It was “Dark Frontier” – the “epic” Voyager movie which ends, IIRC, with the death of a Borg Queen. That makes three.
The reason I don’t recall the ending for sure is because I could not bear to continue watching that episode after the retro-continuity reared its ugly head. Mind you, the Hansens set out on their Jane Goodall project with the Borg after already hearing about them. (From El-Aurian refugees? Is it stated?) As I recall from the episode, they had applied for a grant from the Federation science council or something. They were not able to communicate their findings to the UFP, but Fed scientists must have already known about the Borg, if only vaguely.
This doesn’t necessarily contradict Picard & Co.'s ignorance of the Borg when they encountered them in “Q Who?” - but it does fly in the face of the spirit of that episode, which was that Q introduced humanity to the Borg ahead of schedule. (Notwithstanding the hints in early TNG episodes like “The Neutral Zone.”)
Oh, and First Contact implies, nay depicts, a Borg Queen was present on the Cube where Picard was assimilated. This cube self-destructed in “BOBWpt2” – so the Queen must have died there, too.
Easy theory: the Borg build their Queens out of spare parts wherever she appears. Her personality exists throughout the Borg consciousness. Indeed, her personality ought to be the focused manifestation of that consciousness (a theory that is frustrated by sloppy and contradictory dialogue).
Of course, I’m still pissed at the Borg voice referring to itself as “us” from its first appearance. Shouldn’t that be “I” - as there is only one Borg? Then why do they have such a problem with the concept of I/We in “I, Borg”?
Gotta hand it to the Ferengi – they were handled fairly consistently!
It’s inevitable, isn’t it, that any discussion of Star Treck turns into a comparative debate on the various series, and nitpicks on continuity violations?
The other point I might make is that as the Queen was dying she said something to the elder Janeway along the lines of, “If you succeed, you’ll have changed history, and this will never have happened anyway.” And, of course, she’s right - getting Voyager home many years earlier changed the timeline significantly, meaning Janeway wouldn’t have to travel back in time in the future and kill the Queen.
Actually, the queen said that if the remaining sphere succeeds at killing the younger Janeway, then the older Janeway could not come back to kill the queen. They did not touch on the fact, AFAIK, that if Voyager gets back, Janeway will have no reason to travel back in time and therefore the borg will survive. Obviously, the crew thought they were making some kind of impact against the borg. Why would they enter conduit if they thought all their work at destroying unimatrix one and the transwarp network was for naught?
I thought she said “If you fail none of this will have happened” a nod to those viewers who detest the reset button; at which point Janeway should have said “But you’re still dead, lady.”
There are what, twenty four years of episodes? Continuity must be a bear.
Remember how Picard had all those psychological problems resulting from his time as Locutus, and how he felt contaminated by the presence of all those Borg implants he could never remove? If only he’d spent some time in group therapy aboard the U.S.S. Hallmark Card, he’d think of it as being no big deal.
The young Janeway made it pretty clear in the episode that she didn’t want to miss an opportunity to do serious harm to the borg even if it meant passing up a chance to go home. Janeway made it clear that damaging the borg had. Why would they go to all that trouble of infecting the queen and destroying the transwarp network if going home would negate all of that?
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trek
That started thirty years ago
And now has turned to drek
And now has turned to drek.
The mate was a mighty Maquis guy
The skipper strong and stacked
Twas not for talent that this crew suffer’d
Twas plotlines that they lacked
Twas plotlines that they lacked.
And now they’re trapped in the Delta Quadrant far away from home
With Chakotaaaaaaaay
And Janeway, too. Pa-
ris, Kim, Torres, and Tuvok
A hologram
A telepath and a lousy cook
Here on Gilligan’s Trek!
i know this isn’t what you meant, but i think the borg are in fact dead. those guys haven’t scared anyone since the days of “st:tng.” maybe it’s just me.
ferengi, klingon, romulan - sure, they’re technically “aliens,” but artistically, they’re pretty much just variations on the original human theme. they still have very familiar concepts like money, sex, greed, good, bad, love, hate. even if you’re a complete non-fan, you can still take a look at, say, a klingon ship or a romulan ship and tell where the command center is. all these alien races have a similar psychology.
when the borg first showed up, they were so damn alien. i mean, psychologically, the cube itself was a weapon. you couldn’t figure it out. all you knew was that, every once in a while, they would come suddenly, they would come in force, and they could not be stopped. now we all know exactly how their assimilation process works. now we all know about rotating frequencies, nanoprobes, etc. in the beginning, even you AS THE VIEWER couldn’t figure out how to stop these guys - which was awesome. now everytime i see a borg episode on “voyager,” i’m playing armchair captain and staying two steps ahead of the episode. so depressing…there is nothing rick berman’s incompetance can’t tear down.
plus, i liked them better with their chalk white skin than their current frog skin.
And did they anywhere bother to explain just what a “neurolytic pathogen” is or what it does?
Was it ever explained why, if the Borg had a transwarp conduit opening right near Earth, they never sent an armada of Cubes through to assimilate the Federation instead of two Cubes in ten years?
