star trek first contact data borg queen

Data and the Borg Queen Totally Had Sex and 6 Other Things We Learned From Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: First Contact Commentary

The director and star of the film sat in for ign's wfh theater to reveal new tidbits from behind the scenes..

Yes, Data and the Borg Queen Borg-Boned

The origin of the riker sit (and the riker walk).

Swag From the Set

Frakes Wanted to Direct Star Trek: Nemesis

He will be back for picard season 2.

First Season Riker Was Stiff, First Contact Riker's Life Is F#@king Great

Star trek: picard - the essential treks to take before the show.

Dissatisfaction With Elements of First Contact

In this article.

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The Borg Queen was the name of the entity that existed within and served as the queen of the Borg Collective . An ancient being, the Queen has existed for many hundreds of years. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; PIC : " Surrender ") In the event of her body's destruction, she would appear to be reincarnated with her personality and memories intact. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Dark Frontier ", " Unimatrix Zero ", " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ", " Endgame ")

Two decades after suffering catastrophic defeat at the hands of Admiral Janeway , the Borg Queen collaborated with a rogue faction of Changelings to rebuild her collective and take revenge upon the Federation . Her final scheme was thwarted by her old enemy, Jean-Luc Picard , and she was killed once and for all by the USS Enterprise -D , bringing an end to the threat of the Borg. ( PIC : " Võx ", " The Last Generation ")

• 1 Role and personality
• 2.2 Attacks on Earth
• 2.3 Conflicts with Voyager
• 2.4 Alliance with the Changelings
• 3 Alternate timeline
• 5.1 Appearances
• 5.2 Background information
• 5.3.1 Borg Invasion 4D
• 5.4 External links

Role and personality [ ]

The Queen defined herself as: " I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many. I am the Borg. " As the queen of the Borg Collective and the lone individual within it, the Borg Queen provided direction and purpose for the hive mind. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Unimatrix Zero ", " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ", " Endgame "; PIC : " Watcher ", " Hide and Seek ")

It was thought by Federation exobiologist Erin Hansen that the Borg Queen functioned like the queen of an insect hive, to coordinate the drones. Evidence of this was later seen when the Queen countermanded the Collective's judgment about assimilating Voyager in 2378 . While the Collective felt that assimilation was warranted, the Borg Queen countermanded them and justified the decision due to the fact that Voyager didn't compromise their security. ( VOY : " Endgame ")

The Queen, while providing coordination for the drones she commanded, also provided other functions such as regulation of the Collective's transwarp hubs and interspatial manifolds . She effectively brought "order to chaos" for all things. ( VOY : " Endgame ")

According to Seven of Nine , " The Borg Queen has a kind of trans-temporal awareness. It bridges into adjacent times, realities. They hear echoes of themselves, of— of each other. " ( PIC : " Penance ")

The death of the Borg Queen, while traumatic to drones in the immediate vicinity, did not seem to permanently affect the Collective or its hive mind as a whole. The Queen was subsequently replicated after each death, although the exact mechanism of her reincarnations remains unclear. Borg drones were capable of functioning without a Queen for any length of time by forming a Hive mind of their own. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Unity ", " Dark Frontier ")

The disembodied Borg Queen aboard the partially-assimilated Enterprise -E

In accordance with the Borg pursuit of perfection, a blending of the organic and synthetic, very little of her original humanoid form remained. Her face and upper torso were organic while the rest of her body, including her skull and spinal cord , were synthetic . Because of her disembodiment she saw herself as the epitome of perfection. The Queen had her own chambers within the Borg Unicomplex from which she could oversee and control the Borg via the command interface . Whether she had her own ship or not is unknown, but she used different Borg vessels to travel, such as a Borg cube , sphere , or octahedron . When her physical presence was not necessary her organic part resided above this chamber while her synthetic parts were stored below it, under the floor. If she desired to do so, both could be brought together, and in doing so, created a humanoid form for herself.

The Borg Queen assembled in 2377

Where her drones showed no emotions , the Queen herself did. She was ruthless, vindictive, petty, and selfish. She would do anything to expand the Borg Collective, employing psychological tactics like extortion, manipulation, plain intimidation or even seduction to further her goals. The Queen placed her own self-preservation over that of the Collective, cannibalizing the bodies of her last remaining drones to keep herself alive after the collapse of the hive. On a personal level, she considered Seven of Nine her favorite drone, because the Queen considered her to be unique. ( VOY : " Unimatrix Zero ", " Dark Frontier ")

Despite being one with the minds of billions, the Queen felt a sense of profound isolation and loneliness. Her inexorable drive to assimilate was partially motivated by a desire for connection. With millions of species not enough to sate her, she attempted to fill this void by grooming potential counterparts that were more than mere drones. Jean-Luc Picard , Data , Seven of Nine , Agnes Jurati were all such candidates. ( Star Trek: First Contact ; VOY : " Dark Frontier "; PIC : " Hide and Seek ")

Following the decimation of the Borg Collective, the Borg Queen succumbed to desperation and insanity from the isolation she endured. Nevertheless, she retained her intellect and tactical mind, working with the Changelings from behind the scenes to execute her plans for a Borg resurgence. ( PIC : " Võx ", " The Last Generation ")

History [ ]

The Borg Queen (or perhaps merely one of her bodies) was assimilated to the Collective from Species 125 around the age of 7-8, along with her parents, and was already active in the Delta Quadrant in 2354 . ( VOY : " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ")

Attacks on Earth [ ]

The existence of the Borg Queen was documented sometime prior to 2365 by the exobiologists Erin and Magnus Hansen . However, because the Hansens were assimilated, their discovery never reached the Federation . ( VOY : " The Raven ")

It was not until 2373 , that the Federation became aware of her when the Federation starship USS Enterprise -E prevented the assimilation of Earth . This was the second attempt by the Borg, also known as the Battle of Sector 001 . The Borg Queen, along with a contingent of drones, traveled back to Earth's past to prevent First Contact , and by doing so, hoped to be able to assimilate Earth.

The Borg Queen with Locutus in 2366

During this conflict, while Captain Jean-Luc Picard was trying to destroy the Borg, the Queen claimed to have been present during the Battle of Wolf 359 , and even admitted that Locutus of Borg – the assimilated Picard – was intended to be a singular intelligence – a counterpart that was intended to ease the burden of loneliness. However, when Picard continued to resist, even when he could not control Locutus' body, she was regretfully forced to turn him into the form in which Starfleet encountered him—a glorified drone. Whether or not she physically took part in the Battle of Wolf 359 was unknown.

Picard and Data killed the Borg Queen after she tried to persuade Data to give her the encryption code by which he had locked the Enterprise 's computer . She ordered Data to destroy the Phoenix spaceship with quantum torpedoes, and taunted Picard that she would rule Earth without Humans or the Federation in it, when the torpedoes missed. Data told her, "Resistance is futile!" and vented the warp core plasma coolant , which destroyed her organic parts. Picard then broke her cybernetic spinal cord, which ensured that she could no longer function. ( Star Trek: First Contact )

In 2399 , Picard mentally recalled the image of the Borg Queen and Locutus while aboard The Artifact . ( PIC : " The Impossible Box ")

As of 2401 , the remains of this incarnation of the Queen were stored at Daystrom Station . ( PIC : " The Bounty ")

Conflicts with Voyager [ ]

Starfleet's second documented encounter with the Borg Queen was in 2375 in the Delta Quadrant . Here, the lost Federation starship USS Voyager, tried to rescue the former Borg Drone, Seven of Nine, who was then part of Voyager 's crew, when the plan to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg sphere did not work out as planned. The Queen also revealed that Seven of Nine was not really freed by Voyager from the Collective, but was allowed to leave by the Borg. During this encounter, the Borg Queen hoped to assimilate Seven of Nine again, who experienced life as an individual for two years, and by doing so, add to her own perfection. However, Seven rejected the Queen and fled with a rescue mission sent by Voyager in the Delta Flyer . The Borg Queen's octahedron was sent by the Queen to intercept the shuttle , but it was destroyed in the attempt. ( VOY : " Dark Frontier ")

The Borg Queen was one of several real people who was adapted into a character in Kelis ' play, based on descriptions from B'Elanna Torres . ( VOY : " Muse ")

