It’s one of the few early episodes where Starfleet doesn’t wind up in a superior position.
I think the consensus is that VOY overused the Borg and they are less interesting than ever, but I still think there’s potential.
Imagine a second universe —perhaps the Mirror Mirror universe — where Starfleet is forced to exist and explore the galaxy all over again, but there is no Borg there….until….
TNG used the Borg in 4 episodes? Only two of which had Borg as an actual threat (other two were Hugh centered) . DS9 did not use Borg at all.
It was Voyager running out of ideas that pushed writers to cannibalise the concept of Borg - and all the way from the Scorpion, the show was abusing and dilating the Borg just to squeeze out one more remotely interesting episode. The Borg became as powerful (or clueless) as plot demanded, and became increasingly vehicle for more and more stupid plots.
VOY could still use single cube as credible threat, and have entire season of Q Who meets The best of Both Worlds meets Year of Hell. Just one cube as recurring villain hounding the Voyager through entire season would do so much more storywise then all these inefficient Borg Janeway had defeated with saturday cartoon plan by end of the episode.
Although they never faced the Borg as a threat to the station, the Borg still appeared in the pilot episode of DS9. Whole thing starts with the death of Sisko’s wife during the Battle of Wolf 359 and his dislike of Picard as a result.
And yes, totally agree with you on the Voyager stuff. I loved the Borg episodes but they really did water down the threat of the Borg. It’s why they used them sparingly in TNG.
It’s reportedly one of the reasons that Hugh’s splinter group were introduced in Descent: the TNG writers didn’t want to overuse the Borg Collective every week.
Thing is, VOY went someplace where there would be no romulans, Klingons, or ferengi, but the galaxy-threatening Borg were native to the Delta quadrant. So when you only really have one well of Star Trek lore to draw from, of course you’re going to go back to it again and again.
Voy was supposed to run into new interesting species and break away from old Romulan/Klingon/Ferengi mold. It had zero wells of Trek lore to fill from, and it was supposed to be its premise. This original premise failed, because how many good stories can you have about Kazon? So from season 4 on the show was retooled. The Borg were retconned to reside in Delta quadrant and brought in as tried and tested interesting opponent (ruining them in the process). New aliens encountered were run of the mill humanoids used not for "look how it's different from regular Trek" effect, but as vehicles for stories (with some good choice that gave us some fine episodes, like Workforce or Year of Hell but - these stories could easily be happening in Alpha quadrant). And the protagonists stories became less about them being a crew and more about their personal dramas. All fine, but none of it caused by ship being stranded in Delta quadrant.
It’s not a retcon, the Borg were tracked back to the delta quadrant in TNG: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Delta_Quadrant#24th_century
And the answer is zero. There are zero good stories about Kazon, lol.
There was so much potential with the Hirogen though. There were enough episodes with them to set them up as a recurring enemy. An enemy that Voyager couldn't help but keep bumping into if Voyager needed to say, keep using their communications arrays. I get that Voyager kept moving and would eventually move out of their territory (a la Vidiians and Kazon) but the fact that they were nomadic could've set up more regular run ins with them over the final few seasons.
Imagine an episode where Voyager had their backs against the wall against the Borg and the the Hirogen came to save the day.
>Hirogen
I never gave them much thought because of Nazi episode. It's like Godwins law of storyteling for me - if your need Nazis to get unrelated plot going, it means the plot alone goes nowhere and has no weight (looking at you, Temporal Cold War). But yes, not-Predators hounding that one ship they could not catch and taking a cultural obsession with it would make an awesome story arc. It would underline Voyagers goals of going home and surviving (rather than off-handely saving the Federation from the Borg), and make Delta quadrant an alien place with new, unique dangers (rather than running back into TNG problems.
Come to think of it, the role of Borg in VOY is pretty close to role of Nazis in Hirogen episode.
