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| “ | I am the Beginning. The End. The One Who is Many. I am the Borg. | „ |
| ~ The Queen introducing herself to Data. |
| “ | Captain Janeway is about to die. If she has no future, you will never exist, and nothing that you've done here today will happen. | „ |
| ~ The Queen's last words. |
The Borg Queen is a major antagonist in the Star Trek franchise.
She was the female ruler of the pseudo-race of biomechanical entities known as The Borg, resulting in her transformation into one of the main antagonists of the entire Star Trek series due to the fact that almost all atrocities committed by The Borg throughout the course of the series could be contributed to her influence. She is the archenemy to Kathryn Janeway and a major enemy to Jean Luc-Picard as her direct assimilation of Picard, as revealed in First Contact, would haunt him for decades, and likely for the rest of his life.
She was portrayed by Alice Krige - who also portrayed Gillian Booth in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Mary Brady in Sleepwalkers, Holda in Gretl & Hansel, and Christabella in Silent Hill - in Star Trek: First Contact and the series finale episode "Endgame", and Susanna Thompson in Voyager.
An alternate Borg Queen seen in season 2 of Star Trek: Picard was portrayed by the late Annie Wersching in her original body and by Allison Pill when possessing Agnes Jurati.
Biography[]
It is unknown when a Borg Queen first appeared within the Collective, but it is known that she was assimilated around the age of 7-8 and was already present in 2354.
A Borg Queen defined herself as, "I am the beginning... the end. The one who is many. I am the Borg." Although this might suggest she would be an individual within the Collective (while addressing them, she referred to drones as "my drones"), she was not. The purpose of a Borg Queen was to bring order to chaos.
Her appearance was that of a humanoid female of Species 125. In accordance with the Borg pursuit of perfection, a blending of the organic and synthetic, very little of her original humanoid form remained. Her face and upper torso were organic while the rest of her body, including her skull and spinal cord, were synthetic. Because of her disembodiment she saw herself as the epitome of perfection. The Queen had her own chambers within the Borg Unicomplex from which she could oversee and control the Borg via command interface. Whether she had her own ship or not is unknown, but she used different Borg vessels to travel, such as a Borg cube, sphere, or diamond. When her physical presence was not necessary her organic part resided above this chamber while her synthetic parts were stored below it, under the floor. If she desired to do so both could be brought together and in doing so create a humanoid form for herself.
In Human terms, a Borg Queen could be characterized as ruthless. She would do anything to protect the Borg Collective. Where drones showed no emotions, the Queen herself did. When necessary she would employ psychological tactics, like extortion or plain intimidation to get what she wanted. The Queen even displayed self-preservation when she was held at gunpoint by Captain Janeway, who threatened to kill her. On a personal level she considered Seven of Nine her favorite drone, because the Queen considered her to be unique. This had to do with Seven's experiences as an individual when she served aboard USS Voyager. The Queen's goal was to re-assimilate Seven into the Collective to enhance the Borg's, and so her own, perfection. She launched her vessel and followed the Delta Flyer into a transwarp conduit. The attempt failed, but she survived.
The death of a Borg Queen did not seem to affect the Collective or its hive mind. When a Borg drone died, its memories would still be within the hive mind. There was no evidence that a Borg Queen would be more than a drone. Borg drones were capable of functioning without a queen for any length of time by forming a hive mind of their own.
It was thought by Federation exobiologist Erin Hansen that the Borg Queen functioned like the queen of an insect hive, to coordinate the drones. Evidence of this was later seen when the Queen countermanded the Collective's judgment about assimilating Voyager. While the Collective felt that assimilation was warranted, the Borg Queen countermanded them justifying the decision due to the fact that Voyager didn't compromise their security. The Queen, while providing coordination for the drones she commanded, also provided other functions such as regulation of the Borg's transwarp hubs and interspatial manifolds. She effectively brought "order to chaos" for all things.
The Borg Queen that was present in 2377 was assimilated when she was a child, together with her parents. Years later she could still hear them.
The existence of a Borg Queen was first established sometime prior to 2365 by the exobiologists Erin and Magnus Hansen. However, because the Hansens were assimilated, their discovery never reached the Federation. It was not until 2373 that the Federation became aware of her when the Federation starship USS Enterprise-E prevented the assimilation of Earth. This was the second attempt by the Borg, also known as the Battle of Sector 001.
During this conflict, while Captain Jean-Luc Picard was trying to destroy the Borg, the Queen claimed to have been present during the Battle of Wolf 359, and even admitted that Locutus of Borg – the assimilated Picard – was intended to be a singular intelligence – her counterpart, intended to ease the burden of loneliness. However, when Picard continued to resist, even when he could not control Locutus' body, she was regretfully forced to turn him into the form in which Starfleet encountered him, a glorified drone. Whether or not she physically took part in the Battle of Wolf 359 is unknown.
Picard killed the Borg Queen after she tried to persuade Lieutenant Commander Data to give her the encryption code by which he had locked the Enterprise's computer. Data then sides with Picard, stating the Borg credo, "resistance is futile," this time deciding to keep his robot persona, and that the Borg army was too dangerous to be kept alive. After a climactic fight with both Picard and Data, the Borg Queen is brought down by Data. Nerve gas from the warp core plasma coolant released by Data destroyed her organic parts, after which Picard broke her cybernetic spinal cord, ensuring she could no longer function.
