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The History of the Borg - Star Trek's Unstoppable Villains

From The Next Generation to Picard Season 3, the Borg are Star Trek's most insidious villains - born from equally epic behind-the-scenes battles.

Many of Star Trek 's most iconic species can be traced back to series creator Gene Roddenberry. However, the iconic and unstoppable Borg are the brainchild of one of his greatest on-set adversaries. Maurice Hurley was a new arrival on The Next Generation' s staff who didn’t see the future the same way Roddenberry did, but was bound to tell stories by his rules. Their conflict gave rise to characters who would help define the entire franchise.

When Roddenberry staffed The Next Generation , he brought many of the writers he worked with on The Original Series back. However, there was a new narrative edict. Starfleet in the 24th Century would've continued to evolve from Captain Kirk's era. He believed there would be no jealousy, tension or any interpersonal conflict within the crew. Roddenberry's lawyer Leonard Maizlish started acting as a de facto producer, allegedly responsible for hiring Hurley to enforce Roddenberry's strict rules. Yet the talented storyteller just didn't know what to do with no crime, conflict or any of the other storytelling staples he was used to from procedurals like Miami Vice and The Equalizer . In order to alleviate this problem in the second season, Hurley wanted to introduce a new kind of villain that couldn't be reasoned with or stopped.

RELATED: Star Trek: How Picard's Assimilation by the Borg Radically Changed the Franchise

Star Trek's Borg Were Originally Going to Be Insects

The central problem between Roddenberry and Hurley was that the latter didn't believe in what he was supposed to sell the other writers. In the documentary Chaos on the Bridge , Hurley called Roddenberry's ideas of the future "wacky doodle." Since he thought they were bad rules, he could only guide them in constructing "bad" episodes. Sometimes writers would even pull an end run and take a story to Roddenberry that bent or broke his rules. Hurley claimed he would "go ballistic" arguing Roddenberry's ideas back at him. Still, he wasn't setting out to make bad Star Trek , so he thought of a solution: insects.

The Ferengi were introduced in Season 1 as the "new Klingons," but they failed to land in that way with the audience. Hurley thought of insects as an unrelenting natural force, and believed that would make a good basis for an alien species to menace the crew all season. Insects proved to be impossible to create on a regular basis, so he instead went with the idea of cybernetic and organic lifeforms -- cyborgs. He dropped the "cy" from the name, and The Next Generation had its most memorable villains. Hurley planned to seed Season 2 with hints to the Borg until revealing them during October sweeps for the first time. However, the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike necessitated a new plan.

Eventually, Hurley used the popular character of Q to bring the Borg into contact with the Enterprise -D in The Next Generation Season 2, Episode 16, "Q Who?". However, they became a looming threat out in the galaxy rather than a regular villain, as the costuming for the Borg proved to be as difficult as crafting believable insects. Hurley envisioned the aliens being mostly disinterested in organic life, only concerned with Starfleet technology. This changed when the villains returned to assimilate Captain Jean-Luc Picard at the end of Season 3. By that time, Hurley had happily moved on from Star Trek .

RELATED: How Seven of Nine Was Rescued From the Borg on Star Trek: Voyager

The Borg Have Become Star Trek's Most Important Villain

Captain Picard and the Enterprise -D crew faced the Borg only nine times in 35 years, including in the film Star Trek: First Contac t and Picard Season 3. However, the Borg appeared in a whopping 23 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager -- in large part because of Seven of Nine, the former Borg turned Starfleet officer. The writers who succeeded Hurley worried that using the Borg too much would've curtailed their threat. Some fans did complain about the prevalence of the Borg in Voyager . Yet that allowed the Admiral Janeway from an alternate future to hobble the Borg Collective in Voyager 's series finale.

The Borg were mostly a thing of the past by the time Picard debuted, with a significant portion of the first season taking place on a "dead" Borg cube. By Season 2, the introduction of a new Borg Queen meant Picard had to again face a mini-collective. However, by then showrunner Terry Matalas and his crew of storytellers knew how to make Roddenberry's rules work. Hurley's unstoppable, unrelenting villains became provisional members of the Federation. Their collective was opt-in only, and their purpose was to stand by a tear in space-time that some future threat would emerge from. Picard could apparently negotiate peace with anyone.

