Star Trek: Voyager—The Monstrousness of Humans in “Scorpion, Parts 1 & 2”

Abstract

Abstract“Scorpion, Parts 1 & 2” examines humanity, hybridity, and monstrosity through several lenses, ultimately deciding that remaining human is both desired and important enough that monstrous behavior is accepted to preserve it. In 1989 Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced the Borg, a monstrous, hybrid species that swept through the galaxy assimilating all other species into their single-minded existence. The Borg reigned as the ultimate monster of the franchise until Star Trek: Voyager, when Species 8472 fought its way into the picture. When Voyager confronted this new species, the crew had to decide where its safety lay—did they join forces with their enemy, the Borg, to defeat this new threat, or should they find another way to avoid destruction? While the Voyager crew considered the Borg and Species 8472 as monsters, this episode painted the crew and thus, humanity, alongside the aliens as equally monstrous because of the lengths they went to survive. Humans and aliens are held to different standards in this text when it comes to judging their behavior as monstrous or appropriate, unacceptable or acceptable, but become as monstrous as the species they attempt to escape.