The second encounter with a newly revived Borg Queen was in 2375 in the Delta Quadrant. Here the lost Federation starship USS Voyager tried to rescue the former Borg drone Seven of Nine, who was then part of Voyager's crew, when the plan to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg sphere did not work out as planned. The Queen also revealed that the drone Seven of Nine was not really freed by Voyager from the Collective, but allowed to leave by the Borg. During this encounter the Borg Queen hoped to assimilate Seven of Nine again, who experienced life as an individual for two years, and so add to her own perfection. However, Seven rejected the Queen and fled with a rescue mission sent by the Voyager in the Delta Flyer. A Borg vessel was sent by the Queen to intercept the shuttle, but it was destroyed in the attempt.
The Borg Queen was one of several real people adapted into a character in Kelis' play, based on descriptions from B'Elanna Torres.
In 2377, a Borg Queen was again encountered by Voyager. This time the Queen wanted to destroy Unimatrix Zero, a virtual world populated by regenerating Borg with a genetic mutation. This world was discovered by Seven of Nine and posed a threat to the Borg. During Voyager's efforts to rescue this virtual world the Borg Queen demonstrated her powers by destroying a Borg sphere because she could no longer "hear" only one drone. When a nanovirus was released to prevent the detection of Unimatrix Zero, the Queen destroyed several Borg vessels, killing 75,000 Borg drones in the process, in the hope of persuading the captured Captain Janeway to give her the antidote.
The last encounter between a Federation starship and a Borg Queen was in 2378, and again Voyager played a part in it. Voyager accidentally discovered a Borg transwarp hub within a nebula and were helped by Admiral Kathryn Janeway, who came from an alternate timeline around twenty-three years in the future, to use the Borg transwarp network to get back to the Alpha Quadrant. Because the Borg guarded their transwarp hub closely, Admiral Janeway devised a plan by which she would infect the Borg Queen with a neurolytic pathogen and in doing so making her lose control over the force fields which protected the interspatial manifolds. When the admiral was captured by the Borg, near the unicomplex, she was assimilated by the Borg Queen herself. Soon after the Queen began to lose control over drones. The pathogen even made her lose control over her own synthetic parts, as her body literally fell apart. Her death caused the destruction of the unicomplex and despite her efforts Voyager reached Earth safely. The Borg sphere sent after them by the Queen was destroyed by Voyager's transphasic torpedoes, given to them by the admiral from the future. After the Queen's death and the destruction of the Borg sphere, Voyager has finally returned to the Alpha Quadrant after spending seven years of being stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
However, as shown in Star Trek: Picard, the Borg Queen survived, but with most of her Collective dead, she was forced to cannibalize her remaining drones to survive, and the virus she was infected with did a serious number to her physical appearance. With her sole remaining Borg Super-Cube surviving at 36% capacity, she struck a deal with a group of rouge Changelings led by Vadic, who also sought revenge on the Federation for the events of the Dominion War, and using some of Jean-Luc Picard's surviving Borg DNA from his time as Locutus, Vadic's Changelings infiltrated Starfleet and uploaded the DNA into the transporter codes. This led to many Starfleet personnel to be infected with the Borg DNA, but only those younger than the age of 25 would become assimilated, such as Geordi La Forge's daughters Sidney and Alandra. In the meantime, the Queen bided her time until Frontier Day in the year 2401, when Starfleet was celebrating uniting the fleet under the Fleet Formation protocol on the 250th anniversary of the maiden voyage of USS Enterprise (NX-01). At the same time, Jean-Luc's estranged son, Jack, found the Borg Super-Cube and confronted the Queen, but she was able to convince him into surrendering and being assimilated, becoming Vox, the voice of the Borg Collective, successor to Locutus. Once Jack became Vox, the Queen's endgame was unleashed. All over Starfleet, the younger crewmembers like the La Forge daughters were assimilated into loyal Borg Drones, following the command "Eliminate the unassimilated" and killing countless older Starfleet personnel, including Fleet Admiral Elizabeth Shelby, who had done everything with anti-Borg sentiment in mind, even what the Changelings intentionally wanted her to do, only to see the Fleet Formation be used against the Federation, just as the Changelings planned.
However, Jean-Luc and the senior staff of the Enterprise-D/E were able to escape and bring the rebuilt Enterprise-D out of storage at the Fleet Museum, traveling to Jupiter where the Queen and her Super-Cube were hidden in the Big Red Spot of Jupiter's surface. Meanwhile, with Starfleet assimilated, the Queen had it open fire on Spacedock, the only fortified space station protecting the Earth and maintaining the planetary shield. Once Spacedock fell, the Earth would be ripe for the harvest.
