The Borg

Background information

The Borg were initially conceived by Maurice Hurley as a race of insectoids. Hurley wrote in to "The Neutral Zone" a plot point that Federation and Romulan starbases along the Romulan Neutral Zone had been mysteriously wiped out, having been "scooped off" the face of the planet in the same way that would later be referenced in "Q Who" and shown in "The Best of Both Worlds". This was intended to lead into a series of episodes that would have introduced the Borg as a main villain in the wake of the Ferengi's complete failure to meet with audience expectations of a major Starfleet antagonist. Unfortunately, the Writer's Guild strike of 1988 prevented this, as well as many other concepts, from coming to fruition in TNG's early days. By the time they made their first appearance in "Q Who", the villain species had been changed from insect to the more budget-friendly cyborg form. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, pp. 169, 180)

Michael Westmore revealed the Borg actors were glued into their suits, and had to be unglued if they needed to use the bathroom. [1]

The idea for the sound of the Borg's multiple voices speaking in unison was thought up by sound editor Bill Wistrom and co-producer Merri Howard. After experimenting with different techniques, they discovered a way to lay multiple voices over one another and "make it sound like it was 8 million people," explained Wistrom. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 147, p. 32)

The first known in-universe chronological appearance of the Borg to humanity was in the 1996 motion picture Star Trek: First Contact, in which the Borg traveled back to the year 2063 to enslave the Human race. The writers of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Regeneration", Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong stated, in the audio commentary on the ENT Season 2 DVD release, that it was their explicit intent to have the episode deal with the consequences of events depicted in Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg wreckage encountered in that episode being the debris of the Borg sphere destroyed by the USS Enterprise-E in that movie.

While it is not explicitly stated in "Q Who", Q implies that the sole interest of the Borg is in the technology of the USS Enterprise-D, and the Borg show no interest in that episode in the crew (although the segment of hull the Borg remove from the ship apparently contained several crew members). In their next appearance, "The Best of Both Worlds", this changed premise was referenced in dialogue that the Borg's objectives had changed to assimilation of lifeforms. Subsequent episodes ignored the changed premise entirely.

Through the course of Star Trek history, further retroactive continuity changes appear to have been made in respect of the Borg. As of "Q Who" and "The Best of Both Worlds", it appeared that Starfleet had never heard of the Borg. Subsequently, Star Trek: Enterprise's "Regeneration" and Star Trek: Voyager's "Dark Frontier" showed that not only was Starfleet previously aware of the existence of the Borg, Federation scientists actually pursued them – even if they were considered mere rumor. Further, although Guinan indicates in "Q Who" that her people were attacked by the Borg, it is implied that Starfleet was not aware of the threat. However, it was later revealed in Star Trek Generations that Starfleet, in fact, rescued the El-Aurian survivors of the Borg attack including Guinan, and it seems unlikely that Starfleet would not inquire as to the cause of their plight.

The Borg were considered as an enemy for the Deep Space 9 crew (along with the Klingons, Cardassians, and the Romulans) when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was in development. Rick Berman later commented, "The Borg are not the kind of bad guys that are practical to use on a regular basis." The Cardassians were eventually chosen for the main villain role and the Borg made no further appearances in Deep Space Nine after "Emissary", although they were mentioned in episodes such as "The Storyteller", "Playing God", "The Search, Part I", "The Way of the Warrior", "Let He Who Is Without Sin..." and "In Purgatory's Shadow". (Star Trek - Where No One Has Gone Before) According to Robert Hewitt Wolfe, following the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager, a mandate was passed to the writing staffs of both Deep Space Nine and Voyager that the Borg (along with Q, who also made one appearance on Deep Space Nine) were only to be used on Voyager while Deep Space Nine retained creative control over the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Quadrants, which Wolfe called "a fair trade." (citation needed • edit)

The Borg were considered by some to be the greatest villains of Star Trek: The Next Generation. However, they were featured in only six episodes throughout its seven-year run. The creators have stated that this was due to the fact that the Borg were so powerful, it was not easy to come up with solutions for beating them. However, as time passed and future series went into production, the concept of the Borg would evolve to include inherent flaws that could be exploited in many different ways – leading them to appearing in nineteen episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (although in only a fraction of these appearances were the Borg the primary villains; many episodes had them in supporting or otherwise non-antagonistic roles). This generous use caused many fans to complain that the Borg were being used too often on Voyager. TNG, DS9, and one-time VOY writer Ronald D. Moore once said of their perceived overuse, the Borg had been defeated so many times, that they had "lost their teeth". (citation needed • edit)

