borg in voyager

Complete List Of Appearances Of The Borg In Star Trek

This article is more than seven years old and was last updated in July 2019.

The Borg are Star Trek's most feared and most loved adversaries they appear in a total twenty-one episodes in the Star Trek franchise in 'Enterprise,' 'The Next Generation' and 'Voyager,' every television incarnation other than the original series and 'Deep Space Nine.' They also appeared in the Star Trek movie 'First Contact.' Below is a complete list of the Borg's appearances in chronological order.

1. Enterprise - 'Regeneration' [S02E23]

2. The Next Generation - 'Q Who' [S02E16]

3. The Next Generation - 'The Best of Both Worlds' [S03E26 - S04E01]

4. The Next Generation - 'I, Borg' [S05E23]

5. The Next Generation - 'Descent' [S06E26 - S07E01]

6. Voyager - 'Unity' [S03E17]

7. Star Trek: First Contact

8. Voyager - 'Scorpion' [S03E26 - S04E01]

9. Voyager - 'The Raven' [S04E06]

10. Voyager - 'Drone' [S05E02]

11. Voyager - 'Dark Frontier' [S05E15 - S05E16]

12. Voyager - 'Survival Instinct' [S06E02]

13. Voyager - 'Collective' [S06E16]

14. Voyager - 'Child's Play' [S06E19]

15. Voyager - 'Unimatrix Zero' [S06E26 - S07E01]

16. Voyager - 'Imperfection' [S07E02]

17. Voyager - 'Endgame' [S07E25]

There's More To Come...

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Published Jul 27, 2022

Everything You Need to Know About the Borg Queen

Long live the Queen!

StarTrek.com

“I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg.”

The central locus of the Borg Collective is the amoral Borg Queen . Through her, like the queen of an insect colony, the Hive mind is granted order and common direction.

As the Villain Showdown enter its fourth week, pitting the Borg Queen against Gul Dukat , we’ve put together this handy guide on everything you need to know about the Queen.

The One Who is Many

Throughout the history of the Borg Collective, there have been a number of Queens. Only one Queen exists at any given time; when she is destroyed, a new Queen takes her place. In Star Trek: Voyager, it's revealed that the Borg Queen isn't a singular entity, but the name given to any that serves as its host, possessing all previous Queen's collective consciousness.

The Borg , a fusion of organic and synthetic matter, and their relentless pursuit of perfection brought fear to all quadrants of the galaxy. Residing primarily at Unimatrix One in the Delta Quadrant , the Borg Queen is the only one able to think independently from the Collective; possessing a unique personality and sense of individuality — traits not seen within the Borg.

The first Borg Queen (Alice Krige) made her debut with Star Trek: First Contact (1996) as the Borg sought to erase a historical moment in Starfleet history— First Contact Day —traveling back in time to prevent the creation and need of the Federation .

In her lair, the Borg Queen remains disembodied with just her head and spinal column — the epitome of perfection — with no remnants of her humanoid form. When she leaves her home base for assimilation efforts, she will reassemble herself into a predominantly artificial body.

Your Culture Will Adapt to Service Us.

The Borg doesn’t value the Federation’s belief in individuality – its mission is to add others’ biological and technological distinctiveness to their own, strengthening the Collective in its pursuit of perfection. Defeating their opponents isn’t enough; they sought to assimilate their enemies’ minds and flesh.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard still endures residual trauma decades later following his assimilation into the Borg . As Locutus of the Borg, selected to be their voice to facilitate their introduction into human society, Picard believed he never fully regained himself after they striped away his humanity and sense of self.

There is No 'Me,' Only 'Us'

It is in Star Trek: Voyager where we learn that the Borg Queen, obsessed with power, didn’t create the Borg; she was just tasked with leading the Collective. The collective consciousness, where each drone is linked through the subspace network, allows for the Borg to adapt quickly and eliminate threats as they arise.

In the episode " Dark Frontier " of Star Trek: Voyager, the Borg Queen believes Seven of Nine 's presence is vital to their path forward in their approach to assimilate Earth, seeing value in Seven's knowledge of humanity. The Borg Queen tries to lure her back to the Collective by "allowing" her to remain an individual instead of reverting to a drone. The Queen's seduction involved telling Seven she's "unique," and her experience will add to their perfection. However, she can't be selfish and only think of just her individual self.

Resistance is Futile.

When a Borg Queen is destroyed, another Queen is propped up. Susanna Thompson portrays the Borg Queen in Star Trek: Voyager ’s two-parter, “ Dark Frontier ” and “ Unimatrix Zero .”

Most recently, the Borg Queen was played by Annie Wersching in Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard .

Secrets of the Borg Queen, The

Bringing Order to Chaos

In Star Trek: Picard , the Borg Queen is cut off from the Borg Collective due the actions of Q and a divergence in time. As a result, she becomes wholly and fully obsessed with Agnes Jurati.

Seen as the last of the Borg, instead of finding the Collective, she sets her sights on Agnes in hopes of building out a new Borg collective.

Star Trek: Picard - The Borg Queen Returns

Interested in learning more about the Borg Queen and her latest machinations, stream all episodes of Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard now!

Christine Dinh (she/her) is the managing editor for StarTrek.com. She’s traded the Multiverse for helming this Federation Starship.

Star Trek: Picard streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed concurrently by Paramount Global Distribution Group on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel and streams on Crave.

Stay tuned to StarTrek.com for more details! And be sure to follow @StarTrek on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .

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Borg history

• View history

The history of the Borg shows the gradual development of the Borg species.

• 2.1 2024 incursion
• 2.2 First Contact incursion
• 3 22nd century
• 4 23rd century
• 5.1 2347-2350
• 6 External link

A Borg Queen

The origin of the Borg is vague. What is known is by hearsay, brief contacts with Borg survivors, and even the Borg itself.

The Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant . ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Dragon's Teeth ") According to the Borg Queen , the species known as the Borg started out as normal plain lifeforms ; ( Star Trek: First Contact ) they had been developing for thousands of centuries before the 24th century , and over many years, they evolved into a mixture of organic and artificial life with cybernetic enhancements. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; TNG : " Q Who ")

By 1484 , the Borg had assimilated only a handful of star systems of the Quadrant and they had many encounters with the Vaadwaur ( VOY : " Dragon's Teeth ") but by 2373 , the Borg had assimilated thousands of systems. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Unity ", " Scorpion ", " Scorpion, Part II ") Their territory was intersected by a narrow corridor of space filled with gravimetric distortions , eventually nicknamed the " Northwest Passage " by the crew of the Federation starship USS Voyager during the Borg's conflict with Species 8472 . ( VOY : " Scorpion ") The farthest border of the Borg realm within the Delta Quadrant seemed to be the Nekrit Expanse . ( VOY : " Fair Trade ", " Unity ", " Distant Origin ")

The Collective had their own territory and ventured out, beyond it, on exploration missions. ( TNG : " Q Who "; VOY : " Dragon's Teeth ", " Unity ") At one time, Voyager was thrown 9,500 light years, beyond Borg territory and ten years closer to Earth. ( VOY : " The Gift ") Over the next four years, the starship still encountered Borg vessels. ( VOY : " Collective ", " Child's Play ", " Unimatrix Zero ", " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ", " Endgame ") Since the Borg had such extensive transwarp networks throughout the Milky Way Galaxy , they could effectively project their presence anywhere in a comparatively short amount of time. ( TNG : " Descent ", " Descent, Part II "; VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Inside Man ", " Endgame ") While the Borg did have a large expanse of their own territory, it was finite, and any forays elsewhere were simply invasions of other territories. ( TNG : " Q Who ", " The Best of Both Worlds "; Star Trek Generations ; DS9 : " Emissary "; VOY : " Blood Fever ", " Hope and Fear ", " The Raven ")

Within the Delta Quadrant, the Borg had a vast structure called the Unicomplex . This structure was made up of thousands of sub-structures and housed many of their vessels . It was believed the Unicomplex was the Borg headquarters. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

When the Borg started using transwarp hubs , ( VOY : " Endgame ") they could appear anywhere in the galaxy, giving them the ability to assimilate species with little or no warning at all and within very short periods of time. Their vessels were equipped with specially designed conduits to withstand the temporal stresses when traveling through transwarp conduits . Borg starships had the ability to travel through time . They once tried to assimilate a species by traveling back in time. ( VOY : " Inside Man "; Star Trek: First Contact )

Temporal incursions [ ]

2024 incursion [ ].

In 2024 , a Borg Queen from 2401 of an alternate timeline arrived aboard the CSS La Sirena , having helped the crew travel back in time in order to correct history. ( PIC : " Assimilation ")

This Queen eventually began sharing a body with Dr. Agnes Jurati and sought to take the La Sirena to the Delta Quadrant and begin the Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant four centuries early. Jurati eventually convinced the Queen that the better solution was to take the ship and create a new, better Borg Collective made out of mercy and choice. After reassimilating Seven of Nine in order to save her life, the merged Borg Queen and Jurati departed in the La Sirena for the Delta Quadrant. ( PIC : " Mercy ")

First Contact incursion [ ]

Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix

Although the Borg were normally not active in the Alpha Quadrant in 2063 , a Borg sphere traveled back in time from 2373 to the Earth of that year. The craft's occupants had the sole purpose of preventing First Contact between Humans and Vulcans , thereby helping the Borg to assimilate the Human species. The sphere attempted to achieve their outcome by firing on Zefram Cochrane 's launch base in Montana where he was developing the Phoenix , the spaceship that historically performed the first warp-powered flight, subsequently bringing Earth to the attention of a passing Vulcan vessel. ( Star Trek: First Contact )

A Federation starship also from 2373, the USS Enterprise -E , thwarted the Borg attempt by destroying the Borg sphere as it was firing against Cochrane, and a section of its broken hull landed in Earth's North Pole . ( Star Trek: First Contact ; ENT : " Regeneration ") But at some point earlier, some Borg drones (including the Borg Queen ) transported aboard the Enterprise and began to assimilate the ship and many crewmembers . They used the Enterprise as their base of operations in an attempt to continue their objective to alter history and also attempted to build an interplexing beacon on the Enterprise deflector dish to contact the Collective of the 21st century . Finally, they tried to prevent First Contact by firing against the Phoenix during its first flight, but were prevented and defeated by Captain Picard and Data . The Queen and all the remaining drones perished aboard the Enterprise ; their organic components were dissolved by very corrosive plasma coolant and the Queen's artificial spinal cord was broken to ensure that she was dead. ( Star Trek: First Contact )

The next year, Zefram Cochrane, during his commencement address at Princeton , revealed his unusual experience. He mentioned cybernetic creatures from the future , whose ultimate goal was to enslave the Human race , who tried to stop his first warp flight , if it weren't for a group of Humans also from the future. No one seriously believed Cochrane, well known for his imaginative stories while intoxicated , and he recanted his claim a few years later; although a record of his speech still remained. ( ENT : " Regeneration ")

22nd century [ ]

By 2145 , and after assimilating thirteen species, they learned of the existence of the Omega molecule which they referred to as Particle 010. The Borg believed the Omega to exist in a flawless state and regarded it with near-reverence and all Borg were ordered to assimilate it at any cost. They managed to synthesize a relatively stable single molecule of Omega, which resulted to the destruction of 29 Borg vessels and 600,000 drones. They designed a harmonic resonance chamber that could theoretically stabilize the molecule, but never had enough Boronite to synthesize more Omega molecules. ( VOY : " The Omega Directive ")

Borg sphere debris

In 2153 , the remains of the Borg sphere that was destroyed in 2063 were discovered in Earth's Arctic Circle . The A-6 excavation team discovered the Arctic debris field where much of the Borg sphere remained, severely damaged and buried under a glacier . After traveling to the wreckage, the team also found two frozen drones in the ice , and allowed them to regenerate. The Borg drones assimilated the entire team of scientists and commandeered their transport Arctic One , continually enhancing its warp drive and installing a weapons system .