Well, maybe not anyone . The Borg also made him and his son Jack Crusher time bomb for their last-ditch attack on Earth. When Picard faced the Borg Queen in the Picard series finale , he wasn't there to talk. The Borg were seemingly destroyed once and for all by the crew of the Enterprise -D. But Maurice Hurley's creations are too perfect to stay gone. He may not have known how to shape a season of Star Trek , but he inspired its most fascinating and enduring villain because of his frustration.

A Complete Timeline of the Borg in Star Trek

Quick links, the creation of the borg through star trek: enterprise, star trek: the next generation is when starfleet engaged the borg, star trek: voyager traveled through borg space and almost destroyed them, the borg returned in star trek: picard for one last battle.

Throughout the six-decade history of Star Trek , there have been many iconic villains, but perhaps none more so than the Borg. Created by Maurice Hurley, the head writer for Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2, the Borg began as an organic species looking attain perfection. They achieved this by merging their organic bodies with cybernetic components. Individuality was erased, creating a hivemind culture of beings that sought only to assimilate more species and their technology in the search for perfection. They are led by a queen, a singular consciousness that can occupy multiple bodies.

The Borg are incredibly powerful and are known to travel via transwarp. They are even capable of time travel, though they don't do it very often. Given all that the Borg have going for them, it's no surprise that they were meant to be the ultimate villains Starfleet could never reason with. Over time, these villains became more complex and some even became Federation allies. Yet, the Borg have a long history in the Star Trek timeline, predating the earliest human space travel.

How Did Star Trek: Enterprise Become a TV Series?

The Borg have existed in their modern form since at least the time of the 15th Century on Earth. During the USS Voyager's travels in the Delta Quadrant, they met members of the Vaduwaur species who had been in stasis for more than 900 years. They had "many encounters" with the Borg who, by this time, had assimilated a few star systems in the Delta Quadrant. However, given the Vaduwaur didn't see them as their worst nemesis, they weren't as advanced as the Borg in the 24th Century.

In 2063, a Borg Sphere emerged from a temporal rift to prevent the Humans from making first contact with the Vulcans. The USS Enterprise-E followed them and destroyed the sphere, though a number of drones beamed aboard their vessel. Captain Picard defeated them, and Zefram Cochrane made his first warp flight . Some 90 years later, in Star Trek: Enterprise , remnants of the sphere were found in the North Pole. A handful of drones were revived and escaped in a space vessel. They were pursued and destroyed by the NX-01 Enterprise, but not before sending a message about Earth's location to the collective in the Delta Quadrant.

10 Star Trek Time Travel Stories That Changed Canon

The El-Aurian Guinan was saved by the USS Enterprise-B in 2293, along with fellow survivors of her people. Her planet had been assimilated by the Borg, and this was when Starfleet learned the species' name. Erin and Magnus Hansen, tried to study them in the late 2340s before they and their daughter Annika, Seven of Nine, were assimilated. In The Next Generation Season 2's "Q Who," the omnipotent being sent the USS Enterprise-D thousands of lightyears away from Federation space where it encountered a Borg Cube. They were only concerned about technology at the time, but this meeting led them to Federation space.

One year later, in 2366, the Borg sent a single cube to assimilate Earth. They captured Captain Jean-Luc Picard and assimilated him, giving him the name "Locutus." He was meant to demoralized Starfleet to prevent humans and the rest of the Federation from fighting back. He was freed of their control, but not before the Battle of Wolf 359 which destroyed 39 ships and killed 11,000 people. Among those were the wife of Commander Benjamin Sisko and the crew of the USS Constance of which Captain Liam Shaw was one of ten survivors. Commander Data briefly connected himself to the collective, ordering the Borg drones to enter regeneration and initiating the self-destruct sequence.

In 2368, the USS Enterprise-D encountered the Borg again, discovering a crashed scout ship. The drone Third of Five survived . Picard wanted to use the drone to implant a deadly virus into the collective. However, separated from the collective, the drone became an individual named "Hugh." He was returned unchanged to the collective, though Hugh's individuality caused a meltdown in the collective. A year later, Data's brother Lore found the cube and became their leader. He tried to replace their organic minds with positronic brains like his. The rogue Borg eventually overthrew him with help from the Enterprise. Five years later, another Borg cube was sent to Earth and was eventually destroyed, but not before sending the Sphere holding the Queen back to 2063.

