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(Redirected from Borg (fictional aliens))
The 'Borg' are a race of cyborgs in the fictional Star Trek universe, first introduced in the '' TV series. They are characterized by relentless pursuit of targets for assimilation, their collective consciousness that enables rapid adaptability to almost any defence, 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."
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 assumed to be short for ''cyborg'' ('''cyb'ernetic 'org'anism''). 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 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.
The Borg first appear in the '' episode "Q Who?", when Q transports the ''Enterprise''-D to the Delta Quadrant to challenge Jean-Luc Picard's assertion that his crew is ready to face the galaxy's dangers. Q describes the "insatiable" Borg as "the ultimate user." When the ''Enterprise''-D is outclassed (and beaten badly) by the Borg cube, Picard asks for and receives Q's help in bringing the ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. At the episode's conclusion, Picard suggests that Q did "the right thing for the wrong reason" in that Starfleet now can prepare for further contact with the Borg. The episode suggests that the Borg may have been responsible for the disappearance of Federation colonies in the first-season finale, "".[1]
The Borg next appear in ''The Next Generation''' s third-season finale and fourth-season premiere, "". In the third-season cliffhanger, Picard is captured and assimilated by the Borg and turned into Locutus. The Borg defeat a Starfleet force at Wolf 359 in the fourth-season premiere, although Picard later is rescued and the Borg ship is destroyed. The aftereffects of Picard's assimilation are addressed in the following episode, "". The Battle of Wolf 359 itself is depicted in the '' pilot, "", and the death of protagonist Benjamin Sisko's wife at the battle is a source of conflict between him and Picard in that episode.[2]
In "I, Borg", the ''Enterprise'' crew rescues a solitary Borg who is given the moniker "Hugh". The crew face the decision of whether to use Hugh, who develops a sense of independence, as a means of delivering a devastating computer virus that would destroy the Borg.[3]
"" follows up on this episode, depicting a group of Borg affected by Hugh and subsequently controlled by Lore, an android himself. With their new sense of individuality but their new fragility caused by their independence on a collective mind, Lore ensnares a group of rogue Borg, using an appeal to their emotions, to serve him. In "Descent" Lore uses emotions to control Commander Data, who cannot resist the feeling of pleasure through murder.
The Borg are the antagonists in the film ''. They travel back in time in an attempt to assimilate Earth before Zefram Cochrane's first contact with Vulcans. The movie also introduces the character of the Borg Queen, a recurring character in ''.
The Borg make frequent appearances in '', which takes place in the Delta Quadrant. Flashbacks and allusions in several episode, such as "The Raven", establish that the Hansen family studied the Borg in the Delta Quadrant.
The Borg's first appearance in ''Voyager'' is in "Blood Fever". Chakotay discovers a population of ex-Borg of various species in "Unity".
In "Scorpion", the ''Voyager'' crew devise a defense against Species 8472, who have inflicted heavy losses on the Borg and which the Borg are unable to assimilate. The crew offers the Borg their technique in exchange for safe passage through Borg space. Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 is dispatched to ''Voyager'' to facilitate this arrangement. After ''Voyager'' crosses Borg space, Seven of Nine is severed from the hive mind and becomes a member of ''Voyager''' s crew. Seven of Nine's rediscovery of her humanity becomes a recurring plot point of the series.
In "Drone", an advanced Borg drone is created when Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter in a transporter accident. The drone, who adopts the moniker "One", involuntarily sends a signal to the collective, bringing a sphere to ''Voyager''. One destroys the Borg ship and lets himself die to save ''Voyager''.
In "Dark Frontier", after recovering Borg data nodes from a destroyed Borg probe ship, Janeway uses 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. The Borg Queen learns of the plot and communicates to Seven of Nine an offer to spare ''Voyager'' if Seven rejoins the collective. ''Voyager'' recovers the transwarp coil and uses it, with the ''Delta Flyer'', to save Seven from the Queen. ''Voyager'' uses the transwarp coil to travel 20,000 light-years.