In 2376 and 2377 , the Borg Queen was again encountered by Voyager . This time the Queen wanted to destroy Unimatrix Zero , a virtual world that was populated by regenerating Borg with a genetic mutation. This world was discovered by Seven of Nine and posed a threat to the Borg. During Voyager 's efforts to rescue this virtual world, the Borg Queen demonstrated her powers by destroying a Borg sphere because she could no longer "hear" only one drone. When a nanovirus was released to prevent the detection of Unimatrix Zero , the Queen destroyed several Borg vessels, and killed 75,000 Borg Drones in the process, in the hope of persuading the captured Captain Janeway to give her the antidote. ( VOY : " Unimatrix Zero ", " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ")

The Borg Queen in 2378

Admiral Janeway confronts the Borg Queen in 2378

The last encounter between Voyager and the Borg Queen was in 2378 . Voyager accidentally discovered a Borg transwarp hub within a nebula and were helped by Admiral Kathryn Janeway, who came from an alternate timeline around twenty-six years in the future , to use the Borg transwarp network to get back to the Alpha Quadrant . Because the Borg guarded their transwarp hub closely, Admiral Janeway devised a plan by which she would infect the Borg Queen with a neurolytic pathogen and in doing so make her lose control over the force fields which protected the interspatial manifolds. When the admiral was captured by the Borg, near the Unicomplex , she was assimilated by the Borg Queen herself. Soon after, the Queen began to lose control over her drones.

The end of the Borg Queen

The pathogen even made her lose control over her own synthetic parts, as her body literally fell apart. Her death caused the destruction of the Unicomplex and despite her efforts, Voyager reached Earth safely. The Borg sphere that was sent after them by the Queen was destroyed by Voyager 's transphasic torpedoes , which were given to them by Admiral Janeway from the future. ( VOY : " Endgame ")

Alliance with the Changelings [ ]

Despite the peace brokered between Jurati's Borg and Starfleet, the original Collective remained hostile, and set in motion a plan to assimilate Starfleet from within. The Collective had slowly dwindled following the neurolytic pathogen infection from Admiral Janeway. The Queen managed to survive by cannibalizing parts of her drones, though without the ability to assimilate new drones into the Collective, the Queen was eventually left alone as her drones died of starvation and old age which apparently drove her insane.

As those voices fell silent, the Queen began to hear a new voice - that of Jack Crusher , the son of Jean-Luc Picard and carrier of a transmitter protein inherited from his father's Borg-altered DNA. She realized that the future of the Borg no longer lay in assimilation, but in evolution, propagation, and the annihilation of all other life forms in the galaxy. Over the years, the Queen communicated with Jack, intending to lure him to her. Jack believed the voice was that of his mother.

The Borg Queen communicating with Vadic as "The Face"

In order to enact her plan, the Borg Queen made a deal with rogue Changelings , lead by Vadic sometime leading up to 2401 . The Changelings, who were vengeful themselves for what had happened to them in the Dominion War, agreed to help by stealing Jean-Luc Picard's body from Daystrom Station in order to extract his Borg DNA and spread it through Starfleet's transporter system as common biology. They would also hunt Jack Crusher with the intent of bringing him to the Borg Queen. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

She communicated with Vadic via Vadic's severed hand , with which the Borg Queen formed a simulacrum of a face in mid-air.

Vadic reported that the USS Titan -A , carrying their "asset" Jack Crusher , had fallen into the gravity well at the center of the Ryton Nebula , where her ship the Shrike could not follow due to its portal weapon . The Borg Queen ordered Vadic to pursue regardless, stating that everything, including her and her crew, was expendable. ( PIC : " No Win Scenario ")

After capturing and interrogating William T. Riker and Deanna Troi but failing to gain any information, Vadic contacted the Borg Queen again to report that they would not break. The Borg Queen demanded that she try harder to break them, and noted that Vadic's physiology was not as special or complex as she believed. She stated that the Changelings' nature was to be malleable, while the enemy's kind were "beholden to a singular flesh." The Borg Queen then reiterated that Starfleet's fallure was near and she needed Jack Crusher, but warned that should Vadic fail, the Changelings' existence would become "meaningless." ( PIC : " Dominion ")

After Jack became aware of his true nature, he sought out the Borg Queen, with the intention of killing her. Arriving aboard her makeshift mega-cube in the atmosphere of Jupiter , the Queen welcomed Jack, telling him that she had "thought of so many names" for him – "Regenerati. Peur Dei." Jack rejected these names, and the Borg Queen responded that he was Võx, not Locutus, "the one that speaks". Jack was "the voice itself". Boarding the cube to confront her, Jack raised his phaser but was unable to kill the Borg Queen, who mocked him for his inability. She then assimilated Jack and used him to broadcast a signal to all affected Starfleet personnel, triggering the last stage of their assimilation. ( PIC : " Võx ")

The crew of the USS Enterprise -D tracked a Borg signal to Jupiter. Picard, William T. Riker and Worf beamed aboard the Borg vessel to find both Jack and the origin of the signal. Picard separated from Riker and Worf to find Jack, who had already been transformed completely into Võx .

Picard's confrontation with the Queen escalated until Picard reconnected with Jack and convinced Jack to reject the Borg. The Enterprise flew in overhead, and was able to beam them to safety as the Cube exploded from the Enterprise 's attack, killing the Queen and ending the Collective once and for all.

Following the Borg Queen's death and the destruction of her Cube, the signal to Starfleet was cut ending the Borg control over it. Dr. Beverly Crusher was subsequently able to find a way to remove the Borg DNA from everyone, ending the Borg Queen's plan permanently. ( PIC : " The Last Generation ")

Alternate timeline [ ]

The Borg Queen from an alternate 2401

In 2401 , an atypical version of the Borg Queen beckoned Jean-Luc Picard to a region of space , where she expressed a desire to join the Federation. After it seemingly appeared to take over the USS Stargazer , Picard destroyed the ship, rather than to allow it to be assimilated.

Following the destruction of the Stargazer , Picard and other members of the Stargazer crew found themselves in an alternate timeline , created through the intervention of Q . Xenophobic Humans dominated parts of the galaxy, and even managed to defeat the Borg; their immobilized Queen was held by the Earth's Confederation. This Borg Queen, who possessed an awareness of the split in the timeline, was set to be executed by Picard. With her species having been wiped out in this timeline, the Borg Queen agreed to help Picard and his crew travel back in time and correct the timeline.

Though killed by a shotgun blast from Jurati, after arriving in 2024 , this Queen had managed to assimilate Dr. Agnes Jurati and live on through Jurati. ( PIC : " The Star Gazer ", " Penance ", " Mercy ", " Farewell ")

• See : Agnes Jurati, Borg Queen

Hologram [ ]

A hologram of the Borg Queen

A hologram of the Borg Queen appeared in Starfleet 's Borg Encounter holographic training drill , in use by 2381 . In the simulation , it was possible for the user to beat the Queen at chess and teach her empathy to improve their score. ( LD : " I, Excretus ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• Star Trek: First Contact
• " Dark Frontier "
• " Unimatrix Zero "
• " Unimatrix Zero, Part II "
• " Endgame "
• " The Impossible Box " (archive footage)
• " The Star Gazer " (alternate timeline)
• " Penance " (alternate timeline)
• " Assimilation " (alternate timeline)
• " Watcher " (alternate timeline)
• " Fly Me to the Moon " (alternate timeline)
• " Two of One " ( illusion )
• " No Win Scenario " (as "The Face")
• " Dominion " (as "The Face")
• " The Last Generation "
• LD : " I, Excretus " (hologram)

Background information [ ]

The Borg Queen was played by Alice Krige in Star Trek: First Contact , VOY : " Endgame ", PIC : " Võx ", " The Last Generation " (voice only) and (as a holographic duplicate ) LD : " I, Excretus ". The character was played by Susanna Thompson in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes " Dark Frontier ", " Unimatrix Zero ", and " Unimatrix Zero, Part II ". In Star Trek: Picard season 2 , the Borg Queen was played by Annie Wersching . The Borg Queen's Changeling simulacrum, identified in end credits as "The Face", was voiced by Garth Kemp . The body of the Queen in season 3 of Picard was portrayed by Jane Edwina Seymour , credited as "Borg Queen Body Double ".

