The Borg were conceived of as the ultimate Star Trek antagonists. Yet like the Klingons, and Romulans, and even the Ferengi before them, decades worth of appearances have complicated this. Now, in the Trek galaxy’s darkest hour, the Borg have finally come full circle, becoming the heroes interstellar civilization needed, if not the ones they deserved.
When the Borg debuted in 1989, in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 episode “Q Who?” they were unlike anything that had been encountered before in the franchise. They were an utterly alien form of life, living beyond the “final frontier” as anyone in the Alpha Quadrant, or in Trek’s writers’ room, had previously understood it up to that point. They were also terrifying. Not just in their appearance, but in their status as a hive mind with a singular drive to expand and overwrite all individual life they come across.
Borg lore got its first major revision with the introduction of the Borg Queen in 1996’s Star Trek: First Contact. That put a face on the Borg. It gave the collective a leader. The Borg’s first true act of heroism, coming thirty years after that, is the end result of this shift from anonymous, faceless monsters to a complex, and not inherently villainous, member of the Trek galaxy’s community of civilizations.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for the Star Trek: The Last Starship finale!
The Borg Save The 31st Century In The Dramatic Conclusion To “The Last Starship”
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In Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, Agnes Jurati became the Borg Queen. The exact nature of the Queen has been debated, and updated, over the years since First Contact, and this was another new development. The idea that someone could “ascend the Borg throne,” so to speak. Star Trek: The Last Starship, set six hundred years later, made Born Queen Jurati a central character, and in the process, delivered Trek’s most nuanced take on the Borg yet.
Jurati resurrected Captain Kirk to help save the galaxy after the Burn (introduced in Star Trek: Discovery), and spent much of the series as an ally, though not all of it. In one pivotal chapter of Last Starship, Jurati seemed to lose faith in her vision of a Borg “cooperative,” and decided to go back to assimilating everyone the old-fashioned way. Crucially, though, Kirk managed to talk her down. Originally, the Borg were meant to be a force of nature, akin to a swarm of locusts, that couldn’t be reasoned with. Which shows just how far the Borg have come in almost 40 years of Trek continuity.
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In The Last Starship #12, the series’ final issue, the Borg take another great leap forward, with a voluntary transfer of power. Borg Queen Jurati passes her Borg nanites to Captain Delacourt Sato, commanding officer of the U.S.S. Omega. (Technically making him the first Borg King in franchise history, as well, though his reign lasts only seconds.) Sato sacrifices himself, not only saving what’s left of the galaxy, but also saving Captain Kirk and the now human again Agnes Jurati.
Trek Finishes Agnes Jurati’s Story After Her Cliffhanger Ending In “Picard”
The Last Starship #12, By Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, & Adrián Bonilla
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The Last Starship’s use of the Borg, throughout the series, but especially in its climactic moments, fulfills their longtime trajectory in Star Trek canon. The Borg aren’t a mystery to Trek fans anymore, nor to the people of the Alpha Quadrant. That familiarity means they can’t play the same fearsome role they originally did, and Last Starship owns that, making the most of Picard’s creative decision to make Agnes Jurati the Borg Queen.
Last Starship wraps up that storyline, and even manages to give Jurati and James T. Kirk a not-tragic ending. What it means for the Borg, though, is an open ended question. It does show, however, that the Borg can co-exist a part of the Star Trek galaxy, rather than being an unstoppable force trying to conquer it.
Star Trek: The Last Starship #12 is available now from IDW Publishing.
What do you think of what the Borg have become in Star Trek? Let us know!
Star Trek is one of pop culture’s biggest multimedia franchises, spanning multiple movies, TV shows, books, comics, video games, and various other media. The franchise was created by Gene Roddenberry and started with the 1960s TV series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Over the decades, several equally popular series have come out since as Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Discovery.
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