wonder what they'd be like "swarming" a planet with
their prick-o-borg technoligy. Certainly leaves a lot of territory to be
covered in future episodes, but either way its gotta take a LOT of time.
They must still be on the fringes of borg territory to have just
encountered them so recently (kinda like crossing the border into
federation territory and running into 20 starships, makes ya wonder what
they've got in the "heart" of their territory.
I'd sure LOVE to see the Borg go up against the Dominion, of course we
know its coming sooner or later, hopefully on DS9 (I think they'd do a
better job of it then Voyager). As it stands now the Dominion runs the
Gamma quadrant, the Borg run the Delta quadrant, the
Feds/Klings/Roms/Cards run a lot of Alpha and a touch of the Beta, I
wonder if there is someone running the Beta quadrant proper?
[Concerning Borg cube design,] I know novels are not canon but I
agree with the way Peter David put it in "Vendetta", the cube is the
ultimate expression of irrelevence. Beauty is irrevelent, form and sleek
lines are irrelevent (they aren't needed in space). The other shapes
we've seen should really be thought of as lapses in the part of the
creators. =)
[Concerning "The Borg" as a noun,] The Borg seem to think they're plural (we are blahblah of borg, which
brings up an interesting point of why they gave Locotus a name instead
of a number, and if such concepts of individuality and real names are
constantly being absorbed by the borg collective one wonders why Hugh
was so shocked, but back to the topic at hand. Sorry I carried away with
my parenthesies, sometimes I'll put two or three inside of another one.
I think it has to do with my lazyness to seperate items incase you
should feel the urge to edit out parts and not express my ideas fully.
D0h I better end this parenthesis NOW before its too late!).
[Concerning the Borg nanotechnology,] The creators really worked themselves into a corner with this one. The
Borg appear not to have had this technoligy when they assimilated Picard
(makes ya wonder since they could not have assimilated whole planets
with that painstakingly slow method they used before. Perhaps this is an
explination for their switch scoop-and-serve to colonization style
assimilation. Before they developed (err assimilated) the nanoprobes it
would have been impossible to assimilate all the billions of people on a
planet. Ok I'm gonna end this parenthesis now). Having Holodoc examine a
40 year old borg body forces us to conclude they had this technoligy
back then. The only explinations I can think of is that since they
wanted Picard to be their spokesperson they were giving him the special
ambassador treatment (or perhaps doing it with nanprobes makes it
difficult/impossible to retrieve past memories which they wanted to be
prepared for all possible courses of action by the Enterprise). The
other possible explination is that the Borg cube they fought was an
older model (it didn't have the glowing green globes above the soldiers
and the glowing green from inside the borg cube, not to mention there is
an obvious size difference in the cubes). Perhaps they were a kind of
scout ship that had been traveling from the Delta quadrant for quite
some time. We don't know what it takes to overhaul a Borg ship, maybe
its easier for them to dispose of old crappy models by sending 'em off
to scout duty.
[Concerning the Borg assimilating transwarp from the Voth,] They couldn't have assimilated the Voth so quickly and they already had
transwarp technoligy as seen in "Descent". Also I think it should be
noted that there are really 3 types of transwarp. A) Transwarp Conduits
that were used in descent B) Transwarp like being used by borg now and
by the Voth C) Transwarp barrier (really warp 10) that Voyager broke.
Jonathan Klein, Cleveland Ohio: I'm glad they introduced a new
"Supervillian". The Borg were great in BBW, but they were beaten once too
often too be terribly interesting anymore. The Domionion is too much like us.
But these new dudes rock! Not only lay waste to a planet, but blow it up in
a few seconds? Yeah!
Wouldn't a good way to un-assimilate someone be just to run them through the
transporter? The bio filters can screen out viruses which are much smaller
than cells. Couldn't they filters screen out the nanoprobes? And I say
Picard didn't have nanoprobes, as the Borg never *really* assimilated him.
Recall, his name was Locutus, not "Three of Five" or something like that. He
still had a sense of individuality. He was a mouthpiece for the collective,
not just your average drone.