In an early design meeting for the Borg Queen, the movie Captain EO was mentioned, regarding Anjelica Huston 's performance as a villainous woman who lived in the ceiling and would descend on cables. [1]

The appearance of the Borg Queen in First Contact was a controversial one in the Star Trek universe. Though the Borg provided for a threatening and intriguing alien enemy, their lack of a single villain presented a challenge for the writers. To counter this, and to expand some on the original notion of the Borg as an insect-hive type of race, they created the Borg Queen as a focal point for their story. Writer Brannon Braga has stated in this respect, " I think some people liked the Borg Queen and some didn't, but to us the Borg Queen was the thing that made it all work. We realized very quickly that the Borg aren't that interesting for a feature film for two hours because they don't say anything. They're robot zombies. So, to me, the Borg Queen was the coolest new thing about that movie. " [2]

Later in First Contact , when asked by Picard how she had survived when the cube that was sent to Earth in 2367 was destroyed, the Queen only replied that Picard had become small, and thought in three-dimensional terms.

Alice Krige purposely limited the ways in which she prepared for "Endgame", reviewing neither her own work on First Contact nor any of Susanna Thompson's portrayal of the same character. This choice was not motivated out of any sort of disrespect for Thompson, and had nothing at all to do with the actress. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 169 , p. 52; [3] ) Krige speculated, " Whoever had played the role, I would have made the same decision. " [4] Explaining why she made the choice, Krige conceded, " I thought to see someone else's performance would throw me off course. It was already going to be fairly different because it was the Borg Queen with two females, as opposed to the Borg Queen with two males [...] I just felt it wouldn't help the process. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 169 , p. 52) She also related, " I didn't want something in my head, in my imagination. I needed my performance to happen in the moment. " [5] Krige did, however, request to receive and read all the Voyager scripts featuring the Borg Queen, including the new teleplay for "Endgame". She indeed read the scripts, despite not watching any of the episodes. ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 169 , p. 52; [6] )

In 2002, the Borg Queen was placed second in TV Zone 's list of the top twenty science fiction television villains. Dukat was fourth, Weyoun was eighth, Q was eleventh, and Seska was nineteenth. ( citation needed • edit ) In an early version of the script of Star Trek: First Contact (a script very different from the movie), Geordi La Forge tells Data that he is sending the Borg Queen's remains to the Daystrom Institute for study. [7]

When asked whether the Queen was a "virtual entity; the personification of the collective", Braga's writing partner, Ronald D. Moore , said, " This was not the intention. We saw her as a literal person. " ( AOL chat , 1997 )

According to Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens , they pitched a story for an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise where Alice Krige would play a Starfleet medical technician who made contact with the Borg from " Regeneration ". The encounter would have been the birth of the Borg Queen. [8]

An undersuit that was worn by Krige in First Contact was sold off as lot 9677 in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay.

The Borg Queen, Dimitri Valtane , Lojur , Admiral Hayes , B-4 , and the punk on the bus are the only characters to debut in a Star Trek film before appearing in a Star Trek television series.

Apocrypha [ ]

According to the Pocket VOY novel, The Farther Shore published after the television series concluded, a Borg Queen could be replaced in mere seconds by using the Royal Protocol. Seven of Nine was specifically mentioned in the Royal Protocol and was most likely to become the next Queen.

The Pocket TNG novel Resistance showed the creation of another Queen, who was destroyed by the crew of the Enterprise -E. Subsequently, in the Pocket TNG novel Before Dishonor , Admiral Janeway was assimilated by the Borg and became a Queen who was eventually defeated by Seven of Nine.

In the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, a newly installed Queen oversaw a massive Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. It was later revealed that the Borg Queen was merely an avatar for the true power behind the Collective. The Destiny trilogy also mentioned that multiple Queens have been known to exist simultaneously in the Collective, but they all possessed the same agenda.

One theory regarding the creation of a Queen is that "queens" are members of a specific race, one that was chosen because its females exhibited superior higher-order brain processing-speed, and were therefore assimilated and bred for that purpose. ( Star Trek: Elite Force II ; Star Trek: Legacy )

The extra section of the game Star Trek: Legacy contained the "Origin of the Borg", which told the story of V'ger being sucked into a black hole. V'ger was found by a race of living machines which gave it a form suitable to fulfilling its simplistic programming. Unable to determine who its creator could be, the probe declared all carbon-based life an infestation of the creator's universe, leading to assimilation. From this, the Borg were created, as extensions of V'ger 's purpose. Drones were made from those assimilated and merged into a collective consciousness. The Borg Queen was created out of the necessity for a single unifying voice. However, with thoughts and desires of her own, she was no longer bound to serve V'ger . This explanation, however, was not canon.

In Star Trek Online , a new Borg Queen of Romulan origins had emerged before 2409 and led the Collective in an invasion of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants , her main targets being the Federation and the Klingon Empire .

According to " Shinsei Shinsei ", the Borg Queen's name was Danzek.

In the miniseries The Q Conflict , as part of a contest between various omnipotent beings organised by Q , Trelane challenges the four competing crews to capture a Borg Queen for his menagerie. After being transported to a unimatrix, the Queen is captured by a team consisting of Captain Picard, Spock , Odo and Seven of Nine .

The Borg Queen appears as a boss in Star Trek: Voyager - The Arcade Game .

Borg Invasion 4D [ ]

In 2004, the Borg Queen made a re-entry onto the big screen when the Borg Invasion 4D -ride premiered at the Star Trek: The Experience , an interactive attraction that incorporated live-action stage performance and animation, in which the visitors had a limited part themselves, within a 3D cinema environment. The movie for the attraction was mostly produced by the veteran Star Trek production team on the studio's own premises.

The storyline, set after the events depicted in "Endgame" entailed yet another incursion into Federation space by a Borg cube, attacking Copernicus Station and capturing a shuttle with its occupants (the attraction visitors), who were trying to escape from the overrun space station. While the captured crew was being prepared for assimilation, the Queen made a dramatic entrance and, true to form, begins lecturing about the perfection of the Borg Collective and demanded the surrender of the group's inhibitions and instructed them to join the hive mind. When all seemed lost and much to the dismay of the Queen, Admiral Janeway came to the rescue, by flying USS Voyager straight into the cube, destroying the tractor beam that held the shuttle, enabling it to escape, in the process inflicting critical damage to the cube, which subsequently blew up. Again true to form, the Queen made her escape, but not before exclaiming, " Savor your victory! We will meet again! "

For the film portion of the ride, some of the original, former Voyager cast reprised their respective roles, including Alice Krige as the Queen. Many of the Borg featured in the film (as opposed to the attraction live crew performing as such), were played by performers who had already done so for First Contact (or for the respective Voyager television episodes); " It was a most joyful reunion, " Krige declared tongue-in-cheek. When presented with the first 3D footage of her close-up scenes, Krige admitted to being flabbergasted by her own, literal in-your-face performance. ( VOY Season 7 DVD -special feature, "The Making of Borg Invasion 4D") While an official Star Trek franchise production, events depicted in the film are, as usual for these kind of productions, not considered canon , and treated as apocrypha.

External links [ ]

• Borg Queen at StarTrek.com
• Borg Queen at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Borg Queen at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• Borg Queen at Wikipedia
• 3 Ancient humanoid

Picard’s Massive Villain Return Actually Fixes A First Contact Plot Hole

“I can hear them.”

In the penultimate episode of Picard Season 3 , the show’s biggest twist redefines not only the entire season but one of the most epic conflicts in Star Trek canon. Although the primary villain this season has its origins in Deep Space Nine , it turns out that somebody else has been pulling the strings. But the return of this specific villain isn’t just a twist for the sake of it. Instead, a very old mystery from 1996 has finally been solved. Here’s what that huge twist from Picard Season 3, Episode 9 means, plus some clarification from showrunner Terry Matalas about a very specific floating head.

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Picard Season 3, Episode 9, “Vox.”

Early in the episode, the mystery of what’s behind the “red door” in the mind of Jack Crusher reveals the unthinkable: Jack has the Borg in his blood!