How Did Star Trek: Voyager Become a TV Series?

In 2373, the USS Voyager entered Borg space on their journey home from the Delta Quadrant. At the same time, the Borg tried to assimilate Species 8472, which hailed from a dimension of "fluidic space." The assimilation didn't work and war broke out. Because 8472 was so hostile, Captain Janeway was able to enter into an alliance with the Borg to help defeat them, specifically with the help of the ship's holographic Doctor. The Borg betrayed them, which Janeway anticipated. The drone Seven of Nine was freed from the collective and became a member of the crew. Though she wished to rejoin the collective and tried to do so twice, she eventually chose to stay with Voyager .

In 2375, a transporter accident involving the Doctor's mobile emitter (based on 29th Century technology) and Seven of Nine's Borg nanoprobes. A drone was "grown" in the tank and designated One. The Borg tried to assimilate him and he willingly ended his own life. Later that year, the USS Voyager salvaged a transwarp coil from a destroyed Borg vessel. This led the Borg to enact a trap meant to bring Seven of Nine back into the collective as a replacement for Locutus. Janeway and the crew rescued her. A year later, while trading with the Brunali, Voyager was attacked by Borg vessel. However, they hid a photon torpedo in a captured Brunali vessel that destroyed the Borg ship, allowing Voyager to escape.

In 2377, Seven of Nine was reunited with other Borg in "Unimatrix Zero," a digital plane where drones retained their individuality. Captain Janeway used this opportunity to plan an attack on the collective and start a resistance movement. Captured by the Borg, many of Voyager's crew were assimilated. Thanks to the Doctor, they retained their individuality freeing thousands of drones and starting a Borg civil war. In 2378, a time-traveling Admiral Janeway showed up on Voyager with a plan to get the ship home. The plan succeeded, but the Admiral was assimilated. She carried a virus that decimated the collective to nearly the point of destruction. Five years after the return of the USS Voyager, the rag-tag crew of the USS Protostar found a Borg Cube, but they let sleeping Borg lie .

The Picard Blu-ray Underscores Why Each Season Needed the Borg

A Borg Cube that assimilated a Romulan vessel suffered a submatrix collapse, and it was captured by the Romulan Star Empire. In 2399, the ex-Borg Hugh led the Borg Reclamation Project on a ship dubbed "the Artifact." To stop a plan by a cult of anti-synthetic Romulans in the Tal Shiar, Seven of Nine created her own mini-collective and led the Artifact to crash on a planet populated by synthetics. It's presumed the surviving xBs (as they were called) joined the society on that planet. Hugh, however, was killed in the attempt.

In 2401, a Borg vessel of unknown origin appeared and asked to speak with Admiral Jen-Luc Picard. The Queen of this collective was Agnes Jurati, who was assimilated by the Borg Queen of an alternate timeline who took Picard and his allies into the past to save the future they knew. Jurati convinced the Queen to create a new kind of collective in which individuality was maintained and assimilation was voluntary. This new collective applied for provisional Federation membership to stand guard at a rift in space through which a still-unknown threat would emerge.

Also that year, the near-dying Borg Queen allied with Changeling terrorists angry with the Federation after the Dominion War. They infiltrated Starfleet, adding a DNA sequence to Starfleet transporters that would assimilate anyone under the age of 25 once they received a coded message. That message was sent by Jack Crusher , the son of Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher. He was assimilated by the dying Borg Queen and named Võx. New technology added to modern Starfleet vessels allowed these new Borg to assimilate the ships in moments. Using a rebuilt USS Enterprise-D, the command crew of that vessel saved Jack and destroyed the remaining Borg, seemingly defeating them once and for all.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

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Star Trek: First Contact

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight ... Read all The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed. The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