Should Voyager give the borg the knowledge on how to beat the aliens? If the
borg assimilate them, then they will learn how to make weapons like 8472's.
That would be worse than either the borg or 8742's on their own; both
combined.
And everyone seems to have forgotten what transwarp is. The borg use
transwarp conduits, which apparently go from point to point, somewhat like a
wormhole. Transwarp drive (breaking warp ten-- and not using thought like the
Traveller, but only mechanical means) has you occupy everywhere at once, hence
you can go anywhere instantly. (I think)
And one more thing... Didn't Q say he'd bring his kid back to visit? Janeway
actually seems to have liked Q. Recall that Q has quite the ego. He helped
Picard when Picard swallowed his pride and said "Q, I need you." Why doesn't
Janeway just say, "Q, we need your help." Even if he won't take the ship to
earth, he might get them out of a jam every now and again. He is omnipotent
after all-- he would hear them. (Note from Phil: Did Q hedge a bit on the question of omnipotence? And, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence are three different things. Just because Q can do a lot of stuff doesn't mean he knows everything or is everywhere at the same time! ;-)
Still, a great episode.
Jeff Hafner - Tampa, FL: Well, I liked the episode, but it could have used some editing of some
of the non-essential scenes. Also,cthese new aliens are way too one
dimentional, "Destroy the weak" seems an odd goal for such an advanced
race.
Was I the only one who thought that the whole Janeway-Chakotay argument
was pointless? There was no way they could just turn around because if
they ever stopped (or maybe even if they didn't) who ever won the
Borg/8472 war would catch up to them. If Chakotay had won the argument,
it would have only delayed the inevitable.
Also, when the away team was on the Borg ship, didn't they say that the
creature's bio-energy was disrupting the transporter lock? How were
they finally able to transport them only when the alien was right on top
of them? This mysterious "skeletal lock" doesn't seem to be a
reasonable solution.
First of all, what does a transporter normally lock onto? The
communicators, right? Well, what does it lock onto all the times
someone not wearing one is beamed up? If locking onto the minerals in a
person's bones is more reliable or distinct than what ever they normally
use (even when surrounded by other minerals) how come nobody ever
noticed this before? Heck, if they were in communication with Voyager,
couldn't they just use triangulation to help figure out exactly where
they are?
Quite a coincidence that one of Kes's best telepathic contacts so far is
with extremely alien creatures from what might be another universe.
If the alien's DNA is 100 times more compact, then it wouldn't be DNA
would it? (It would have to have another structure.)
The rest of my nits more or less pertain to the nanoprobes.
The doc figures out how to make these nanoprobes into 8472 stealth
models to help save Kim, but he says he doesn't have enough of them.
Excuse me, but wouldn't these things have to be self-replicating to
assimilate a whole creature? Couldn't he just inject a few into Kim and
use him as a walking nanoprobe factory?
Next, they used a bit of film to show the Borg that they have some
solution to the 8742 alien problem and the Borg BELIVES THEM, and yet
does not recognize ITS OWN NANOPROBES! Wouln't a group mind 100 light
years across go, "Hmmm... maybe nanoprobes are part of the solution?"
instead of begging? (It seems to me that the doctor's solution was
fairly simple and that the Borg could then have started making
nanoprobes with random or self-modifying electro-chemical signatures
without even knowing the signature of a 8472
cell. It seems strange to me that the all-adaptable Borg doesn't
already do that.)
And if the Borg had decided that that was enough and begun assimilating
Voyager it would have found a ready supply of knowledge in sickbay in
the form of Kim and the doc's modified nanoprobes which were promonently
on display there. I wonder if Janeway would have been so ready to
sacrifice Kim too.
Lastly, if the Borg get this technology, won't this make them WAY TOO
POWERFULL?!? And you thought they were nasty before. :-) It
seems Janeway and Voyager will have to come up with a solution that
either removes both the Borg and 8472 from the threat category or make
sure that the Borg win without being able to assimilate the 8472 aliens
and their technology.
Marian Perera: I watched Scorpion again and couldn't figure out
why the dead Borg were all piled up. When I first saw them
I was convinced that an 8472 was hiding in the middle of
the pile and would leap out, flinging prosthetic arms in
all directions, when a hapless Starfleet guy wandered by.
