Scorpion (episode)edit this page

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"Scorpion"
VOY, Episode 3x26 Production number: 168 First aired: 21 May 1997
←	67th of 168 produced in VOY	→
←	67th of 168 released in VOY	→
	{{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 168 released in VOY Remastered
←	473rd of 727 released in all	→
Written By Brannon Braga & Joe Menosky Directed By David Livingston
50984.3 (2373)
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Upon entering Borg space, Voyager encounters an alien race even more powerful than the Borg and bent on destroying all life in the galaxy, thus forcing Captain Janeway to enter into an alliance with the Borg in order to defeat them. (Season Finale)

Contents 1 Summary 1.1 Teaser 1.2 Act One 1.3 Act Two 1.4 Act Three 1.5 Act Four 2 Memorable Quotes 3 Background Information 3.1 Story, Cast and Production 3.2 Effects 3.3 Continuity and Trivia 3.4 Video and DVD releases 4 Links and references 4.1 Starring 4.2 Also starring 4.3 Guest star 4.4 Uncredited co-stars 4.5 Stunt double 4.6 References

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

In a region of space, two Borg cubes are seen. They are advancing on their next intended targets for assimilation. Their hail is cut off abruptly as energy beams lash out at the cubes which are instantly destroyed.

[edit] Act One

On one of USS Voyager's holodecks, Captain Kathryn Janeway is running her Leonardo Da Vinci simulation. As she begins the simulation, she receives an urgent hail from Commander Chakotay who urges her to go to engineering to take a look at something.

In engineering, Chakotay and Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres explain that the long-range probe they sent out months ago has stopped transmitting. B'Elanna, however, was able to catch the last few seconds of telemetry, which shows a Borg drone's face staring into the viewscreen. Chakotay remarks that they have reached Borg space.

Janeway immediately calls a meeting of the senior staff and explains that it is unknown how many Borg vessels are out there but that their space appears to be vast, including thousands of solar systems - all Borg. They are no doubt entering the heart of their territory and, unfortunately, there seems to be no way around it, even though she believes that there may be a way through it. Chakotay explains that before the probe was disabled, it picked up a narrow corridor of space devoid of Borg activity - which they nicknamed the Northwest Passage. Navigating through it, however, may prove complicated as the passage is filled with intense gravimetric distortions probably caused by a string of quantum singularities. But, they have no choice but to go through it.

Janeway asks them about readiness. Ensign Kim reports that sensors have been remodulated to check round the clock for Borg transwarp activity. The Doctor reports that he extensively scanned the Borg drone corpse they had found months ago and that he is close to successfully producing a medical defense. Neelix has been working on ways to extend their supplies and replicator rations as they will certainly not be able to replenish supplies in Borg space. Torres reports that warp propulsion is operating at optimum. Janeway voices her faith in all of them.

All over the ship, preparations are finalized. In engineering, the warp drive is checked yet again. Tuvok goes through weapons checks with his security officers. Chakotay and Kim review planned tactical options in case the Borg invade the ship..

While The Doctor and Kes examine the Borg drone corpse, Kes suddenly experiences a vivid vision of dismembered Borg drone corpses, piled up on one another. She has no idea what this means but it disturbs her greatly and she tells The Doctor about it. She experiences these and other frightening visions for the next two hours; visions of dead drones and Voyager's destruction. Tuvok, who is Kes' mentor in honing her telepathic abilities, is informed. While he discusses Kes' predicament with Janeway and Chakotay on the bridge, the ship begins to tremble. Kim reports that long-range sensors report transwarp signatures closing from behind. However subspace turbulence prevents them from creating a stable warp field and before they know it, they are surrounded by 15 Borg vessels with 2.5 light years and closing.

In visual range, the enormous vessels are seen rapidly approaching. But much to everyone's surprise, they do not attack but merely race past Voyager. One cube slows and scans them, then speeds up to rejoin the others. They soon pass beyond the sensors' visual range, though Kim still has them on the long range sensors. Subspace turbulence dies down. At a complete loss but extremely thankful, Janeway orders resumption of warp.

