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borg
Template:Star Trek race Template:startrek2 The Borg are a fictional race of cyborgs in the Star Trek universe, first introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series. They are characterized by relentless pursuit of targets for assimilation, their collective consciousness that enables rapid adaptability to almost any defense, and the ability to continue functioning properly despite seemingly devastating blows. They have become a powerful symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against whom "resistance is futile."
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Overview[edit]
The Borg are an amalgam of humanoids of many different species that are enhanced with implanted cybernetics, giving them improved mental and physical abilities, called drones. The name Borg is short for cyborg (cybernetic organism). The Borg function as automata; the minds of all Borg drones are connected via implants and networks to a hive mind, the Borg Collective, personified by the Borg Queen and controlled from a central hub, Unimatrix One. The Borg claim to only seek to "improve the quality of life for all species" by integrating organic and synthetic components in their quest for perfection. To this end, they travel the galaxy, increasing their numbers and advancing by "assimilating" other species and their technologies, and subjugating captured individuals by injecting them with nanoprobes and surgically implanting prostheses, quickly changing their biological anatomy and biochemistry to the Borg standard.
History[edit]
Having gradually developed over the years in the galaxy's distant Delta Quadrant, the Borg's first formal contact with Starfleet occurred in 2365 by interference from Q in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Q Who?". Q transported the Enterprise-D to System FGC-J25, in the deep reaches of the Delta Quadrant just long enough to expose them to the Borg. The Enterprise-D was hopelessly outclassed by the Borg cube encountered, and Q brought them home after their confrontation. Guinan tells Jean-Luc Picard, "Now that they know of your existence ..." and Picard realized that they would never stop until they found Earth. Picard later realized that the Borg cube was already on a course toward Federation space, and in effect Q gave them an advance warning, doing "the right thing for the wrong reason". Before this contact there was evidence that the Borg were already in or near the Alpha Quadrant. The episode "The Neutral Zone" established that several stations on both sides of the Romulan Neutral Zone had been destroyed "as though a great hand scooped them up," a phrase used later to describe areas of a planet at System J-25.
Even earlier encounters with the Borg occurred, but were equally unclassifiable at the time. In 2153, a group of cyborgs (though unknown as Borg at the time) were discovered in Earth's Arctic. These Borg were said to come from the future in a speech given by Zefram Cochrane, stating what "really" had happened during first contact with the Vulcans in April 2063. He said that there were "strange cybernetic creatures from the future who wanted to enslave the human race". Cochrane also revealed that there were people who stopped them who were also from the future. Captain Archer and Subcommander T'Pol of the first Starfleet vessel named Enterprise discussed this, but T'Pol dismissed it by saying, "Dr. Cochrane was known to make outrageous statements."
In the non-canonical Star Trek: The Manga, the crew of the Enterprise under James T. Kirk discovers an alien station operating near a black hole. The commander of the station appears to be abducting races in a desperate attempt to cure a strange plague among his people. Using his own daughter as a guinea pig, he is able to create a cure for the plague, though the end result is always assimilation into his daughter - the future Borg Queen-consciousness -for those cured.
The Borg incident of 2153 was kept secret, due in part to evidence that the Borg had managed to transmit Earth's location to their home space in the Delta Quadrant. Since, however, the message would not reach Borg space for two centuries, Earth and Starfleet authorities were not overly concerned with the Borg. However, in the prophetic words of Captain Archer: "We've only postponed the invasion until what? The 24th century?"
In the Star Trek novel Probe, which takes place following the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the Borg are mentioned obliquely in communication with the whale-probe as spacefaring "mites" (the whale-probe's term for humanoid races) who traveled in cubical and spherical spacefaring vessels; the Borg apparently attacked the whale-probe and damaged its memory in some fashion prior to the events of the film.
In the late 23rd century, the crew of the newly-commissioned Enterprise-B rescued a ship carrying El-Aurian refugees that was fleeing the Borg's assimilation of their planet, although it is unknown if Starfleet was aware of the cause of the El-Aurian plight at the time. (The El-Aurian Guinan mentions the Borg attack to Picard during his first encounter with them.)
In the mid-2350s, as the 200 year time mark of Captain Archer's prophecy approached, Starfleet began a covert operation to learn about the Borg and hired several civilian scientists to perform "unofficial" research and learn about this potential threat to the Federation. The family of Annika Hansen was one such group of scientists (VOY: "The Raven"). Thus, by the time Captain Picard and the Enterprise-D encountered the Borg at System J-25, some individuals in Starfleet were already aware of the Borg and the threat they posed.