Turns out Jean-Luc Picard accidentally passed down what Data calls “dormant biological Borg adaptations.” Although the Prime Universe Borg was (mostly) defeated by Janeway in the Voyager finale “Endgame,” it turns out the original Borg evolved in a new way, which allows assimilation via Jean-Luc’s altered genetic code. The entire Changeling plot was specifically designed to slip Picard’s old Borg code into every Starfleet transporter and give everybody a piece of Borg in their body. Meanwhile, Jack — as Jean-Luc’s son — inherited a huge chunk of this genetic tech; which, has turned him into an unwitting transmitter; exactly what the ailing Borg Queen (Alice Krige) wanted all along.

First Contact set up this Picard twist in 1996

Picard could hear the Borg...way back in First Contact.

Although Jean-Luc Picard was rescued from the Borg Collective in the 1990 TNG episode ‘The Best of Both Worlds Part 2,” we later learned that he retained an ability to “hear” the Collective in the mega-popular 1996 film Star Trek: First Contact . In that film, Picard was able to sense the Borg, and thus, give Starfleet the ability to destroy one specific Borg Cube. But, at that time, we never knew why he had this superpower. Because Jean-Luc never faced the Borg again, it’s taken this long to actually solve this mystery.

In “Vox,” Data and Geordi explain that the genetic alterations that the Borg made to Picard’s DNA turned him into a “receiver,” of Borg communication, while Jack is a “transmitter.” Jean-Luc realizes the significance of this revelation, saying that it “was why I could still hear them after I was assimilated.” Data adds that Picard’s “body” was the thing that could still hear the “voice of the Collective.”

Who controlled the Changelings for the Borg?

Turns out this is the Borg Queen, too.

Throughout Picard Season 3, Vadic’s handler appeared as a mystery floating face, who some fans have dubbed “meathead.” We later learned this was not a Changeling at all. Although some fans might miss this detail, that floating face was, in fact, the Borg Queen all along. When directly asked the identity of the floating face that bossed around Vadic, Picard showrunner Terry Matalas told Inverse “ That’s the Borg Queen.”

“ That’s the Borg Queen.”

Although “Vox” drops a lot of info that seems to change everything about Picard Season 3, all the clues have been there. The Changelings have been messing with the transporter since Episode 4 and Commander Ro told Picard she didn’t trust the transporters back in Episode 5 . In Episode 7, we learned that Vadic busted out of Daystrom Station on her own, and it was at that point she discovered the dormant Borg Code within Picard. In this episode, we learned that the Changelings wanted to weaponize the dormant Borg Code, and the Borg Queen was happy about the team-up.

As Beverly Cruhser says, “Cleary the Changelings have been working with the Borg since the beginning.”

Later, the Borg Queen clarifies this alliance slightly, saying to Jack that the Borg-Changeling team-up was “the vindication of both our species to take everything back from those who live like shattered glass.” Like the Borg, the Changelings have a kind of shared hive minds in their Great Link. Also like the Borg, they have a huge beef with the Federation. Both groups also view individualized humanoid consciousnesses as basically ridiculous.

This episode also makes it clear that the Borg Queen could not have stuck all this Borg genetic code into Starfleet’s systems without the help of the Changelings. This suggests the Borg Queen might be in worse shape than we know. In “Vox,” we don’t even see her face, and her ship seems badly damaged. Clearly, the Borg Queen was desperate enough to enlist the help of the Changelings.

But, that doesn’t mean all of our questions have been answered. Going into the massive Picard Season 3 finale, the vengeance of the Borg feels nearly complete. Unless, of course, one last starship can save the day.

Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams on Paramount+ .

This article was originally published on April 13, 2023

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5 Things We Learned About ‘Star Trek: First Contact’ On Its 25th Anniversary Year

| April 6, 2021 | By: Kayla Iacovino 20 comments so far

Yesterday’s virtual First Contact Day event put on by CBS has come after over a year of virtual “conventions” that haven’t been able to hold a candle to their normally in-person counterparts. But, with a year of learning and planning, CBS showed that this virtual event thing can actually work. During the “Remembering First Contact” panel, host Wil Wheaton asked insightful questions of Star Trek vets Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and Alice Krige, getting them to spill a few stories I for one had never heard before about Star Trek: First Contact, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Here are a few of my favorite takeaway tidbits that were new to me. For those of you walking Star Trek history encyclopedias, please feel free to expound on these stories in the comments!

Renaissance-era setting nixed for budgetary reasons… and the absurdity

During the “Revisiting First Contact” panel celebrating 25 years since the release of the beloved TNG film, Jonathan Frakes spoke about the genesis of the story of First Contact , saying:

“All three of the writers wanted a time travel story. So, the objective was to find a way to marry those big concepts [Borg and time travel]. Originally it was going to take place in Renaissance Italy, perhaps, and we were going to fight the Borg with swords? Thankfully that idea was taken away for financial reasons and logical reasons and absurd reasons, I’m sure. And, we were blessed with this, arguably the best of the Star Trek movie scripts certainly.”

We had to wait until Star Trek: Picard to get those sword fights.

Patrick Stewart had to OK Frakes as director, over Reuben sandwiches

After Jonathan Frakes was asked how he got the job as director, he told the story of the most memorable Reuben sandwich in his life.

“I believe, if the urban myth is true, the movie was offered to Ridley Scott, John McTiernan [who weren’t interested]. As I understand it Sherry Lansing, who was the head of Paramount at the time, told Rick Berman, who was the keeper of the reigns: ‘Why don’t you hire who you like?’ So, there was one caveat. The director that they hired had to be approved by now Sir Patrick Stewart. So, Rick said, ‘I’d really like you to do the movie, but Patrick’s going to have to approve you.’ So, Patrick and I had lunch at Jerry’s Deli in Studio City. And, he said, ‘I’m okay with you directing the movie. I was told that I had to make it official with you. And, that… it kind of changed my life. I believe we both had Reuben sandwiches.”

The group shares a laugh over Jonathan’s memory of his favorite reuben sandwich.

Alice Krige asked for a second audition because she thought she blew it (she didn’t)

Before her audition for the role of the Borg Queen, Alice Krige had no real knowledge of what Star Trek was all about. It took doing the audition for her to find the character, and in doing so, she was convinced she had totally biffed the audition. Of course, she hadn’t.

“My agent called me one day, and she said, ‘here are some sides for the next Star Trek movie.’ Now, I have a confession to make that I had never seen an episode of Star Trek. I said okay, but where’s the script? I can’t go in without a script. She said, ‘No, you don’t understand. NO ONE sees a script.’ I had a friend who wrote for Star Trek. I ran over to his house, and I watched all of the Borg episodes that he had on tape. I learned my lines, and I went into Paramount. And, there was Jonathan, and I did the three scenes. And, as I was doing them, I actually started to understand [the role] – it was the act of doing it – it was not intellectual. It was like a channel opened up. They thanked me politely, and I left. I ran to my car, and I drove to find the first pay phone I could find. I called my agent, and I said ‘I screwed it up. Please tell them that I can do better. And, I really want to do it again.’ Well, we didn’t hear from them for three weeks, and I thought ‘another one bites the dust’. And, then I got another call! I went in, and I did the same thing again, and I was offered the Borg Queen.”

Alice Krige as the Borg Queen.

Alice Krige needed 8 Borg wranglers to work in the Borg Queen costume

Alice Krige – who absolutely slayed in her role as the Borg Queen – spoke about how she got the role and what it was like playing the iconic character. One amusing tidbit was her mention of around eight “Borg wranglers” that were needed during her scenes.

“All the Borg wranglers. Because I must have had eight maybe? Someone who looked after my battery packs, someone who had a big pot of glue and glued the cracks. Someone looked after my feet, my hands, my head. Someone had a huge tube of – what was it? – KY jelly and a sponge. Every one of them helped make [the Borg Queen]. This was the apotheosis of collaboration for me, this role.”

Krige on the Borg Queen rig with director Jonathan Frakes during the filming of Star Trek: First Contact.

Brent Spiner was terrified of doing the missile silo jump stunt

While Brent Spiner had high praise for the film’s director, script, and co-stars, there was one aspect of making the film that wasn’t to his liking.