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• Trivia On account of budgetary restrictions, the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) was never quite satisfied with the Borg sets and costumes as used during the series. However, the significantly bigger budget for this film finally allowed them to design the Borg in a way that was much closer to what they had intended. As a result, the suits and sets were reused extensively on Star Trek: Voyager (1995) .
• Goofs When Geordi is asking Cochrane to look at the intermix chamber blueprints, he is wearing sunglasses, even though his artificial eyes don't require protection from the sun. The sunglasses are probably needed in case a local comes looking around. Only Cochrane and Lily knew about time travelers, and Geordi's futuristic implants could blow their cover. Geordi used dark glasses for the same purpose in Time's Arrow, Part II (1992) as well.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [Quoting "Moby Dick"] And he piled upon the whale's white hump, the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.

Lily Sloane : What?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : "Moby-Dick".

Lily Sloane : Actually, I never read it.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Ahab spent years hunting the white whale that crippled him, a quest for vengeance, but in the end, it destroyed him and his ship.

Lily Sloane : I guess he didn't know when to quit.

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Star trek: the borg's origin explained.

The Borg have long been one of the scariest villains in the Star Trek franchise, and their origins in the Delta Quadrant require a bit of explanation.

Ever since their debut in Star Trek , the fearsome Borg, and their origins, have been one of the biggest mysteries of the franchise. Making their first appearance in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation , the Borg began as a warning from the omnipotent Q, but they quickly blossomed into full-fledged villains in their own right. Intent on assimilating all life in the galaxy, the Borg have gone to great lengths to assert their dominance in all four quadrants of the Star Trek universe. Even their infamous " resistance is futile " catchphrase has been enough to strike fear in the hearts of Starfleet crews for decades.

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First seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 16, "Q Who," the Borg were given a taste of the assimilation fodder in the Alpha Quadrant and spent several years traveling across the galaxy to find it. Every Star Trek: The Next Generation Borg episode portrayed the cybernetic villains as the ultimate evil, and they continued to vex other species into the 25th century in shows like Star Trek: Picard . Despite all their appearances across the franchise, many details of the Borg remain unexplained, and their beginnings are especially mysterious. Aside from their unquenchable thirst for biological diversity, the Borg's vagueness has made them all the more harrowing.

RELATED: Every Borg Queen In Star Trek

The Exact Origin Of The Borg Are Unknown

While they originated from the Delta Quadrant, the actual history of the species known as the Borg was quite spotty in Star Trek canon. During the events of 1996's Star Trek: First Contact the Borg Queen mentioned that the species started as normal sentient life but had eventually adapted using cybernetic technology. Every time Picard's Enterprise beat the Borg they only learned a little of the species, but Star Trek: Voyager revealed that the Borg had already begun assimilating other life by the Earth year 1400. Thousands of years ahead of human development, the Borg represented the frightening conclusion of a technology-based society.

The First Human Was Assimilated In 2350

Unbeknownst to Starfleet at the time, the first human assimilation by the Borg actually occurred years before Captain Picard made first contact with them in 2365. As shown in Star Trek: Voyager , rogue Federation scientists Erin and Magnus Hansen entered Romulan space in order to study the Borg. Though the Borg were only thought to be a rumor in the late 2340s, the Hansen family staked their professional reputation on finding them. They eventually made contact with a Borg vessel and were transported to the Delta Quadrant of Star Trek 's galaxy . They brought along their daughter, Annika, and the entire family would be assimilated with Annika becoming Seven of Nine.

The Borg's timeline was eventually complicated by the Borg's own temporal incursions, which actually deposited them throughout different times in Earth history. Their first and most dangerous incursion came during the events of Star Trek: First Contact when Borg drones were sent back to the year 2063 to assimilate humanity in the distant past. Though they failed in their mission, their exploits left debris in the past that would later be discovered in the year 2153 during Star Trek: Enterprise season 2, episode 23, "Regeneration." Paradoxes notwithstanding, the Borg have proven their origins in Star Trek have always been flexible.

MORE: How Star Trek's Original Borg Design Radically Changed (& Why)

Borg philosophy

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The principal philosophy of the Borg Collective was a drive towards achieving a state of "perfection" for themselves and, in their view, all life. The Borg achieved their "perfection" in several ways, all of which assimilated the individual into the greater hive mind of the collective.