In the novel Vendetta it is revealed that the planet killer weapon from the Original Series episode "The Doomsday Machine" is a prototype for a weapon against the Borg.
The Enterprise-D and Captain Jean-Luc Picard[edit]
- !—WARNING—!
Article below this line is likely to contain spoilers.
The second official, and first major, contact between the Federation and the Borg occurred in the two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds", considered (from the results of both write-in fan-voting campaigns and ratings success) one of Star Trek’s best episodes. [unverified] In 2366-7, Captain Picard was captured and assimilated by the Borg to become Locutus of Borg. By using Picard's knowledge of Federation technology and strategy, a single Borg cube destroyed a fleet of 39 Starfleet vessels at the Battle of Wolf 359 and proceeded toward Federation Sector 001, Earth, with the goal of assimilating the entire planet. The Federation regards this battle as one of the worst military defeats in its history. In the process, however, the Enterprise-D used an emergency maneuver to capture Locutus. Data, with the help of Troi and Dr. Crusher, managed to tap into the Borg collective consciousness to which Picard/Locutus was connected. Their last-ditch actions managed to allow Picard to reveal to Data the idea of putting the Borg to "sleep", or renewing their regeneration cycle. This caused the invading cube to go quiescent and, due to the unbalanced distribution of ship-wide energies, the cube self-destructed in Earth orbit. The Enterprise crew later managed to remove most of the Borg implants from Picard. Picard was never the same again; in addition to being left traumatized ("Family"), he apparently retained a residual link with the collective and could hear its thoughts when they were near (Star Trek: First Contact).
In the episode "I, Borg" (the title highlights the contradiction of an "individual Borg" and alludes to I, Robot), the Enterprise-D crew captured a single Borg drone in 2368 who appeared to be detached from the collective with its whereabouts unknown. Seeing an opportunity to study their enemy, it was taken aboard the ship. Eventually, due to separation from the Borg collective consciousness, the Borg drone began to develop an individual identity. It was given the name "Hugh", after a misunderstanding about individual identity involving the sentence "I am... you?". Hugh was eventually returned to the collective, after Picard refused to use the now self-aware Borg as a living biological weapon. Though he seemed to lose his individuality, the introduction of Hugh's experiences into the collective had far-reaching consequences. The Borg on the cube that recovered Hugh were eventually severed from the collective and broke away as a renegade group. Initially dysfunctional and without purpose, this group later encountered Lore, Data's prototype brother, who helped them express their newfound freedom through hatred, while feeding, and taking advantage of, their need for a 'collective' to maintain order. ("Descent").
Encounters with the Enterprise-E and Voyager[edit]
The Borg make frequent appearances in the Star Trek universe afterwards, being the antagonists in the Star Trek: First Contact movie when they once again attempted to attack Earth, even going back in time to stop Zefram Cochrane's warp flight. A Borg drone even became a crew member of the starship Voyager — Seven of Nine.
Voyager's first sign of any Borg activity was in 2372, when the crew were searching a planet for a material to rebuild their warp coils. They found a Borg corpse in some bushes near the ruins of a civilization (VOY: "Blood Fever").
A year later, in 2373, while scouting a region of the Delta Quadrant called the Nekrit Expanse in a shuttle, Commander Chakotay and Ensign Kaplan detect a Federation signal on a planet. After landing and getting into a fight, Chakotay finds that the population of the planet are all ex-Borg of various species who have formed a "Borg Cooperative". Also near the planet, Voyager found a Borg Cube, however, it was inoperable and was later destroyed (VOY: "Unity").
Later in 2373, they stumbled upon the "Northwest Passage", a corridor apparently devoid of Borg activity. Through investigation, it was later revealed that this area of space was where "Species 8472" — a Borg designation for a species from another universe with superior abilities — were emerging and inflicting heavy losses on the Borg in an attempt to invade and purify this universe. The Voyager crew successfully devised a defense (through the adaptation of Borg nanoprobes) against Species 8472. To ensure Voyager’s safe passage, Captain Janeway proposed and negotiated an alliance with the Borg in exchange for this technology. To facilitate this arrangement, Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 was dispatched to Voyager. After Voyager successfully crossed this space, Seven of Nine was severed from the hive mind, became a member of Voyager’s crew (VOY: "Scorpion"), and eventually reasserted her personality.
