How to one-up a big unstoppable? Why, make a bigger unstoppable stopping the big stoppable and place bets as to how long before they get diluted!
VOY: "Scorpion, Part I" (2021)
After TNG's arc ended and the big-screen flick "First Contact" watered down the Borg as a big budgeted gimmick, the franchise had two choices, of which one would become inevitable, but that was
not the immediate choice taken. The choice taken at this point was to do a big shake-up with a new enemy that the Borg could not defeat or assimilate, all while returning the Borg to their origins of feeling like a Collective again, a la its original premise. And what better place than the Delta Quadrant, because if anybody were to say the Borg were created by humans and that their leader was actually Mr Rogers, nobody's going to believe you. Dang, I need to rewatch this one again.
VOY was shrewd and thoughtful in how they would utilize the Federation's big bad wolf (not 359). Indeed, there is even some rivalry between Janeway and Chakotay that sweetens the pot and the plot.
Now I use "thoughtful", even though the 2-parter is still more spectacle and a little gimmicky, as Species 8472 really feels more like a gimmick, in their own fluidic space that somehow opens into ours without causing a big puddle anywhere. It's still, IMHO, better than STFC was and it was a gamble. Plus, there's no Queen in this one either and everyone acts as if there's no such thing as a Queen. At least, for now.
Part two and the handling of Seven is really well done, with no easy solution for the Borg menace, while continuing to successfully sell Borg as a genuine threat, with a conclusion that satisfied.
There's also a need to mention John Rhys-Davies, who generally looks for roles he can relish, and really sells holographic character DaVinci, who is
surprisingly integral to the plot, what with the line "When one's imagination cannot provide an answer, one must seek a greater imagination" and, indeed, VOY resurrecting the Borg gave them a whole new life, on multiple fronts - but more on that later... plus, nice since Picard uttered "merde" in early-TNG did we get a non-English real life naughty phrase quietly woven in: "Che cazzo". Which, loosely translated, means "what the F-word" (or "What the hell", but that's a bit merde,
innit?).
Speaking of fronts, along with making the Borg the Borg again, which is impressive as nothing really compared to TNG's first two stories in crafting this big bad of a threat. We get a fresh take on deborgifying someone and helping them to reclaim humanity as a contuining saga or character arc. Someone who was integrated into the Collective for decades, and this opened up a TON of narrative possibilities for both this new character (7 of 9), crew interactions (good and bad), as well as exploring the Borg even more... Humanizing 7 was the better of the two continual themes but, for a while, the Borg remained fairly strong - but would finally became fragile paperweights complete with centralized systems for quick'n'easy plot victories, but in VOY's run that hasn't happened yet. This story just paves the way for new adventures, and where they took those hadn't happened yet. It's so well done that it can't be the bottom of any list.
(Footnote: There's a reason "Q Who" is not the better of the two of these remaining Borg stories, which I do place higher than the others, having sat here drinking a cup of coffee mixed with caffeine-plus cola because I don't drink booze anymore. My ex did, likely still does, but I'll explain later why "Q Who" is, of these four TV episodes, last place (which isn't terrible since they're all good-to-great)...)
(Sadly, in amongst the memberberries Janeway belts out, the logs don't mention the scooped outposts prior to Q flinging anyone anywhere, and the big sweeps week retcon in ENT based somewhat on STFC hadn't been scripted yet.)
DRAMA! And it's not the only bit of great scenes in this!
One of many great Borg moments and it's neat how they are already tinkering with augmenting the USS Voyager ship. Indeed, "Q Who" even seeded a possibility about exploring relations one day, and "Scorpion" is the best possible result.
What's left:
TOS: "Mirror, Mirror" (2011, 2015)
TOS: "The Doomsday Machine" (2019, 2021)
TOS: "Journey To Babel" (2017)
TAS: "The Pirates Of Orion" (2019)
TNG: "Q Who" (2021, 2023)
TNG: "The Measure Of A Man" (2013)
VOY: "Meld" (2011)
VOY: "Year Of Hell, Part I" (2025)
VOY: "Timeless" (2023)
VOY: "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy (2019)
VOY: "Blink Of An Eye" (2017)
ENT: "Azati Prime" (2013, 2017)
ENT: "United" (2011, 2021)
DIS: "If Memory Serves" (2021, 2023)
DIS: "Project Daedalus" (2019)
DIS: "Species Ten-C" (2025)
PIC: "Remembrance" (2021)
PIC: "Imposters" (2023)
SNW: "Children Of The Comet" (2023)
SNW: "Memento Mori" (2025)
PRO: "Kobayashi" (2023)
Feature: "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" (2023)