The existence of the Borg Queen was a controversial change made to the Borg during the writing of Star Trek: First Contact. While the writers had intended to stay true to the original concept of the Borg as a collective hive, they found it difficult to maintain the dramatic impact of villains without a central face. Thus, they created the Queen. In the film, she claimed to have been present during the events of "The Best of Both Worlds", which in retrospect would appear to have negated the reason for Picard's assimilation in that episode (it was claimed that the Borg needed a single representative to speak for them). While the Queen appeared to be killed at the climax of First Contact, she apparently survived unaffected by the Borg's next appearance in Voyager's "Scorpion". While many fans have attempted to reconcile this, there has never been an official explanation for her survival (save for an enigmatic comment by the Queen ), and the appearance of relatively identical Borg Queens in later episodes. Some, though, have theorized that the Borg Collective contained many queens that served as focal points to different branches of their society. Still another explanation is that the Borg were in possession of innumerable copies of the Borg Queen and that the superficial death of one version simply resulted in the activation in a similar version to take her place in a similar fashion to the Vorta. The latter theory was corroborated by Rick Berman in an interview in Star Trek: Communicator. (Star Trek: Communicator issue 121)

Following "Regeneration" and the season it was in, ENT Season 2, Brannon Braga stated, "We have no plans to see the Borg ever again." (Star Trek: Communicator issue 145, p. 30)

In 2006, the Borg were honored with their own DVD box set Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg, featuring a number of their more memorable appearances in the Star Trek universe.

Apocrypha

In the alternate timeline seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine book series Millennium, the Borg forged an alliance with the Federation to defeat Weyoun. The entire Borg collective was destroyed along with the universe. This entire timeline was later reset thanks to Benjamin Sisko.

In an alternate timeline in Star Trek: Armada, the Borg succeed in conquering the Alpha Quadrant. Using a clone of Locutus, the Borg manage to assimilate Spock, kill Worf, and assimilate Earth. The timeline was reset thanks to Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E.

In the game Star Trek: Legacy, an alternate explanation was given to the creation of the Borg which states that the probe V'ger created the Collective to serve as its heralds in its search for knowledge. However, the creation of the Borg Queen resulted in the creation of an entity that abandoned the original intent of V'ger. This is also similar to the Shatnerverse version of events.

In the current volumes of the Next Generation Relaunch series of novels, the Borg have been driven to near extinction as a result of the Starship Voyager's destruction of the Queen and the transwarp conduit network. However, they begin to reconstruct the Collective by building a massive cube in the Alpha Quadrant, in order to launch a vengeful new offensive against the Federation; their first strike results in the assimilation of Admiral Janeway and the destruction of Pluto before the Enterprise-E manages to destroy the cube with the original Doomsday Machine.

In Star Trek: Destiny a history of the Borg was presented. They were survivors of the Caeliar Gestalt and the crew of the Earth ship Columbia NX-02 thrown back in time and into the Delta Quadrant following an attack on a Caeliar city ship. The Caeliar forced the Humans into a perverted form of their Gestalt (a mental linking of the Caeliar) based upon the will of the last surviving Caeliar and not the whole. They launched a final attack of Federation space with over 7,000 cubes at their disposal; however, they were stopped after the Caeliar were made aware of their responsibility for the Borg's actions. The Collective was dismantled and the assimilated Borg drones were accepted into the Caeliar's gestalt. Former drones fully regained their individuality (as evidenced by Seven of Nine's remaining implants dematerializing). This was followed up in the novel Full Circle. Q later noted that this timeline's invasion was provoked by Admiral Janeway's trip to the past in "Endgame", reflecting that, if she had done nothing, the Borg would have eventually launched a massive assault on the Milky Way galaxy centuries in the future that would have completely assimilated all other life. The Voyager relaunch novel Unworthy explores the aftermath of the destruction of the Borg, including some Federation scientists trying to harness remaining Borg technology and Voyager encounter a vast fleet called the "Indign" consisting of species who actually wanted to be assimilated but were considered unworthy of that "honor" by the Borg.

The comic book series Star Trek: Countdown shows that Nero's ship, the Narada, was enhanced with a mixture of Romulan and Borg technology. The sequel miniseries Star Trek: Nero has the Borg, the Narada and V'ger originating from an unknown civilization on the "machine planet" that was seen inside V'ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Star Trek: The Manga provided a different story to the creation of the Borg, with an experiment gone wrong to save a race through the daughter of one of the 1,000 or so survivors. Cybernetic implants, along with DNA from nine different species designed to keep a disease from spreading caused the girl to go insane and gain a twisted idea of saving her people. However, the intervention of Captain James T. Kirk made the situation even worse, as the laboratory where she was augmented collapsed and was sucked into a black hole. But, an escape pod with the girl was launched, and apparently catapulted far into the past by the slingshot effect, where her cybernetic implants and DNA evolved to where she became the very first Borg Queen.

In the MMORPG Star Trek Online, the Borg have resurfaced after thirty years and have conquered several Federation sectors, including the Mutara sector. The Borg of 2409 look much more like zombies, with some of their cybernetic implants looking like bones coming out of their bodies.

The comic book crossover series Star Trek: The Next Generation - Doctor Who: Assimilation² involves a plotline in which the Cybermen of the Doctor Who universe alter time in order to form an alliance with the Borg. The united cyborg force proves to be a devastating threat to the Federation, but the two races end up turning against each other, with the Cybermen going to war with the Borg and forcing the Enterprise-D to ally with the Borg to restore the Collective and vanquish the Cybermen

[source: memory-alpha.wikia.com ]