In the ''Voyager'' finale, "", a version of Janeway from a future alternate timeline travels back in time to aid in ''Voyager''' s return to the Alpha Quadrant. This Janeway allows herself to be assimilated, delivering a neurolytic pathogen that disrupts the Borg to the point of killing the Borg Queen and destroying the Borg Unicomplex. ''Voyager'' uses a transwarp hub to travel back to the Alpha Quadrant.
A group of Borg, although not described as such in dialog, discovered in the Arctic in "Regeneration" send a transmission toward the Delta Quadrant. According to dialog, their transmission would reach its destination in 200 years. The episode's events prompt characters to allude to Zefram Cochrane's claims that "strange cybernetic creatures from the future" tried to with first contact.
In the non-canonical '', 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's, the future Borg Queen, consciousness for those cured.
In the Star Trek novel ''Probe'', which takes place following the events of '', 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.
The novel ''Vendetta'' reveals that the planet killer weapon from the ''Original Series'' episode "The Doomsday Machine" is a prototype for a weapon against the Borg.
'' introduced the Borg Queen (played in that movie by Alice Krige). The Borg Queen is the focal point within the Borg collective consciousness and a unique drone within the collective who originates from Species 125 that brings "order to chaos", referring to herself as "we" and "I" interchangeably.
In ''First Contact'', the Borg Queen is apparently present during Picard's assimilation and was destroyed on that cube. The Queen was also seemingly destroyed in at least three other instances: during ''Star Trek: First Contact'', "Dark Frontier", and "". In the attraction , 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.
In the ''Star Trek: Voyager'' relaunch novels, the Borg Queen isn't a single, irreplaceable entity, but the product of a program called "The Royal Protocol" that shares its name with a Starfleet document outlining requirements when dealing with foreign royalty. This program is used to create a Borg Queen from any female Borg, commanding the technology in said Borg to alter and adapt to the Protocol's specifications. In the relaunch novels, one of the leaders of Starfleet Intelligence gets her hands on "The Royal Protocol" and, with the use of an Emergency Medical Hologram, turns herself into a new kind of Borg Queen who cares about and loves her drones.
Main articles: Assimilation (Star Trek)
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.
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. ('': "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 '', 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.[4]
Because assimilation depends on nanoprobes, species with an extremely advanced immune system such as Species 8472 are able to withstand assimilation.
In William Shatner's novel ''The Return'', Spock is nearly assimilated by the Borg, but is saved by the fact that he mind-melded with V'ger. This is because, according to Shatner's novel, the alien race that found V'ger was an earlier form of the Borg. Spock was saved from assimilation because he had part of the Borg Collective in his mind after he mind-melded with V'ger.
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 , 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.
In the episode of called "", we learn from Gedrin, before he and his people were put into suspended animation over 800 years ago, the Borg were just a few assimilated colonies inside the Delta quadrant and viewed somewhat like a minor pain. Now awake in the in 24th century, he's amazed to see that the Borg control a vast area of the Delta quadrant. This gives the impression that the Borg came into existence somewhere in 15th or 16th century.
In a chapter of ''Star Trek- The Manga'' the Enterprise travels back in time and unintentionally creates the start of the Borg.
It is speculated in the ''Star Trek Encyclopedia'' that there could be a connection between the Borg and V'ger, the vessel encountered in '' (''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, 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 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.
The Borg appear as antagonists to the player in the following Star Trek game titles:
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''Star Trek Elite Force II''
★ ''Starfleet Command III''
★ ''Star Trek Legacy''
Activision at one point planned to release '', in which the player would play a Borg, but later canceled the game.
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).
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.
The term "The Borg" has also been utilized by critics of Microsoft to denote that
organization as well as being a derogatory term for Finns used by western expatriates who have lived for longer periods of time in Finland and found the culture to be overly conformist and technocentric.