• 1 Born into perfection
• 2 Death is irrelevant
• 3 Assimilation of other species
• 4 Quasi-religious/spiritual aspect
• 5 Morality and ethics
• 6 Alleged parallels to the UFP
• 7.1 Background information
• 7.2 External links

Born into perfection [ ]

Their most common method was augmenting their infants' organic bodies at birth, outfitting them with synthetic systems and organs . They placed such "neo-natal drones" in maturation chambers for accelerated growth for an approximate average of seventeen cycles , though sometimes this lasted a mere few days up to several months, or even years. ( VOY : " Mortal Coil ", " Drone ", " Collective ") Upon maturation, these Borg had highly advanced technological abilities that were purposed for roughly two broad categories: physical and mental enhancements, and controlling mechanisms to minimize individuality and maximize uniformity. The former group included such powerful tools as personal adaptive defensive force fields , body armor , ocular implants , prosthetic limbs, enhanced artificial internal tissues , assimilation tubules , and brain computation-enhancing neural processors . The latter group of "controls" consisted of devices such as neural interfaces , which connected them to the hive mind of the Collective, and cortical nodes . Together, these two styles of components (along with a few others ) rendered all Borg devoid of individual volition and caused them to work in unison and in constant contact with the Collective, unencumbered by emotion or autonomy. The cortical node also served to ensure that any nascent emotions or emergent individuality would be minimized and, if necessary, terminate the "malfunctioning" Borg, ensuring complete unanimity and obedience to the will of the Collective. ( VOY : " The Gift ", " One ", " Drone ", " Survival Instinct ", " Human Error ", " Imperfection "; TNG : " Q Who "; Star Trek: First Contact )

Their other method was the forcible and usually violent assimilation of other lifeforms and technologies to enhance the biological and technological distinctiveness of the Collective. This was necessary for the Borg to innovate, adapt, and incorporate both the beneficial physiological and technological achievements of the assimilated species and was their principal method of expansion; they were otherwise unable to independently improve themselves and could neither understand nor mimic that which they did not assimilate. (This limitation was responsible for their inability to devise any countermeasures against Species 8472 .) They would then distribute such new benefits and knowledge throughout the Collective via a network of a collective consciousness . Thus, by combining the advantages of myriad species , they sought to bring themselves and the rest of life closer to an integrated, homogeneous, "perfected" state. A not-inconsequential side effect of this was the elimination of the individuality and autonomy of its members (" drones ") and thus a fierce resistance to the Borg by all other species. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Unimatrix Zero ")

Assimilation frequently occurred on a small, individual scale but often comprised the assimilation of entire species and/or worlds. ( ENT : " Regeneration "; VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Hope and Fear ", " Child's Play "; TNG : " The Neutral Zone ", et al.)

While in general the Borg tried to assimilate most species, they were in fact highly discriminating with respect to which species they would assimilate: those deemed unfit for enhancing the Borg Collective were either ignored or, if they posed a threat, destroyed. Seven of Nine told Neelix that the Kazon were "unworthy" of assimilation and would only detract from the Borg's quest for perceived perfection. ( VOY : " Mortal Coil ")

When summarizing their worldview and its effects in a general terminology, the entity Q described the Borg as "the ultimate users," and their chosen targets for assimilation as things "they can consume." ( TNG : " Q Who "; Star Trek: First Contact )

Death is irrelevant [ ]

To the Borg, the concept of death was an irrelevant idea in their philosophy. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds ") Instead of elaborate rituals or burials, when a drone was damaged beyond repair, it was simply discarded. All of its experiences and memories continued to live on inside the collective consciousness. This was considered a form of immortality by the Borg. ( VOY : " Mortal Coil ")

Assimilation of other species [ ]

The Borg viewed the significant practical benefits conferred by assimilation as both desirable for themselves and the victim species; they seemed to genuinely fail to comprehend what they saw as the narrow-minded resistance shown toward assimilation and its attendant loss of individuality of the other species. Freedom, self-determination, and individual rights were viewed as archaic concepts necessary only to less advanced, authority-driven cultures, as noted by Locutus . ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds ", " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II ")

