BEHIND-THE-SCENES: REAL SCIENCE WITH ANDRE BORMANIS [Voyager]'s science consultant, story writer, teleplay writer random picture of André Bormanis every page load

THE BORG In [TNG: Q Who?], the entity known as Q (seen in [Voyager] stories [#34 Death Wish], [#53 The Q And The Grey] and [#165 Q2]), hurls the Federation Starship USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D across seven thousand light-years of space into the path of a Borg cube. In that distant sector of the Alpha Quadrant (the Borg originated in, and dominate a large part of, the Delta Quadrant) occurred humankind's first official contact with the Borg as the Enterprise crew were forced to engage in a nearly fatal battle. In fact, it turns out later that this was not humankind's very first encounter with the Borg, as portrayed in [Enterprise: Regeneration], although that incident occurs due to Borg drones being stranded on Earth after the time-travelling incident depicted in [Star Trek VIII: First Contact]. scientists with a Borg drone body, unaware of the danger, [Enterprise: Regeneration] a Borg drone aboard USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, [TNG: Q Who?]     another picture Borg drones, [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier] The Borg are composed of a variety of humanoid species that have been "assimilated" from numerous worlds across the galaxy. Their biological systems are enmeshed with various cybernetic components that merge each individual into a collective consciousness. Individual will is bent to the will of the Borg Collective. The Borg are relentless consumers of material resources and possess no morality or conscience in their pursuit of 'perfection'. They appropriate any species and technology that will serve the will of the Collective, which is simply to grow like a cancer, without purpose, without regard for the lives their assimilation process destroys. Tuvok and Janeway on board a Borg cube, [#68 and #69 Scorpion] Borg drone on board USS Voyager, [#68 and #69 Scorpion] Borg influence even extends to Galactic Cluster 3, where they assimilated the omnicordial lifeforms known as Species 259 [#70 The Gift]. The Borg do not assimilate all species they encounter, sometimes rejecting those that might detract from the Borg goal of perfection, such as the Kazon who, although encountered in the Gan sector, grid 6920, were deliberately not assimilated [#80 Mortal Coil]. Janeway's personal computer on which she calls up every Starfleet record on the Borg, [#68 and #69 Scorpion] Janeway: "In the words of Jean-Luc Picard: 'In their Collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy, driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason.' And then there's Captain Amasov of the Endeavour: 'It is my opinion that the Borg are as close to pure evil as any race we've ever encountered.'" During an attempted Borg incursion into the Alpha Quadrant in 2366, some 11,000 Starfleet personnel were killed in action at the Battle of Wolf 359. (The figure is given in [TNG: The Drumhead].) The Borg benefitted at first from the knowledge of Jean-Luc Picard, captain of USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, whom the Borg assimilated as their representative with the Borg designation Locutus (in Latin: one who speaks), but his crew managed to rescue him and sever his link with the Borg Collective and restoring his humanity. Amasov's log excerpt derives from that encounter, and Picard's log obviously derives from his experience with the Borg. Janeway cites the example of Locutus when, at the end of 2373/start of 2374, in [#68 and #69 Scorpion], she enters into an uneasy alliance with the Borg and gets them to produce a single drone capable of acting as their representative. That drone turns out to be Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One, who later joins the Voyager crew with the shortened name Seven of Nine, or Seven. Thanks to Seven, the Voyager crew learn a good deal of information about the Borg. Picard as Locutus of Borg, intended as a flashback from [TNG: The Best Of Both Worlds], seen in [Star Trek VIII: First Contact] Seven of Nine realises she is not only severed from the Borg Collective but that many of her cybernetic implants have been removed and her human immune system is beginning to re-assert itself, [#70 The Gift] Starfleet vessels defend against a Borg cube [Star Trek VIII: First Contact] In 2373, the Borg launched a second attempt to assimilate Earth. Although Federation Starfleet was successful in stopping the Borg attack, a single Borg sphere, containing the Borg Queen, escaped into a temporal vortex, to Earth's 21st century. In the past, the Borg attempted to prevent space pioneer Zefram Cochrane from making Earth's first faster-than-light flight in 2063. The crew of the USS Enterprise-E, following the Borg sphere into the past, ensured that Cochrane was able to make the critical first warp flight in his ship, the Phoenix. These events are alluded to, and the name Cochrane's ship given, in [#76 and #77 Year Of Hell] when, in 2374, in an eventually unrealised timeline, Kim and Torres while away the time in a broken down turbolift until they are rescued by playing a trivia quiz game. the Phoenix in flight, [Star Trek VIII: First Contact] The Borg have been in existence for thousands of years [TNG: Q Who?]