It didn't happen. So why the pile ? BILC? Why didn't the
Borg say, "Piling us up is futile"?
Um...would the episode have lost anything if we
hadn't seen the interminable Leonardo da Vinci and Katarina
Janewayina scenes?
My friend Sharon, who's been a Star Trek fan for
years, has said several times that Tuvok should have been
the first officer, not Chakotay. This episode certainly
proved that. No matter what his personal feelings were,
Chakotay should have put them aside and backed Janeway to
the hilt, for this simple reason : the Borg are such a
threat that no one can afford not to be totally committed
to the designated course of action. Doubts and hesitations
cane make a big difference. When the Enterprise was in
danger, Riker always backed Picard up. It's not a good
thing if the captain can't feel secure about the first
officer, but then again, when was that new for Chakotay?
"Resolutions" and "Maneuvers" come to mind.
Jacob Boxer: I'd first like to say that this was ine of the best episodes of Voyager EVER.
Now down to buisness. Does it look to you like those chunks of the Borg
planet being blown to pieces don't really hit the cube? It looks like they
explode a little bit before. And speaking of the chunks: Why don't they hit
Voyager? I mean, you can't really target where the chunks go. You can aim at
the cube, but guess what's right near the cube. VOYAGER.
And while on the subject of 8472, what's this with the weird weapon? IS this
Star Trek's Equivalent of the Death Star? (Not to say that it wasn't really
COOL!! It was!!!!!)
I wonder if the ship in the middle gets damaged by those energy beams
converging on it?
I really like the new motto of 8472. THE WEAK WILL PERISH. It's so fidderent
from the Borg "You will be assimilated". They just skip right over that part
and go straight for the kill.
Mike Bruner of Hockessin, Delaware: Going over the galactic plane: that's nice but the problem is Voyager seems to need to stop a lot for supplies (at least that's the story, I
figure they just want to keep getting out and stretch their legs :-)). If
there are no planets to stop at for a while, they could be hurting rather
soon. Also, nothing says the Borg wouldn't have some sort of eye on space
above their territory; I would think you would do that as a matter of
course considering otherwise someone can go anywhere in your space
undetected just by flying above it and going down.
As for Picard not being Borgified instantly by nanoprobes or whatever, the
Borg didn't seem in a great hurry when they grabbed him and we never saw
him being assimilated so they might have given him the stuff off camera.
His nightmare in First Contact might even indicate that's what happened
since he dreamed of an implant erupting from his skin. The Borg were
attaching additional components to newly assimilated Borg in First Contact
so the scene with him getting further implants in Best of Both Worlds is
probably that kind of thing. As for the not removable thing, maybe Picard
got the older model back then (it would be one of the earliest points the
Borg assimilated a human if not the first) Or it could be them just taking
their time and not using the nanoprobes like someone else mentioned.
Borg lifesigns: Several times now Dr. Crusher's had a Borg availible to
scan fully in sickbay (Locutus and Hugh); maybe she figured out something
else they can scan for to detect living Borg.
Borg Queen: I've been thinking about this one, especially since she would
have bought it on the Wolf 359 ship if she was with Picard. Maybe she is
in fact a computer program that runs the Borg who occasionally downloads
herself into a specially made form. We know from the first Borg episode
that they can breed new drones when they don't assimilate them so her form
might just be bred up as needed. She also might have been made physical on
both invading Borg ships since the rest of the Collective was so far away;
maybe they needed a version of her that was with them so there wouldn't be
a severe lag time for commands, assuming they could contact the Borg in
the Delta Quadrant at all. The time traveling Borg in particular wouldn't
have been able to contact the Collective back then and they'd get
instructions from a queen that wouldn't know the future anyway (besides,
the whole thing with the navigational deflector indicates they weren't
connected with the whole Collective from that far away).
Re: other captains vs. Borg- well, I know they deliberately put holes on
some destroyed ships at Wolf 359 to show some escape pods were launched,
and Sisko living indicates it's possible other captains could live. Maybe
the game Star Trek Borg is canon now too :-).