Later, Janeway reviews data of all Federation vessel-encounters with the Borg in her ready room. She explains to Chakotay that she has been seeking useful information on the Borg from the logs of other Starfleet commanders but has gotten none. She is clueless as what to do and feels rather alone as the commander of a ship trapped in the Delta Quadrant and at the mercy of such a hostile species. Chatokay gently assures her that he and everyone else will support her and that she is not alone. Janeway says that she cannot imagine a day without him - which is ironic because just a few years ago, she didn't even know his name. While they are talking, Tuvok hails her to the bridge. There, he and Kim report that the Borg cubes have suddenly stopped. The reason cannot be detected.

Janeway orders Paris to take them to the coordinates. There they find that every one of the fifteen cubes has been destroyed - with only a few life signs. Tuvok detects two residual weapon's signatures in the debris: one Borg and the other of unknown origin. They wonder in astonishment who could bring such devastation to the Borg.

[edit] Act Two

Janeway, Chakotay and the officers on the bridge simply cannot believe what they are seeing. The idea of someone more powerful than the Borg seems rather unbelievable. Kim thinks they might have found an ally but Chakotay warns to not jump to conclusions. While scanning the vicinity for other vessels they detect certain bio readings on one of the Borg ships. They confirm that it is organic but do not receive a response when they send out a standard greeting. They try to beam it away from the ship, but cannot get a lock on it and a tractor beam also doesn't seem to have an effect. They realize that whatever that thing is attached to the Borg cube, it is impervious to their technology. Janeway order Chakotay to lead an away team to the cube to take a short-range scan of this biomass.

Tuvok and Harry join Chakotay on the away team and beam aboard the cube. As they look around, they find but dead drones scattered amidst a wreck. The officers pick their way through the damage. They follow the readings on their tricorders, moving steadily toward the object attached to the cube's hull. As they move on, they find a pile of dismembered Borg corpses reminiscent of the visions Kes had earlier on. They continue forward to the object and find that it has created a gaping hole in the cube's hull and fused onto it. Scans reveal it to be a ship - or more precisely, an organic based vessel.

In Voyager's sickbay, Kes is carrying a tray when she is suddenly overwhelmed by visions of Kim screaming in abject agony. She drops the tray and collapses - frantically warning that the away team is in grave danger and that they need to leave the cube immediately. The Doctor hails Janeway and tells her about Kes' warning.

On the cube, Kim calls the other two officers to his position as he has detected something biological in the vicinity and which does not appear to be Borg. Just then Janeway hails and tells them to prepare for immediate return to Voyager. However Torres has a hard time getting a lock on them because of bioelectric interference from the lifeform. She attempts to get a lock on the minerals in their bone tissue to get them back.

On the cube, the unknown life form suddenly tears through a wall and enters the corridor. Immediately it attacks nearby drones, swiping them before turning to Kim and attacking him. Harry collapses, screaming in excruciating pain. The creature moves to finish him but just then Voyager beams the away team back onboard.

On the bridge, Paris reports that the alien ship is detaching and powering up, seeming to be readying to fire a weapon. Kes, who is also there on the bridge, experiences another vision of the pilot on that bio-ship communicating with her. Janeway orders Paris to take them out of the area at maximum warp. Kes, full of alarm, tells Janeway that it is not the Borg that they should be worried about but this new species. She tells Janeway that the creature told her that "The weak will perish."

[edit] Act Three

"Captain's log, stardate 50984.3. It's been twelve hours since our confrontation with the alien life-form. There is no sign that we're being pursued, and we've had no further encounters with the Borg. I've decided to hold our course. The Northwest Passage is only one day away and I won't allow fear to undermine this crew's sense of purpose. Even if that fear is justified."