“We were standing alongside the missile on a platform that was very high in the air. Patrick [Stewart] knows that I am terrified of heights, so he would be bouncing on the platform to terrify me – which it did. [In the film] Data jumps off the platform and sail to the ground, and nothing happens to him. Initially, it was my stunt double, Brian Williams. He did that jump, and Jonathan [Frakes] shot him coming down from the missile silo, and then Jonathan cut to me. They printed all of that, then Jonathan came to me and said, you can tell that it’s not you. You’re going to have to do it. They took me to a soundstage, put me in a harness. And I was terrified. I hated it. They brought me up 3 feet and dropped me, and I hated it, then they took me all the way to the top, and they were to drop me, and a few feet before I hit the ground, a hydraulic slowed me down. I had to be Data, and I was able to do it, and look confident, and I landed, and the crew applauded, and I was so glad it was over. And then ‘Two-Takes Frakes’ came to me and said, ‘can we do that again?'”

That first step is a doozy.

Watch the full 25th-anniversary panel

Paramount+ has uploaded the entire Star Trek: First Contact anniversary panel to Youtube.

Find more articles on Star Trek history at TrekMovie.com .

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Alice Krige wax the only logical choice to play the Borg queen. While Susanna Thompson was good on Voyager, Alice nailed it and I’m glad she also came back to the roll.

the 1st time Star Trek was a ‘cool’ movie to go see at the cinema

What about The Voyage Home?

yes but that was more of a comedy like Crocodile Dundee/BTTF in space, not so much an Aliens/Terminator type ‘cool’ pg13 scifi action movie that kids teens non fans could rave about in the playground, water cooler, pub etc

The first Trek movie I got to see in the theater…I was 4. I still remember gagging in my seat when Data made out with the BQ. Also I love this cast so much, I wish I was around to get pranked.

This panel was great! And yes even after 25 years and endless conventions it’s always nice to hear new stories and anecdotes which this had a lot of. Spiner’s story about being afraid of heights and doing the jumping scene in the movie was hilarious!

FC definitely had an amazing script and felt the most cinematic out of all the movies not counting TMP or the Kelvin movies. The premise worked so well and a great way to tie into the 30th anniversary sort of how well TUC and its premise tied into the 25th.

While I liked Beyond that was one of its biggest missed opportunities and not having a bigger hook that tied into the 50th anniversary more. It’s a story that could be told in any episode. But I digress.

Anyway great panel!

50th anniversary movie was there for the taking (Orci/Shatner/battle for the timelines) and could’ve been as pleasing as VI and FC, but,like a poor marksman, they missed the target..

I was on set standing in Picard’s Ready Room doorway they filmed all the takes of the “interplexing beacon” dialog scene where Alfre Woodard and Picard come up through the floor. I was so stunned that I was on set watch the new film being made. I remember touching the embroidered delta shield insignia on the back of the seats on the bridge. Jonathan Frakes made the cast do one more take of a shot and said “ok, once more with grace and alacrity” and Patrick Stewart started into a whole Shakespeare joke about the epic love story of Grace and Alacrity, acting it out while the cast and crew laughed as the lights were moved. It was all very funny and surreal. I also got to sit in the Phoenix cockpit and walk (only on the very edge) of the deflector dish. I can’t believe that was 25 years ago. Yikes. I’m old. Oh and I also interviewed Alice Krige in her house in Malibu about playing the Borg Queen. She fed me salt and vinegar potato chips and her little black dog kept licking the crumbs off my fingers. 25 years?? Where does time go???!!!!

That’s a lovely story!

Yes that is a great story. But I thought the interplexing beacon scene was on the bridge? But I love that whole bit. It had some great lines:

“The reports of my assimilation have been greatly exaggerated” “I am a Klingon” “I think’s it time we take a little stroll”

And the gag with Worf scared of zero-G. Love it. Why can’t all Star Trek films be more like this?

Wow. 25 years. I saw this movie in the theaters when I was in college. Dang I feel old now. But I just watched it again yesterday for FC Day and it still holds up very well. I love this movie.

I did hear the Renaissance story before. But it was actually someone wanted to do the time travel to the Renaissance story and someone else wanted to do the Borg. I’m glad they dropped the Renaissance bit and went with the Zephram Cochrane and First Contact story instead.

My regret is that Tom Hanks was initially cast as Zephram Cochrane, which I think would have made for a better and more popular movie. He couldn’t do it since he was directing another movie, but he did want to since he was a big Star Trek fan. James Cromwell was ok, but Hanks would have brought a big name to Trek.

Didn’t Tony Pascale do a DVD commentary for it with Damon Lindelof?

I don’t agree. Hanks was too famous. Too big. I would have watched all the Cochrane scenes and just thought “that’s Tom Hanks talking to Will, Deanna, and Geordi”. Same with the abandoned Eddie Murphy role in Star Trek IV. I’m glad they didn’t happen.

Now, if they want Hanks to cameo as Captain April on SNW, I can be down with that.

But the fact he was so famous could’ve been an added bonus for the character as Cohrene was this huge mythical figure that the TNG guys were in awe of

Tom Hanks is a fantastic actor and I think his performance would have quickly allowed the audience to believe he was Zethran Cochrane in the movie.

Big name actors appear all the time in Star Wars, just check the names.

Cromwell was great as Cochrane (and even more prestigious when you take into account he was in the classic LA Confidential the following year) but yeah Hanks in FC would’ve been a huge deal for a Trek movie in the mid 90s when Hanks was pretty much the biggest movie star on the planet at that time (along with Mel Gibson & Tom Cruise), and maybe brought in another 50 even 100m in box office worldwide

I prefer Cromwell, much more believable as a drunk, also he’s a fantastic guy and an activist I’ve marched alongside. Meeting him was a big deal for me, I never thought I’d be meeting the man who invented warp drive!

Cromwell was also coming off of an Academy Award nomination that year, so he leant a nice little nugget of prestige in his own way.

i still cringe when everyone, including the Vulcans, have their little dance party, twisting the night away to Roy Orbison’s Ooby Dooby. Not Trek’s finest moment!

The end shot was also very similar to Trek V

I remember during the live watch of First Contact with Jonathan Frakes some months back, he also related how Patrick had to approve him directing. He didn’t mention the sandwich thing though at that time. Also, the tone I got from the live watch was that Frakes was never in any danger since he and Patrick are good friends and Patrick rubber stamping Frakes’ directorship was basically a formality.

• Cast & crew
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Star Trek: First Contact

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight ... Read all The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed. The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

• Jonathan Frakes
• Gene Roddenberry
• Rick Berman
• Brannon Braga
• Patrick Stewart
• Brent Spiner
• 368 User reviews
• 126 Critic reviews
• 70 Metascore
• 8 wins & 21 nominations total

• (as Levar Burton)

• Zefram Cochrane

• Lt. Daniels

• Holographic Doctor

• Lt. Barclay

• Defiant Conn Officer

• Admiral Hayes

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia On account of budgetary restrictions, the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) was never quite satisfied with the Borg sets and costumes as used during the series. However, the significantly bigger budget for this film finally allowed them to design the Borg in a way that was much closer to what they had intended. As a result, the suits and sets were reused extensively on Star Trek: Voyager (1995) .
• Goofs When Geordi is asking Cochrane to look at the intermix chamber blueprints, he is wearing sunglasses, even though his artificial eyes don't require protection from the sun. The sunglasses are probably needed in case a local comes looking around. Only Cochrane and Lily knew about time travelers, and Geordi's futuristic implants could blow their cover. Geordi used dark glasses for the same purpose in Time's Arrow, Part II (1992) as well.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : [Quoting "Moby Dick"] And he piled upon the whale's white hump, the sum of all the rage and hate felt by his whole race. If his chest had been a cannon, he would have shot his heart upon it.

Lily Sloane : What?

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : "Moby-Dick".

Lily Sloane : Actually, I never read it.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard : Ahab spent years hunting the white whale that crippled him, a quest for vengeance, but in the end, it destroyed him and his ship.

Lily Sloane : I guess he didn't know when to quit.