Later, the Borg Queen variously described former Borg drone Seven of Nine's new-found individuality as both a strength and "weakness", though the former was from Seven's unique ability to bring a greater understanding of individuality to the Borg to aid their quest to assimilate Humanity. The Queen also attempted to explain the Borg Collective in innocuous terms to a child by describing it as a place where everyone were "friends." ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Unimatrix Zero ")

While working towards perfecting themselves through assimilation, the Borg rejected certain species they perceived would detract from their goal. In other cases, the Borg specifically targeted a species considered especially qualified to assist in achieving it. As mentioned above, the Kazon of the Delta Quadrant were an example of the former, as Seven later testified to USS Voyager crewman Neelix , " Their biological and technological distinctiveness was unremarkable; they were unworthy of assimilation. " ( VOY : " Mortal Coil ")

As an example of the latter, the Borg repeatedly went to great lengths – including two frontal assaults and even time-travel ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds "; Star Trek: First Contact ) – to assimilate Humanity , even though the Borg Queen described their physiology as "unremarkable" and deficient. Nonetheless, the Queen recruited Seven to develop a pathogen that would surreptitiously and slowly assimilate Humanity, as those previous direct attempts had failed. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

Jean-Luc Picard had earlier confirmed this view of the Human race as an example of a species desirable for assimilation, believing his assimilation to have been an attempt " … to bridge the gulf between Humanity and the Borg. " ( Star Trek: First Contact )

Quasi-religious/spiritual aspect [ ]

The Borg considered Particle 010 , known as the "Omega molecule" to Starfleet , to be an expression of perfection (in effect, a technological "holy grail") and were willing to pay any price to assimilate it. The only current or former member of the Collective known to have witnessed this perfection was Seven of Nine, who saw the spontaneous stabilization of several Omega molecules in a harmonic resonance chamber while aboard the Voyager , an experience Kathryn Janeway subsequently described as the equivalent of a spiritual experience for Seven. ( VOY : " The Omega Directive ")

Morality and ethics [ ]

The Borg were essentially amoral, neither wishing to inflict undue pain upon others nor hesitating to do so when necessary. According to Arturis , whose people had been mostly assimilated (in essence, wiped out), the Borg were no more guilty than a "force of nature," similar to a hurricane. When discussing their alliance with the Borg in their war with Species 8472 , Chakotay made a similar reference to the amoral nature of the Borg by reciting the story of the scorpion and the fox . He likened the Borg's inability to embrace traditional morals, such as trust, as a mere morally-neutral artifact of their nature. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ", " Scorpion ")

When the USS Enterprise -D crew discovered a band of disconnected, "rogue" Borg under the leadership of Lore , they were initially shocked to see these Borg act with both emotions and a sense of (im)morality, further indicating by way of contrast the Borg's usual amoral, dispassionate behavior. ( TNG : " Descent ")

Unlike most other belligerent species, the Borg did not invest themselves emotionally in their conflicts: in all their conquests, they displayed a straightforward, dispassionate goal of assimilating other species to add to their own perfection. In fact, they would ignore "enemy" ships and individuals unless they perceived them to be either a threat or useful for assimilation. The Borg also did not seek revenge or desire to settle vendettas against others. ( VOY : " The Raven ", " Dark Frontier ", " Unimatrix Zero "; TNG : " Q Who ", " The Best of Both Worlds ", " Descent ", et al.)

This dispassion, while in some ways preferable to an enemy who wishes to exact revenge, torture, or pain upon its enemies, nonetheless added to most humanoids' perception of the Borg as an emotionless, mechanistic species and added an unsettling quality to them: though the Borg did not go out of their way to inflict harm or barbarity, it was not possible to appeal to them for compassion, reason, or other typical, humanoid characteristics. An example of this was their lack of interest in the possibility of destroying the Kazon species and seize their (unsatisfactory but still numerous) assets and population, as mentioned above. This was also demonstrated when Captain Janeway attempted to forge a temporary alliance with the Borg that would have been mutually beneficial to both, during the Borg's war with Species 8472: the Borg were unable to resist their tendency to attempt to assimilate Voyager , even though it was not in their best long-term interest. ( VOY : " Scorpion ")

Alleged parallels to the UFP [ ]

Michael Eddington , the disaffected former Starfleet officer who became a prominent leader of the rebellious Maquis , once unfavorably compared the United Federation of Planets ' philosophy of adding new member species and worlds to that of Borg assimilation. He suggested the relative homogenization process effectively enforced upon all UFP member worlds was not unlike that undergone by assimilated Borg drones. Furthermore, he asserted that the Federation's apparent intolerance for its citizens to voluntarily secede was not unlike how the Borg denied its drones the choice of leaving the Collective.