Three days later, the Borg left Earth. Although they managed to assimilate several Tarkaleans , who tried to do the same to Denobulan doctor Phlox , the crew of the Starfleet ship Enterprise NX-01 , which included Phlox, was successful in preventing the Borg drones, of which there were more due to the original drones' assimilation of the Tarkaleans, from reaching their homeworld and resuming their attempt to enslave Humanity. Enterprise was responsible for the destruction of the assimilated arctic transport and every Borg drone aboard the craft.

However, the ship's captain , Jonathan Archer , having determined that the cybernetic aliens had probably been the same as in Zefram Cochrane's Princeton commencement address, also learned that the Borg had sent a subspace message before their destruction that contained spatial coordinates pinpointing Earth's location. Because Phlox had momentarily been a part of the Borg's hive mind , he had heard the message. However, the signal would take two hundred years to reach its destination, deep in the Delta Quadrant, alerting the Borg there.

During this encounter, no member of Starfleet learned the name of the Borg. ( ENT : " Regeneration ")

23rd century [ ]

In the mid- 23rd century , the Borg assimilated the homeworld of the El-Aurians . Only a handful of survivors managed to escape and tried to find refuge on other worlds. ( TNG : " Q Who "; Star Trek Generations )

The Enterprise -B tries to rescue El-Aurian refugees

In 2293 , two starships, the SS Lakul and SS Robert Fox , were carrying El-Aurian refugees to Earth when they became caught in an energy ribbon that caused the destruction of both ships. ( Star Trek Generations ) However, 47 El-Aurians from the Lakul – including Guinan , who later served as Ten Forward 's bartender aboard the USS Enterprise -D – were saved when they were beamed aboard the USS Enterprise -B by Montgomery Scott and took with them the story of their species' dealings with the Borg. ( Star Trek Generations ; TNG : " The Child ", " Q Who ")

Starfleet had no record of the name "Borg" and no connection was made between all these events, the cybernetic beings found 140 years before , and those who had attacked the El-Aurians. Therefore, it was not until the time the Lakul survivors were retrieved that Starfleet first became officially aware of the Borg and opened a file on them on stardate 9521.6. ( ENT : " Regeneration "; VOY : " Scorpion ")

24th century [ ]

2347-2350 [ ].

Erin and Magnus Hansen

Annika Hansen

During the years 2347 through 2350 , the Borg were studied by Human exobiologists Magnus Hansen and his wife Erin . Together with their daughter Annika , they ventured out in the USS Raven to seek the Borg. At this point, Starfleet did not believe the Borg were real and instead dismissed them as "rumors and sensor ghosts".

On stardate 32623.5, a Borg cube exiting a transwarp conduit encountered the Raven , which at this point had changed its course without informing Starfleet. The Raven was beyond the Romulan Neutral Zone and disobeyed a direct order to return. At 2,000 kilometers , the cube scanned the Raven and found it no threat, unwittingly proving Magnus' theory that the Borg would not attack as long they were no threat or a target for assimilation. The Borg vessel turned away and was followed by the Raven at a distance of five million kilometers, matching the cube's heading and speed.

After three months, on stardate 32629.4, the Borg cube opened a transwarp conduit and traveled to the Delta Quadrant, the Raven following in its wake. Unknown to the Borg, the Hansens developed new technologies to keep hidden from Borg sensors , such as multi-adaptive shielding to hide the Raven and a personal bio-dampener so someone could visit a Borg vessel without being detected. Without the Borg's knowledge, the Raven was now very close to the cube while Magnus Hansen studied them. He witnessed how two drones from another sub-unit de-activated a drone who was damaged beyond repair when a plasma conduit exploded, removing its usable components.

Some time later, the Borg cube linked with another vessel and received over fifty thousand new drones. The Hansens stealthily beamed over newly arrived drones to identify them. A tactical drone , a former Ktarian male, was beamed over to the Raven while he was regenerating in his alcove . Because its previous designation was Three of Five Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix One, this drone was tagged with a subdermal probe so he could be traced by the Hansens. Magnus believed this drone worked for the Borg Queen and searched its cranial transceiver logs for evidence.

Once Magnus Hansen even stayed overnight within the cubes maturation chamber when the Raven 's transporters failed.

In 2350 , the Borg detected the Raven and perceived her as a threat when it was visible on their sensors for 13.2 seconds. This occurred because the Raven was hit by a subspace particle storm which knocked out their multi-adaptive shields. The Borg cube required three hours to track down the Raven because Magnus masked their warp trail . The cube exited a transwarp conduit only 3.2 light years from the Raven and intercepted it in less than an hour.

The Borg assimilated the Hansens. From then on, Annika Hansen was known as Seven of Nine , and was a Borg drone until she was rescued in 2374 by USS Voyager . In 2375 , father and daughter met once again, although Magnus was still a drone serving in Unimatrix 01 . It is unknown what happened to the drone formerly known as Erin Hansen. The USS Raven was partially assimilated and crashed on a remote moon in B'omar space. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " The Raven ")

In 2362 , the Borg assimilated the crew of the USS Tombaugh , which was under the command of Captain Blackwood . ( VOY : " Infinite Regress ")

In 2364 , the Borg were believed to be responsible for the destruction of several Romulan and Federation outposts along the Romulan Neutral Zone in sectors 30 and 31 . This became evident when the Enterprise -D encountered a similar outpost with an almost identical signature a year later. ( TNG : " The Neutral Zone ")

The Borg extracts a part of the USS Enterprise -D

In 2365 , a Borg cube traveling near System J-25 , seven thousand light years away from Federation space, detected a starship. The sixth planet in that system, a Class-M , seemed to have the same characteristics as some Federation and Romulan outposts near the Neutral Zone. Their cities were removed from the planet's surface. When the Borg cube arrived, it scanned the unknown vessel.

The strange vessel hailed the Borg, which went unanswered. The Borg transported a drone to the engineering section of the unknown starship, right through the vessel's shields . The drone either did not notice or ignored the lifeforms present and walked towards a com panel . Before he could reach it, a phaser shot knocked him down. Moments later another drone materialized and continued towards the panel. Again he was fired upon but this time his personal shield negated the shot. After the drone extracted information from the com panel, it reached over to the fallen drone and removed some components, after which both drones dematerialized.

After the Borg analyzed the information, they knew with whom they were dealing, the Federation starship USS Enterprise -D under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard . They also concluded that the Enterprise -D's defensive capabilities were insufficient. The Borg hailed the Enterprise and told them to not defend themselves as they would be punished for it, interrupting Picard's greeting, and they locked a tractor beam onto the ship. The beam held the starship in place and drained their defensive shields.

The Borg cube was fired upon by the Enterprise when it tried to escape, but to no avail. After eighteen seconds, their shields were gone and the Borg used a cutting beam to remove a part of the ship, saucer sections 27, 28, and 29 on decks 4, 5, and 6. Again the cube was fired upon by the Enterprise . This time, the Borg released the tractor beam; they had sustained twenty percent damage.

An away team from the Enterprise boarded their vessel and watched how a drone performed some tasks. As the away team scouted the ship, they found a Borg maturation chamber and also noticed that the Borg vessel was repairing itself. Immediately, the away team was beamed back to the Enterprise .

When the Borg discovered the Enterprise running, they gave chase. Although the Enterprise was reaching warp 9 , the Borg easily matched their speed and even gained on them. Photon torpedoes fired by the Enterprise detonated harmlessly, causing no damage to the cube.

The Borg fired weapons at the Enterprise designed to drain their shields and was still closing in, even though the Enterprise seemed to have reached her maximum speed. After a second shot, the Enterprise again fired photon torpedoes at the Borg, but without any effect. After the Borg fired their third shot, the shields of the Enterprise were gone and they were able to knock the ship out of warp. After the Enterprise lost warp speed, the Borg immediately re-established their tractor beam, but without any warning the Enterprise broke free and sped away from the Borg.

Unknown to the Borg, the entity known as Q had returned the Enterprise to its original position. He was the one who brought the ship in contact with the Borg in the first place. ( TNG : " Q Who ")

The Borg encounter the Enterprise

In 2366 , the Borg sent a cube to the Alpha Quadrant on a mission to assimilate Earth.

Within the Alpha Quadrant, the Borg first assimilated the nine hundred inhabitants of the Federation colony New Providence . Analysis of the soil revealed the same magnetic-resonance signature the Borg left on the hull of the Enterprise -D the year before. This proved the Borg were not only responsible for the destruction of the New Providence colony, but also the Federation and Romulan outposts in 2364 .

The Borg cube continued its journey and encountered the USS Lalo while on a freight run to Sentinel Minor IV . Although the Lalo managed to send a distress call to starbase 157 , they were assimilated as well.

Two hours later the Borg cube noticed the USS Enterprise -D and altered its course to intercept, with a speed of warp 9.3. When it reached the Starfleet vessel, the cube dropped out of warp and hailed Captain Jean-Luc Picard personally. The Borg informed him to lower the shields and to transport to the Borg vessel. If Picard failed to comply, the Enterprise would be destroyed. After Picard accused the Borg of aggression against the Federation, the Borg told him that the Enterprise was no match for the Borg cube.

The Borg tried to lock a tractor beam on the Enterprise but failed. Within a few moments the Borg adapted to the modulating shields of the Enterprise and locked the tractor beam, draining the ship's shields. Although the Enterprise fired torpedoes and its phaser banks against them, the tractor beam remained in place. Then the Borg began to cut into the Enterprise hull, causing a decompression in engineering, but the Enterprise managed to break free when Lt. Commander Data, as suggested by Cmdr. Shelby, randomly fluctuated the phaser resonance frequencies while firing upon the Borg vessel. The Borg cube immediately started pursuing the fleeing Enterprise .

When the Enterprise hid within the Paulson Nebula , the Borg had trouble locating them and decided to wait. To force the Enterprise out of the nebula, the Borg launched magnetometric guided charges into it. The cube again locked its tractor beam onto the Enterprise as it tried to flee the nebula. A drone was beamed to the Enterprise bridge and tried to reach Picard, but was shot down by Chief of Security Worf . Two more drones were sent, and one of them captured Picard as the other one threw the charging First Officer Riker against a bulkhead . After this skirmish, the drones transported back to the cube with Picard.

