"The Neutral Zone" +
"Q Who" +
"The Best of Both Worlds" Parts I & II (TNG)
I finally did it, made the time, and watched all the major TNG Borg episodes relevant to
Star Trek: First Contact, "Unity", and "Scorpion". I used six minutes from "The Neutral Zone" as a prologue in my fan-edit when I put these episodes together, because Gomez spilling coffee Picard was, while amusing, too soft of an intro to start off something as big as this. I've always thought of "The Best of Both Worlds" as the Zeroth TNG Movie. I even went to a Special Screening of it in a theater when it was released on Blu-Ray in 2013. Enough preface and on with the show.
Much like
Star Trek: The Motion Picture began with the Klingons approaching V'Ger, the Romulans are used in "The Neutral Zone" to set up the Borg. The Romulans have no idea who scooped up their outposts, nor does the Federation know who scooped out their own outposts. The Romulans agree to cooperate with the Federation on the one issue of trying to find out who was responsible. And this is my opening to say that yes, I noticed Marc Alaimo was the main Romulan. He did such a good job with what little he was given, that I can understand why they brought him back as Gul Macet when TNG introduced the Cardassians in "The Wounded" and later on as Gul Dukat on DS9.
Next up is "Q Who", where Q flings the Enterprise in all the way to System J-25. Far,
far away from Federation Space. They observe habitats that were scooped up just like what they'd previously seen in the Neutral Zone. And this is when the Enterprise first encounters the Borg. First, we just see the Borg Cube. Then a Borg Drone beams into Engineering. When Worf is able phaser down Drone, he's replaced with another. The Borg collects the information they want to gather and leave the Enterprise. Guinan warns the crew about the Borg and Q tells them the Enterprise is something they want to "consume". Add to their technological distinctiveness. The episode slowly reveals how deep of a situation Q has gotten the Enterprise into.
Then the Borg attack. The Enterprise manages to break free, and the Borg begin to rapidly repair themselves. When Riker, Data, and Worf beam onto the Borg Cube while they're distracted, Riker notes that the Borg are born wholly organic and then have technological components added almost immediately. I wonder if
this is where they got the idea to turn Picard into a Borg later on. Take an organic like Picard and turn him into a Borg. But that's getting ahead of myself.
Picard decides they have to get out of there before the Borg Cube fully repairs itself, the Borg chase them anyway, and Picard has to plead with Q to get them out of their dire situation. Afterwards, Picard realizes now that the Borg are aware of the Federation, they'll be coming.
Which brings us to "The Best of Both Worlds". Starfleet has spent over a year preparing for the Borg, with Shelby heading up the effort for the past six of those months. This might be a hot take, but I like Shelby better as a First Officer than Riker. She's more ambitious and willing to do whatever it takes. You need that when fighting an enemy on as large of a scale as the Borg. The tug-of-war between Riker and Shelby was
a highlight of this two-parter and how they eventually learn to work together.
The highlight is when Picard is abducted by the Borg, it's revealed that he's been turned into Locutus, complete with an ominous version of the Star Trek theme in the background, Locutus gives his speech to the Enterprise about how "from this time forward, you will service us," and then Riker says, "Mr. Worf, fire!" I didn't realize this until recently, but turning Picard into Locutus to serve as a mouthpiece for the Borg is similar to V'Ger turning Ilia into the Ilia-droid to serve as a mouthpiece for V'Ger. So, Ilia was an early version of Locutus and, in turn, Locutus was an early version of Seven of Nine, since Seven was originally intended by the Borg to be their representative to Janeway.
After the Enterprise's attack on the Borg doesn't work, the Borg leave the Enterprise in the dust and engage Starfleet in the Battle of Wolf 359. They do a great job of making the Borg appear formidable and unstoppable. Conventional fighting tactics weren't going to work against the Borg.
Guinan gives Riker a bitter pill to swallow. Riker says, "Picard wrote the book on his ship!" Guinan tells him, "If the Borg already know everything about that book, then it's time to throw that book away." Riker has to think outside the box. Once the Enterprise catches up with the Borg, the Enterprise separates, gives the Borg plenty to focus on, the Data and Worf go on a shuttle to retrieve Locutus, which he interprets as an abduction. Then Data has to find a way to break through Locutus and get to Picard, while Troi tries to sense if Data's actually reaching through and if Picard's able to reach out.
The Enterprise is lucky that it has Troi and especially Data. They finally get through to Picard, who's also been trying to fight Locutus, and he tells Data to give a command to the Borg to sleep. And it works. Starfleet wasn't going to win through pure firepower. Once the Borg are asleep, the Enterprise destroys the Borg Cube, Locutus is no more and the Borg Implants are removed from Picard, but the emotional scars remain.
"The Best of Both Worlds" not only put Picard through the wringer and put Riker and rest of the crew to the test, but it also had movie-level stakes, with the Borg heading directly towards Earth. Something normally only reserved for the movies. Another nod to the movies is when the Enterprise head into a nebula for repairs and the nebula looks just like the Mutara Nebula from
The Wrath of Khan. It's fitting for one of the most epic Star Trek episodes to remind me, even in a small way, of one of the most epic Star Trek movies.
Something I've noticed, and it's most likely a coincidence, but I have to point it out anyway: the Borg were introduced on TNG to replace the Ferengi is #1 Main Enemy of the series. Now, on VOY, the Borg will be introduced to replace the Kazon as the #1 Main Enemy. Both times, the Borg were a replacement enemy. And a much better one. The only difference is TNG used the Borg far more sparsely than
Voyager. But, on the flip side,
Voyager was able to tell more varied stories with them.
I'll leave off with saying I'm very impressed with what these episodes were able to accomplish on the technical end, and how much they were able to do the Borg justice. And the soundtrack by Ron Jones throughout all of these episodes was fantastic. They're among his best work.
Okay,
one more thing: it's very interesting that prior to Locutus, it's established that the Borg don't speak with a single voice. Someone better tell the Borg Queen that!
My Favorite Scenes from "The Best of Both Worlds":
- Shelby calling Riker's bluff at the Card Game.
- Shelby telling Riker he's in her way. (Notice a pattern here?)
- Picard talking to Guinan in Ten Forward about whether or not this is the end of Federation civilization.
- The introduction of Locutus. First on the Borg Cube, and then on-screen.
- "Mr. Worf, fire!" Have to give Riker that one!
- The tear coming down the side of Picard's face after his skin-tone is turned gray.
- The Enterprise separating.
- Picard staring into space at the end of the two-parter, as he reflects on what happened and we wonder about how things will be with him going forward.
One other thing to note: Riker tells Shelby how much he appreciates her, and then he tells everyone in the briefing that he's forced to reluctantly promote Shelby to First Officer! Couldn't you have found a better way to phrase that, Riker? Guaranteed when Shelby told Riker she hoped she'd be able to serve with Riker again; she was just being polite. I personally doubt she really meant it.