• Crazy credits After 'Stunt Players' are listed, the 'Stunt Borg' are listed.
• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Space Jam/The Mirror Has Two Faces/The English Patient/Breaking the Waves (1996)
• Soundtracks Theme from 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Jerry Goldsmith

User reviews 368

• Nov 15, 1999
• How long is Star Trek: First Contact? Powered by Alexa
• When was the Wilhelm scream heard in the movie?
• What is 'First Contact' about?
• Who returns from the previous movie?
• November 22, 1996 (United States)
• United States
• Memory Alpha, the Star Trek wiki
• Star Trek 8
• Titan Missile Museum - 1580 W. Duval Mine Road, Green Valley, Arizona, USA
• Paramount Pictures
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $45,000,000 (estimated)
• $92,027,888
• $30,716,131
• Nov 24, 1996
• $146,027,888

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Data and the Borg Queen Totally Had Sex and 6 Other Things We Learned From Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: First Contact Commentary

The director and star of the film sat in for ign's wfh theater to reveal new tidbits from behind the scenes..

Commander Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes, joined IGN's WFH Theater this week to discuss his feature directorial debut, Star Trek: First Contact, and along the way he dropped a bunch of interesting tidbits about the making of the film.

If you missed this installment of WFH Theater, you can still watch the commentary track in the video embed below. But if you just want to browse the Enterprise-E computer for some of the highlights from the discussion, read on! And also be sure to check out our previous recaps of the Rogue One WFH Theater , the 10 Cloverfield Lane WFH Theater , and the Jurassic Park WFH Theater .

Yes, Data and the Borg Queen Borg-Boned

The origin of the riker sit (and the riker walk).

"I don't know! It's been there forever," he said of the Riker Lean. "I stole the walk -- the lead with one shoulder -- from an actor named John Cullum, who probably stole it from John Wayne."

As for the Riker Sit, an IGN viewer asked if the actor-director sits like that in real life too. "I do when the chairback is below the danger zone," Frakes laughed. "I measure twice and cut once! That started in [the TNG set] Ten Forward because the backs of the chairs were so low, it was easy. And then I thought, this is really a hotdog, asshole thing to do. Nobody's going to let me do this. And then nobody stopped me! It's such a cocky, unattractive, kind of bad cowboy move. Whoever did the YouTube compilation of Riker sits down, it went viral and was even more embarrassing, and made me strangely even more proud!"

Swag From the Set

Frakes Wanted to Direct Star Trek: Nemesis

He did break away and make non-Trek features with Clockstoppers and Thunderbirds. "I only ever made four movies," he said. "Three of them made money and then I went to movie jail after Thunderbirds. But let's not ruin a perfectly good night!" (Of course, he continued to direct for the small screen ever since and has a long list of credits today.)

He Will Be Back for Picard Season 2

First Season Riker Was Stiff, First Contact Riker's Life Is F#@king Great

There's also the fact that being so busy as the director doesn't really give one the chance to get too nervous about performing. "Your nerves prevent you, just physically," said the filmmaker. "Remember Riker from Season 1 [of TNG]? He was so stiff and so awkward ... that was all nerves. You know, it was a skin-tight spacesuit on a brand-new television show. The Riker in this movie, you know, he's wearing a leather jacket and he's directing a movie and his life is f#@king great, let's face it!"

Dissatisfaction With Elements of First Contact

He also compared aspects of it to looking like "'70s TV," but also said overall he thinks the scene is "fine" and that this scene just would never have happened on the TV show. "The set would never have existed," he said. "We wouldn't have time to do the wirework and the wire removal and the big green screen." He also acknowledged that he was working with a relatively restrained budget compared to most big tentpole movies of the time - "$45 million. It made $220 [million]. ... That's how I got Insurrection."

What are you thoughts on First Contact? Let's discuss them below! And for more WFH Theater, be sure to check out our watch party of Netflix's Extraction with director Sam Hargrave, the Russos and special guest Chris Hemsworth.

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Published Feb 2, 2024

Top 10 Data Moments

In celebration of Brent Spiner's birthday, we're highlighting our favorite android's best scenes.

StarTrek.com

He's got pale skin, yellow eyes, and if you invite him to your wedding, he may sing at the reception. He's Lt. Commander Data, android creation of Dr. Noonien Soong, and he's the heart-free heart of Star Trek: The Next Generation .

At first blush, he may've seemed like an obvious proxy for The Original Series ' Mr. Spock, but as portrayed by Brent Spiner, he very quickly defined Data as his own character — optimistic, voracious for knowledge, quixotic in his attempts to understand human nature and, yes, occasionally socially awkward.

As we celebrate Mr. Spiner's birthday, let's take a look back at a mere 10 of the possible hundreds of best Data moments.

10. Resistance is Futile

Star Trek: First Contact

Let's start this one off with a bang. Seemingly seduced by the Borg Queen with the promise of new human flesh, Data fires torpedoes at Zefram Cochrane's ship, the Phoenix . When they hit, it will prevent the titular First Contact with the Vulcans.

But Data's loyalty cannot be manipulated so easily! He purposely fudges the calibrations and, when discovered, uses the Borg's own catchphrase back on 'em as he smashes open a tank of poisonous gas.

9. Data Grows a Beard

"The Schizoid Man"

There are many examples of Data making minor, oftentimes foolish adjustments in an effort to feel more human.

The one that never fails to get a laugh from me is Data with a Riker-esque "fine, full dignified" beard in " The Schizoid Man ."

8. The Death of Lal

"The Offspring"

Brent Spiner's Data — he'll make you laugh, he'll make you cry. The conclusion to " The Offspring " is an excellent example of what film theorists call "The Kuleshov Effect."

Is Data's blank stare into the void of space his typical tabula rasa of non-emotion? Or has the death of his "daughter" Lal changed him in some way? Considering that he has downloaded her experiences, and part of that was her development of feeling, I'd like to believe that somewhere in his positronic matrix is a new understanding of what it is like to be human.

7. Carnal Knowledge

"The Naked Now"

Despite being a huge TNG fan since the beginning, I did not see " The Naked Now ," when it first aired.

Maybe my parents forced me to go outside and play, I don't know. So when kids at school told me that Data and Tasha Yar "got it on," I thought for certain they were pulling my leg. But it really happened, and it was awesome. Too bad Tasha later got killed by a giant blob of tar.

6. Winning the B'aht Qul Challenge

"The Chase"

When confronted by Klingon captain Nu'Daq in " The Chase ," Data is focused in on his PADD and probably not in the mood for conversation.

This blasé attitude makes Nu'Daq's lightning fast defeat in the B'aht Qul challenge (that's arm wrestling to you and me) even more dishonorable. He tries to redeem himself with a head-butt attack, only to quickly learn that even a ridged Klingon dome is no match for a skull of cortenide and duranium.

5. Waiting at the Bottom of a Cave for 500 Years

"Time's Arrow, Part II"

One of the things I really dig about Data is that for all of his attempts to become human, his android properties can certainly come in handy. Perhaps the most extreme example is the two-parter (and season cliffhanger) " Time's Arrow ."

Whereas any other member of the Enterprise crew would have turned to dust, Data's head has no problem with waiting around for five centuries until it is reattached to its body (which blew through a time-space portal) so it can warn Commander Riker to adjust the phase parameters on his photon torpedoes. Now THAT'S dedication to a mission!

4. An Excretory Exclamation

Star Trek Generations

There are few things more fun than seeing our beloved characters acting in unexpected ways. So turn on Dr. Soong's emotion chip and, bam, you've got Data humming, you've got Data laughing. You've also got Data saying something out loud that you KNOW Starfleet officers are always thinking to themselves whenever they are in a tough spot.

As the Enterprise 's saucer section readies for its crash landing on Veridian III in Generations , Spiner delivers two simple words that elicited one of the biggest laughs I ever heard in a theater. This being a family website, I won't reprint them here.

3. Commanding A Starship

"Redemption II"

People like to joke about "when the robots take over," but Star Trek has always been a show about optimism. Maybe advancements in artificial intelligence will be...good?

Data certainly proves himself worthy of command in Part II of " Redemption ," and he does it while giving his bigoted second officer a slap in the face, too. Data's ability to swiftly analyze information and calculate risk uncovers Sela and her lurking Romulan warbirds. Even the whiney Lt. Commander Hobson is impressed.

