Redshirts Roundtable: Resistance is Futile

Star Trek First Contact

As Star Trek we have a huge variety of potential aliens to be greeted with at any time, from the Acamarians to the Xindi, the list is expansive, but in the history of the series none have been as feared as the Borg.

In a recent article looking back at the feature-length Star Trek Voyager episode, Dark Frontier Elliot Thorpe painted an interesting picture of the Borg, particularly how they were affected by the addition of the Queen and their use in Voyager as a whole.

The possible overuse of the Borg during Voyager is something that has always somewhat bothered me, after all most of us fans have spent years asking for more Romulans, be it through the Earth-Romulan war fought during the tenure of Enterprise, or a true battle between heavyweights pitting the Enterprise E against a Warbird, but would a Romulan centric series (as Star Trek Picard may be) leave us feeling that the Romulans have gone down the same road as the ‘Overused Borg’?

My perception is that the mistake with the Borg was the writing, beginning with the addition of the Queen when they could have just as soon created a fully artificial Locutus, their version of a Data on every ship, complete with Picard’s downloaded memories. Terrifying thought.

They also heavily modified the look of the Borg, turning them to an oddly green-tinted species, whose motivations were questionable at best, when we first met them they only wanted technology, later they only wanted bodies and distinctiveness, and still, later they appeared to be seeking a god of sorts. You’d think a massive collective-mind would make up its mind.

From an unstoppable force to a confused collective the Borg was the most feared enemy in the galaxy when Star Trek The Next Generation ended its seventh season, that will be 25 years this May.

Now I put the question to the Roundtable, do the Borg deserve to be the big baddies of the Star Trek Universe, or is there something worse out there?