My Borg tweets yesterday about the #StarTrekPicard finale got a lot of questions about the Borg story in season 2 featuring Jurati and what impact that had on the Borg and the queen in season 3. So let’s clarify and sort out what we saw and what it all means.
In 2375, Voyager returned home thanks to the help of Admiral Janeway who infected the Borg Queen with a neurolythic pathogen. The Borg’s transwarp hub was destroyed, and the Collective seemed to go quiet.
Over the next 20 years, there were limited encounters between Starfleet ships and the Borg. The USS Protostar encountered a dormant Borg Cube in the mid-2380s, and at some point a Cube (maybe the same one) is incapacitated after assimilating a Zhat Vash ship.
We now know during this time the Borg Queen was badly injured by Janeway’s pathogen. She began consuming the rest of the Collective to sustain her essence while she waited for her ultimate failsafe plan to become active, and the child of Jean-Luc Picard to fulfill her purpose.
All of this happened, and nothing about the plot of season 2 changes it. The Borg Queen encountered in that season, Jurati’s journey with her, and their Borg Collective, are separate and distinct from the Borg Queen of our timeline.
What does that look like? Q went back in time and changed history by interfering with the Europa Mission at a critical juncture on the road between the Federation and something much darker.
Q made it so that the Picard in the alternate future was the Picard of history before it was altered. In the alternate timeline Picard perceives himself to wake up in, the fascistic Confederation of Planets had destroyed the Borg and captured the Queen.
This alternate timeline Borg Queen merged with Dr. Agnes Jurati after going back in time to 2024 during the events of season 2, and together they decided to found a new Borg Collective based on fellowship and consent rather than forcible assimilation.
With the timeline restored to normal, does this mean they’re the only Borg now? No, absolutely not. They are a new separate and special thing. During the Battle of Wolf 359? These Borg are somewhere else recruiting new members.
Indeed, the Federation doesn’t encounter them until the events of season 2 when they arrive to help the Federation save lives in the face of the opening of a wormhole/transwarp conduit/whatever.
Need more proof? Captain Shaw basically lays all this out with one line in “No Win Scenario.”
“Forget about all that weird shit on the Stargazer. The real Borg are still out there!”
He just didn’t know how close they were.
And so, when Picard and Jack defeat the Borg Collective, they defeat the Collective we first met in “Q Who?” and the Queen we first met in “Star Trek First Contact.”
Meanwhile, the Jurati Borg, or Borgati if you will, are still out there. Being very different from the Borg we’ve met before.
The End.
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I’m not even commenting on the supposed “mistake” of Kovich/Daniels referring to his service on the “USS” Enterprise because it’s symbolic of everything that’s wrong right now with the obsession with canon and continuity. Everything can *only* refer to what’s already seen…
…on screen, it’s impossible to create something new or a slightly different interpretation, and things fitting together is a hill to die on and not an adventure to be embraced.
I am a huge fan of canon and continuity, but it has absolutely broken many fans’ ability to…
…process new stories in established universes. In my opinion, this philosophy is part of the reason why the otherwise excellent Disco epilogue gets bogged down by the completely unnecessary Calypso tie in. I don’t think it added anything to Disco or Calypso.
Sorry to the STO fans who are losing their minds about #StarTrekPicard not lining up with the video game story but…a TV show with millions of viewers was never going to slavishly hew to a video game with a few thousand players. Sorry that was just never going to happen.
I’m very happy for STO players that parts of the game were canonized. But you knew this was coming because there was already precedent for this with the books. The shows took a few things from the books and dumped the rest. It’s how it was always going to be.
And you’re wrong if you think somehow the story of the video game was more important than the story of the books. They both have small and passionate audiences.
Enjoy your win! The Enterprise F is canon, just like book fans enjoy their win that the Luna class Titan is canon.
…with tons of excitement about season 2, and season 3 seeming very likely.
- Animated #StarTrek has never been better, as current Trek appeals to all audiences.
BUT
- #StarTrekDiscovery was canceled, and it’s obvious it wasn’t what was planned.
- #StarTrek showrunners are pushing hard in tweets and the press for more for their shows. Trying to sway the studio?
- Merchandising and events, which really felt like they were on the upswing last year, have crashed HARD in 6 months.
Man, why is it that every time there’s some kind of big discussion about anything related to new #StarTrek, everyone just behaves like complete lunatics? On one side you’ve got the “is this what Star Trek has become?” crowd hell bent on grinding their axe about what they hate.
And honestly, on the other side, waaaay too many defenders of current #StarTrek jump into hyper defensive mode. Even the most tepid “I’m not sure I like this” gets met with a “get over it, things change” tidal wave that is just so aggressive.
I get that’s largely a learned response from the early days of #StarTrekDiscovery where fans like me felt like we were maybe in a bit of a small minority and we needed to get loud and proud because the hate was just so relentless.
The decision to make Section 31 the next best thing to public knowledge in #StarTrekDiscovery was such a bad choice. Partially because it doesn’t fit what we know about the group from the other shows, but more because it just doesn’t work.
Section 31 works as the dark side to the Starfleet’s noble values if it is a secret. Because the cool nugget of an idea DS9 tried to explore is that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody is doing the dirty work even in a 24th century utopia.
But if everyone in Starfleet knows about S31 - and there’s not a single Disco character who even feigns a “never heard of them” - then there’s nothing there to explore. In fact, you’re just saying Starfleet is consciously making morally suspect choices out in the open.