2. Meeting Spock

"Unification II"

While I have no doubt Data was first developed as a Spock substitute (see Admiral McCoy's  remark about “points on your ears, boy” in “Encounter at Farpoint Part I”) it took no time at all for Spiner and company to develop the character into something wholly its own. When Data and Ambassador Spock meet up in “Unification Part II” to compare just how different they are from one another (Spock, always striving to suppress his human side, Data always yearning to feel) it really drove the issue home. Hardcore fans of both TOS and TNG didn't actually hear this conversation until the second time they viewed the episode, however. The first time they were too busy shouting OMYGOD SPOCKANDDATA ARETALKING OMYGODTHISISAWESOME!!!!!!!!

1. Ode to Spot

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Schisms

[ RELATED : Ode to Spot ]

It isn't just the poem Data recites in the episode " Schisms ," but it's the reaction it gets from the rest of the crew — especially Riker who nods off then hopes to encourage an early conclusion with premature applause.

Should we take a moment to re-read it right here?  Yeah, I think we should.

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature, An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature; Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations, A singular development of cat communications That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents; You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance. And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion, It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.

O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array. And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend, I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

So there's my top 10. Please remember the kind spirit of Data before you rip into me for leaving off your favorites.

Brent Spiner's Star Trek Characters, Ranked

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This article was originally published on February 1, 2012.

Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com, ScreenCrush and Badass Digest. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727 Trek episodes and films, most of the comics and some of the novels.

A New Threat in Star Trek Fleet Command: The Gorn Hunter Hostiles

By rebekah 9 April 2024

“We are prey. When they hunt, they are unrelenting. The truth is plenty of people have seen the Gorn. They just don’t live long enough to talk about it.” -La’an Noonian Singh

Commanders, 

Brace yourselves–the unrelenting hunters have arrived! With the return of the Strange New Worlds story arc comes their most fearsome enemy. Now for the first time, Commanders ops 40 and above will be able to challenge the Gorn as they appear in Strange New Worlds. Be warned, Commanders; the Gorn are not to be taken lightly!

The warships of the Gorn are constructed of a strange material that is immune to conventional weapons fire. Fortunately, they are vulnerable to isolytic weaponry. To defeat them, you will need to bring a ship or a crew that can deal isolytic damage. Be certain not to neglect isolytic defense, however! The Gorn ships may be vulnerable to isolytic damage, but their own weapons also make use of it!

For defeating these dangerous enemies, you will receive loot that can be used to trade for a variety of exciting rewards! Resources, temporal artifact shards, and shards of officers from the Voyager and Enterprise-E synergy groups can be yours, if you are up for the challenge.

The Gorn can be found in the following new systems:

These hostiles will be your first opponents where the entire fight will be decided by isolytic damage. For easy reference, here are all the things currently in the game that can affect your isolytic damage vs hostiles:

• Enterprise-E Picard
• Enterprise-E Data
• Kathryn Janeway
• Prime Isolytic Damage
• De-lak DOH! (for Klingon ships)
• Baleful Tactics (for Federation ships)
• Tan Qalanq’s Edge (for Romulan ships)

Starships tree:

• Tachyon Hostile Eruption (requires Monaveen to research)

Fleet Commanders:

• Isolytic Intel
• Captain Proton’s Blaster
• Blade of Tkon
• Vidiian Honatta Organ Harvester
• Picard’s Ressikin Flute
• King M’Benga’s Crown
• Riker’s Trombone
• Kataan Telescope
• Borg Queen’s Remains

We wish you luck out there, commanders.

The Star Trek Team

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Screen Rant

Every borg queen in star trek.

The Borg Queen stands apart from the rest of the Collective, and there have been many incarnations since her Star Trek: First Contact introduction.

First introduced in Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Queen's multiple incarnations have been played by several different actors across the Star Trek franchise. The Borg Queen is the name assigned to the Borg Collective's central nexus, and while they have had different faces in Star Trek movies and TV shows, they appear to share the same memories and personality. The existence of a Queen continues the parallels between the Borg and bees, with the Borg Queen coordinating her drones via a hive mind. It was revealed in Star Trek: Voyager that the Borg Collective's central nexus was dubbed the Queen by Magnus and Erika Hansen, eminent experts in the Borg and parents to Annika.

After years of researching the Collective, the Hansens were eventually captured and assimilated by the Borg, with Annika becoming Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Seven was severed from the Borg Collective by the crew of the USS Voyager, and became a valuable member of the crew. Like Star Trek: The Next Generation 's Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) before her, Seven maintained a complicated link back to the Borg Collective, and the many faces of the Borg Queen - here's every one of the Borg Queens encountered by Seven, Picard and beyond.

RELATED: TNG's Best Borg Episode Is Really About Riker, Not Picard

6 Alice Krige - Star Trek: First Contact

The first Borg Queen was played by Alice Krige ( Thor: The Dark World ) in the 1996 TNG movie Star Trek: First Contact . Surprisingly for the Queen of a race of emotionless drones, she had a distinct personality and even attempted to seduce Lieutenant Data (Brent Spiner) with promises of the humanity he craved. The Borg Queen's use of manipulation and even sexuality has defined the character from her first appearance in First Contact to Star Trek: Picard season 2 .

It's heavily implied in First Contact that Jean-Luc Picard's assimilation into the Borg Collective as Locutus was an attempt to provide the Queen with a mate - something that was foiled by Picard's resistance to his Borg conditioning during the battle of Wolf-359. Krige played the role of the Borg Queen as a cold and calculating manipulator, who could seamlessly shift from seduction to ordering the destruction of mankind. As such, despite being destroyed by Data (Brent Spiner) in the movie's climax, Krige's Borg Queen is still the most recognizable incarnation.

5 Susanna Thompson - Star Trek: Voyager

Susanna Thompson had originally auditioned to play the role of the Borg Queen in First Contact , but lost out to Alice Krige. However, she got her wish to play the role when the USS Voyager finally entered Borg space during their adventures in the Delta Quadrant. When Voyager's Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) devised a risky plan to steal Borg technology, she caught the attention of the Borg Queen. As Alice Krige was unavailable to reprise her role for Voyager season 5, episodes 15 and 16, "Dark Frontier", Thompson was cast instead.

Like with Picard, Thompson's Borg Queen expressed a preference for Seven, stating she was her favorite Borg drone, threatening to assimilate the entire Voyager crew if Seven did not rejoin the Collective. Thompson took Krige's portrayal as the basis for her own performance, and added new depths to it, reprising the role once more for "Unimatrix Zero", which essentially explored the Borg Collective's capacity to dream and experience individuality through virtual reality.

RELATED: Star Trek Finally Made The Borg Scary Again (After 21 Years)

4 Alice Krige - Star Trek: Voyager

Alice Krige reprized her role as Borg Queen in Voyager 's finale "Endgame", in which she faced off against Starfleet's Admiral Janeway . Physically, this is presumably a different Queen from the one in First Contact and the one in previous Voyager episodes. In order to get Voyager back to the Alpha Quadrant earlier, Janeway traveled back in time to use the Borg's transwarp network. Her plan worked, aborting the tragic timeline in which Chakotay and Seven had died, and returning everyone back to Earth unscathed. In the process, Admiral Janeway had seemingly destroyed the Borg once and for all, but Star Trek: Picard later proved this wasn't entirely correct.

3 Alice Krige - Star Trek: Lower Decks

Alice Krige played the Borg Queen again in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 8, "I, Excretus". The episode revolves around the crew of the USS Cerritos enduring a series of impossibly hard hologram simulations. Ever the over-achiever, Brad Boimler becomes obsessed with getting a perfect score on the Borg Cube simulation, which pits him against the Borg Queen. As Lower Decks is predominantly a comedy, and as the Borg Queen in "I, Excretus" is a holographic reconstruction, Krige gets to send up her First Contact performance in a vampish way, providing a great deal of comedy.

2 Annie Wersching - Star Trek: Picard

Not content with just having Q (John de Lancie) and Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) as antagonists, Picard season 2 also brought back the Borg Queen. Played by 24 's Annie Wersching, this was a different Borg Queen with new powers , however, she retained the unifying trait of both Krige and Thompson's incarnations - an inherent loneliness. It was that loneliness that drew First Contact 's Borg Queen to Locutus and Data, and it was a similar loneliness that drew Voyager 's Borg Queen to Seven.