As Janeway enters sickbay, she is horrified to see the state Harry Kim is in. The Doctor tells her that the alien cells are consuming his body from the inside out while he is conscious. He says that he tried to give him a sedative but that it was rejected immediately - just as every treatment he's tried has been neutralized within seconds. He shows her the scan of the alien cells which contain more than a hundred times the DNA of a human cell. It would take him years to decipher it. Anything that penetrates this species' cell-membrane, biological, chemicals and technological, is instantly destroyed. Janeway realizes that this is probably why the Borg cannot assimilate them. The Doctor, however, believes that Borg technology holds the key to saving Harry as he hopes to unleash an army of modified Borg nanoprobes into Harry's bloodstream designed to target and eradicate the infection. He has successfully managed to dissect a nanoprobe and access its recoding mechanism and reprogram the probe to emit the same electrochemical signature as the alien cells. That way the probe can do its work without being detected. Unfortunately, it will take several days before he has enough nanoprobes to cure Harry.

On the bridge, Tuvok and Torres show Chakotay a part of the tactical data Kim had retrieved from the cube. According to it, the aliens, designated by the Borg as Species 8472, have engaged the Borg twelve times in the last five months and each time the Borg have been defeated swiftly. They also finally find out that Species 8472 comes from the Northwest Passage - which would explain why it is a region devoid of Borg activity. While discussing this, Tuvok detects 133 bioships coming from a quantum singularity. A grim-faced Janeway is seen watching the visual as it shows hundreds of the aliens' ships streaming forth from the quantum singularities in the Northwest Passage.

Kes tells her that they have been communicating with her further. Their new messages are even more frightening than the first. She feels malevolence and cold hatred. She says that what they are doing is an invasion and that they intend to destroy everything. Janeway immediately orders Paris to come about and return to a position five light years away from the Passage, then come to an all stop. She and Chakotay go to her ready room.

There, they discuss their next move. The Northwest Passage is no longer an option as a route for passage through Borg space. Now the choice is between facing the Borg in their space or finding a nice planet here in the Delta Quadrant and giving up on ever getting home. Chakotay says that turning around wouldn't necessarily mean giving up as they could find another way home still. But Janeway believes there to be another alternative, as she is not willing to just give up and stay here. Chakotay tells her to take a step back for a moment, relax, get some sleep and face whatever she needs to face tomorrow.

Janeway spends the rest of the day in her beloved Da Vinci holodeck simulation even though the decision she must make weighs too heavily on her mind. But then, in a flash of inspiration by the Maestro himself, a possible solution presents itself. She immediately calls a meeting with the senior staff...

[edit] Act Four

In the briefing room, Janeway outlines her plan: an alliance with the Borg, against their enemy. They offer them a way to defeat their new enemy and in return, the Borg give them safe passage through their space. She references the Doctor's findings regarding the nanoprobes which she believes can be used as a biological weapon against Species 8472. The officers are incredulous at her suggestion of teaming up with such a despicable entity that has done so much harm and appears to be lacking a moral center of any kind. But she is adamant that this will work. She has the Doctor save all of the research regarding the nanoprobes in his holomatrix. She explains that if the Borg threaten Voyager in any way, they will simply erase the Doctor's program. She is, however, confident that it won't come to that as it is in the Collective's own interest to cooperate.

She orders Paris to locate the nearest Borg vessel and set course. After everyone leaves, Chakotay, who's remained rather quiet all throughout the meeting, tells her that he believes that what she proposes is foolish and too great a risk. Using the parable of the scorpion he tries to explain to her that the mission she is proposing is a huge mistake and suicidal at best, as she is underestimating the true nature of the Borg. He explains that the Borg are what they are and that nothing - no amount of diplomacy, reasoning and incentive providing - will ever change that. The way he sees it, they have no guarantee that the Borg will actually keep their hands off them after they get the information. It could take months for Voyager to get across Borg territory. Long months where they would be facing thousands of systems, millions of vessels. How can they know that they would not be attacked and assimilated at every opportunity. He also asks her how much Voyager's safety is ultimately worth that she is willing to give advantage to a species guilty of murdering billions; they would essentially be giving the Borg the means to assimilate yet another species just to get themselves home. But Janeway is convinced that they will be able to keep the Borg at bay with the bargaining chip they have. She furthermore believes that helping to assimilate Species 8472 might actually not be such a bad idea given the malevolence they have expressed towards the entire solar system.

