Borg Collective

Remember when the Borg first beamed aboard the USS Enterprise NCC 1701-D? Its 2265 and Q pays his good old buddy Jean Luc Picard a little visit. Mr omnipotence has quite the fun at Picard's expense and snaps his fingers. Suddenly the Enterprise-D is whisked out of the Federations comfort zone and hurled into the flightpath of a Borg cube. It always exciting exploring galactic space unless its uncharted Borg territory. Spooky stuff for the Enterprise kiddies.

Captain Picard's confidence takes a serious nosedive when it becomes apparent, that the Federation's mighty Flagship Enterprise is unprepared for the unknown Alpha Quadrant. Picard is quaking in his boots when out of the blue, cybernetically enhanced humanoids from the Delta Quadrant take a keen interest in the USS Enterprise-D and her crew. Of course Q shook up the Enterprise bridge crew to teach Picard a lesson who grovelled for forgiveness in the end. ("Q Who" TNG)

The Borg have one mission, one hive mind and belong to one collective. Do not cross the Borg unless pain is something you enjoy. The Borg collective seek only pure perfection. "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile." The Borg became the United Federations of Planets most ruthless enemy with the loss of 39 ships and 11,000 lives at Wolf 359. Captain Jean Luc Picard's capture and assimilation by the Borg struck a killer blow at the beating heart of the Federation.

"Captain Jean-Luc Picard, you lead the strongest ship of the Federation fleet. You speak for your people."

"I have nothing to say to you. And I will resist you with my last ounce of strength!"

"Strength is irrelevant. Resistance is futile. We wish to improve ourselves. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours."

"Impossible! My culture is based on freedom and self-determination!"

"Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You must comply."

"We would rather die."

"Death is irrelevant. Your archaic cultures are authority driven. To facilitate our introduction into your societies, it has been decided that a human voice will speak for us in all communications. You have been chosen to be that voice."

The crew of the Enterprise-D are gutted when their rescue attempt discovers Captain Picard turned into a Borg! How could this be happening? LOL. Hundreds of thousands of Star Trek fans were glued to their TV screens for the trek ultimate climax wayback in 1990! Its seems so long ago now but I still remember this extraordinary episode with terrifying fascination. So began the famous Enterprise-D battle pitted against the Borg Collective. Everything now rested in Commander Riker's hands giving Captain Blackbeard an even chance to prove himself in the captain's chair. But what about Shelby? At first, I wasn't so sure about her either but Shelby's tactics gifted the Enterprise-D diehards with enough cutting edge technosteam to fight the Borg!

Which side had the superior firepower to obliterate the other ship? What about Captain Picard? The shocking Borg Picard calling the shots from the enemy Borg ship tested my trek allegiance to the core. At the time I thought I was the only one torn in half but my trekkie friends put me right. Best of Both Worlds has two part episodes (in Season 3&4) nominated for the Special Visual Effects Emmy, however the Enterprise's battle yielded little awards for the actors. This suspense thriller is one of my favorite TNG Trek episodes with its spine chilling music winning two Emmys for Star Trek The Next Generation.

Live Long and prosper, Star Trekkers.