The Least Disliked Borg Episode/Movie

[Sakonna]

Hello all! I thought it would be fun to try a Least Disliked elimination game putting all the various showpiece eps of a single Trek antagonist race against each other. After starting with the Ferengi, next up: Borg stories.

Anyway, THE RULES. The basic idea is your standard elimination game. Below is a list of Borg episodes (plus the one movie) from TNG, VOY, and ENT. Eliminate your least favorite or the one you deem the 'worst.' Please provide an EXPLANATION for why you are eliminating your choice and be sure to copy and paste the list with your choice removed. Finally, please leave at least 2 eliminations by other posters before you eliminate another episode.

No tactical voting! You cannot remove an episode just because you feel they would threaten your preferred episode's chance to win.

In terms of what's included on the list, it was somewhat tricky to figure out where to draw the line with Seven episodes from Voyager. Broadly speaking, if it was an episode about exploring her humanity ("Someone To Watch Over Me") I left it off. But if it was about Seven dealing with her Borg side, it goes on. But feel free to use "I don't even think this should be here!" as criteria for elimination, if you want.

And thanks to @Farscape One for helping me vet this list!
Enjoy!

“Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Hope And Fear”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Dark Frontier”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero I”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero II”, VOY Season 7
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7
“Regeneration”, ENT Season 2

 

[Sakonna]

And I'm going to kick it off by kicking "Dark Frontier." I watched many Voy eps on this list the last few days to make sure I found them sufficiently Borg-y to belong, and I was stunned -- stunned! -- by how good a bunch of them were. Voyager did find a lot of clever side angles from which to tell a Borg story, to a much greater extent than I recalled.

But where did my perception that Voyager was so awful to the Borg come from, I wondered? It was "Dark Frontier" and it's ilk! It's all the big, direct, two-hour/part confrontations (excluding "Scorpion") that are such junk. There is no clever angle in DF. They just felt they needed another big Borg face-off, and here we are. It's so lazy and tired, all it's ideas are half-baked gimmicks that are barely explored before being tossed aside for the next.

And I always marveled over how improbably successful "First Contact" was at making the Queen work, and here Voyager turns her into the psycho stalker ex of a Lifetime movie. Those humans have done her wrong and are the worst! But her main drive, her obsession, is just to be with (assimilate) them again... ugh. What a mess!

“Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Hope And Fear”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero I”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero II”, VOY Season 7
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7
“Regeneration”, ENT Season 2

 

[Takeru]

Regeneration, Phlox finding an assimilation cure was ridiculous, RIDICULOUS!


“Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Hope And Fear”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero I”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero II”, VOY Season 7
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7

 

[BigDaveX]

Unimatrix Zero II. Both halves of this story were just dreadful, but I'd say the second part was a hair more guilty of making the Borg look like completely ineffectual dumbasses.

“Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Hope And Fear”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero I”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7

 

[Farscape One]

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Unimatrix Zero I”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7


Taking out "HOPE AND FEAR". Sakonna already knows my reasons for this, but I'll say it here.

Seven's realization that she didn't want to return to the Borg was more a C plot, with Arturis and the crew possibly getting home the A and B plot. Given how low Seven's plot in the overall scheme was, I am of the mindset of taking that one out. And the Borg themselves didn't even appear until the very end when Arturis ended up in their space.

For my money, it's among the least Borg-centered episodes on the list.

 

[BlueStuff]

I'm glad part II is gone, as I'm removing Unimatrix Zero, part I. Just a totally drab finale; I was so done with the Borg by this point.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent I”, TNG Season 6
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7

 

[Takeru]

Descent 1, it completely changed the borg and made them almost generic villains, that it was completely ignored in all subsequent borg stories shows what a bad choice this was.


"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7
“Endgame”, VOY Season 7

 

[Sakonna]

It is my pleasure to off "Endgame". What a terrible ending, to so many things -- the Borg, the series, the Queen, that whole era/setting of Trek, before the prequel march began.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Collective”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[BigDaveX]

Collective; could have been worse given the concept, but still, really not that impressive an outing.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Descent II”, TNG Season 7
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[Seven of Five]

I'll stop Descent part 2 from stinking up the list any further. The only part I like about the two-parter is seeing Hugh again, but he never sees Geordi.