Then the Borg cube disengaged its tractor beam and left the Enterprise behind, resuming its course for sector 001 .

Locutus of Borg

In the Borg cube, Picard was told that he would serve to introduce the Borg to Federation culture. Despite his arguments, Picard was told that strength, self-determination, even death, were irrelevant. Resistance was futile; Picard was chosen to speak for the Borg. Some time later, the Borg detected an away team inside the Borg cube. They were trying to locate Picard and to sabotage the cube, but the Borg sent drones after them. While drones were pursuing the away team, they ran into their captain, who had been assimilated, and were forced to flee. The Borg cube was forced out of warp by the away team's sabotage, but the Borg restored their warp capability within a short period of time.

Then the Enterprise was hailed by the Borg. Their former captain introduced himself as Locutus of Borg and told them to surrender. The Enterprise 's navigational deflector was used as a weapon and fired at the cube for several seconds, to no effect. Locutus coldly stated that his resistance was hopeless. The knowledge Picard possessed was part of the Borg Collective. After this, the Borg resumed their course towards Earth.

The Borg cube was met and engaged by Starfleet at Wolf 359 by forty starships. The Battle of Wolf 359 was a disaster for the Federation; all but one ship was destroyed with the loss of eleven thousand lives, and the Borg vessel immediately returned to its previous heading towards Earth.

While en route , the Borg were contacted by Riker, now captain of the Enterprise -D, who offered to end the hostilities and to prepare for assimilation. Despite that the Borg had Picard, they had not foreseen that this was a ruse and that Picard's knowledge had been used against them. When the Enterprise engaged the cube the Borg did not notice the shuttle which was closing in on them. When the Borg noticed that Worf and Data transported to the cube, they were too late to prevent the kidnapping of Locutus. Although the Borg lost Locutus, they again resumed their course for Earth.

Locutus was brought to the Enterprise , where Data investigated how he was connected to the Borg. There, Data found an opportunity to stop the Borg.

The Borg cube self-destructs

The Borg dropped out of warp when they reached Sector 001. They were tracked by Jupiter Outpost 92 and attacked by ships launched from Mars , but the Borg vessel continued its way towards Earth.

The Borg cube was stopped when it was ordered to enter its regeneration cycle. This was done by Data, who connected himself to Locutus and ordered the regeneration command, effectively putting all the drones to sleep. The command also started a self-destruct mechanism which destroyed the cube.

The Borg not only lost their vessel, but also Locutus when his link with the hive mind was severed when the cube exploded. ( TNG : " The Best of Both Worlds ", " The Best of Both Worlds, Part II "; DS9 : " Emissary ")

The Borg attacked the Brunali homeworld . ( VOY : " Child's Play ")

In 2368 , a Borg scout ship crashed in the Argolis Cluster with only one surviving drone, Third of Five, although critically injured.

The drone was found by the USS Enterprise -D who gave it medical attention after placing it within a subspace dampening field to prevent any contact with the Borg hive mind.

Picard knew the Borg would investigate the crash and wanted to take advantage of the situation by implanting a hostile program into the drone. When it was re-integrated within the Borg Collective, the program would destroy the Borg from the inside, like a virus . However, this plan was abandoned under pressure of Doctor Beverly Crusher and Geordi La Forge , who had doubts. Instead, the drone was allowed to grow as an individual, since it no longer was a part of the Borg Collective. It even had a name, Hugh .

Eventually Hugh was returned to the crash site with his individuality intact. After he was rescued by a Borg vessel, the former drone was re-integrated within the Collective, but the Borg could not cope with his individuality. As a result, the Borg vessel fell into a state of disarray, and drifted through space until it was found by Lore , Data's brother. ( TNG : " I Borg ", " Descent ")

Freed drones

Later that year, in the Delta Quadrant, a Borg vessel crashed and its survivors, the drones with the designations Two of Nine , Three of Nine , Four of Nine , and Seven of Nine regained their individuality. Because Seven of Nine had been assimilated at a very young age, she could not cope with her individuality. So, she decided to create a small collective between the four of them when the other drones refused to await their rescue and to rejoin the Collective. This action created a collective within a collective. ( VOY : " Survival Instinct ")

Also in the Delta Quadrant, a Borg cube traveling through the Nekrit Expanse was hit by an electrokinetic storm, killing most drones on board. 80,000 surviving drones lost their connection with the hive mind, causing the reappearance of their own identities. These survivors transported themselves to a nearby class-M planet. Because they had found their individuality again, they also regained the hatred towards other species they had before they were assimilated into the Borg Collective. This resulted in conflicts between the different species. However, a small group of roughly 800 survivors tried to live in coexistence, calling themselves the Cooperative . ( VOY : " Unity ")

Emblem of the Rogue Borg led by Lore

After the Battle of Wolf 359 , the Borg had sent in more expeditions to Federation space. By 2369, these expeditions had resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Federation citizens. ( TNG : " I Borg ", " Descent ", " Descent, Part II ")

A group of Borg had been disconnected from the Collective after integrating Hugh's sense of individuality into the hive. These were discovered by the Soong-type android Lore and styled himself their leader, gave them individual names, and began cruel experiments on them, attempting to replace their organic brains with positronic components. These Borg became more violent – murdering their victims instead of assimilating them – and directed his followers to launch attacks on targets in Federation space. The Enterprise was lured to them and Lore managed to kidnap Data and manipulate him. The captured crew of the Enterprise helped the rogue Borg group to overthrow Lore. ( TNG : " Descent ", " Descent, Part II ")

The Borg attacked the Brunali homeworld for the second time. ( VOY : " Child's Play ")

In 2371 , the Borg assimilated Species 6339 , a humanoid warp-capable species located in the Delta Quadrant , grid 124, octant 22 theta. Eleven billion individuals were assimilated , and only a handful managed to escape. ( VOY : " Infinite Regress ")

Former drone and Starfleet officer Riley Frazier

In 2373 on stardate 50614.2 Commander Chakotay of the starship Voyager answered a distress call from the ex-Borg known as the Cooperative .

Chakotay was injured and Ensign Kaplan was killed after they landed the shuttle. Chakotay was cared for by Riley Frazier , a former drone and Starfleet officer, who used the Borg link to heal Chakotay's wounds. The Cooperative forced Chakotay to re-establish the neural link , via their residual link by which the Cooperative healed him, by starting the neuro electric generator on board the heavily damaged Borg cube for a few minutes. This revived the dormant drones on board, but the New Cooperative was able to trigger the cube's self-destruct. ( VOY : " Unity ")

On stardate 50893.5 a single Borg cube was sent to assimilate Earth. This was the Borg's second attempt, and on board was a Borg Queen. During this attempt the Borg tried to alter Earth's past by traveling to the year 2063 and preventing First Contact with the Vulcans . The skirmish that followed with Starfleet became known as the Battle of Sector 001 .

Although the cube was destroyed by Starfleet, a Borg sphere contained within reached Earth and successfully traveled to 2063. Following the destruction of the sphere by the Enterprise , a contingent of drones (including the Queen) attempted to hijack the Enterprise and began assimilating the ship and crew, but their attempts were thwarted. ( Star Trek: First Contact )

Borg vessels being attacked by Species 8472

On stardate 50984.3 the Borg faced their destruction after they invaded Species 8472 's fluidic space with intent to assimilate this species. Unfortunately – for the Borg – Species 8472 DNA encoding was so dense that nanoprobes could not assimilate their cells . Species 8472 responded with an all out attack on the Borg. They used the "Northwest Passage" in Borg space as their entry point, via a quantum singularity , and destroyed any Borg vessel they could find.

The Borg had lost millions of drones and thousand of worlds when, after assimilating a Starfleet probe in the Delta Quadrant, fifteen of their vessels encountered USS Voyager . One of the Borg cubes scanned Voyager with a polaron beam and when finished joined the other vessels en route to Species 8472.

In the following battle all fifteen Borg ships were destroyed. Unknown to the Borg at the time, Voyager had found those ships and one of the vessels who destroyed them, a Species 8472 bio-ship . On one Borg cube, Species 8472 had stacked Borg remains on each other, as if to scare them off. As far as Species 8472 was concerned, "the weak will perish".

In five months the Borg were attacked more than a dozen times and lost every single time.

A few days later a Borg cube encountered USS Voyager and locked a tractor beam on her and informed the crew that they would be assimilated. Instead, the Borg were offered an alliance. The Borg Collective learned that Voyager had found a way to attack Species 8472 on a microscopic level. The Doctor had discovered a way when he was treating Harry Kim, who was infected by Species 8472 cells. In turn for free passage of Voyager through their space , the Borg would gain their knowledge.

Although at first the Borg would not negotiate with Voyager they became interested when they received a sample of Voyager 's technique to attack Species 8472. They beamed Captain Janeway on board their vessel and asked her what she wanted. At first the Borg refused Janeway's plan to give them the technology after Voyager cleared Borg space and made clear that it was essential for their and her survival. When Janeway told them there was no alternative other than her proposal, the Collective agreed. If the Borg did try to assimilate Voyager , The Doctor would destroy the data on how to attack Species 8472. The Borg would need to work together to develop a weapon while escorting Voyager through their space.

At this time the cube came under attack from Species 8472, who were attacking the nearby planet. The cube managed to escape and took Voyager with it, still attached to the cube via a tractor beam. The Borg/Species 8472 conflict extended to the year 2374.

Seven of Nine

Two Borg drones escorted Janeway and Tuvok . Janeway asked them to join her at grid 92 of sub-junction 12, near the center of the Borg cube, where they would work on the weapon. For efficiency, the Borg wanted to link Janeway and Tuvok with the Borg Collective, as they found verbal communication primitive and inefficient, via a neural transceiver . Although Janeway told them that they worked better via verbal communication and as individuals, not linked into the Hive mind , the Borg were not interested. Only when Janeway suggested that they choose a single Borg to speak for them like Locutus, and threatened them that the deal would be void otherwise, did the Borg listen. The Borg choose Seven of Nine to speak for them.

The Borg concurred with Janeway's suggestion for a large scale weapon but dismissed using photon torpedoes. Instead the Borg devised a multi-kinetic neutronic mine , a weapon of mass destruction. The Borg heard Janeway's objections, that it would take too long to fabricate the necessary nanoprobes and by that time the Borg would have lost the war, among other things. The Borg agreed based on their present situation.

While studying Voyager 's data on the bio-ship, the Borg ship was hailed by Commander Chakotay and they were informed that Species 8472 seemed to be in telepathic contact with Kes . Which might suggest that they already would know about the plans to attack them. Upon hearing this the Borg altered course. Although this would postpone an attack the Borg asked Janeway for the modified nanoprobes so they could start constructing a prototype weapon. Janeway refused, she first wanted to have left Borg space, and did not budge even when the Borg threatened to send five hundred drones to Voyager . Voyager 's crew would fight to the death if this would happen and the Borg would lose the nanoprobes.