I think this answers why the Borg only send one ship at a time after us;
if they're still trying to secure their space they probably send the
minimum force they can that far away. Probably the only reason they bother
is that since we know of them we might build up our defenses in such a way
we present more of a threat by the time they got there otherwise. Let's
face it, one ship has only been defeated by incredible luck on the
Federation's part; I can see that the Borg would think one ship would do
the trick, it's come awfully close!
Murray Leeder: I figure that the Borg cubes, in addition to manipulating transwarp
conduits, simply use conventional warp drive (which is obviously
inferior even to Starfleet's). This is because they don't really need to
use it very often, since they have the conduits. They do not, however,
have transwarp drive like the Voth do.
Kevin Weiler: Another 47; holodoc shows both Kes and Janeway how the BorgNanoprobes
work, The display he uses says Image Enhancement 47.
Jonathan Klein: I just sent you an e-mail, but here's another idea. The intrepid holodoc- doc
in a bottle?- shows Janeway information that tells her that the alien DNA is
so great that it destroys anything mechanical, biological or chemical. There
is no mention of any sort of forcefield generator. So whats the problem?
Shoot em with a phaser. I doubt even they can absorb that kind of energy. A
phaser wouldn't have a hard time vaporizing steel, so no matter how dense
these aliens or their DNA are, they'd never survive it.
James R. Dolan: Captain "Kiss Me Kate" Janeway thinks that by tranfering the information to
holo-Doc and then destroying holo-Doc, the Borg won't be able to get the
info. Okay, there have already been nits about recovering the erased data,
but the Borg wouldn't even have to do that. As we remember when Picard got
assimilated, the Borg had access to all his knowledge. Couldn't the Borg
just do the same thing with the Voyager crew? They have Janeway already.
Just send a drone over and assimilate her, then use her knowledge of the
modified nanoprobes to make their own. While they're at it, they can use
her knowledge to completely disable Voyager (lock out command functions,
etc with her command authorization codes) and assimilate the ship and crew
with increased efficiency and ease. But alas! No! The Borg have become
soft. They must have assimilated the Pakleds and decreased the collective
IQ...
On another note, it would seem that Harry Kim is the Pavel Chekov of
Voyager... Always screaming, having bad things happen to him, same rank,
and hair that is hard to manage.
Brian Alan Smith: I don't know if this has been brought up yet in the discussion of the
"Voyager" cover of "TV Guide", "The Borg Is Back", and whether that's
correct:
TV Guide headlines, covers, etc. tend to be some sort of pun ("Good vs.
Borg"), TV reference ("Love, DS9 Style" instead of "Love, American Style")
or other play on a phrase ("While there's 'Hope', there's Life"). In this
case, "The Borg Is Back...and there's gonna be trouble" is a play on the
old song, "My Boyfriend's Back." I, too, thought it should've been, "The
Borg Are Back", but when I tried singing it to the melody of the song, I
found it easier to hit the correct note when I sang "is" instead of "are".
Just something about "friend" sounding closer to "is" than "are", I
suppose.
Oh, and "Scorpion" was, indeed, incredibly cool, but, yes, we need better
titles for these shows! I like "Species 8472", "Lesser of Two Evils", the
homage-y "Best of Both Evils", and, of course, "Borg Blow Up Good. Borg
Blow Up REAL Good". :)
Richard Steenbergen: [Concerning the Borg's continued attacks on the Federation,] That seems to be the ultimate point that the Feds keep missing whenever
they get all celebratory after stopping something the borg tried to do
"Resistance is NOT futile hahaha!!!". Even when the Borg are stopped
resistance is STILL futile because they just keep coming and coming and
coming. You kill a soldier and another one that can't be killed the same
way appears. You kill a ship and another one that can't be killed the
same way appears. Thats what makes it fun =)
Robin Cook: Torres says that she is able to beam the away team (Chakotay,
Tuvok, and Kim) off the ship by configuring transporters to zero in on their
bone materials. Ingenious idea. However, Chakotay and Kim are humans; Tuvok
is a Vulcan. Surely, Vulcan and human bone particles are different! If
Torres was able to configure the transporter to hone in on the bone particles
of two different races, she must be a genius!