Oh yes, the poker scene in part one. Forgot about that one.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Infinite Regress”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[Takeru]

Infinite Regress, it's just not that interesting storywise despite Jery Ryan's great performance.


"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“The Omega Directive”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Removing The Omega Directive. People beat me to all the ones I dislike. This one is just kind of meh. The premise and execution are so neutral, tell its wife it said hello.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Child’s Play”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[BigDaveX]

Child's Play is the only one on this list that I couldn't remember anything about, and I remember liking at least something from all the other ones still here, so I'll give it the chop.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Star Trek: First Contact”, TNG Movie
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[Takeru]

First Contact, the queen was an effective villain in that movie but her inclusion hurt the borg in the long run, instead of a force of nature that couldn't be reasoned with they became a manipulative queen and her lackeys.


"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Unity”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[BlueStuff]

Chakotay really isn’t the guy to focus a Borg story around (or any story, for that matter). So long, Unity.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“The Raven”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[BigDaveX]

The Raven, for the same reason I gave in the Voyager S4 thread - it's not a bad story by any means, but it feels oddly incomplete somehow, and ends right when things are just getting interesting.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6
“Imperfection”, VOY Season 7

 

[Farscape One]

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Drone”, VOY Season 5
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6

Getting rid of "IMPERFECTION". Nothing really wrong with it, it's just all the rest on the list are better.

 

[Sakonna]

Getting rid of "IMPERFECTION". Nothing really wrong with it, it's just all the rest on the list are better.

I was thinking I was about to ding "Imperfection", which I LOVE, but my nitpick was going to be the casual dispensing with of the other Borg children in the first 10 seconds of the teaser. Hope they vetted these parents better than they did Icheb's!

Instead I'll get rid of "Drone", which I also love, but the flaws that mar it are:

1. The Drone's 29th Century Borg get-up is not aging well
2. I really can't stand the way the rest of the crew treat the Doctor whenever his mobile emitter is damaged, and they try to wring comedy out of the Doctor being distressed THAT HE MIGHT SPEND THE REST OF HIS EXISTENCE CONFINED TO A SINGLE ROOM, and the crew don't hide that they find his concerns ridiculous and low-priority. Imagine a crewmember was sent to sickbay hysterical after their legs have been blown off on an away mission, and the Doctor's response is to say chill out, he'll see them in the morning, he's got opera tonight while he swans out of the room. It's gross.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4
“Survival Instinct”, VOY Season 6

 

[ChallengerHK]

For me it's too hard to choose just one, but I wanted to respond to this:

And I always marveled over how improbably successful "First Contact" was at making the Queen work, and here Voyager turns her into the psycho stalker ex of a Lifetime movie. Those humans have done her wrong and are the worst! But her main drive, her obsession, is just to be with (assimilate) them again... ugh. What a mess!

I concur almost wholeheartedly. I was really expecting to hate this idea, and I guess I still do hate the idea, but somehow they manage to pull it off.

The problem I still have is that it really ruins the established notion of the Borg as an antagonist. What made them terrifying was that they were heartless, soul-less, they would never stop, they would never let up, you couldn't reason with them in any meaningful way. With the addition of the Queen, that characterization was lost, and I think that as much as it worked here, it hurt the characterization of the Borg ever afterward. What made the terrifying was their complete and total alien-ness, with its inherent idea that no common ground could ever be possible. With the addition of the Queen, the idea of the Borg (versus the portrayal of the Borg) became the villain of the week.

 

[Seven of Five]

I quite like Survival Instinct with a little look at Seven's life during the collective. It doesn't hold a candle to a lot of others here though.

"Q Who”, TNG Season 2
“The Best Of Both Worlds I”, TNG Season 3
“The Best Of Both Worlds II”, TNG Season 4
“I, Borg”, TNG Season 5
“Scorpion I”, VOY Season 3
“Scorpion II”, VOY Season 4
“The Gift”, VOY Season 4
“One”, VOY Season 4