In 2374, the crew of starship Voyager unknowingly created a 29th century Borg drone by fusing Seven of Nine's nanoprobes with the Doctors mobile emitter in a transporter accident. This drone had reactive body armor, multidimensional adaptability, and internal transporter nodes. The Drone picked the designation One because he was unique. Because the borg was separated from the collective he was curious about the borg and wanted to assimilate information on them. Unfortunately One involuntarily sent a signal to the collective bringing a sphere to Voyager. One destroyed the vessel and let himself die to save Voyager. (VOY: "Drone")
In 2375, after recovering some Borg data nodes from a destroyed Borg ship, Janeway used the information to plot an attack against a nearby damaged Borg scout ship to retrieve a transwarp coil to aid in Voyager's journey home. However, the Borg Queen learned of the plot & communicated to Seven of Nine via her neural transmitter and offered to spare Voyager from assimilation if Seven rejoined the collective. Seven took the Queen on her offer when the operation started to fall apart, and Voyager got away with a transwarp coil. Soon after, Captain Janeway launched a mission using the transwarp coil & the Delta Flyer to save Seven from the Queen at the Unimatrix. Seven was recovered, the Delta Flyer made it back to Voyager (although a bit damaged during a combat encounter) & Voyager was able to use the transwarp coil only for as far as 20,000 light-years before it became useless (Voy: "Dark Frontier").
The Borg suffered their worst setback against the Federation in 2377. Voyager discovered a Borg transwarp hub (one of only six in the entire galaxy), which allowed the Borg to quickly send ships anywhere in the galaxy. A future Admiral Janeway travelled back in time and ordered Voyager to use the hub to return to the Alpha Quadrant, but contemporary Captain Janeway was determined to destroy it. Admiral Janeway entered the Unicomplex and the Borg Queen assimilated her. However, the Admiral had surreptitiously infected herself with a neurolytic pathogen before being assimilated; once assimilated into the collective, the pathogen disabled neural links throughout the hive mind. Consequently, the Borg Queen lost connections with her drones and ships, before being overcome and killed, and the Unicomplex exploded. Simultaneously, an anti-Borg enhanced Voyager (with technology provided by Admiral Janeway) destroyed support beams for the hub while entering a transwarp corridor. The Borg hub then collapsed and Voyager was successfully returned to Earth (VOY: "Endgame").
After these events, the Borg were severely reduced in numbers but according to the writers, they survived. Template:spoilerend
Borg Queen[edit]
The purely collective nature of the Borg was modified in Star Trek: First Contact, which introduced the Borg Queen (Alice Krige). The Borg Queen is a locus within the Borg collective consciousness and a unique drone within the collective ("the one who is many"), bringing "order to chaos" and referring to herself as "we" and "I" interchangeably. The function of the Borg Queen within the Borg seems to be that of a coordinator, as in a bee hive, and less so of a leader in the traditional sense. The Queen's unique autonomy allowed her to have an intimate encounter with Data in 2063 (as a result of time travel). However, her utterance "I am the beginning [and] the end" implies a possibly crucial function within the collective. It has also been postulated that both the Borg Queen and Locutus functioned merely as spokespeople and tacticians, allowing the Borg to maintain a creative edge while retaining the advantages of a true collective.
A humanoid of Borg species 125, the contemporary Queen's head and upper torso appear mostly biological (externally) with a largely synthetic central nervous system, skull, and upper vertebral column. The head/upper torso is generally lowered and secured into a synthetic lower torso.
Given the high technical sophistication of the Borg and her apparent destruction on numerous occasions, the Borg Queen may be some sort of unique multidimensional creature who can be in many places and times at once and/or is multiply-redundant; this is also consistent with the Borg's highly decentralized nature. In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Queen was apparently present during Picard's assimilation in 2366-7 (though this was lost on Picard initially) and was destroyed on that cube, an apparent retcon. The Queen was also seemingly destroyed in at least two other instances—during Star Trek: First Contact, Dark Frontier, and the finale of Star Trek: Voyager. Upon the conclusion of Star Trek: Voyager, it is unknown whether the Queen survived; however, the Borg were able to function after her apparent destruction, as evidenced by the sphere's continuing to chase Voyager. In the Star Trek: The Experience attraction The Borg Invasion 4-D, the Borg Queen re-appears after Voyager returns to the Alpha Quadrant, but as Admiral Janeway attempts to kill her, she activates a transporter allowing her to survive.
