Season 2
Episode 16
Director Robert Bowman
Written By Maurice Hurley

A new over zealous kadette spills chocolate all over captain Picard. When Picard arrives at his quarters to change his clothes he encounters Q. Q abducts him into a shuttlecraft and takes him far into space. Picard, who is not very happy to see Q accepts to listen to a suggestion from Q. With a snap of Q's fingers, Picard is back on the Enterprise. On the Enterprise Guinan and Q meets and looks at eachother with disgust and horror. An earlier encounter between the two of them is apparent...

Q wants to be a part of the crew to boost his self esteem after being excluded from the Q continuum. When Picard says no with emphasis, Q tells them of horrors to come and that they need him. When the final answer is no, Q snaps his fingers and Enterprise finds itself in Borg space, 7 000 light-years from their original position. Guinan tells them to turn around at once but Picard feels obliged to explore the region. Soon they encounter a Borg cube, curious as they are, they want to learn more, but soon they realize the danger when part synthetic intruders begin to pop up and investigate and try to control the ship. The cube becomes hostile and locks on to the Enterprise with a tractor beam and uses a laser beam to cut out a chunk of the ship, killing 22 crewmen. Picard orders to fire and damages the cube up to 20 percent. It seems to be dead in the water, so an away team beames into the cube where the terrible truth is disclosed, the cube is only regenerating and it happens fast. It will not take long before it is fully restored.

The away team returns immediatley and the Enterprise leaves. The cube is in persuit and is gaining on the Enterprise all the time even though LaForge accomplishes a speed of warp 9.69.

Now Q appears again and Picard gives him what he wants - praise. When Q hears that he is needed, he snaps his fingers and the Enterprise is back where they were. Q leaves and Picard is thankful that Q showed them the Borg, even if it was for the wrong reasons.

This is the episode where the Borg is introduced to Star Trek. It is an interesting episode well worth watching. There are excitement mixed with an interesting plot. There are much to learn about the Borg i this episode.

Part I Season 3
Episode 26
Director Cliff Bole
Written By Michael Piller

Part II Season 4
Episode 1
Director Cliff Bole
Written By Michael Piller

The Enterprise-D receives orders to investigate the destruction of a Federation colony, when investigating they just see a big hole in the ground where the colony used to be. They soon conclude that the Borg are the perpetrators. Lt commander Shelby who is an expert on the Borg assists them. A Borg cube is detected not far away and the Enterprise pursues it, engages it and is outmatched by the cubes firepower. They take shelter in a nebula but when the cube can not see them on there scans, it start to fire randomly thus forcing the Enterprise out. During this critical situation, there are a power struggle between Riker and Shelby since Shelby wants to replace Riker as Picard's first officer if Riker accepts an offered assignment as captain of the Melbourne. However, Riker is happy where he is. What further increases the dangerous situation is that three drones appears on the bridge and kidnappes the captain.

Riker is appointed captain and faces the challenge to replace captain Picard. His first priority is to stop the cube that is on its way to Earth. His first plan is to slow down the cube so that he can carry out Picards plans to use the deflector disc as a powerful weapon against the cube. He sends an away team to take out the distribution nodes on one section so that the cube will have to stop for repairs - the mission is a success but they encountered Picard - assimilated. Picard hails, calls himself "Locutus of Borg" and commands them to unconditionally surrender. Riker uses the deflector disc without success. Locutus informs them that they know everything that Picard knew, including their plan with the disc. The cube continues towards Earth and soon the Enterprise receives news from the federation defence line at Wolf 359 that the 39 vessels cannot stop the cube. Enterprise soon arrives and finds a large amount of vessels, completely destroyed - including the Melbourne. They continue to chase the cube and finally catch up with it. Armed with new unorthodox strategies Riker hails Locutus and negotiates, only to find his location. Riker creates a diversion and sends an away team that manages to rescue Locutus.

The cube goes on like nothing has happened but when Data creates a link to Locutus to try to go around his implants and manages to make Picard somewhat aware of himself, the cube realises the dangerous situation and stops and attacks Enterprise. Picard who now with a struggle, can communicate somewhat, suggests to data, saying only the word "sleep". Data soon understand that Picard wants him to plant the command "sleep" in their collective consciousness. When he does just that, every drone in the cube thinks that it should regenerate. The entire cube stops and all activity ceases. Riker receives the choice to let it self-destruct or to save the cube, gives the order to leave it for self-destruction.

Picard is fully recovered and takes command of the Enterprise again. Shelby realises that Riker is very capable first officer and that if he wants to stay on the Enterprise, she should respect that, and so she does.