Chakotay, however, remains steadfast in his objection to Janway's plan, accusing her of being so blinded by her desire to go home that she is closing herself to all other options. But Janeway asks him to trust her, firmly stating that the time for debate is over as she has made her decision. He promises her his obedience as her First Officer, but reiterates that this does not change his belief that she is making a fatal mistake. With tears in her eyes, Janeway realizes that she is alone after all. She dismisses him sadly but her resolve is unshaken.

Voyager arrives at an assimilated system. Several Borg cubes are in the area. Janeway tells them that she has tactical information about Species 8472 and offers to negotiate for it. The Collective refuses. Janeway has Torres transmit to them a sample of the research, showing the 8472 cells being destroyed by the Borg nanoprobes. She tells them that this is a sample of the data and threatens to destroy it if the Collective does not listen to what she has to say. There is a long pause. She again offers to negotiate but as she speaks, she is transported to the cube. Onboard the cube she finds herself on a catwalk spanning the vast interior of the vessel.

The Collective instructs her to state her demands. She states that there is only one demand: safe passage through Borg space in exchange for the data. She will give them the data once they are safely through and out the other side, untouched and unassimilated. The Collective finds this unacceptable as Borg space is vast and the data is needed now. She refuses, telling them that the data is their only guarantee against assimilation. The Collective will only get it once Voyager is safely beyond Borg space. Silence ensues as the Collective considers.

It instructs her to state her proposal. Her idea is for them to work together as Voyager traverses Borg space to craft a bio-weapon using the data. She is in the middle of outlining this when the cube is violently shaken.

On Voyager's bridge, Tuvok informs Chakotay that a quantum singularity has opened 20,000 kilometers away and that more of the ships are coming through behind this one. The cube's shields are weakening but not enough to beam Janeway back to Voyager. Nine of the bio-ships are seen. They converge in a star pattern, eight forming a ring around one central ship. They head toward the assimilated planet. The eight in the ring fire on the one in the center which collects the energy and channels it into one devastatingly powerful beam directed at the planet. The planet glows red, fireballs erupt on its surface and then it explodes, totally obliterated. All the Borg cubes in the vicinity are destroyed, except for the one holding Janeway and Voyager. The cube is seen hurtling away at high warp, just ahead of the explosion - Voyager still held firmly in its tractor beam...

TO BE CONTINUED...

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is fu..."

- Borg, before being destroyed by Species 8472 - First line of the episode.

"In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason."

- Captain Jean-Luc Picard, log entry read by Captain Janeway

"There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it. A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly, he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river. The fox said 'No, if I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown.' The scorpion assured him, 'If I did that, we'd both drown.' So the fox thought about it, and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim, but half way across the river the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, 'Why did you do that? Now you'll drown too.' 'I couldn't help it,' said the scorpion, 'it's my nature'."

- Chakotay, to Janeway as he objects to her plan to ally with the Borg

"There are times, Katharina, when I find myself transfixed by a shadow on the wall, or the splashing of water against a stone. I stare at it, the hours pass, the world around me drops away... Replaced by worlds being created and destroyed by my imagination."

- Leonardo da Vinci (holodeck)

"Think good thoughts."

- Janeway, while Voyager is being scanned by the Borg.

"There's a path before me... the only way home. And on either side, mortal enemies bent on destroying each other. If I attempt to pass through them... I'll be destroyed as well. But if I turn around... that would end all hope of ever getting home."