- !—WARNING—!
Article below this line is likely to contain spoilers.
In the non-canonical Star Trek: Voyager relaunch novels, the Borg Queen isn't a single, irreplaceable entity, but the product of a program called "The Royal Protocol," which shares its name with a Starfleet document outlining requirements when dealing with foreign royalty. This program is used to create a Borg Queen from a female Borg, commanding the technology in said Borg to alter and adapt to the Protocol's specifications. In the Voyager relaunch novels, one of the leaders of Starfleet Intelligence manages to get her hands on "The Royal Protocol," and with the use of a salvaged EMH Mark One (whose ethical sub-routines have been deleted), manages to turn herself into a new kind of Borg Queen, one who cares about and loves her drones. Template:end spoiler
Assimilation[edit]
| File:Picardassimilation.jpg Picard, as Locutus, undergoing assimilation after his abduction |
| File:Assimilationtubule.jpg Assimilation may begin when a Borg drone injects tubules, transferring nanoprobes, into a helpless victim |
Initially, the Borg were a mysterious group of marauders that snatched entire starships or took over entire planets and societies in order to collect and assimilate their technology, being less interested in individual lifeforms. A borg infant was found in the borg cube, suggesting they reproduced rather than assimilated lifeforms. (TNG: "Q Who?"). In their second appearance, "The Best of Both Worlds", they began to assimilate individuals – namely, Picard – into the collective by surgically altering them. Thereafter, incorporation of different lifeforms into their collective was heightened and their interest in obtaining alien technology became less prominent.
Moreover, the method of assimilating individual lifeforms into the collective has changed over time. Throughout, infant and fetal humanoids have been grown in an accelerated state and surgically receive or develop implants tied directly into the brain, as well as ocular devices, tool-enhanced limbs, armour, and other prosthetics.
Later, in Star Trek: First Contact, the method of assimilation was enhanced with the more efficient injection of nanoprobes into individuals. Borg nanoprobes are injected into the bloodstream of a victim by a number of tubules (usually two) that spring forth from the top of the hand (or some other extremity) of a Borg drone. The nanoprobes, each about the size of a human red blood cell (RBC), travel through the victim's bloodstream to various tissues and locations throughout the body and latch onto individual cells. The nanoprobes rewrite the cellular DNA, altering the victim's biochemistry, and eventually form larger, higher structures and networks within the body such as electrical pathways, processing and data storage nodes, and ultimately prosthetic devices that spring forth from the skin. In Mortal Coil, Seven of Nine states that the Borg assimilated the nanoprobe technology from "Species 149", suggesting that other improvements in assimiliation technology could have been assimilated, as well as indicating that the Borg's interest in assimilating technologies has not lapsed.
Assimilation is the main way for The Borg to gain information about a new species, i.e. a species of which no individuals have been previously assimilated by The Borg. The Borg are less skilled in gaining information about species before they are assimilated (source: Episodes "Scorpion Part 1 & 2" from ST:VOY). Because assimilation depends on nanoprobes, species with an extremely advanced immune system such as Species 8472 are able to withstand assimilation.
Borg species identification[edit]
The Borg have encountered and assimilated thousands of species and (reportedly) trillions of lifeforms throughout the galaxy. The Borg identify species uniquely with a number assigned to them upon first contact.
The following is a list of species and their respective numbers, sorted in ascending order by number. Some species have been identified only by their Borg identification and do not have a "name".