In both cases, suggested Eddington, neither the UFP nor the Collective could countenance that any of its population would willingly choose to leave "paradise" – Eddington's ironic derogatory description of the UFP – or the "perfection" offered by the Borg. Indeed, in Eddington's view, the UFP was more "insidious" than the Borg, for unlike the latter, the Federation did not explicitly announce their intent to "assimilate", instead doing it surreptitiously yet with similar results. ( DS9 : " For the Cause ")

Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

According to Melinda Snodgrass , early inspirations for Borg philosophy included the cyberpunk genre of science fiction and transhumanism . Also influential was Maurice Hurley 's original conception of the Borg – as a race of insects. Hurley sought to retain an "insect mentality" of relentlessness despite the budget-mandated change to a cybernetic race. ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , pp. 179-180)

Locutus of Borg told Worf in TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II " that the Borg sought to improve the quality of life for all species. Seven of Nine in VOY : " Mortal Coil ", however, provided a seemingly different explanation when she described the Borg's lack of desire to assimilate the (apparently unworthy) Kazon species. Her statements indicated the Borg were interested only in assimilating species they believed would improve their own technological and biological distinctiveness in their quest for perfection. A complete understanding, however, of Borg theories on such advancement-through-assimilation is difficult to attain from the few canonical references regarding the matter.

A possible reconciling interpretation is that the Borg simply had no urgency in assigning any priority to assimilating the Kazon; perhaps they believed they would effect ultimate gain for species deemed otherwise unworthy of assimilation via the homogenizing, perfecting expansion (and the attendant extinction of lesser species) of the Collective. Another possible explanation, stated above, is that the Borg changed their philosophy and/or assimilation techniques in the interim between the two episodes. Finally, it is possible the two statements were made under differing motives and that Locutus was trying to mollify the Enterprise -D crew by lying.

External links [ ]

• Amoralism at Wikipedia
• Transhumanism at Wikipedia
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

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Published Apr 24, 2017

Star Trek 101: The Borg

Star Trek 101, StarTrek.com 's newest regular column, serves two functions: succinctly introduce Star Trek newcomers to the basic foundations and elements of the franchise and refresh the memories of longtime Trek fans. We're pulling our entries from the book Star Trek 101: A Practical Guide to Who, What, Where, And Why , written by Terry J. Erdmann & Paula M. Block and published in 2008 by Pocket Books. An invaluable resource, it encompasses The Original Series , The Animated Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager and Enterprise , as well as the first 10 Trek feature films. Today, we learn about the Borg...

The Borg collective is an amalgamated group of many subjugated races: human, Klingon, Vulcan – you name it. The Collective assimilates every sentient being it encounters, improving the individual by removing “imperfect” organic body parts and replacing them with technologically superior artificial ones – such as eyes that emit laser beams and hands that double as buzz saws.

What the Collective lacks in free will, it makes up for in wholehearted dedication. All members dress the same (basic black, with complementary circuitry and tubing)., act the same (zombie-like), and spout the same party line: “You will be assimilated” and “Resistance is futile.”

Their most common form of transportation is the gigantic and deadly Borg cube, armed with powerful energy weapons and capable of self-repairing damage almost immediately.

Paula M. Block and Terry J. Erdmann are coauthors of numerous books about the entertainment industry, including Star Trek 101; Star Trek Costumes: Fifty Years of Fashion from the Final Frontier; Star Trek: The Original Series 365; and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion . They currently are writing the latest in their series of Ferengi novellas, which (so far) includes Lust’s Latinum Lost (and Found); and Rules of Accusation . Their most recent non- Star Trek book is Labyrinth: The Ultimate Visual History.

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