The Borg dropped their demand and told Janeway and Tuvok to develop a launching system. Moments later Voyager and the Borg cube were attacked by a single bio-ship. To prevent the destruction of Voyager and their nanoprobes the Borg cube positioned itself between Voyager and the bio-ship. After the first hit the cube crashed deliberately into the bio-ship, destroying both of them. Before their destruction the Borg Collective beamed Seven of Nine, together with some drones, Borg alcoves , Janeway and Tuvok to one of Voyager 's cargo bays .

The Borg explained, by means of Seven of Nine, that they destroyed their vessel to protect Voyager . Because of this the Borg wanted to modify their agreement with Voyager and demanded to be brought to the nearest Borg cube some forty light years away. Unknown to the Borg Commander Chakotay, who was now in command because Captain Janeway was severely wounded when the cube was hit, was altering their agreement.

The drone Seven of Nine was brought to the captain's ready room . Here the Borg learned that the agreement was changed and they would be transferred to a planet or moon with the modified nanoprobes. When the Borg optioned to assimilate Voyager , Commander Chakotay told them if a single drone would leave the cargo bay he would decompress that entire deck . A drone floating in space would not pose a threat. The Borg told him that Humans were erratic, disorganized, every individual entitled to their own small opinion, every decision debated. They lacked harmony, cohesion, greatness. This would be their undoing. The Borg suspected something like this might happen before they entered Janeway's agreement.

Back in the cargo bay Seven of Nine was ordered to take control of Voyager and to enter the realm of Species 8472 when Matrix 010 , Grid 19 was attacked by bio-ships. Eight planets were destroyed, 312 Borg vessels disabled and 4,000,621 drones were killed. The Borg took control of the navigational deflector and created a singularity which pulled Voyager into the realm of Species 8472. Although the cargo bay was decompressed by Chakotay the drone Seven of Nine survived. She informed Chakotay of their situation and to prepare for combat with bio-ships. At that time Chakotay realized that the Borg started the war and not Species 8472. In their search for perfection the Borg made a grave tactical error.

High yield warhead detonation

When Seven of Nine met Captain Janeway, The Doctor had healed her wounds, on the bridge . She was told Voyager would fight Species 8472 on their own territory. She would work together with Tuvok on the modified nanoprobes and to adapt Voyager 's weapons and defensive systems. Voyager was attacked by four bio-ships and fired their nanoprobe enhanced photon torpedoes, destroying all four ships. Afterward Seven of Nine brought Voyager back into the Delta Quadrant where they again were attacked by bio-ships. When Voyager 's high yield warhead exploded thirteen bio-ships were destroyed and the other ships fled. This forced all remaining bio-ships in the Delta Quadrant to return to fluidic space.

After Seven of Nine regained full contact with the Borg Collective they broke their alliance with Voyager . The Borg had prevailed and Voyager and its crew would be assimilated. Seven of Nine took over helm control via her assimilation tubules . Unknown to the Borg Commander Chakotay made a link with Seven of Nine via a neural transceiver to distract her, via images of her past and reminding her of her Humanity . This gave Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres the opportunity to create a power surge which knocked the drone unconscious and permanently severed her link with the hive mind .

This ended the Borg/Species 8472 war and left the drone Seven of Nine stranded aboard USS Voyager . ( VOY : " Scorpion ")

In mid 2374 , the Borg assimilated Species 116 , after they had managed to elude the Borg for several centuries. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ")

23 outposts were assimilated in a matter of hours after which hundreds of Borg vessels attacked and assimilated the Species 116 homeworld. About ten or twenty thousand were able to escape. Arturis was one of them. He blamed Captain Janeway for the assimilation of his world because the alliance between Voyager and the Borg prevented the Borg's destruction, and he tried to get Voyager assimilated. ( VOY : " Hope and Fear ")

A Borg of 29th century technology in a maturation chamber

In 2375 , the Borg were contacted by a 29th century Borg drone. The existence of this drone was the result of a transporter accident where Seven of Nine's nanoprobes interacted with the mobile emitter of The Doctor. Afterward, Ensign Mulchaey 's DNA was used to create its Human form. It would be the first time a Borg drone was reproduced instead of assimilated. The drone's designation was One , and its curiosity caused it to seek contact with the Borg Collective.

The Borg detected a proximity signal in Unimatrix 325, Grid 006 (somewhere in the Delta Quadrant) and a Borg sphere altered its course accordingly. Via a transwarp conduit , it could reach the coordinates within approximately three hours.

The Borg made contact with Voyager . After a scan they used a tractor beam to hold Voyager and hailed them, informing them of their oncoming assimilation. Suddenly the tractor beam disengaged because Voyager 's shields were re-modulated. A moment later they were fired upon but the Borg were able to invert Voyager 's phaser beam with a feedback pulse, taking out their warp drive .

One transported himself into the Sphere and told the Collective to stop the attack on Voyager . The Borg told him he would be assimilated and that resistance was futile. When One tried to reach a Borg alcove , drones tried to stop him, but they failed. The Sphere's navigational controls were taken over by One and he directed the vessel to a nearby proto-nebula . Although the Collective warned One to stop and terminate his interface with the Borg Collective, he steered the Sphere into the nebula, causing the Borg vessel to implode.

One survived the destruction. Although severely wounded, he would not allow treatment because he felt that as long he was alive, the Borg Collective would try to assimilate him. ( VOY : " Drone ")

The pathogenic virus

On stardate 52356.2 a Borg cube was destroyed in the Delta Quadrant. Its debris field was about 120 kilometers wide. This happened after they assimilated a Species 6339 vessel. The vinculum of the cube was infected by a synthetic pathogenic virus which was carried by members of this species. Unknown to the Borg, this virus was specifically designed to attack them.

Although normally the Borg would investigate a destroyed Borg vessel, it is unknown if they did so with this one. Future events suggest Species 6339 were not successful in re-introducing the virus into the Borg Collective . ( VOY : " Infinite Regress ")

Between stardates 52542.3 and 52619.2 a Borg probe in the Delta Quadrant detected the Intrepid -class Voyager in Unimatrix 424, Grid 116. The Borg informed them of their imminent assimilation and although Voyager could match their firepower, the Borg attacked. During this skirmish the Borg's primary shield matrix went off line and a photon torpedo was beamed on board. Although a drone tried to disarm it, the torpedo detonated. Because the detonation took place near their power matrix , it caused a chain reaction which destroyed the entire ship, killing everyone on board. Unknown to the Borg, Voyager salvaged eight kilotons of debris in search for components they could use. Although Voyager 's crew found a transwarp coil , it was of no use to them because it was damaged beyond repair. They did find data nodes , one of them containing tactical data and Borg ship movements. At this point, they devised a plan to steal a transwarp coil from the Borg.

Eight light years away, a heavily-damaged Borg scout ship, traveling at warp 2, was regenerating after it was hit by an ion storm . This had damaged a great deal of the ship and shields, weapons systems and transwarp drive were off line. Three days later the Borg vessel was joined by Voyager , who had masked their warp signature to prevent detection by the Borg.

Although Voyager tried to hide, they were detected. The Borg contacted Seven of Nine via her neural transceiver and she was told the Borg knew about Voyager 's plans to infiltrate the Borg sphere. They threatened to destroy Voyager if Seven did not return to the Borg Collective . The Borg found Seven unique and wanted her back.

At 0600 hours, the sphere detected a vessel, a Federation shuttle , and tractored it into a docking port along the central radius for assimilation. When they dropped their shields an away team from Voyager beamed over to the Borg sphere. Unknown to the away team Seven of Nine was contacted while they were en route to the transwarp coil.

An explosion in one of the corridors brought the sphere defensive shield down and one of their transwarp coils was transported to Voyager . While the away team fled to their assembly point Seven of Nine remained behind. At the same time the sphere charged its weapons and altered course for Voyager . Although Janeway tried to convince Seven to go back she had no choice other to leave her when a force field was erected between them.

The Borg Queen in 2375

When the away team left, the Borg sphere opened a transwarp conduit and traveled to the Unicomplex. There, Seven of Nine, escorted by two drones, was welcomed home by the Borg Queen.

The Queen explained to Seven that her escape from the Collective was not really an escape but that she was allowed to leave. In fact she was the only drone ever to leave the Collective. Her experiences on Voyager would add to the Borg perfection and she was told to regenerate in an alcove, to order her thoughts. When Seven's regeneration cycle ended the Borg had enhanced her visual cortex and added a neural processor adjunct, designed to increase her synaptic efficiency. Her memory was also assimilated by the Borg. The Borg did not want another drone , but instead wanted the individual Seven of Nine for the sole purpose of assimilating Humanity. The Borg failed the first time and with the help of Seven of Nine's human perspective they hoped to assimilate the Humans definitively.

The Borg forced Seven of Nine to help assimilate Species 10026 , all 392,000 of them, just to remind her what it was to be Borg. Upon arrival at their homeworld the Borg were attacked by them. Although the Borg had already assessed the strength and weaknesses of species 10026 the Borg Queen was willing to destroy the ship they were on simply to coerce Seven to come up with a solution. After the shield geometry was altered their ships were no longer a threat to the Borg. Because of Seven's hesitation to monitor the assimilation process in the primary assimilation chamber she was assigned to help with repairs on the shield matrix .

While en route, Seven was injured, but two Borg drones healed her wounds. She even stopped someone who tried to avoid assimilation. Afterward she managed to beam several members of species 10026 to a damaged vessel . Seven was told by the Queen that species 10026 was already enhancing the Borg perfection but she detected the refugees Seven beamed onto the ship. The Queen used this moment to force Seven to abandon her Human sentiments, such as compassion and guilt, about the destruction of a species. To make clear that they were one. To Seven's surprise the Queen let the vessel go. When Seven asked her if she thought compassion was irrelevant the Queen did not answer.

Unknown to the Borg, Voyager had devised a plan to rescue Seven of Nine.

Seven of Nine was given the task to program nanoprobes for a new mode of assimilation, via a biogenic weapon detonated in a planet's atmosphere , which would release nanoprobe viruses causing a gradual assimilation of the target species. This weapon was meant for highly-resistant species. Because the species in question was Species 5618 , Humanity, Seven refused to cooperate. Even a threat to turn her into a drone could not persuade her. When Seven accused the Borg of murdering her family the Queen denied, stating they were given perfection. She then made a drone step forward, Seven of Nine's father, Magnus Hansen.

At that time Seven's interplexing beacon received a message from Captain Janeway telling her that they were on the way to rescue her. Because Seven was linked to the Borg Collective the Queen also knew they were coming.

The Borg found Janeway's shuttle within a few moments. They used technology the Hansens developed and the Borg assimilated: multi-adaptive shielding. Although the Borg had detected the vessel, with three lifeforms and a hologram on board, the Borg Queen tried to persuade Seven to rescue them. Unknown to the Borg, Tuvok and Captain Janeway had entered the unicomplex and were on their way to the Queen's chambers. When the Borg finally tracked the Federation shuttle and locked a tractor beam on it Seven tried to attack the Borg Queen but was stopped by her. At that moment Captain Janeway walked in and threatened to destroy the Queens chambers if she did not let Seven of Nine go, willing to die herself. After the Queen ordered drones to assimilate them Seven told Janeway to destroy the power node above the Queen's alcove. This would disrupt her command interface. After this the shuttle Delta Flyer was able to beam them out of the unicomplex.