| Species # | Species name | Description | Episode of note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 116 | Unknown | Arturis' species. | "Hope and Fear" |
| 125 | Unknown | Borg Queen's species. | "Dark Frontier" |
| 149 | Unknown | A species with advanced medical knowledge and nanoprobe technology which the Borg use to reverse cellular necrosis. | "Mortal Coil" |
| 180 | Ferengi | "Infinite Regress" | |
| 218 | Talaxians | "The Raven" | |
| 259 | Unknown | Omnichordial, transdimensional lifeforms from Galactic Cluster 3. | "The Gift" |
| 262 | Unknown | Related to the omega molecule; primitive. | "The Omega Directive" |
| 263 | Unknown | Related to the omega molecule; primitive. | "The Omega Directive" |
| 312 | Unknown | Species with similar shielding technology that hid the Ventu. | "Natural Law" |
| 329 | Kazon | Considered unworthy of assimilation. | "Mortal Coil" "Relativity" |
| 521 | Shivolians | "Survival Instinct" | |
| 571 | Unknown | Species of Four of Nine, the younger male drone. | "Survival Instinct" |
| 689 | Norcadians | "Ashes to Ashes" | |
| 2461 | Brunali | Icheb's species. | "Child's Play" |
| 3259 | Vulcans | "The Raven" | |
| 4228 | Hazari | "Think Tank" | |
| 5174 | Unknown | Speculated as Hirogen. | "Message in a Bottle" "Flesh and Blood" |
| 5618 | Humans | "Dark Frontier, Part II" | |
| 5973 | Unknown | Mentioned as being non-corporeal by the Rebi. | "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" |
| 6291 | Yridians | "Equinox, Part 1" | |
| 6339 | Unknown | Species invented anti-Borg virus. 11 billion were assimilated in four years. | "Infinite Regress" |
| 6961 | Ktarians | "The Voyager Conspiracy" "Dark Frontier, Part II" | |
| 8472 | Unknown | Fluidic space dwellers. | "Scorpion" |
| 10026 | Unnamed | Assimilated by the Borg in 2375. Possibly Nihydron. | "Dark Frontier, Part II" |
Origin of the Borg[edit]
Over thousands of centuries, the Borg have encountered and assimilated thousands of species (as attested by Guinan and the Borg Queen). However, little information regarding the true origin of the Borg millennia ago has been divulged in Star Trek canon. In Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Queen merely states that the Borg were once much like humanity, "flawed and weak," but gradually developed into a partially synthetic species in an ongoing attempt to evolve and perfect themselves.
It is speculated in the Star Trek Encyclopedia that there could be a connection between the Borg and V'ger, the vessel encountered in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP); this is advanced in William Shatner's novel, The Return. The two entities are similar in concept and philosophy:
- The Borg are born as wholly organic beings and are melded with hardware to become biomechanical hybrids. They somewhat idolize a totally artificial state, which allows the android Lore to conquer a group of them in "Descent" (TNG).
- V'ger is originally a machine – an interplanetary probe that was programmed to learn what it could about the universe – is significantly enhanced, and wants to see and touch its creator (a human) in order to fulfill its mission and evolve to a higher level of existence.
V'ger "melds" with two persons (Willard Decker and Ilia) and, in so doing, evolves. With reasonable conjecture, the Borg, a cybernetic organism – i.e., a fusion of person and machine – is born.
The V'ger origin story could be reversed into a "V'ger from Borg" origin theory – V'ger could have been aided by Borg. A piece of supporting evidence can be found in the novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture written by Gene Roddenberry. In the novel, the V'ger entity notes that the Ilia probe is resisting the programming given to it because of the residual memories and feelings for Decker. When V'ger becomes aware of this, it is aware that "the resistance was futile, of course", which is almost identical to the Borg phrase, "Resistance is futile".
The extra section of the game Star Trek: Legacy contains the "Origin of the Borg" which tells the story of V'ger being sucked into a black hole, living machines finding the probe, altering it and sending it back. It sought its creator, but could not find one like itself or its creator. At that moment it deemed all carbon-life forms as an infestation of the creator's universe. Assimilation was its only tool to learn and grow. It catalogued all carbon-based life and technology. Drones were made in V'ger's image and merged into a collective mind. All that was learnable was returned to V'ger. As the collective grew a voice was needed. The collective found that the females of a certain species with mental prowess could sift through all the thoughts, bringing order to chaos and effectively increasing data gathering. However, this implies that V'ger travelled back in time and created the Borg in the past. This is because the Voyager 6 probe that became V'ger was created on earth sometime after 1977, while the Borg were first mentioned to have existed in the 15th century delta quadrant; of course, this could have been a result of the probe's trip through a black hole. This plot line concept allows for a shocking circle that the greatest foe mankind has ever faced was our own creation.
Famous maxim[edit]
The first spoken words heard from the Borg (from Q Who?) consisted of these two sentences:
- "We have analyzed your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us. If you defend yourselves, you will be punished."
The classic Borg hail is as follows:
- "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
In the movie Star Trek: First Contact, the following hail is heard:
- "We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile." The actor playing the role of the "Voice of the Borg" in this film is Jeff Coopwood.
