Forgotten Villains: Voyager’s Cardassian Snake, Seska

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Copyright Paramount Pictures

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

There’s nothing like a good plot twist to throw the audience off balance and Seska in Star Trek Voyager’s first season did exactly that.

She was part of Chakotay’s team when they were in the Maquis and they had a brief fling which Chakotay decided would not go anywhere so he called a halt to it. But Seska clung to him like a leech always making it clear that she was keen to continue a romantic relationship with him but maintained a fiercely loyal stance towards him. Played by Martha Hackett, no one would have a clue that beneath that Bambi eyed face lay something else entirely.

In State of Flux we discovered that the Kazon Nistrim have tried to integrate stolen Federation technology into their ship with devastating consequences. B’elanna determines it could only have come from Voyager and that a member of the crew has given it to them. Kes (Jennifer Lien) reminds Seska they never got a blood sample from her so they can see if her blood could help save the critically injured Kazon. Seska reveals as a child in the Cardassian labour camps she contacted Orchid’s disease. Hr life was saved when a Cardassian woman named Ketel donated bone marrow. As a result she was told she could never again donate blood.

The episode swings back and forth as to who the real culprit is between engineer Carey and Seska. Chakotay finds himself torn between his loyalty to her and Janeway. Seska likes to break rules but she would never betray them to the Kazon. She does break into the kitchen and makes Chakotay’s favourite soup, mushroom. It results in them all losing replicator privelges for two days. Seska worms her way back into his affections playing on their past relationship. She also disobeys his order so she can retrieve the console on the Kazon ship containing the stolen technology but it goes wrong landing her in sickbay. But was she trying to cover her tracks or genuinely trying to prove to the captain that she is innocent?

Turns out the former as we discover that Seska is in fact a surgically altered Cardassian; a sleeper agent sent to infiltrate the Maquis and learn their secrets in order for the Cardassians to bring them down. Chakotay is devastated as he feels bad given Tuvok was working for Janeway and now his former lover was a Cardassian. It is then we see Seska’s true colours, She did what she did for the crew. She calls Janeway out for stranding them here, branding her foolish (which you cannot argue with) and they need allies as they are totally alone. The Kazon Nistrim would be a powerful ally to have but Janeway insists on sticking to Starfleet regulations which will get them all killed. She then beams herself to the Kazon ship and escapes.

Seska is a master manipulator covering all bases. She uses her female wiles to seduce Maj Culluh of the Kazon Nistrim and helps him steal more technology from Voyager. Chakotay disobeys his captain and goes off on his own to stop her but fails. By now she has reversed her surgery partially returning to her Cardassian features. It is clear her love for Chakotay fuels all she does and she holds the Kazon in low regard keeping Culluh on a lease even if it is a fragile one.

One thing the Cardassians are is bold and think big. Seska launches a plan to take Voyager and plays her wildest card yet to lure them into her trap. She sends a distress call to Voyaager begging Chakotay to save her and his son! She has stolen the first officer’s DNA and impregnated herself giving birth to their son but when Culluh found out he went mad. Janeway insists they have to save the child but it is all a trap. Sustained Kazon attacks result in an ambush in which Seska and the Kazon take over the ship. They leave tthe crew stranded on a volcanic planet and fly off triumphant in the brilliant first part of two parter Basics. Part two fell into cliche but the crew watching Voyager fly off without them is a great cliffhanger.

With the capture of Voyager cementing her place at Culluh’s side, Seska is lax. She fails to see the Doctor has developed beyond his programming and working against her. She does not know about former serial killer Lon Suder (voice of Chucky Brad Douriff) who is loose upon the ship working with the Doctor to sabotage the ship and make her think there are still others aboard. Tom Paris leads a fleet of Talaxians to help free the ship. Suder manages to overload the systems on the bridge killing or injuring the Kazon and himself. Beaming aboard they take the ship back to save the crew as the Kazon flee.

However by now Seska has discovered her son is in fact Culluh’s. She is genuinely shocked as she has lost her hold over Chakotay with this revelation. But Seska is killed in the overload but her last thoughts are of her son as she tries to get to him. It is a sad end for a person that thought they were doing the right thing just in the wrong way. She had no faith in seeing home again so like a true Cardassian made the best of a situation to suit their needs. She did genuinely love Chakotay and would happily have stayed a Bajoran if it meant being with him forever. Janeway has to saddle some of the responsibility here for Seska’s actions because she made the decision to strand her crew in the Delta Quadrant. It was a decision so dumb that even her future self decided to change the past and bring them home early.

Seska would return twice. Even from beyond the grave she set a trap in the holodeck in Worst Case Scenario. There, a Maquis takeover of Voyager plays out and Tuvok must play it for real thanks to Seska’s computer trap. In Shattered, Voyager is split into different time zones including the time the Kazon took over Voyager. We see the dominant, determined Seska leading the Kazon troops in all her Cardassian glory.

In the end Seska is a victim of her true Cardassian nature and her love for a man she could never have. In some ways she is to be pitied. It would have been interesting to have a Cardassian as part of the crew full time.