Scorpion, Part I
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 21 May 1997
- ON
- UPN
- STARDATE
- 50984.3
- DIRECTED BY
- David Livingston
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 168
WRITTEN BYWritten by Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky
Voyager must cross Borg space to get home, but something out there is destroying Borg cubes, and Janeway faces an unthinkable choice.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Voyager reaches the edge of Borg space and plots a course through a narrow gap the crew call the Northwest Passage. Kes has visions of Borg destruction, and the crew soon find fifteen cubes destroyed. On a wrecked cube the away team meets the culprit, a powerful species from another dimension that the Borg call Species 8472. One of them attacks Harry Kim, infecting him with cells that begin consuming his body. Species 8472 is pouring through quantum singularities, and the passage home is now blocked. The Doctor finds that modified Borg nanoprobes could cure Kim and even serve as a weapon. Despite Chakotay's warning, through a fable about a scorpion and a fox, Janeway decides to trade this knowledge to the Borg for safe passage. She beams aboard a cube with Tuvok to negotiate, but bioships attack, destroying a planet and nearby cubes. The surviving cube flees at high warp with Voyager held in its tractor beam.
- 01“Year of Hell” was originally planned as the season three finale, but “Scorpion” was chosen to set up the cast changes for season four.
- 02Jennifer Lien's last episode in the opening credits. Her later appearances are billed as “also starring”.
- 03Chakotay's version of the fable swaps the usual frog for a fox, keeping the scorpion that cannot change its nature.