- Janeway, to Da Vinci on the Holodeck

"What if I made an appeal... to the Devil?"

- Janeway, to Da Vinci hologram as she considers an alliance with the Borg

"The weak will perish!"

- Species 8472, as stated by Kes from one of her telepathic encounters

[edit] Background Information

[edit] Story, Cast and Production

• "Scorpion" takes its name from the parable Chakotay shares with Janeway after briefing the crew on her plan to form a temporary alliance with the Borg. The parable is most commonly known as The Scorpion and the Frog, but Chakotay's version substitutes a fox for the frog.
• The idea for "Scorpion" was a last-minute idea and the episode was written in a week. Originally, "Year of Hell" was planned to be the finale of Star Trek: Voyager's third season but, with the choice made to shake up the cast in Season 4, this episode was the result. (Delta Quadrant)
• Voyager co-creator and co-executive producer Jeri Taylor credited one of the episode's two writers, supervising producer Brannon Braga, with the idea for Species 8472. Taylor remarked, "Brannon is one of those incredibly creative people, whose got his synapses firing way out there, on the horizon [....] And so that species was his idea." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Braga had last dealt with the Borg as a co-writer of Star Trek: First Contact. Even before it was firmly decided that the Borg would reappear in Voyager (as the series' team of writer-producers were considering if they should, following the defeat of the Borg and their queen in First Contact), Braga had come up with one of the story points of this episode. He noted, "I think it would be cool if the USS Voyager came upon a Borg graveyard, and basically, they're all dead. Obviously, somehow they'll come back to life. I just think it's a cool setting, and it's an interesting pay off to the movie." (Star Trek Monthly issue 24) Evidently, however, the cause of the destruction thereafter changed from being the Borg's defeat in First Contact to Species 8472.
• The holographic Leonardo da Vinci (played by John Rhys-Davies) was added to the story at the request of Janeway actress Kate Mulgrew, who felt that it would give Janeway someone to confide in, other than her crew. Mulgrew noted, "I love John in the part. I love the concept. It was my idea." (Star Trek Magazine issue 46, pages 25 & 26) She elaborated, "I think that Janeway's one flaw as a scientist was an inability to exercise her imagination sometimes as an artist. So who would she then appeal to who could help her in both regards? Well, da Vinci, who was both a scientist and an artist. So, really she was going to him for lessons in philosophy - to teach her the heart of an artist while honing the brain of a scientist." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion)
• Director David Livingston appreciated the fact that, for this episode, Species 8472 was scripted to appear for merely a few brief moments, giving only fleeting glimpses of the species. "It was kind of played a little bit like 'Alien,'" Livingston remarked, "where you don't really get a huge look at it, which, to me, is always the best way to portray these things. If you look at them too long and too closely, they start to fall apart a bit." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• After Kim actor Garrett Wang portrayed a reaction to seeing the approach of the massed Borg cubes that fly by Voyager, his fellow actors jokingly mimicked him. Wang commented, "I notice onscreen on my sensors that all these Borg cubes are coming upon us, but they don't even stop for us [....] And my lines are like, 'Captain, I'm reading one - no, three - no, five - no, seven Borg cubes.' And the way I said it, I said, 'Capt-taiiiin...'" The actor laughed and then continued, "I really extended out the 'Captain.' So from then on, [Robert] Beltran and [Robert Duncan] McNeill would always go, 'Cap-taiiiin...'" (Star Trek Magazine issue 106, p. 40)
• Garrett Wang liked how the episode introduced a new, villainous alien species. He admitted, "I like that episode because, all of a sudden, now you have an enemy which is even more... fearful than the Borg, an enemy that can single-handedly take out the Borg. 'Who could that be?!', you know? Up 'til that point, I mean, the Borg was the end-all, be-all of enemies, you know? Nobody could defeat--and then, now, you've got, 'Who are these guys?!', you know? [....] So that episode, to me, was.... I loved it because it introduced, you know, a 'new villain.' The sci-fi fan in me really enjoyed working on that episode, for that." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• Wang was less pleased, however, about having to play the out-of-action Kim. "I mean, I wasn't too happy that, most of the episode, I was on a bio-bed with green goop on my face," Wang remarked, before loudly echoing of the writers (wearing a big grin on his face), "'Who else but Kim needs to be tortured in the bio-bed?', you know? No one else, just Kim." (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• This episode marks the final appearance of Jennifer Lien (Kes) as a regular cast member.