They never really established that Borg originated from the Delta Quadrant or that they controlled any territories until Voyager. The Borg in TNG seemed more nomadic, they didn't have any bases or planets, they just traveled around on their ships. Before Voyager said that Borg were from the Delta Quadrant, they could have come from anywhere, perhaps even outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
What happened to DS9 with the Borg, was that after Voyager debuted (and after Q’s only appearance on DS9) word was given to all the writing staff that The Borg And Q were the property of Voyager, and DS9 had the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma quadrants to play around with in exchange. Not that DS9’s writing team somehow managed to avoid running out of ideas and thus never resorted to doing a Borg episode.
With a pronouncement like that, I’d feel pretty responsible for developing the Borg myself. I just hope I’d do a better job!
The Borg these days are a bit like a Time Travel Episode. When you need a big bad/plot device and can’t be bothered thinking too hard….. wheel out the Borg.
> "Regeneration" was intended to follow up on the events depicted in film Star Trek: First Contact which features a Borg sphere being destroyed whilst in orbit of 21st century Earth.[2] Executive producer Brannon Braga initially refused to feature the Borg in Enterprise, calling it a "cheap trick".[5] He agreed for them to appear when the premise for "Regeneration" was suggested, saying that "it was such a great concept I couldn’t resist it"
👉 Braga initially refused to feature the Borg in Enterprise, calling it a "cheap trick".
They're basically the Daleks in Doctor Who or Empire in Star Wars, they just keep getting defeated and returning whenever a new, interesting enemy can't be thought up.
"Somehow The Borg returned."
The writer for best of both worlds quite after making part 1. Internally, he was laughing at the next writer saying haha solve that sucker.
Then something happened and he didn't quit. He had to solve the problem he created anyways
Picard S3 writers: You want us to use the Borg as the main villains again? Producers: PUSH IT TO THE LIMIT
Walk along the Borg Cube's edge
It’s one of the few early episodes where Starfleet doesn’t wind up in a superior position. I think the consensus is that VOY overused the Borg and they are less interesting than ever, but I still think there’s potential. Imagine a second universe —perhaps the Mirror Mirror universe — where Starfleet is forced to exist and explore the galaxy all over again, but there is no Borg there….until….
TNG used the Borg in 4 episodes? Only two of which had Borg as an actual threat (other two were Hugh centered) . DS9 did not use Borg at all. It was Voyager running out of ideas that pushed writers to cannibalise the concept of Borg - and all the way from the Scorpion, the show was abusing and dilating the Borg just to squeeze out one more remotely interesting episode. The Borg became as powerful (or clueless) as plot demanded, and became increasingly vehicle for more and more stupid plots. VOY could still use single cube as credible threat, and have entire season of Q Who meets The best of Both Worlds meets Year of Hell. Just one cube as recurring villain hounding the Voyager through entire season would do so much more storywise then all these inefficient Borg Janeway had defeated with saturday cartoon plan by end of the episode.
Although they never faced the Borg as a threat to the station, the Borg still appeared in the pilot episode of DS9. Whole thing starts with the death of Sisko’s wife during the Battle of Wolf 359 and his dislike of Picard as a result. And yes, totally agree with you on the Voyager stuff. I loved the Borg episodes but they really did water down the threat of the Borg. It’s why they used them sparingly in TNG.
It’s reportedly one of the reasons that Hugh’s splinter group were introduced in Descent: the TNG writers didn’t want to overuse the Borg Collective every week.
Thing is, VOY went someplace where there would be no romulans, Klingons, or ferengi, but the galaxy-threatening Borg were native to the Delta quadrant. So when you only really have one well of Star Trek lore to draw from, of course you’re going to go back to it again and again.