1. The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Okuda, Mike and Denise Okuda, with Debbie Mirek, , , Pocket Books, 1999, ISBN 0-671-53609-5
2. , , Terry J., Erdmann, Pocket Books, ,
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Nemeck, Larry, , , Pocket Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-5798-6
4. ''Star Trek Voyager'': "Scorpion" Parts 1 and 2
★ 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)
★ List of fictional assimilating races
Includes episodes listing
★ Borg documentary at the Star Trek website
★ Borg article at the Star Trek website
The 'Borg' are a race of cyborgs in the fictional Star Trek universe, first introduced in the '' TV series. They are characterized by relentless pursuit of targets for assimilation, their collective consciousness that enables rapid adaptability to almost any defence, 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."
Overview
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 assumed to be short for ''cyborg'' ('''cyb'ernetic 'org'anism''). 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 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.
Depiction
''Star Trek: The Next Generation''
The Borg first appear in the '' episode "Q Who?", when Q transports the ''Enterprise''-D to the Delta Quadrant to challenge Jean-Luc Picard's assertion that his crew is ready to face the galaxy's dangers. Q describes the "insatiable" Borg as "the ultimate user." When the ''Enterprise''-D is outclassed (and beaten badly) by the Borg cube, Picard asks for and receives Q's help in bringing the ship back to the Alpha Quadrant. At the episode's conclusion, Picard suggests that Q did "the right thing for the wrong reason" in that Starfleet now can prepare for further contact with the Borg. The episode suggests that the Borg may have been responsible for the disappearance of Federation colonies in the first-season finale, "".[1]
Borg in the Enterprise's Main Bridge
The Borg next appear in ''The Next Generation''
In "I, Borg", the ''Enterprise'' crew rescues a solitary Borg who is given the moniker "Hugh". The crew face the decision of whether to use Hugh, who develops a sense of independence, as a means of delivering a devastating computer virus that would destroy the Borg.[3]
"" follows up on this episode, depicting a group of Borg affected by Hugh and subsequently controlled by Lore, an android himself. With their new sense of individuality but their new fragility caused by their independence on a collective mind, Lore ensnares a group of rogue Borg, using an appeal to their emotions, to serve him. In "Descent" Lore uses emotions to control Commander Data, who cannot resist the feeling of pleasure through murder.
''Star Trek: First Contact''
The Borg are the antagonists in the film ''. They travel back in time in an attempt to assimilate Earth before Zefram Cochrane's first contact with Vulcans. The movie also introduces the character of the Borg Queen, a recurring character in ''.
''Star Trek: Voyager''
The Borg make frequent appearances in '', which takes place in the Delta Quadrant. Flashbacks and allusions in several episode, such as "The Raven", establish that the Hansen family studied the Borg in the Delta Quadrant.
The Borg's first appearance in ''Voyager'' is in "Blood Fever". Chakotay discovers a population of ex-Borg of various species in "Unity".
In "Scorpion", the ''Voyager'' crew devise a defense against Species 8472, who have inflicted heavy losses on the Borg and which the Borg are unable to assimilate. The crew offers the Borg their technique in exchange for safe passage through Borg space. Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01 is dispatched to ''Voyager'' to facilitate this arrangement. After ''Voyager'' crosses Borg space, Seven of Nine is severed from the hive mind and becomes a member of ''Voyager''
In "Drone", an advanced Borg drone is created when Seven of Nine's nanoprobes are fused with the Doctor's mobile emitter in a transporter accident. The drone, who adopts the moniker "One", involuntarily sends a signal to the collective, bringing a sphere to ''Voyager''. One destroys the Borg ship and lets himself die to save ''Voyager''.
In "Dark Frontier", after recovering Borg data nodes from a destroyed Borg probe ship, Janeway uses the information to plot an attack against a nearby damaged Borg scout ship to retrieve a transwarp coil to aid in ''Voyager''
In the ''Voyager'' finale, "", a version of Janeway from a future alternate timeline travels back in time to aid in ''Voyager''
''Star Trek: Enterprise''
A group of Borg, although not described as such in dialog, discovered in the Arctic in "Regeneration" send a transmission toward the Delta Quadrant. According to dialog, their transmission would reach its destination in 200 years. The episode's events prompt characters to allude to Zefram Cochrane's claims that "strange cybernetic creatures from the future" tried to with first contact.