Several Borg cubes pursued the fleeing shuttle. When it opened a transwarp conduit a Borg Queen's ship followed them in. The Borg vessel gained on them while it fired at their engines. When the shuttle entered normal space Chakotay ordered a full spread of photon torpedoes to collapse the transwarp exit aperture . The Borg Queen's vessel was destroyed by the collapse of the aperture.

Voyager managed to get twenty thousand light years, a good fifteen years closer to the Alpha Quadrant, out of the Borg transwarp coil before it failed, as was noted in the captain's log on stardate 52619.2. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

The Borg attacked the Brunali homeworld for the third time. ( VOY : " Child's Play ")

By 2376 , after Seven of Nine had been rescued from the Borg Collective, the other drones escaped from the Borg and had their implants removed on Inavar Prime . The drones went in search for Seven of Nine to break the link which held their Collective intact. Although the link was finally severed, they only had a month to live due to the extensive integration of the link. ( VOY : " Survival Instinct ")

In that year a Borg sphere detected a 9.8 warp signature strong enough to penetrate subspace . The location of this signature was the Brunali homeworld, less than a light year from a transwarp aperture. When the sphere exited the aperture it detected a Brunali transport vessel and the USS Voyager .

The Borg locked a tractor beam on both ships and informed the occupants of their upcoming fate: being assimilated by the Borg. Although Voyager fired her phasers the Borg vessel kept both ships locked.

When the Brunali transport vessel was tractored inside the Borg sphere it exploded, causing severe damage to the sphere. This gave Voyager the opportunity to escape. Unknown to the Borg, Voyager had beamed a photon torpedo on board the vessel set to detonate when it was inside the Borg sphere. ( VOY : " Child's Play ")

Unimatrix Zero

In 2377 , the Borg became aware of Unimatrix Zero when its interlink frequency and carrier band were found by the Borg Queen herself.

Unimatrix Zero was a virtual construct made by Borg drones with a genetic mutation. The Borg perceived this mutation as an illness and wanted to eradicate it. To protect themselves the Unimatrix Borg devised a nanovirus which would make them undetectable by the Borg Collective but they were unable to introduce the virus into the Collective. So they contacted the former drone Seven of Nine for help. Together with the crew of USS Voyager the nanovirus was improved so they would be aware of Unimatrix Zero after leaving it.

In an effort to destroy it the Borg Queen sent drones into Unimatrix Zero, and even visited it herself. When she became aware of Captain Janeway's plans she tried to tempt her by sending Voyager directly to Earth, as long as she would not interfere between the Borg and Unimatrix Zero. Janeway refused.

The central plexus of a Borg cube was infiltrated by a Voyager away team, whose members were assimilated by the Borg but retained their individuality because The Doctor had prevented the link with the hive mind. After they released the nanovirus the Borg started to lose contact with drones. The Borg captured Captain Janeway, now a Borg drone, and she was interrogated by the Borg Queen to give her an antidote. The Queen even destroyed some cubes on which she could no longer hear a few drones to persuade her.

The destruction of Unimatrix Zero

Although the Borg could not stop the nanovirus they managed to alter it. The virus would also stop a drone's autonomic functions, making it die within minutes. The Borg Queen gave Janeway an option: make the drones return to the Collective or let them die. Although Janeway ordered her first officer that Unimatrix Zero could no longer exist the Queen was fooled. It was an order to destroy Unimatrix Zero.

The Borg already lost control over a Borg sphere which was now under the command of Korok , a Klingon Borg drone and former occupant of Unimatrix Zero. Together with Voyager the Sphere destroyed Unimatrix Zero by interrupting the interlink frequency via their modified deflectors .

This action caused the Borg to lose control over several vessels in the Delta and Beta Quadrants . One of those ships was a Borg scout vessel at the edge of the Beta Quadrant. The Unimatrix Zero drones would make up a resistance movement under the same name. ( VOY : " Unimatrix Zero ", " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ")

A transwarp hub

In 2378 , a Borg cube almost collided with the Voyager when it left a nebula , located in Spatial Grid 986 , within the Delta Quadrant. Although the Borg noticed the Federation vessel, they did not pursue it. Voyager immediately left the nebula upon this encounter.

Some time later, the Borg Queen monitored a viewscreen conversation between Captain Janeway and an Admiral Janeway, who had entered the Delta Quadrant via a temporal rift . She had traveled back in time to bring the crew of Voyager home.

The Borg Queen contacted Seven of Nine when she entered her alcove to regenerate and mentioned the visitor from the future, Admiral Janeway. She knew Voyager was about to return to the nebula and wanted to know why. The Queen warned Seven that if Voyager would enter the nebula they would be assimilated.

Despite this warning the Borg found Voyager entering the nebula again and they sent three Borg cubes to intercept. Although the Borg fired their weapons, and even tried locking their tractor beam , Voyager kept moving on, unhindered. It seemed they were protected by some sort of new armor . While the Borg tried to adapt, the lead cube was fired upon by Voyager with two transphasic torpedoes . The cube exploded almost immediately. The Borg called off the attack on Voyager when the second cube was destroyed. When Voyager reached the center of the nebula they discovered a transwarp hub. At this point the Borg noticed that Voyager turned around and left the nebula. Unknown to the Borg, Voyager 's crew was planning to use and destroy the transwarp hub.

A future Kathryn Janeway with the Borg Queen

Several cubes scanned Admiral Janeway's shuttle when she entered the nebula and used the transwarp hub, but the Borg did not intervene. In the Unicomplex, the Borg Queen was visited by the future Admiral Janeway, who was connected to the hive mind via a synaptic interface . The Queen was told by Admiral Janeway that Captain Janeway was determined to destroy the transwarp hub. Admiral Janeway was willing to help the Borg if a cube would tractor Voyager and transport it back to the Alpha Quadrant. The Borg Queen appreciated that Admiral Janeway wanted to protect the Voyager collective but she wanted her shuttle and its database in return. The admiral's former offer, how to adapt to their torpedoes, was found insufficient. The Queen didn't trust Admiral Janeway because she had already lied to Captain Janeway. Meanwhile, the Borg had found Janeway's position and beamed her into the Queen's chambers.

The Borg Queen congratulated her with hiding right on the Borg's doorstep. When she asked Janeway if she planned to attack the Borg from inside the Unicomplex Janeway didn't answer. A few seconds later the Borg Queen assimilated Admiral Janeway.

The Borg detected that Voyager had entered aperture 823, transwarp corridor 09 of the transwarp hub. When vessels were redirected to intercept, the Borg Queen shook and parts of her chamber started to explode. It turned out the Borg were infected with a neurolytic pathogen , which was carried by Admiral Janeway and designed to disrupt the Hive mind, to bring chaos to order. This infection also caused the destabilization of the force fields surrounding the transwarp conduits, making it possible for Voyager to destroy the transwarp hub.

While the Queen detached an arm from her body, the pathogen started to affect her, she managed to send a Borg sphere after Voyager . After this, the Queen lost a leg and fell to the floor. She told the partially assimilated Admiral Janeway that Captain Janeway would die, that way the admiral's actions would not happen as she would not exist at all. After this her cybernetic parts detached from her organic part and the Queen died, causing a cascade effect throughout the Unicomplex which started to explode.

The Sphere sent after Voyager managed to attack the ship. Moments before Voyager 's shields and armor went down, she turned around and entered the sphere itself. When the Borg sphere left the transwarp conduit in the Alpha Quadrant, it was met by a fleet of Starfleet ships. Although it was fired upon, it was not damaged, but suddenly exploded. Voyager emerged from its wreckage. After Captain Janeway made her excuse about their surprise entry, they were welcomed home by Admiral Paris . ( VOY : " Endgame ")

Admiral Janeway's pathogen proved to be devastating to the Borg, decimating the Collective and bringing it to the very edge of destruction. As a result, the Borg Queen began focusing on evolution rather than assimilation. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

In 2384 , a Borg cube rendered dormant by the neurolytic pathogen was encountered by the USS Protostar . The crew proceeded to venture into the cube in order to access the vinculum to gain information on how to remove a weapon called the living construct from their ship. When the Medusan Zero volunteered to be assimilated to get the information, this act caused the cube and the drones aboard to wake up. The crew barely managed to escape as they helped Zero to break free from the Collective, who then managed to put the Borg back to sleep. ( PRO : " Let Sleeping Borg Lie ")

By the 2380s the Borg had assimilated Sikarians and acquired their spatial trajector technology, which they began integrating into the queencell of Borg cubes. ( PIC : " The Impossible Box ")

At some point the Romulan Imperial scout ship Shaenor and its twenty-six passengers were assimilated by a cube in Romulan space. The cube subsequently suffered a submatrix collapse and was separated from the Collective. The cube was captured by the Romulan Free State and became known as "the Artifact ", site of the Romulan Reclamation Site under the Borg Artifact Research Institute and Borg Reclamation Project . ( PIC : " Remembrance ", " Maps and Legends ", " The End is the Beginning ", " The Impossible Box ")

In 2401 , an atypical Borg Queen reached out to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard seeking membership in the Federation. Much to the Federation's confusion, thus Borg Queen was vastly different to the Queens that had been encountered before and the Collective wasn't nearly as outwardly hostile. However, once aboard the USS Stargazer , the Queen began assimilating the ship and through it, the Stargazer's fleet. In response, Picard activated the ship's auto-destruct , stopping the assimilation. ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ")

After being returned from 2024 to 2401 by Q , Picard stopped the explosion, having deduced that the strange Borg Queen was actually a Queen from an alternate timeline that had merged with Dr. Agnes Jurati in 2024 and had set out to create a kinder Borg Collective, one based on mercy and choice. The Borg had sought out the Federation's help to stop an energy wave that threatened countless lives and by combining the shields of the Federation fleet and the Borg ship, the two former mortal enemies were able to stop it. However, the Borg didn't know the source of the energy wave or the massive transwarp conduit that emerged from it, only that it was a threat to everyone. Picard granted the Borg Queen's request to grant the Borg provisional membership in the Federation so that the Borg could be "the Guardian at the Gates" watching out for whatever this new threat was. ( PIC : " Farewell ")

The Queen, ravaged by the neurolytic pathogen

Later in 2401, while investigating the actions of Vadic and her rogue group of Changelings in their theft of certain items within the Daystrom Institute , Commodore Geordi La Forge, Data and Dr. Beverly Crusher discovered that the transporters on Starfleet ships had been altered to insert Picard's Borg-modified DNA into everyone who used them. This was discovered too late as Jack Crusher , Picard and Crusher's son who was also being chased by Vadic and her group, discovered a Borg cube in Jupiter and confronted the Borg Queen, who convinced him to join her as "Võx" upon revealing his origins. With Jack in her control, the Borg Queen used his powers to assimilate the youth of Starfleet during Frontier Day , taking control of the various Starfleet vessels under the Fleet formation mode protocol. Picard and his team escaped the USS Titan -A at the cost of Captain Liam Shaw 's life with Seven of Nine and Raffaela Musiker staying behind to try and reclaim the ship. Escaping to the Fleet Museum , the group pressed back into service the USS Enterprise -D as it was the only ship not connected to Fleet formation. ( PIC : " Võx ")