. The Borg were known to the Vaadwaur nearly nine hundred years before USS Voyager encountered the last of the Vaadwaur species in 2376 [#127 Dragon's Teeth]. The Borg implant themselves with cybernetic devices, giving them great technological and combat capabilities. Different Borg drones are equipped with different hardware for specific tasks. Each Borg drone is tied into a sophisticated subspace communications network, forming the Borg Collective, a shared consciousness in which the idea of the individual is a meaningless concept, and indeed individuality is actively suppressed by a device that is aboard every Borg ship and which is called the Vinculum [#101 Infinite Regress]. All Borg drones are linked together in a great collective through which information was shared, while each drone has access to the sum of Borg knowledge, retaining information useful to its specific role in the collective [#89 The Omega Directive]. Borg drones on board ship work in a decentralised environment with no specific bridge, engineering or living areas apart from alcoves where drones regenerate [TNG: Q Who?]. inside a Borg facility, as remembered by Seven, [#162 and #162 Workforce] The Borg Collective, sometimes called the Hive by non-Borg, is governed by a Queen. The Borg operate by conquering entire worlds, assimilating civilisations and technology. Individual members of assimilated races are implanted with sophisticated cybernetic implants, permitting each individual to perform a specific task as required by the Collective. Thousands of worlds across the galaxy have been conquered in this fashion. The Borg are responsible for the near-extinction of many peoples, including Arturis', whom the Voyager crew encounter in late 2374 in [#94 Hope And Fear], the Caatati whom the Voyager crew give generous aid in early 2374 in [#71 Day Of Honor], and the race designated by the Borg as Species 10026 [#109 and #110 Dark Frontier]. After the dissolution of Voyager's alliance with the Borg, most but not all the Borg technology which the Borg had introduced into Voyager's systems is removed. For instance, the power couplings on Deck 8 are left as they seem to work better using the Borg technology, [#68 and #69 Scorpion]. According to Seven, the Borg are capable of reactivating drones as much as 73 hours after clinical death. Using Borg techniques, she resurrects Neelix from the dead after he is fatally injured on an away mission. This is depicted in [#80 Mortal Coil]. Borg feature in numerous other [Voyager] stories apart from those noted above and below in text or picture captions. These other stories include [#96 Drone], [#122 Survival Instinct], [#139 Child's Play] re Icheb, and [#146 and #147 Unimatrix Zero]. See Borg Index especially Lifeforms entry. The Borg spacecraft are of different sizes and are geometric in shape - cube, sphere, diamond. The Borg cube is the largest. Borg spacecraft are capable of travelling at transwarp speed through transwarp conduits. The principle is described by Seven to a hologram of Reg Barclay in 2377, in [#152 Inside Man]. There are only six transwarp hubs in the galaxy, providing the Borg with the means to travel almost instantaneously over vast distances throughout the galaxy into any of the Quadrants. The crew of USS Voyager, aided by the Kathryn Janeway from the future, manage to destroy a transwarp hub and the Borg Queen, and successfully utilise a transwarp conduit to travel to the Alpha Quadrant, arriving less than one light-year from Earth. These momentous events are depicted in the series finale [#171 and #172 Endgame]. Borg transwarp hub, [#171 and #172 Endgame] The Borg are perhaps the most chilling villains ever encountered in the Star Trek universe. Their name derives from the term cyborg, which is short for cybernetic organism. Their relentless determination to assimilate everything in sight is one of their most frightening qualities. They remind me of a comment once made by naturalist and environmental activist Edward Abbey: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer." People have made use of simple prosthetic devices for centuries. An artificial leg made of wood or plastic can help a person walk, but prosthetics as such cannot be connected to the human nervous system. A person's mind, therefore, cannot command a simple prosthetic to move; the prosthetic must be designed in such a way that muscles can manipulate the prosthetic to perform the desired function. The science of bionics seeks to create replacements for lost limbs, organs, and tissues that are fully integrated with connecting tissues and nerves. Researchers have created electrically conducting fibres several microns in diameter that can be grafted into human nerve cells. Bionic devices, such as an artificial hand, will someday be developed that can respond to electrical impulses travelling down the nerve into the artificial component. It Is conceivable that sensors in artificial fingers could transmit signals back up the nerve, creating the physical sensation of touch. Artificial eyes featuring retinas constructed out of light-sensitive CCD chips have been developed in medical research laboratories. If the electrical signals from CCDs can be routed into the optic nerve, such devices may someday provide sight to the blind (see the Science Primer for more information on CCD chips and electronic imaging).