The Star Trek – Voyager episode “Scorpion” (multi-part) stands out as one of the best in Star Trek. It explores individualism vs. collectivism.
It expands on the original concept of The Borg, a race without individual contributions to each decision, but instead a single-minded entity.
It questions the efficiency of The Borg, evaluating where the Hivemind falls short and comparing it to the Voyager crew.
Spoilers ahead
The proposal is that individualism is superior to collectivism.
The first concept is that while individualism has some flaws absent in collectivism, these can be resolved via compromise, and the results from this compromise will be far superior to collectivism.
At the start, faced with the concept of being surrounded by the war between The Borg and Species 8472, Janeway and Chakotay disagree on the approach.
There are multiple disagreements: on whether they should try and weave their way around the conflict, or confront it head-on. Chakotay believes the situation is too dangerous and prefers to find a planet to settle on instead of continuing the journey. Meanwhile, Janeway is determined to find a way back to the Alpha Quadrant.
If they should co-operate with the Borg or not – Janeway is adamant about cooperating with the Borg where possible, whilst Chakotay doesn’t trust it one bit nor is he content with an alliance, and even disobeys Janeway at one point by refusing the Borg’s order to return to the nearest cube.
They also cannot decide which is more dangerous: Borg or Species 8472? Janeway thinks the latter; Chakotay firmly believes it would be better to leave the Borg destroyed once and for all.
This has an effect on Janeway and she feels “alone”, this is something that would never happen in the Collective as they’re constantly connected to each other, in sync with everything including the next decisions.
Meanwhile, from the Borg perspective, they indeed take note that the Humans are unable to make up their minds. They observe their inefficiency in coming to a decision on the alliance. The Collective is the only entity involved in the decision, conversing isn’t a concept they recognize. It’s very quick to make up its mind, only requiring a brief self-consultation.
Seven of Nine, who experiences and understands the benefits of belonging to the Collective, and how it dominates the enemy in the overwhelming majority of cases, says to Chakotay that “you lack harmony, cohesion, greatness… [individualism] will be your undoing”.
In another scene, Janeway comes to a realization and a great quote is “there are two wars going on; the one out there, and the one in here, and we’re losing both of them”. If we lose the ability to prevent constant internal war and conflict that inevitably comes as a result of individualism, then we’ll lose the ability to work together effectively (in this case, against Species 8472, but moreover to escape the sector and the war).
As we later discover, their problem, being faced with two extremely difficult enemies squeezing them in, was solved through creative thinking (on Janeway and Chakotay’s part), the compromise between each individual in the group, and enough trust to enable the cooperation between each individual.
The cooperation is only revealed towards the end as you are led into thinking they are submitting to the Borg without a backup plan. In fact, they are sticking true to their nature and applying some flexibility to ensure the situation can be resolved.
In the end, Janeway and Chakotay acknowledge that trust and friendship enabled cooperation. This is clearly something the Borg would never be able to offer.
The episode goes further than this, with another concept being that individualism is essential rather than merely better than collectivism.
In one scene Janeway also says, “we don’t have to stop being individuals to get through this, we just have to stop fighting each other”. In fact, they will only get through it if they retain their individualism, whilst keeping it in check. Their individualism is necessary to get through it.
The fact that Janeway was able to form the alliance in the first place was remarkable, as she had to convince the Collective of the better option. The alliance is eventually successful in dealing with Species 8472, only as a result of the factor external to the collective, so her individualism demonstrated itself as being successful.
The alliance itself can also be seen as a reflection of individualism, with the multiple parties cooperating with each other.
The Borg, perhaps unsurprisingly, eventually attempts to turn against Voyager at the end once it suits them. However as a result of the prior cooperation between Janeway and Chakotay, which came about after they compromised following the initial disagreements, after Chakotay disobeyed the order, and once they both recognized the need for reconciliation, they become ready for the scenario as a result of working together once it became necessary. So Collectivism fails.
Their solution involves Chakotay directly tapping into Seven of Nine’s conscience, i.e. her individuality. “You are a human individual…you remember being human…I see a young girl…a family…listen to your human side…”
This would not have been necessary if Seven of Nine (who had by that point been detached from the collective for a while) decided it was time to deviate from the Collective’s consensus. This would have been the first known instance of a Borg drone utilizing individualism, but it’s not in the nature of the Borg for this to be allowed to ever occur.
Likewise, if the Collective instead decided against the post-alliance assimilation and gone on their way, they would’ve been recognizing the value of the cooperation that they engaged in, but they’re simply unable to do this as it’s contrary to their design.
The alliance that occurred between the Federation and Borg also represents the same type of alliance that individuals belonging to groups often form between each other for the purposes of achieving common goals; it’s the direct alternative to collectivism. The Borg are unable to counteract it since they fail in the process of betraying Voyager thanks to Janeway’s “Scorpion” backup plan, the idea for which came from another individual.
Janeway later decides to keep Seven of Nine post-drone. She is adamant about removing her from the Collective, further consolidating (or even solidifying) the victory of individualism.
Overall, individuality provides more perspectives on the situation: Janeway’s plan for escape – the alliance with the Borg – was innovative, protecting Voyager from both sides of the war. Meanwhile, Chakotay’s scepticism was crucial to preventing later Borg assimilation. However, the Borg were ultimately too limited in their (more precisely, its) thinking – while they budged a little for the alliance, this was only temporary and under exceptional circumstances, and for a single (and very clear) purpose with an intention to turn back around at the end.
Scorpion is well thought out with a single theme developed and explored very effectively, which is interleaved with an exciting plot.
A great episode – possibly the second-best in Star Trek.