[edit] Effects

• David Livingston appreciated the fact that this episode allowed for more digital effects than usual, particularly regarding the creation of Species 8472. "That was fun," he said, "because we got to deal with CGI figures. Star Trek, to me, had not always been on the cutting-edge of CGI technology. They continued to use real models and shoot motion-control shots, etcetera. And, when it got to 'Scorpion', there was no choice but to create a CGI model. We couldn't do something realistic [in live action]. And the artists, the post-production people, created this rather terrifying creature that you see, sort of, at the end of 'Scorpion.'" (Braving the Unknown: Season Three, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• The effects in this episode (in particular, the creation of Species 8472) were influenced by the success of effects in the earlier third season episode "Macrocosm", particularly the design of the macrovirus. (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• The script of this episode refers to Species 8472 as being at least ten feet tall and wearing an alien breathing apparatus aboard the Borg cube. However, these concepts were discarded during the process of designing the alien. Of the teleplay, visual effects producer Dan Curry noted, "We had a script for a very vicious alien creature that had to be so powerful and so fearsome that it was able to chop up and destroy the Borg." The aliens were then designed - for their debut appearance in this episode - by Curry, CGI animator John Teska and illustrator Steve Burg. (The Birth of Species 8472, VOY Season 4 DVD special features)
• The pile of dismembered Borg seen on the disabled cube was constructed from Playmates Toys action figures. Dan Curry recalled, "We didn't have the budget or the time to create full-scale body chunks, because of the cost and time it would take to do that. So, I asked our licensing department for a bunch of Borg toy action figures [....] And kudos to the person who sculpted those toys, because the detail - especially the facial detail - was so good that I was able to take the toy action figures, cut them up with a Dremel cutting tool, and then I stacked them up with hot glue and shot them at home against a little blue screen cove. And then the actors knew where to look, on stage, so they would walk around and say, 'Okay, it's up there.' And then, by compositing the stack of action figures, it looked very real. And the toy faces were sculpted so well that I was able to do close-ups on a [tiny] head, [...] filling the TV screen with them, and they looked very good. Of course, it was in kind of a smoky environment, but um.... So, the toys served us well and saved the production company lots of money." (Red Alert: Amazing Visual Effects, VOY Season 3 DVD special features)
• The interior Borg cube matte shot in the final scene of this episode was recycled from Star Trek: First Contact, with the bridge and Janeway superimposed over it.