The end of the Borg Collective

In an attempt to return to Earth, Borg signals were picked up in Jupiter, leading to the Enterprise to investigate, where they were confronted by the Borg Cube. Picard, Riker and Worf entered the cube with the former intending on rescuing Jack and the latter two intending on passing on the location of the transmitter. In the heart of the cube, Picard confronted the Borg Queen, deformed by the Neurolytic pathogen and revealing that the damage it caused ravaged the Collective down to this single Cube. Terrified and furious, the Borg Queen intended to turn those she assimilated into breeding stock and destroy any and everything that could possibly harm them. Upon revealing where the transmitter was located, Data was able to pilot the Enterprise inside the cube and find it, however, they realized that destroying it would destroy the cube and everyone inside. Reluctantly, they opted to destroy the cube. In a last-minute gamble, Picard hooked himself up to the collective to confront Jack. When Picard revealed that he would stay with him as the cube was destroyed, Jack snapped out of the hold of the Borg and freed himself and Picard. Thanks to Riker's telepathic connection to his wife Deanna Troi , the four were teleported back to the Enterprise and escaped while the Borg cube was destroyed, killing the Borg Queen in the process. Following Crusher's reconfiguration of the transporters to remove the assimilated DNA, the threat of the primary Borg Collective was brought to a final end. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

External link [ ]

• Borg history at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• 3 Ancient humanoid

A Complete Timeline of the Borg in Star Trek

The Borg are among Star Trek's most terrifying villains, having assimilated Captain Picard and Seven of Nine, but what is their timeline of events?

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.

'Star Trek: Picard’: The Borg Storyline So Far, Explained

"Resistance is futile; you will be assimilated."

“When it comes to seeing Picard again, the first things that come to mind are Data and the Borg.”

That’s what Star Trek: Picard Executive Producer Alex Kurtzman recently told THR about how they approached bringing back Patrick Stewart ’s most iconic character -- along with one of Star Trek ’s most popular villains. Both Data and the Borg play key roles in Picard ’s unfolding mythology, which finds Picard’s deceased friend and his most lethal enemy looming large over an intricate plot that involves a massacre on Mars where androids helped kill thousands of Romulan refugees, resulting in a Federation-wide ban on androids (AKA synthetics). Complicating matters is the reveal of a derelict Borg cube that plays home base to both what’s left of the Romulan Empire and several inactive Borg drones.

The latest episode of Picard , “The Impossible Box,” reveals more about the role that the race of cybernetic beings hellbent on assimilating various cultures into their hive-mind collective plays in Picard’s return to television after a 26-year absence. Here’s what the “Resistance is futile” baddies are up to, and how they got there:

The Borg Are Back...ish

The Borg have been a considerable thorn in both Picard and the Federation’s side since the captain and crew of the Enterprise-D first encountered them in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Two episode, “Q Who?” Their cold, unrelenting mission to assimilate entire alien races and worlds, in an effort to add their victims’ biological and technological distinctiveness to their own, reached a boiling point when they kidnapped and assimilated Picard 30 years ago, in the Season Three TNG cliffhanger “The Best of Both Worlds, Part I.” There, Picard was turned into Locutus, whose role in the collective was to act as a voice and figurehead to oversee the Borg’s assimilation of Earth. Thankfully, that plot to turn humanity into drones failed -- as did their second attempt in the 1996 feature film Star Trek: First Contact .

But the emotional scars from Picard’s brief experience as a member of a race using him to kill his own species took longer to heal than the physical ones. In fact, Picard recently revealed in its fifth episode, “Stardust City Rag” that Picard has yet to feel like he has regained all the humanity the Borg took from him 30 years ago. Ironically, that which he has lost is something the Romulans are helping ex-drones (“Ex-B’s”) get back on the Borg cube they have acquired, which the Romulans call the Artifact.

It’s there that Picard is forced to come to terms with his trauma, and those who inflicted it upon him, by stepping onto a Borg cube for the first time in three decades. There, he not only reopens old wounds for himself, but also discovers a sense of hope in a place that's home to those driven to take it away.

Welcome to the Borg Reclamation Project

Sometime after the loss of their homeworld and the explosive (and fatal) end to Picard’s efforts to relocate the Romulans to a new home, the Federation’s oldest enemy laid claim to a damaged Borg cube. They renamed it “The Artifact” and began working on salvaging Borg tech from inactive drones, as well as “rehab-ing” former drones of various races back to a way less “assimilate everything” existence with the Borg Reclamation Project.

The Executive Director of the project is a former drone himself -- Hugh ( Jonathan Del Arco ). Picard helped free Hugh from the Borg when he was the drone designated Third of Five in the classic TNG season five episode, “I, Borg.”

At first, Picard plotted to use Hugh as a “Trojan Horse” and deliver a virus that would break down and destroy the Borg’s hive mind. As more of Picard’s crew members got to know Hugh, and see his humanity come through, Picard had a change of heart and let Hugh go. They would reunite later in the Season Seven premiere of Next Gen , “Descent, Part II.” “Impossible Box” reunites Picard and Hugh for the first time in over 25 years, and in doing so, we learn that the Borg are able to be rehabilitated. There is hope for their victims as they attempt to re-enter their lives, which sparks Picard to challenge his inner (and justified) prejudices against the alien race that still haunts him after all these years.

Helping Hugh and his efforts is Soji, played by Isa Briones . Soji recently lost her twin sister, Dahj, at the hands of Romulan operatives wanting to destroy her because she is an advanced android; a perfect mix of biological elements and Data’s positronic components. Soji is also an advanced “Synth,” but only recently discovered that about herself. Given that the Romulans hate androids, Picard came to the Artifact to protect her, since she is in the crosshairs of a Romulan spy named Narek. He is using her, and the Borg Reclamation Project, for less than altruistic reasons.

Why? Because the Romulans only have two speeds: Shady and super shady. Their hate for androids and any synthetic life is long-standing; there are no androids in their culture. (So it’s especially ironic that they would make their base aboard a ship full of that which they loathe.) Narek and other Romulans--conspiring with Federation brass as well--believe the Borg’s collective consciousness, along with Soji’s brain, can help them locate the secret Synth homeworld and wipe out the Synths that are still alive after the Federation ban.

Through Hugh and Soji’s efforts, we learn something new about the Borg: The Collective is like the iCloud for this race of interconnected beings. From the moment aliens or humans are assimilated into it, they join a chorus of thousands in service of the hive mind. Once disconnected from the collective, like Hugh was, they are free of those voices. But Picard tells us that what is never silent are the echoes or imprints that individual drones take with them. This mess of overlapping voices, speaking as one mind, operates in a “Time is a flat circle” sorta way.

For example: “The Impossible Box” puts Picard and Hugh in “The Queen’s Cell,” a room they have never seen or been in but know of, like it’s been there all this time. It is the private chambers of the Borg Queen, last seen trying to destroy Captain Janeway and her crew aboard the lost starship Voyager as they warped to get back home in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale, “Endgame.” It’s in this room that Hugh introduces Picard to an advanced tech belonging to a race Janeway encountered in the first season of Voyager . This tech allows for long-distance transportation with a range of up to 40,000 lightyears. The reason for this tech was to spirit the Queen away in case of an emergency, and the episode all but implies that the Queen survived her explosive demise at the end of “Endgame.”

Hugh and Soji have also discovered that the collective share a common narrative full of archetypal information from past experiences but it is just as relevant and timely to them as present day news is to humans. What exactly Hugh and the Romulans want with this info is unclear, but all signs point to it paving the way to more mysteries being uncovered about Soji, her ties to the rogue synthetics the Romulans are hunting, and the future of the Borg.

Given that the Borg have been a cancer for Stafleet for over 30 years, it is safe to assume that, whatever happens next for Star Trek: Picard, this aspect of Picard’s past will play a significant role in shaping his future.

Star Trek: Are The Borg Still A Threat After Voyager?

The Borg have an interesting and terrifying history, but where does their future in the Star Trek canon lie?

In Star Trek 's canon, several notable villains have appeared over the course of the almost 60-year life of the show and its many spinoffs. The many crews of the Starship Enterprise in all its forms have come up against Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians, and Q, to name but a few of the most dangerous threats to the Federation.

Of all the enemies that the Enterprise has gone up against, there is no doubt that The Borg are possibly the scariest and most significant threat to not only the Federation, but the entire universe. A formidable cybernetic race intent on assimilating every living organism and every piece of technology, The Borg played a huge part in several iterations of the show from The Next Generation onward . The question is, does a space remain in the Star Trek universe for The Borg beyond Voyager ?

RELATED: Star Trek: Exploring The Galaxy Wide Demand For Borg Parts

The History Of The Borg In Star Trek

The Borg were introduced in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Q Who." The episode marked the third appearance of the omnipotent annoyance Q, who throws a tantrum after Picard rejects his request to join the crew. During this tantrum, Q hurls the Enterprise deeper into space to teach them a lesson about the true nature of what threats are out there. This leads to their first interaction with The Borg, the ominous Borg Cube vessel looming ahead, and individual Borg infiltrating the Enterprise for reconnaissance.

It becomes clear very quickly that The Borg are too much for the Enterprise crew. They adapt to Starfleet's weapons and are relentless in their mission to assimilate everything in their path. After seeing the horror of The Borg hive and the futility of the fight, Picard admits that he needs Q , and they are whisked away from Borg space.

From this moment, The Borg cemented themselves in Star Trek history as one of the most terrifying opponents in the universe. Every time they appeared onscreen, the threat was palpable and resistance was futile. In one of the most memorable storylines from TNG, The Borg abducted Captain Picard and assimilated him, turning him into Locutus of Borg. The crew ultimately regained their Captain and reversed his assimilation, but the effects reverberated for Picard long after.

After only making one appearance in Deep Space Nine, The Borg resurfaced in the third season of Voyager. This ultimately led to Seven of Nine, a Borg drone, ending up on the bridge. After a turbulent beginning which involved trying to assimilate the crew, her disconnection from The Borg hive mind, and attempts to reconnect with it, Seven of Nine joined the crew of Voyager. Throughout the rest of the series, Seven of Nine struggles with her identity and humanity. She frequently comes into conflict with other members of the crew and Captain Janeway , although ultimately she is accepted as one of them.

The Borg become a running theme in the spinoff Picard . Seven of Nine features in the show, as well as other recovering former Borg drones. The Borg are a crippled race in the show, thought to be effectively useless, but Seven and Picard know better. In the second season, the Borg Queen assimilates Picard's friend Agnes in a convoluted plot revolving around time travel. This ultimately ends in The Borg wishing to join the Federation.

With this strange and unexpected turn in the story of The Borg, what could the future of the once powerful and feared race be? There are several different futures for The Borg in the Star Trek canon. They could either be powerful allies, terrifying enemies, or simply cease to feature. Which route serves the series better is up for debate.

