Star Trek Fan Collective - Borg Reviews

One of the greatest foes ever created in the Star Trek Universe. There were some great stories written with the Borg as the focal point, including the fantastic movie 'First Contact', unfortunately not in this collection.

DS9 has almost no appearances by the Borg except for the pilot episode 'Emissary' where the events from the TNG episode 'The Best of Both Worlds' are part of the brief back story of Benjamin Sisko's character. That episode is not included here.

(Disc 1)
Enterprise: "Regeneration"
The Next Generation: "Q Who"
The Next Generation: "The Best of Both Worlds"
The Next Generation: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II"

The only episode from Enterprise is chronologically the first time the Borg appear on TV ('First Contact' being their first time chronologically overall), but not the first time we've seen them on-screen. It's a decent episode which ties in well with the Borg stories from the other series, but also raises the question of why they were never mentioned in the original series, which came after Enterprise chronologically.

The TNG episode 'Q Who?' is the Borg's first appearance on TV. It's the start of a beautiful friendship, sort of.

'The Best of Both Worlds' was hands down, the best Borg story written for TNG. The image of Picard is Locutus at the end of Part I is shocking the first time you see it. Good stuff.

(Disc 2)
The Next Generation: "I Borg"
The Next Generation: "Descent"
The Next Generation: "Descent, Part II"
Voyager: "Scorpion"

'I Borg' and 'Descent' form a loose story arc. They are decent stories, but not quite the highest quality writing TNG has seen. Some of the concepts in these episodes, especially Data's desire to feel human emotions, is explored in much more detail and depth in 'First Contact'.

(Disc 3)
Voyager: "Scorpion, Part II"
Voyager: "Drone"
Voyager: "Dark Frontier"

Voyager was the show with the most Borg appearances and not all of them are included in this collection, but the better ones fortunately have been. Of all the Star Trek TV series, the best Borg stories were from this show, and they tend to involve Seven of Nine a whole lot.

'Scorpion' sees the introduction of Seven's character and her escape from the Borg collective. 'Drone' is another high quality story, which has her as a supporting character central to the story. The best of the lot is 'Dark Frontier', which brings back the Borg Queen, a character that had a central role in 'First Contact' as well. The story explores the back story of Seven/Annika and the struggle between her lingering Borg identity and her human one.

(Disc 4)
Voyager: "Unimatrix Zero"
Voyager: "Unimatrix Zero, Part II"
Voyager: "Endgame"

It's almost fitting that the finale of Voyager ('Endgame') had a major part for the Borg, though I'm generally iffy on time travel stories personally. 'Unimatrix Zero' sees Captain Janeway do a Picard and have herself assimilated into the Borg. It's adds an interesting facet to the Borg mythos. While the story wears thin over two episodes, it's still a very good story.