When Jean-Luc finds the Queen and Jack/Vox, with little other choice left to him, he willingly plugs back into the Borg Collective, momentarily being reminded of when he became Locutus of Borg, and tries to convince Jack to leave the hive mind. Jack initially refuses, but when Picard offers to join him in it forever out of love, this snaps Jack free of the hive mind, and he severs his connection to it, refusing to let Picard suffer being Locutus again out of his love for Jack. At the same time, the Enterprise-D destroys the beacon maintaining the Queen's control of Starfleet, triggering a catastrophic self-destruct of the Super-Cube. The Queen accosts Jack for his betrayal and how he'll be alone in the universe now, but Jack snarls back that he won't be alone as he has his father Jean-Luc and his mother, Beverly Crusher, to support him. The Queen still believes they will die with her as the Super-Cube blows up, but the Enterprise-D arrives and beams Jean-Luc, Jack, Riker, and Worf to safety before making its escape, to the Queen's fury.
| “ | Borg Queen: You were born here and you will DIE here! Jack: It's done! The time of the Borg is OVER! Borg Queen: As are you! Even if somehow you survived, you will be different, changed, broken, ALONE! Jack: No...No, I am NOT alone! (The Enterprise-D arrives and beams Picard, Jack, Riker, and Worf to safety before making its escape) Borg Queen: NO! Borg Collective: Command signal interrupted. Continue last directive. (The assimilated Starfleet prepares to bombard Earth now that it was vulnerable, while aboard the Titan, the assimilated younger crewmembers finally reach the bridge and prepare to eliminate Seven of Nine, Raffi, and the other unassimilated crew members) Borg Queen: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! (As the Super-Cube is ripped apart, the Enterprise-D escapes to safety while back at Earth, with the Queen dead and her signal destroyed, the assimilated are returned to normal, but are horrified when they realize what they had done and almost did as Seven of Nine is relieved it is over) Seven of Nine: They did it. Sidney LaForge: Commander...I'm-I'm sorry...I'm... (Seven of Nine gives her a reassuring hug, and Sidney breaks down in guilt-ridden, grief-stricken tears) Seven of Nine: It's over. |
„ |
| ~ The end of the Borg once and for all |
With Jack gone, the fleet and assimilated default back to their last order to eliminate all unassimilated. Spacedock had also fallen at long last, shutting down the Earth's planetary shield, and Earth was helpless, with all of its major cities and capitals now being targeted for destruction, but just as the assimilated La Forge daughters and their crewmates prepare to kill Seven of Nine, Raffi, and their senior crewmates and Earth is about to be bombarded by Starfleet, the destruction of the Queen and her Super-Cube severs the connection completely, and the assimilated are returned to normal, horrified by the atrocities they had or almost committed and traumatized for life by what they had done or almost did under the Queen's control before the Borg Collective was destroyed once and for all by the Enterprise and her crew.
With the Queen dead permanently, Beverly Crusher, promoted to Admiral and head of Starfleet Medical, then implements a process in the teleporter system to purge the Borg DNA from the infected so they will never be assimilated again, while Vadic's remaining Changelings inside Starfleet and the Federation are also weeded out and taken into custody, with the ones they were imitating being returned safely and unharmed.
With the Borg gone for good, save for the more benevolent faction Picard helped previously led by Queen Jurati, the 25th Century opens with the Federation finally able to close a dark chapter in its history.
Personality[]
The Borg Queen was a supremely lethal and highly intelligent being. She was a calm and iron-wrought leader of the Borg empire, but beneath this serenity sat a sadistic, cruel and relentless lust for power and dominance over whatever planet and species she encountered. She also had a xenophobic, elitist and Social-Darwinist view over other organic life forms, viewing them as only fit to either be destroyed or assimilated to her vast ranks. She also referred to herself as 'The Borg' in a narcissistic way, meaning that she was the dominant species in the galaxy, not the leader of the dominant species of the galaxy. These traits are textbook demonstrations of a calculating megalomaniac.
Trivia[]
- The appearance of the Borg Queen in First Contact was a controversial one in the Star Trek universe. Though the Borg provided for a threatening and intriguing alien enemy, their lack of a single villain presented a challenge for the writers. To counter this, and to expand some on the original notion of the Borg as an insect-hive type of race, they created the Borg Queen as a focal point for their story.
- In 2002, the Borg Queen was placed second in TV Zone's list of the top twenty science fiction television villains.
- Consequently, many different theories have developed over the role of the Queen and the extent to which she may have represented a hierarchical structure in the previously supposed-to-be Collective nature of the Borg. The exact nature of the Queen is still hotly debated and has many possible explanations. When Data asked her about this in First Contact, she openly denied simply controlling the Collective, and said that she was the Collective, and claimed to "bring order to chaos" when Data tried to get a clearer explanation. He considered her response "interesting, if cryptic."
- One theory regarding the creation of a Queen is that "queens" are members of a specific race, one that was chosen because its females exhibited superior higher-order brain processing-speed, and were therefore assimilated and bred for that purpose.
- Alice Krige suffered much discomfort throughout the movie. Her costume was too tight, causing blisters, and the silver contacts she had to wear were so painful, they could only be kept in for four minutes at a time.
- The writers of Star Trek: Enterprise planned to address the backstory of the Borg Queen in its fifth season. However, the series was cancelled before this could be realized.
Gallery[]