Eric Brasure: And a nit for "Scorpion": We have a TRTS! In the scene where Chakotay
comes into Janeway's ready room to tell her she needs to eat, she says
something to him. Chakotay turns around and is about to walk out, but
the doors don't open! Why? Then we couldn't get that scene where Janeway
does a Picard impersonation! And sepaking of Janeway's ready room, does
it seem right that it's so much bigger than Picard's? Voyager is half
the size of the Enterprise-D.
6/9/97 Update
Matthew Chiappardi of Hamilton, NJ: Just a few last comments on "Scorpion". Firts Torres's skeltal lock: what makes her believe she'll get those officers back alive and well?
She only locked onto the minerals in their bones, shouldn't only their
skeletons materialize on the transporter pad? When we do a normal lock
on a body, it's container does not neccesarily come along for the ride.
If Voyager is in Borg space, aren't they now going to be in Borg space
for the entire trip home? I got the impression the bordering space
between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants were Borg.
Craig A. Livingston of San Luis Obispo, CA: A lot of people have been complaining about Holodoc finding nanoprobes
on a "40 year old Borg skeleton". That would be the Borg they found on
the planet at the end of "Blood Fever". I assume the Borg corpse he was
examining was the much more recent one they got off the Borg Cube in
"Unity" (remember, the one that "woke up" in sick bay).
John Myers: I posted a theory that the difference between the First Contact style
assimilation and the Best of Both Worlds procedure was like the difference
between using instant soup granules and using real chicken(or tomatoes
or...).
On the one hand you have a quick and easy snack, a Drone, but with some
sludge at the bottom and perhaps some unsightky lumps.
On the other hand you have a rich creamy meal, Locutus, but you've had to
spend a long time preparing it.
The Borg Queens death in First Contact after her survival in Best of Both
Worlds is quite easily explained. Assuming that the Queen is pure
mentality, like HoloDoc consisting of Software rather than Hardware, as in
BoBW the Cube was connected to the Collective she simply transfered herself
to another ship. This is of course assuming that only one Cube can be the
heart of the Collective, and that as Bill Shatner suggested that there is a
central point to the Borg mind. In First Contact her mental poweres were
limited by the smallness of the Borg mind, being those Borg that had
boarded the E-E, after the coolant was released the Borg collective was
disintergrating under the shock(preventing her transferring from the body),
and due to the destruction of the Interplexing Beacon she couldn't transfer
to another Cube.
By the Way don't you think that the Borg Queen from TNG-300 years would
have considiered the Borg Queen from TNGs time as the greatest threat to
HER collective ever and sallied forth to destroy the interloper. Of course
the TNG Queen would have her memories and may well be able to insinuate
herself into the older collective and wipe out the old Queen from within.
Thought, nothing more.
Sheilla Miller: to shane tourtellotte: blood is a tissue, it is a connective tissue, so the
holo-doc was right.
If you would like to add some comments,
drop
me a note at chief@nitcentral.com with the Subject line "Scorpion". Please include your real name, city and state (or province
and county as the case may be) in the body of the e-mail so I can give you
credit if you are the first person to bring up a particular nit. (Remember
the legalese: Everything you submit becomes mine and you grant me the right
to use yourname in any future publication by me. I will do my best to give
you credit if you are the first person to submit a particular nit but I make
no guarantees. And finally, due to the volume of mail received at Nitpicker
Central, your submission may or may not be acknowledged but that entry will make you a part of the Nitpickers Guide is you aren't one already!)
Ship: (BZZZT!)
Borg: "Oh a wise guy, eh?" (tries again)
Ship: (BZZZT!)
Borg: "WoooooooWoooooo!!!" (slaps forehead repeatedly)
Ship: (BZZZT!)
Borg: "Fine, I'll just go assimilate this conveniently located
STARFLEET GUY OVER HERE!!" (turns quickly)
Harry: "AaaaaAAAAGHResistance is futile"
Copyright 1997 by Phil Farrand. All Rights Reserved.