The Future Of The Borg

With the events in Picard , The Borg could potentially bolster the strength of the Federation or dismantle it from within. They have never been particularly trustworthy, and despite the Borg Queen requesting to join the Federation, the history of Borg trying to assimilate and infiltrate the Federation is a long one. The entire drive of The Borg is to increase their numbers and technological superiority, and it would be a large departure for that to change now.

With that being said, there have been many incidents of Borg drones regaining humanity once disconnected, or even while still within, the hive. The Borg Queen in Voyager taking control of Agnes and experiencing her humanity could have altered her perspectives in a very real way. Alternatively, it could have only strengthened her resolve to complete the assimilation of the universe. No matter what has come before, The Borg as a whole have always returned to what they do best. They assimilate and destroy societies and planets in a bid for complete control and acquisition of the universe.

The alternative to this is dropping The Borg from future Star Trek entries entirely as a present threat or ally. Instead, they could be a footnote in history. Wrecks of Borg Cubes may litter space, while dead Borg drones and technology are excavated from deserted planets. They could be used as a lesson to future Federation vessels, or they could be used as a precursor or template for a new threat. No matter what the path of The Borg holds, the impact they have had on the Star Trek universe cannot be erased.

MORE: Star Trek: Is Starfleet Actually The Federation's Military?

Star Trek: Voyager's original ending had a surprise for the Borg

T he ending of Star Trek: Voyager didn't completely satisfy fans as we didn't get to see Voyager actually back on Earth nor did we see the crew reuniting with their friends and families. Instead, we see Voyager heading toward Earth, which wasn't exactly epic. But the original finale, according to Bryan Fuller [ via Giant Freakin Robot ], would have been a grand finale like no other with Captain Janeway taking on the Borg in an epic showdown.

According to Fuller, originally, because Kate Mulgrew wanted the captain to "go down with the ship but not at the full cost of her being," Captain Janeway was going to surrender Voyager to the Borg. But there was a nasty surprise waiting for the Collective—a reverse assimilation virus which would have destroyed the Borg from the inside out. The Voyager crew would have been able to use a transwarp conduit to make it back to Earth.

As Voyager escaped, an armada of Borg cubes would have followed, and the end result would have been quite the finale.

“This great final image of the Borg armada approaching Earth, and then out of the belly of the beast of the lead ship came Voyager, destroying all of the other Borg in its trail.”Bryan Fuller

Fuller thought this would have been the right way to end Janeway's journey with the Borg and would have given Seven of Nine complete freedom. Whether or not Janeway would have died in this version of the finale was still up in the air, but, like the hologram Janeway aboard the Protostar, it's a sacrifice she would have made either way.

Though this could have resulted in a finale that really resonated with fans, it could have essentially cost us Captain Janeway. With the powers-that-be unsure of whether or not she would have survived, this is a risk I'm glad they didn't take. The death of Janeway would have been traumatic, not only for her crew, but for those fans who would have gladly joined her crew. And since Voyager ended differently, Janeway has now returned as an admiral in the animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy. And most of us fans are holding out hope for a live-action return of the admiral. With so much Star Trek going on, there are plenty of places for her to pop up!

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Star Trek: Voyager's original ending had a surprise for the Borg .

Lower Decks finally fixed the biggest Borg plot hole in Star Trek canon

What's up with Borg babies?

Borg drones aren’t born but made.

If you love The Next Generation , or Voyager , or Picard , then you know one of the running themes of the Borg — Star Trek’s most terrifying hivemind villain— is that they take regular people and turn them into part of the Collective.

Anyone who escapes the Borg Collective lives with memories of life before their zombified Borg existence, during it, and after. That’s usually how Borg stories go. Except for Borg babies.

In the first Next Generation episode to feature the Borg, “Q, Who,” we saw Borg babies, implying that some Borg are born. Trek canon’s relationship with Borg babies has been shaky ever since. Until now.

In the latest episode of Lower Decks , Star Trek canon finally tackles the ethical problem of hating the Borg and loving those Borg babies. Mild spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 8, “I, Excretus.”

A Borg baby in the TNG episode, “Q, Who.”

Borg babies, explained

In “I, Excretus,” the crew of the USS Cerritos is put through a series of grueling (and hilarious) drills designed to make the junior officers (the Lower Deckers) experience challenging missions usually faced by the high-ranking bridge crew. In one of the holographic simulations, Boimler has to deal with a Borg encounter, in which the computer tells him he has to “resist the Borg.”

Boimler goes into full Star Trek badass mode: firing his phasers, changing the frequency, throwing his phaser at a Borg drone, and sneaking into a secret shaft, all while the score mimics the oh-so-’90s Ron Jones music from the TNG classic, “The Best of Both Worlds.” On Boimler’s first attempt, he sneaks by some adorable Borg babies.

Wait? Borg babies? Were these babies born on the Borg cube? Don’t the Borg assimilate other lifeforms to add other Borgs? Why are their Borg babies? The short answer is the idea that the Borg assimilate organic lifeforms into their collective was actually a very slick retcon from the second Borg episode ever, the previous 1990 episode “The Best of Both Worlds.” In that episode, when the Borg express interest in Jean-Luc Picard specifically, everyone is weirded out. Commander Shelby says, “I thought they weren't interested in human lifeforms, only our technology,” to which Picard counters, “Their priorities seem to have changed.”

This Borg retcon stuck. For the most part, everyone forgot that, when first introduced, the Borg didn’t assimilate organics, just tech. And then, the Borg babies were forgotten, right up until the year 2000.

A Borg baby in a maturation chamber in Voyager’s “Collective.”

The Voyager wrinkle

After the introduction of Seven of Nine — a former Borg drone — as part of the crew of the USS Voyager , Star Trek tried to fix the whole Borg baby conundrum. In the Voyager episode “Collective,” Seven of Nine clarifies that the Borg babies aren’t born but captured and then put into a maturation chamber to accelerate their growth. This explains how Seven was assimilated as a little kid but grew up into an adult Borg. It’s also the origin story of Seven’s surrogate son, Icheb, a former adolescent Borg. With the retcon of the maturation chamber, Voyager reached back to the Borg babies in 1988’s “Q, Who,” and just made it seem like Riker, Picard, and Data were confused.

This additional Borg retcon helped explain the wonkiness of how the Borg deal with assimilating children and provided another layer of Seven’s backstory. But, it didn’t do much for the ethics of blowing up huge Borg ships that — presumably — all have Borg babies on them.

Again, nobody talks about Borg babies in “The Best of Both Worlds” or in First Contact . That is weird , considering we’re all cheering when Borg ships explode, which presumably takes out Borg babies as well.

Boimler rescues the Borg babies.

Lower Decks corrects the Borg baby ethical dilemma

When Boimler first runs the “Borg Encounter” simulation in “I, Excretus,” he doesn’t rescue the Borg babies before leaving the cube ship. This gives him a lower score. So, when Boimler goes back to try and get a perfect score on “Borg Encounter,” the second time, he rescues the Borg babies, which gives him a slightly higher score.

This is a small thing, but it’s pretty huge. The implication here is that within Starfleet, somebody decided that the ideal way a Borg encounter would end is that you would rescue at least some of the innocent victims, specifically the Borg babies. Boimler saving the Borg babies doesn’t give him a perfect score, but as he continues to rescue more drones, this score goes up.

Toward the end of the episode, when Boimler is about to get a perfect score, he casually mentions that he “beat the Borg Queen in a game of chess and taught her empathy.” In this final scenario, Boimler has not only rescued some innocent Borg babies but, perhaps, convinced the Borg to be a little less Borgish.

Although it occurs offscreen (hilarious!), this outcome is easily the most consistent with what Star Trek’s ethical principles ought to be. Throughout all the various series, Starfleet acts like a moral organization, trying to find peaceful solutions. Star Trek has often given itself a pass with the Borg because the Borg are so hard to beat. In First Contact , Picard even shoots several former Enterprise crewmembers who have just been recently assimilated into the Collective.

Lower Decks smartly critiques the dubious Borg ethics of the rest of Star Trek. In First Contact, we were meant to think that Picard had gone too far. But in Lower Decks , the message is clear: The Borg shouldn’t be destroyed; they should be saved. Especially the Borg babies.

Star Trek: Lower Decks has two episodes left in Season 2, which airs new episodes on Thursdays on Paramount+.

This article was originally published on Sep. 30, 2021

• Science Fiction

NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system

Voyager 1 has been sending a stream of garbled nonsense since November. Now NASA engineers have identified the fault and found a potential workaround.

For the past five months, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending a steady stream of unreadable gibberish back to Earth. Now, NASA engineers finally know why.

The 46-year-old spacecraft sends regular radio signals as it drifts further from our solar system . But in November 2023, the signals suddenly became garbled, meaning  scientists were unable to read any of its data, and they were left mystified about the fault's origins. 

In March, NASA engineers sent a command prompt, or "poke," to the craft to get a readout from its flight data subsystem (FDS) — which packages Voyager 1's science and engineering data before beaming it back to Earth. 

After decoding the spacecraft's response, the engineers have found the source of the problem: The FDS's memory has been corrupted.

Related: NASA's Voyager 1 sends readable message to Earth after 4 nail-biting months of gibberish

"The team suspects that a single chip responsible for storing part of the affected portion of the FDS memory isn't working," NASA said in a blog post Wednesday (March 13) . "Engineers can't determine with certainty what caused the issue. Two possibilities are that the chip could have been hit by an energetic particle from space or that it simply may have worn out after 46 years."

— NASA hears 'heartbeat' signal from Voyager 2 probe a week after losing contact

— Historic space photo of the week: Voyager 2 spies a storm on Saturn 42 years ago

— NASA reestablishes full contact with Voyager 2 probe after nail-biting 2-week blackout

Although it may take several months, the engineers say they can find a workaround to run the FDS without the fried chip — restoring the spacecraft's messaging output and enabling it to continue to send readable information from outside our solar system.

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Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 zipped past Saturn and Jupiter in 1979 and 1980 before flying out into interstellar space in 2012. It is now recording the conditions outside of the sun's protective magnetic field , or heliosphere, which blankets our solar system.

Voyager 1 is currently more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth, and it takes 22.5 hours for any radio signal to travel from the craft to our planet.

Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.

NASA spacecraft snaps mysterious 'surfboard' orbiting the moon. What is it?

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• TorbjornLarsson Bon voyage, Voyager! Reply
• Jay McHue What if aliens are doing it to try to communicate with us? 🤪 Reply

Jay McHue said: What if aliens are doing it to try to communicate with us? 🤪

admin said: Voyager 1 has been sending a stream of garbled nonsense since November. Now NASA engineers have identified the fault and found a potential workaround. NASA engineers discover why Voyager 1 is sending a stream of gibberish from outside our solar system : Read more

sourloaf said: What does FSB mean?

Rusty Lugnuts said: Where are you seeing "FSB"? The closest thing I can see in the article is "FDS". In modern computers, FSB would most likely refer to the Fr0nt S1ide Bu5, though I have no idea if a system as old as Voyagers, let alone engineered so specifically, would have an FSB. (apparently I can't spell out "Fr0nt S1ide Bu5" or my post gets flagged as spam or inappropriate??)