[edit] Continuity and Trivia

• This episode has one of the shortest teasers in Star Trek, at just under twenty seconds and with only a single (unfinished) line of dialogue spoken by the Borg.
• This is the last of three episodes of Voyager's third season to feature the Borg; they previously appear both in the final scene of "Blood Fever" and more predominantly in the very next episode after that one, "Unity". The script of this episode makes it clear that the Borg body parts here came from "the Borg corpse last seen in 'Unity,' which has been dissected."
• This episode marks the third time in Star Trek that an end-of-season cliffhanger story revolved around the Borg, the previous occasions being TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds" and TNG: "Descent". Coincidentally, the former of those two episodes was at the end of TNG's third season, just as this episode is at the end of Voyager's third season.
• In TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", that series' hero ship, the USS Enterprise-D, comes across a fleet of destroyed and damaged Starfleet ships, having been decimated by the Borg (at the Battle of Wolf 359, which is referenced in this episode). Likewise, in this episode, the series' hero ship, Voyager, comes across a fleet of destroyed and damaged Borg ships, having been decimated by Species 8472. While the former scene is commonly referred to as the "graveyard scene," the script of this episode refers to the site of the latter scene as a "cemetery of decimated ships" and "a graveyard of debris".
• The assimilation tubules that appear in this episode previously appeared in Star Trek: First Contact. In fact, the script of this episode notes that the tubules were "seen in 'First Contact,' when the N.D. was stabbed in the neck". In an audio commentary for that film, recorded by Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore, Braga comments, "A lot of stuff we established in here involving tubules, and maybe even nanoprobes, we would go on to use a lot in Voyager because the Borg became a big part of that show." This episode was, however, the first episode to establish the concept of Borg nanoprobes, nanotechnology having been briefly referenced in the previous Borg-related episodes "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II" (in particular, nanites) and "Descent, Part II" (specifically, nano-cortical fibers).
• This episode marks the beginning of the development of tension in the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay, which culminates in Chakotay considering mutiny in the season 6 premiere, "Equinox, Part II".
• After being introduced in this episode, Species 8472 would go on to appear twice in both Seasons 4 and 5. Their fourth season appearances are the concluding part of this episode's two-parter and "Prey", whereas their Season 5 appearances are "In the Flesh" and (in a holophoto) "Someone to Watch Over Me".
• Similarly, the holographic Leonardo da Vinci, following his debut appearance here, would subsequently feature in the fourth season episodes "The Raven", "Scientific Method", "Concerning Flight" and "The Omega Directive".
• The robot that the holographic Leonardo is working on, in this episode, is based on a real work that Leonardo created. Although the final drawings of the robot are lost (if they ever existed), preliminary sketches have been input into computer simulations that confirm that the sketches were indeed meant to be of a mechanical man. While the sketches were known of, it was not until the 1950s that a professor from the University of California realized what they were meant to be. (For more information, please see Scorpion (episode) at Wikipedia or Lodestar's Lair.)
• Janeway points out to Leonardo: "Someone once said... all invention is but an extension of the body of man...". This "someone" is Marshall McLuhan, popular for his studies in media theory. One of his theses is that all media are just extensions of our Human bodies. For example, a radio is an extension of the ear, binoculars an extension of our eyes. This theory directly relates to the character of the Borg.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.13, 20 October 1997
• In feature-length form, as part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: Voyager - Movies: Volume 2 (with "Year of Hell"), catalog number VHR 5072, 18 September 2000
• As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection
• As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg collection

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

• Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway

[edit] Also starring

• Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay
• Roxann Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres
• Jennifer Lien as Kes
• Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris
• Ethan Phillips as Neelix
• Robert Picardo as The Doctor
• Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok
• Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim

[edit] Guest star

• John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo da Vinci

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

• Patrick Barnitt as a Borg Drone
• Jeff Cadiente as a Borg drone
• Sue Henley as Brooks
• Tom Morga as a Borg drone
• Louis Ortiz as Culhane
• Chris Reed as a Borg Drone
• John Tampoya as a Borg Drone

[edit] Stunt double

• Peter Lai as the stunt double for Garrett Wang

[edit] References

Achilles; Amasov; assimilation tubule; Battle of Wolf 359; bioship; Borg Collective; Borg cube; Breen; bronzetto; cardinal; electrodynamic fluid; Endeavour, USS; Enterprise-D, USS; fluidic space; goose grease; gravimetric distortions; Hickman; Hephaestus; Hercules; horse; Interdimensional rift; monk; nanoprobe; "Northwest Passage"; oak; Jean-Luc Picard; polaron beam; Q; Santa Croce; scudi; skeletal lock; Species 8472; Species 8472 bioship; starling; Tale of the Scorpion; telepathy; transwarp; Wolf 359

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Star Trek: Voyager Season 3

Next episode: "Scorpion, Part II"