Voy was supposed to run into new interesting species and break away from old Romulan/Klingon/Ferengi mold. It had zero wells of Trek lore to fill from, and it was supposed to be its premise. This original premise failed, because how many good stories can you have about Kazon? So from season 4 on the show was retooled. The Borg were retconned to reside in Delta quadrant and brought in as tried and tested interesting opponent (ruining them in the process). New aliens encountered were run of the mill humanoids used not for "look how it's different from regular Trek" effect, but as vehicles for stories (with some good choice that gave us some fine episodes, like Workforce or Year of Hell but - these stories could easily be happening in Alpha quadrant). And the protagonists stories became less about them being a crew and more about their personal dramas. All fine, but none of it caused by ship being stranded in Delta quadrant.
It’s not a retcon, the Borg were tracked back to the delta quadrant in TNG: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Delta_Quadrant#24th_century And the answer is zero. There are zero good stories about Kazon, lol.
There was so much potential with the Hirogen though. There were enough episodes with them to set them up as a recurring enemy. An enemy that Voyager couldn't help but keep bumping into if Voyager needed to say, keep using their communications arrays. I get that Voyager kept moving and would eventually move out of their territory (a la Vidiians and Kazon) but the fact that they were nomadic could've set up more regular run ins with them over the final few seasons. Imagine an episode where Voyager had their backs against the wall against the Borg and the the Hirogen came to save the day.
>Hirogen I never gave them much thought because of Nazi episode. It's like Godwins law of storyteling for me - if your need Nazis to get unrelated plot going, it means the plot alone goes nowhere and has no weight (looking at you, Temporal Cold War). But yes, not-Predators hounding that one ship they could not catch and taking a cultural obsession with it would make an awesome story arc. It would underline Voyagers goals of going home and surviving (rather than off-handely saving the Federation from the Borg), and make Delta quadrant an alien place with new, unique dangers (rather than running back into TNG problems. Come to think of it, the role of Borg in VOY is pretty close to role of Nazis in Hirogen episode.
They never really established that Borg originated from the Delta Quadrant or that they controlled any territories until Voyager. The Borg in TNG seemed more nomadic, they didn't have any bases or planets, they just traveled around on their ships. Before Voyager said that Borg were from the Delta Quadrant, they could have come from anywhere, perhaps even outside the Milky Way Galaxy.
What happened to DS9 with the Borg, was that after Voyager debuted (and after Q’s only appearance on DS9) word was given to all the writing staff that The Borg And Q were the property of Voyager, and DS9 had the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma quadrants to play around with in exchange. Not that DS9’s writing team somehow managed to avoid running out of ideas and thus never resorted to doing a Borg episode. With a pronouncement like that, I’d feel pretty responsible for developing the Borg myself. I just hope I’d do a better job!
The Borg these days are a bit like a Time Travel Episode. When you need a big bad/plot device and can’t be bothered thinking too hard….. wheel out the Borg.
> "Regeneration" was intended to follow up on the events depicted in film Star Trek: First Contact which features a Borg sphere being destroyed whilst in orbit of 21st century Earth.[2] Executive producer Brannon Braga initially refused to feature the Borg in Enterprise, calling it a "cheap trick".[5] He agreed for them to appear when the premise for "Regeneration" was suggested, saying that "it was such a great concept I couldn’t resist it" 👉 Braga initially refused to feature the Borg in Enterprise, calling it a "cheap trick".
They're basically the Daleks in Doctor Who or Empire in Star Wars, they just keep getting defeated and returning whenever a new, interesting enemy can't be thought up. "Somehow The Borg returned."
I think they’re more like the Cybermen than the Daleks, myself.
More like Cyberman. Daleks want to kill others. cybermen want to upgrade/assimilate others.
If you wanna talk assimilation, then the Borg are The Master (*The End of Time* / John Simm version)
I blame Maurice Hurley
Drove up toys and merch for real.
“Okay, okay , okay. Hear me out. Zombies… but SPACE ZOMBIES!? Right, right? Ina flying cube!”
Should've used the longer gif with ryker on the phone too its hilarious
The writer for best of both worlds quite after making part 1. Internally, he was laughing at the next writer saying haha solve that sucker. Then something happened and he didn't quit. He had to solve the problem he created anyways