• SkidWard Just cut the % of ram needed... skip the bad sectors Reply
• kloudykat FDS = fl1ght da1a sub5ystem5 Reply
• 5ft24dave This is pretty old news, like 6 months old. Are you guys just now discovering this? Reply

Commodore Browncoat said: That's about as sane a theory as many of the others that have become ridiculously popular in the past several years, so sure - why not? What reply do you think we should send?

• View All 11 Comments

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Screen Rant

Star trek: voyager series ending explained - how the crew gets home.

The last episode of Star Trek: Voyager incorporated many of the show's core themes, including time travel, love, and the importance of family.

Star Trek: Voyager   ran for seven seasons before delivering its last episode, "Endgame" as a two-part special on May 23rd, 2001, making for an ending that saw the crew get home and encompassed many of the show's core themes. Voyager tells the story of the crew of the USS Voyager under the command of Captain Kathryn Janeway, and their journey to find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant after they are accidentally thrown into the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 lightyears from their home.

This premise offers a unique perspective on the Star Trek universe, allowing the show to introduce both unexplored sci-fi concepts and new alien races on a much larger scale than other shows in the franchise had been able to do. The crew must also learn how to live and work together, as a number of them are former Maquis , members of an anti-Federation resistance force who Voyager was sent to track down. Through the seven seasons, the crew of the ship goes from wary allies to a cohesive team and, finally, to a family, as close relationships form, and bonds are forged by being so far away from home.

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Not all the challenges the crew faced were foreign, however. One of the biggest enemies dealt with in later seasons was the Borg, the famous cybernetically enhanced hive-mind race that had been terrorizing the crews of various Star Trek shows since The Next Generation . The Borg play a significant role in over half of the show's run, especially with the addition of Seven of Nine , a former Borg drone rescued by the crew. Another common Star Trek plot device that showed up during Voyager's run was the idea of time travel. The Borg and the concept of time travel serve as the main plot drivers for "Endgame", and are ultimately the two reasons the crew are able to accomplish what they have been attempting to do all series: get home.

What Happens In Voyager's Ending?

"Endgame" begins 26 years in the future, a future where Voyager and her crew have made it home, although not without consequences. These consequences weigh heavily on the conscience of the now Admiral Kathryn Janeway, who decides to use a device called a chrono deflector stolen from a Klingon named Korath to create a temporal wormhole and return to the year 2378. She finds Voyager and convinces her younger self, the still-Captain Janeway, and her crew that she can help them get home. She directs them back to a network of wormholes in a nebula they originally avoided because of a massive Borg presence and provides them with technology including shipwide armor and transphasic torpedos, to protect against Borg attack. The crew adapts the technology to the ship and makes their way back to the nebula, only to find that the wormholes are part of a massive transwarp hub that if destroyed will deal a crippling blow to the Borg. Destroying it, however, will mean the crew will lose their chance of getting home. The Borg Queen communicates to Seven of Nine that, if Voyager attempts to use or destroy the hub, she will retaliate with deadly force.

Captain Janeway is furious with her older self for not telling her about the hub, and the two argue about the right thing to do before Admiral Janeway breaks her promise to not tell Captain Janeway anything about the future, and informs her of the horrors that will be wrought on her crew if the Captain does not take this opportunity; Tuvok will become mentally unstable, unable to get the cure in time for the neurological disease he has begun to suffer from. Seven of Nine will die on an away mission in the Delta Quadrant and her husband Chakotay will be so grief-stricken that he will never recover and die sometime later of an implied broken heart after Voyager gets home.

Shaken by this news, Captain Janeway tells her crew that they won't go through with the plan to destroy the hub unless everyone agrees to do it, but the crew agrees despite the risks. Touched by the crew's loyalty and love of each other, Admiral Janeway admits she was wrong for lying about the hub and agrees to help. Captain Janeway convinces her that there is a way to both destroy the hub and get Voyager home. While the Admiral distracts the Borg Queen , Voyager enters the hub and sets its destruction in motion, riding the shockwave from the explosions along a conduit the Alpha Quadrant. At the last minute, and ship is pursued by a Borg Sphere but is able to take on the Sphere and destroy it once they reach the Alpha Quadrant. The last shot of  Star Trek: Voyager  is the titular vessel triumphantly flying towards Earth, surrounded by Federation ships.

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How Did The Two Janeways Fool The Borg Queen?

Getting Voyager home relies entirely on the Janeways' plan to trick the Borg Queen in the Star Trek: Voyager series finale. This hinges on Admiral Janeway pulling off some sleight of hand. When the Admiral first appears to the Borg Queen, it seems as though she had turned on the Voyager crew again. Talking to the Queen in her mind using a device that allows her to pilot her ship via a neural link, the Admiral insists that she will give the Queen the information on how to stop Voyager from destroying the hub if the Queen will send a Borg ship to tow Voyager safely home. The Queen agrees to help but then turns on Admiral Janeway once she has found the physical location of her shuttle and body. She begins to assimilate Janeway, and it seems as though the Admiral has been outsmarted, until it is revealed that before leaving Voyager, she was deliberately infected with a neurolytic pathogen that begins to work on the Queen immediately, severing her connection from the rest of the collective and beginning to destroy her body as well.

Without their Queen, the Borg have no guidance, and Voyager is able to carry out its mission to destroy the hub. The Queen makes one last valiant stand by sending the last ship at her disposal after Voyager, but by a trick of flying, Voyager manages to fly inside of the ship, ride in it the rest of the way through the transwarp conduit to the Alpha Quadrant, and then detonate the ship from the inside out. Once the ship is destroyed, they fly out to meet the Federation ships waiting for them.

Because of the pathogen, The Unicomplex housing the Queen explodes, killing her and Admiral Janeway. The Borg Queen is defiant to the last , convinced that the ship she sent after Voyager will destroy Captain Janeway and crew and that Admiral Janeway will cease to exist as a result. Voyager destroys the ship, however, and in the end, the Queen is only right in her prediction that Admiral Janeway will also cease to exist. Admiral Janeway chooses the fate of assimilation and certain death, knowing that if the plan works, she will die anyway since the future will be rewritten by her actions. She has known this from the beginning of the episode, telling the future Harry Kim that she is aware her mission is a "one-way trip" .

Time Travel And Changing The Future

As previously stated, time travel plays a big role in Star Trek: Voyager . In fact, there is even a precedent for a member of the crew coming back from the future to prevent dire events from happening to the crew. The season 5 episode "Timeless" deals with a future Harry Kim and Chakotay attempting to get a message back in time from a bleak future where the rest of the Voyager crew was killed in an accident while trying to get home. They ultimately stop the crew from attempting the maneuver, and rewrite the future, just as Admiral Janeway does in "Endgame". Besides "Timeless", there are a number of important episodes that deal with time travel, such as "Future's End", "Year of Hell", and "Relativity".

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The fact that time travel is a well-used plot device does not take away from how jarring it is to set "Endgame" 26 years in a future that the audience knows nothing about. From the beginning, it is a shock to see the ship safe on Earth, and the crew aged and moved on with their lives. The jump to the future is used not only as a means to a narrative end, but as a way to shock and draw in the audience to the rest of the story.

Seven of Nine and Chakotay

While the relationship between Seven of Nine and Chakotay had been evolving into something more intimate over the last eight episodes of Star Trek: Voyager 's final season, it is not until "Endgame" that audiences see it reach its fullest potential. It is revealed early on in the episode that the two have begun dating in earnest, and they are shown to become closer throughout the episode, sharing their first kiss and several tender moments as the plot progresses. The biggest plot twist is the reveal that the two were married in Admiral Janeway's timeline, proving that their nascent relationship has the potential to become something more serious.

Seven of Nine and Chakotay's relationship was a surprise to many fans, as it had only been set up to be romantic late in the season. The fact that they seem to be in it for the long haul by the end of the final episode is a twist that fans would have been hard-pressed to see coming. Similarly, their deaths in the future serve to shock the audience and make Admiral Janeway's motivation for getting the crew home sooner even more clear.

The Importance Of Family

Voyager , more than any other Star Trek series, is at its core about a family, something that is no better demonstrated than in the case of main characters Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres. Tom and B'Elanna start off as grudging allies who are reluctant to work together. By the end of the final season though, the two are married and expecting a child, a baby girl born in the final moments of "Endgame". Family, particularly a family of choice, is a core theme throughout Voyager and something that makes the show special to fans, the close character relationships serving as the driving force that makes the plot more engaging.

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It really is no surprise then that love for her Voyager family is what makes Admiral Janeway do what she does in "Endgame", or that it is the thing that convinces her in the end that there is a way to both destroy the hub and get Voyager home. Much of "Endgame" is centered on the relationships between the crew; the love they have developed for each other over the years is palpable throughout the episode. Likewise, whether it is Tom and B'Elanna's happy marriage, or Seven and Chakotay's budding romance, Star Trek: Voyager 's "Endgame" makes the point that this love, this family, is going to last, even after the show is over.

The Real Meaning Of Voyager's Ending

Throughout Star Trek: Voyager 's run, it was never made explicitly clear that the crew would be making it home. Even up until the last five minutes of the episode, it was unclear whether or not the crew's plan would come to fruition. The creative team behind the show could have made the choice to end "Endgame" with the ship in the Delta Quadrant, with their fates uncertain. Instead, "Endgame" makes it clear once again that not only does every single member of the Voyager crew deserve to survive, but that their ability seven years ago to put aside their differences, work together, and ultimately come to love each other like family is the singular thing that helped them accomplish their goal. " Endgame " proves that love really does conquer all, and that, in the words of Harry Kim, "Maybe it's not the destination that matters. Maybe it's the journey."

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The twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. Continuing on their more-than-45-year journey since their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto.

Quick Facts

Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. On September 5, Voyager 1 launched, also from Cape Canaveral aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket.

Between them, Voyager 1 and 2 explored all the giant planets of our outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; 48 of their moons; and the unique system of rings and magnetic fields those planets possess.

The Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the gravitational attraction of the Sun.

Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock in December 2004 at about 94 AU from the Sun while Voyager 2 crossed it in August 2007 at about 84 AU.

Both Voyager spacecrafts carry a greeting to any form of life, should that be encountered. The message is carried by a phonograph record - -a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, filled with material ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space on November 5, 2018 and scientists hope to learn more about this region. Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network, or DSN.

The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there — such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings — the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond.

Learn about Voyagers' mission status: where they are in the space, the time required to communicate with them, and a lot more.

Learn about the five science investigation teams, the four operating instruments on-board and the science data being returned to Earth.

The Voyager spacecraft have been exploring for decades. Dive deep into the journey with this interactive timeline.

Interact in 3D. Take a deeper look at the sophisticated systems and instruments that deliver the stunning science and images.

Interstellar Mission

The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly beyond.

Planetary Voyage

The twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched by NASA in separate months in the summer of 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. As originally designed, the Voyagers were to conduct closeup studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of the two planets.

Questions, answers and interviews that explain the Voyager mission.