In Picard season 2, the Borg Queen is from the dystopian timeline caused by Q's meddling. Picard and his crew rescue the Queen from public execution because she has the processing power to make the precise calculations that will allow them to travel back in time and fix what Q broke. As Picard confronts his childhood trauma and Seven is finally allowed to embrace her humanity, the Borg Queen sought companionship elsewhere. Using her famously manipulative techniques, the Borg Queen seduced Agnes (Alison Pill), so she could transfer her consciousness from her dying body and assimilate 21st Century Earth.

RELATED: Star Trek Now Has TWO Borg Queens

1 Alison Pill - Star Trek: Picard

Alison Pill essentially played two Borg Queens in Picard season 2. The first was the cold, ruthless version seen previously in First Contact and Voyager , but housed in the body of cyberneticist Agnes Jurati. The second Borg Queen was a more evolved form, combining Agnes' humanity and Borg technology to become something bigger, with the potential for greatly improving the lives of those elsewhere in the galaxy. Star Trek had introduced rogue Borg factions before, but this was something different. Where Borg like Hugh embraced their individuality, Agnes' Collective combined the technology of the Borg with the more utopian outlook of the Federation.

Agnes' changes to the Borg could lead to some fascinating developments in future Star Trek shows. She has spent centuries creating a new Collective, while the Borg have waged war elsewhere in the galaxy. Now that they've arrived to stand guard over the anomaly, offering the hand of friendship to the Federation, it suggests a new dynamic within the Borg Collective that could completely change the fan-favorite Star Trek aliens. Presumably there's another Borg Queen within the more hostile Collective, who could face off against Agnes Jurati further down the line.

NEXT: Star Trek 4 Is The Only Way Kirk Can Fight The Borg

Giant Freakin Robot

Star Trek's Best Sequel Was Almost a Bad Comedy

Posted: April 1, 2024 | Last updated: April 1, 2024

Star Trek’s Best Sequel Was Almost a Bad Comedy

After the milquetoast Star Trek: Generations, the release of First Contact felt like a breath of fresh air right when the franchise needed it the most. It succeeds largely as an action film, and some of the most memorable sequences involve battling the Borg on the hull of the Enterprise and Picard flexing his muscles (quite literally) in a climactic showdown with the Borg Queen. However, this action-oriented sequel was almost very different: an earlier version of the script was actually a bad comedy involving over-the-top swordfights and Data becoming best buds with Leonardo da Vinci.

Writers Wanted First Contact To Include Time Travel

To understand how Star Trek: First Contact almost went catastrophically off course, you need to know a bit more about the strange way the film was written. Producer Rick Berman was adamant that he wanted the film to involve time travel because he believed the best Star Trek stories ever told (including the film The Voyage Home and The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise”) involved temporal shenanigans. However, it was Ronald Moore and Brannon Braga who were actually in charge of writing the script, and they were determined to bring the Borg back for a big screen battle.

Going Medieval

In the spirit of cooperation, the writers of Star Trek: First Contact decided to create a story that involved both time travel and Borg. That sounded good on paper, but they soon ran into an unexpected difficulty: coming up with a time period The Next Generation crew could travel to that the franchise hadn’t previously explored. Accordingly, they toyed with the idea of using time periods like the American Civil War or even Ancient Rome, but as Moore would later jokingly recall, “Picard in a toga” is something “you don’t want to do,” preferring to put the captain in a spacesuit instead.

Star Trek: Renaissance

Eventually, though, the writers of Star Trek: First Contact created a draft of the film called Star Trek: Renaissance. This movie would have had Captain Picard trying to find where in history the Borg were hiding, and he eventually discovers stories about bizarre creatures taking over various villages during the Renaissance. His investigation leads him to a castle presided over by a feudal nobleman, but he is unable to get inside to verify the presence of his old nemeses.

Leonardo Da Vinci Did Make It Into The Franchise

In order to get inside the castle, Data ends up pretending to be an apprentice to an artist, and he even ends up becoming fast friends with Leonardo da Vinci (interestingly, a holographic da Vinci would appear only one year later in the Voyager episode “Scorpion”). Da Vinci was actually working as a military engineer for the nobleman, which is enough to provide Data and the rest of the crew access to the castle. The story would have had some crazy action (including battles that mixed swords and phasers), but as Moore recalls, “it risked becoming really campy and over-the-top.”

Picard’s Got A Gun

Obviously, the writers ditched the Renaissance idea, but not because it was going to be a bad comedy: instead, they worried that it would have been too expensive to accurately film this story and that audiences wouldn’t know enough about this time period to be engaged. Eventually, they set the movie that would become Star Trek: First Contact in a future period, which was much cheaper to film and had the novelty of showing the early dawn of the Federation. The rest of the story is cinematic history, though I must admit that the next time I watch Picard fighting the Borg aboard the Enterprise, I’ll wonder how much weirder it would be if he had a sword instead of a phaser.

Let’s be honest…a sword wouldn’t have been that much stranger than the Tommy gun, right?

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Data and the Borg Queen Totally Had Sex and 6 Other Things We Learned From Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: First Contact Commentary

The director and star of the film sat in for ign's wfh theater to reveal new tidbits from behind the scenes..

Commander Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes, joined IGN's WFH Theater this week to discuss his feature directorial debut, Star Trek: First Contact, and along the way he dropped a bunch of interesting tidbits about the making of the film.

If you missed this installment of WFH Theater, you can still watch the commentary track in the video embed below. But if you just want to browse the Enterprise-E computer for some of the highlights from the discussion, read on! And also be sure to check out our previous recaps of the Rogue One WFH Theater , the 10 Cloverfield Lane WFH Theater , and the Jurassic Park WFH Theater .

Yes, Data and the Borg Queen Borg-Boned

The origin of the riker sit (and the riker walk).

"I don't know! It's been there forever," he said of the Riker Lean. "I stole the walk -- the lead with one shoulder -- from an actor named John Cullum, who probably stole it from John Wayne."

As for the Riker Sit, an IGN viewer asked if the actor-director sits like that in real life too. "I do when the chairback is below the danger zone," Frakes laughed. "I measure twice and cut once! That started in [the TNG set] Ten Forward because the backs of the chairs were so low, it was easy. And then I thought, this is really a hotdog, asshole thing to do. Nobody's going to let me do this. And then nobody stopped me! It's such a cocky, unattractive, kind of bad cowboy move. Whoever did the YouTube compilation of Riker sits down, it went viral and was even more embarrassing, and made me strangely even more proud!"

Swag From the Set

Frakes Wanted to Direct Star Trek: Nemesis

He did break away and make non-Trek features with Clockstoppers and Thunderbirds. "I only ever made four movies," he said. "Three of them made money and then I went to movie jail after Thunderbirds. But let's not ruin a perfectly good night!" (Of course, he continued to direct for the small screen ever since and has a long list of credits today.)

He Will Be Back for Picard Season 2

First Season Riker Was Stiff, First Contact Riker's Life Is F#@king Great

There's also the fact that being so busy as the director doesn't really give one the chance to get too nervous about performing. "Your nerves prevent you, just physically," said the filmmaker. "Remember Riker from Season 1 [of TNG]? He was so stiff and so awkward ... that was all nerves. You know, it was a skin-tight spacesuit on a brand-new television show. The Riker in this movie, you know, he's wearing a leather jacket and he's directing a movie and his life is f#@king great, let's face it!"

Dissatisfaction With Elements of First Contact

He also compared aspects of it to looking like "'70s TV," but also said overall he thinks the scene is "fine" and that this scene just would never have happened on the TV show. "The set would never have existed," he said. "We wouldn't have time to do the wirework and the wire removal and the big green screen." He also acknowledged that he was working with a relatively restrained budget compared to most big tentpole movies of the time - "$45 million. It made $220 [million]. ... That's how I got Insurrection."

What are you thoughts on First Contact? Let's discuss them below! And for more WFH Theater, be sure to check out our watch party of Netflix's Extraction with director Sam Hargrave, the Russos and special guest Chris Hemsworth.

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