This is the best episode that I have seen. It has a very good story. It is very exciting and manages to keep it exciting throughout the whole episode. If you have not seen it, you should. It is the best Borg episode ever made and perhaps the best episode of all Star Trek. It even received an Emmy award!

Season 5
Episode 23
Director Robert Lederman
Written By Rene Echevarria

The enterprise is looking for planets that humanity can colonize when they detect a crashed ship. They send down an away team that find a Borg scout ship with four dead drones and one drone with vague life signs. The doctor persuades Captain Picard to beam the drone up for humanitarian reasons. Picard comes up with a plan to destroy the entire Borg collective by planting a virus in the drone and then send it back to the collective. LaForge and the doctor are assigned to accomplish the task but when LaForge gets to know the drone and gives it a name, he is having second thoughts about the plan. Hugh start to understand and soon regain his individuality and LaForge confronts the Captain with his concern. The Captain is not concerned by the news and decides to continue the plan until the first, pessimistic Guinan, manages to persuade him to at least look Hugh into his eyes before killing his whole race. When Picard confronts Hugh, he is recognized as Locutus. Picard tests Hugh by telling him to assist him in assimilating the Enterprise and when Hugh says "I will not", Picard realizes that he is an individual. Hugh is granted asylum but declines because he wants to protect the crew and above all - LaForge who has become his friend.

This is an episode with a strong Borg theme with much information about the Borg collective. The biggest quality is the focus on the relationship between Hugh and LaForge and Hugh's feelings. It is not much tension, it is a smart episode with focus on relations instead of action.

Part I Season 6
Episode 26
Director Alexander Singer
Written By Jeri Taylor

Part II Season 7
Episode 1
Director Alexander Singer
Written By Rene Echevarria

The Enterprise-D receives a distress call from a colony. When they investigate, they see that everyone is dead and that Borg drones have infiltrated the station. However, these drones do not seem to have a collective mind and act more like fighting klingons. Data kills a drone with his bare hands and feels something for the first time of his existence. The Enterprise is attacked by a strange looking "Borg" ship. They return fire and follow it when it leaves, but it gets away through a transwarp conduit. Data tries to determine what the feelings were down at the colony. After some thought he realizes that, it was anger and pleasure. The star fleet sends more ships to the area but it is near the Enterprise the next assault takes place - coincidence? In this encounter, the Borg beams over two drones to the bridge of Enterprise as a way to take their attention off them. One drone dies and the other is still alive but wounded. The ship is going for a conduit and enters but the Enterprise is dragged into is as well.

The drone is questioned and left in Data's care but the drone pushes a button on his arm that sends a signal to Data that make him easier to persuade to come with the drone and accomplish his life long quest to be able to feel feelings. Data and the drone escapes in a shuttlecraft and opens a conduit, but this time the Enterprise get the readings they need to open the conduit and follow. They find themselves at a planet without life signs but with signs of life. When they investigate, they find the abandoned shuttle and soon Picard, Troi and Geordi discover a building. When they enter, the Borg captures them. Data's evil brother Lore leads the drones and Data has now joined his brother. Lore has a strong power over Data whose "conscience" is disabled. The drones place the prisoners in a cell and Geordi is soon an object for experiments.

On the same time Riker and Worf searches for them and meets some friendly drones that take them to Hugh. Hugh is hiding with a small group that is against Lore. He is reluctant at first but he helps them to find a way into the building even though he will not follow them in. In orbit, Beverly is in charge of the Enterprise. She fights the "Borg" ship and has to retreat. She retreats to the sun where the hostile vessel cannot enter and creates a distortion in the sun that creates a burst from the sun into the alien vessel, which explodes.

Inside the cell, Captain Picard manages to disable a drone and steals a part of its transceiver, which he uses to reboot Data's program, and in that way start up his ethical program. Now Data starts to question Lore and when Lore asks him to kill Picard, he refuses. Lore is about to kill Data when Hugh has changed his mind and saves Data. At the same time, Worf and Riker open fire and crates confusion among the drones. Lore realises his defeat and goes into another room to transport away when Data follows him and disables him even though Lore offers him his own emotion chip.

After some persuasion, Hugh decides to try to lead the group of drones and hope to learn to work as a group of individuals.

This episode is really great. It is well written and the story provides many thrilling moments. Much of the focus is on Data and his relationship both with Geordi and Lore. That, with the right proportions of action, is what makes this episode so interesting. It is one of the better episodes that I have watched.