Other media
In the non-canonical '', 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's, the future Borg Queen, consciousness for those cured.
In the Star Trek novel ''Probe'', which takes place following the events of '', 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.
The novel ''Vendetta'' reveals that the planet killer weapon from the ''Original Series'' episode "The Doomsday Machine" is a prototype for a weapon against the Borg.
Borg Queen
Borg Queen in First Contact
'' introduced the Borg Queen (played in that movie by Alice Krige). The Borg Queen is the focal point within the Borg collective consciousness and a unique drone within the collective who originates from Species 125 that brings "order to chaos", referring to herself as "we" and "I" interchangeably.
In ''First Contact'', the Borg Queen is apparently present during Picard's assimilation and was destroyed on that cube. The Queen was also seemingly destroyed in at least three other instances: during ''Star Trek: First Contact'', "Dark Frontier", and "". In the attraction , 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.
In the ''Star Trek: Voyager'' relaunch novels, the Borg Queen isn't a single, irreplaceable entity, but the product of a program called "The Royal Protocol" that shares its name with a Starfleet document outlining requirements when dealing with foreign royalty. This program is used to create a Borg Queen from any female Borg, commanding the technology in said Borg to alter and adapt to the Protocol's specifications. In the relaunch novels, one of the leaders of Starfleet Intelligence gets her hands on "The Royal Protocol" and, with the use of an Emergency Medical Hologram, turns herself into a new kind of Borg Queen who cares about and loves her drones.
Assimilation
Main articles: Assimilation (Star Trek)
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.
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. ('': "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.
Jean-Luc Picard as Locutus after assimilation
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 '', 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.[4]
Because assimilation depends on nanoprobes, species with an extremely advanced immune system such as Species 8472 are able to withstand assimilation.
In William Shatner's novel ''The Return'', Spock is nearly assimilated by the Borg, but is saved by the fact that he mind-melded with V'ger. This is because, according to Shatner's novel, the alien race that found V'ger was an earlier form of the Borg. Spock was saved from assimilation because he had part of the Borg Collective in his mind after he mind-melded with V'ger.
Origin
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 , 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.
In the episode of called "", we learn from Gedrin, before he and his people were put into suspended animation over 800 years ago, the Borg were just a few assimilated colonies inside the Delta quadrant and viewed somewhat like a minor pain. Now awake in the in 24th century, he's amazed to see that the Borg control a vast area of the Delta quadrant. This gives the impression that the Borg came into existence somewhere in 15th or 16th century.
In a chapter of ''Star Trek- The Manga'' the Enterprise travels back in time and unintentionally creates the start of the Borg.
It is speculated in the ''Star Trek Encyclopedia'' that there could be a connection between the Borg and V'ger, the vessel encountered in '' (''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, 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 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.
The Borg in computer games
The Borg appear as antagonists to the player in the following Star Trek game titles:
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''
★ ''Star Trek Elite Force II''
★ ''Starfleet Command III''
★ ''Star Trek Legacy''
Activision at one point planned to release '', in which the player would play a Borg, but later canceled the game.
The Borg as a cultural allusion
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).
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.
The term "The Borg" has also been utilized by critics of Microsoft to denote that
organization as well as being a derogatory term for Finns used by western expatriates who have lived for longer periods of time in Finland and found the culture to be overly conformist and technocentric.
References
1. The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Okuda, Mike and Denise Okuda, with Debbie Mirek, , , Pocket Books, 1999, ISBN 0-671-53609-5
2. , , Terry J., Erdmann, Pocket Books, ,
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Nemeck, Larry, , , Pocket Books, 2003, ISBN 0-7434-5798-6
4. ''Star Trek Voyager'': "Scorpion" Parts 1 and 2
Further reading
★ 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)
See also
★ List of fictional assimilating races
External links
Includes episodes listing
★ Borg documentary at the Star Trek website
★ Borg article at the Star Trek website
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