Additionally, Locutus (assimilated Picard) was known to say (at the Battle of Wolf 359):
- "I am Locutus of Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. You will disarm all your weapons and escort us to Sector Zero-Zero-One. If you attempt to intervene, we will destroy you."
And before the battle:
- "I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us."
In the opening seconds of the Star Trek: Voyager episode: "Scorpion I", the Borg hail to Species 8472:
- "We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is..." At this moment, Species 8472 destroys the Borg starships.
The Borg in computer games[edit]
- Star Trek: Birth of the Federation
- Star Trek: Armada: The USS Premonition from the future tells the Enterprise that the Borg plan a new invasion and clone Locutus.
- Star Trek: Armada II: The Borg have set up a transwarp link between the Alpha and Delta quadrants and plan another invasion.
- Star Trek: Away Team
- Star Trek: Borg: An interactive movie in which the player, aided by Q, has to fend off the Borg invasion of a starship.
- Star Trek: Borg Assimilator
- Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force
- Star Trek Elite Force II
- Starfleet Command III
- Star Trek Legacy
The Borg as a cultural allusion[edit]
Template:OR The Borg were a concept born out of necessity for Star Trek to feature a new antagonist and the regular enemy that was lacking during the first season of The Next Generation, now that the Klingons were allies, and the Romulans mostly absent. Originally intended as the new enemy for the United Federation of Planets, the Ferengi failed to assert themselves as a convincing threat because of their comical, unintimidating appearance and devotion to capitalist accumulation or "free enterprise". They were subsequently reassigned the role of annoying but cute comic relief characters. A new military threat was thus needed to replace the Klingons and Romulans. The Borg, with their frightening appearance, immense power, and most importantly a no-nonsense, totally sinister motive became the signature villains for the TNG era of Star Trek. Its strongest definition is most probably the fearful Luddite prophecy – the vision that technology will eventually transform humanity into monsters.
In a literary sense, the Borg are highly similar to depictions of zombies in popular culture. Their pale complexion, slow yet steady advance, anhedonia, utter amorality, and ability to assimilate their enemies at a touch are all traits they have in common with the Hollywood zombie. Similarly, both show a lack of individuality, or any knowledge of their former lives (albeit with some exceptions).
The Borg are one of the more recognizable and popular Star Trek villains, which has made them icons in American popular culture even outside of Star Trek. Referring to a group of people as "borgs" or "borg" (maintaining the proper plural) means that they are completely given to conformity with one another. A single person who is slavishly conformist can also be called a "drone" or "borg" (similar to the term clone). [unverified]
Sci-fi fans often compare the Borg to the Cybermen from Doctor Who, a similar assimilating cybernetic race. It has not been confirmed if the Cybermen influenced the creation of the Borg in any way, although the first episode which hints at the presence of the Borg features, as a briefly glimpsed background detail, a computer screen which displays the names of the first six actors to play The Doctor. Coincidentally or not, the first on screen appearance of the Borg was in the episode "Q Who?" (1989). The Borg catchphrase "resistance is futile" is very similar to "resistance is useless," a catchphrase used by the Doctor's other cybernetic nemeses, the Daleks. However, the Cybernetic Borg that appeared on screen do not conform to their original conception but another example of limited budget creating a race. Gene Roddenberry stated that his original Borg concept was that of a hive insectoid race and models were produced to that effect, but the money wasn't available so the concept was adapted to "some robot looking things."
Whatever the origin of the race within the Star Trek universe, use of the label "Borg" when applied in popular culture to an individual or entity reflects a rather distasteful impression that the referenced person or organization is less than human, bent on controlling or dominating at all costs and regardless of moral considerations.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Patrick Thaddeus Jackson and Daniel H. Nexon, "Representation is Futile?: American Anti-Collectivism and the Borg" in Jutta Weldes, ed., To Seek Out New Worlds: Science Fiction and World Politics. 2003. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-29557-X. Pp. 143-167.
- Thomas A. Georges. Digital Soul: Intelligent Machines and Human Values. Boulder: Westview. ISBN 0-8133-4057-8. p. 172. (The Borg as Big Business)
External links[edit]
- Borg documentary at the Star Trek website
- Borg article at the Star Trek website
- Source for many Borg images on the Ex Astris Scientia website
- Species Borg All Species' Borg numbers
- Borg Species Designations at The Federation Xenological Index
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