Dr. K's Waiting Room

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As seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987 to 1994) episode “The Pegasus” (Burton, 1994), the U.S.S. Enterprise-D celebrates “Captain Picard Day” on Stardate 47457.1, which roughly translates to June 16^th, and I am no different.

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Quick Facts:
Amazed by the continued popularity of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966 to 1969) and the success of their feature films, Paramount Pictures finally approved a new series with an all-new cast. After The Next Generation’s early success and some retooling, the producers ended season three on a daring cliff-hanger focused on breakout villains the Borg, who were redesigned by make-up supervisor Michael Westmore. This consistently popular two-parter laid the foundation for future Borg appearances and forever shaped the character of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart).

The Review:
Although the Borg are well established as a significant threat across all Star Trek media, at this point there were still a mystery and a source of great fear for both viewers and the Next Generation characters. First introduced in “Q Who” (Bowman, 1989), the Borg were an aggressive semi-cybernetic race who posed a threat to all living creatures but were far away in the Delta Quadrant, meaning the likes of Admiral J.P. Hanson (George Murdock) and Captain Picard had hoped the United Federation of Planets would have more time to prepare for an invasion from the all-conquering species. Since being alerted to the Borg, Admiral Hanson and other Federation officials scrambled to come up with defensive measures against their terrifying ability to “adapt” to weapons, technology, and strategy, which renders consistent attacks minimal, at best. Admiral Hanson’s efforts at designing new weapons and tactics were greatly aided by the ambitious Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Shelby (Elizabeth Dennehy), a Borg expert who joins the Enterprise-D for this two-parter. Initially, the Enterprise-D is unaware of the Borg threat when they respond to a distress signal from Jouret IV, though an initial investigation by Commander William T. Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Lieutenant Worf (Michael Dorn), and Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner) suggests the Borg wiped out the colony. Shelby confirms the threat with a smug confidence and an eagerness to impress that ruffles Riker’s feathers and puts the Enterprise-D and the Federation in a state of war as they prepare to engage and counter the pending Borg treat, represented by a single Borg cube heading for Earth.

Although a plot thread throughout both parts, part one is especially focused on Riker and his rivalry with Shelby. Shelby arrives with a fire in her belly, in awe of Picard and the Enterprise-D and desperate to impress him and be assigned as First Officer. Ambitious, driven, and determined, she tirelessly prepares the Enterprise-D for battle with the Borg, exploring all options to stand a chance against the Borg cube and their drones (Adrian Tafoya, Christopher Doyle, Keith Rayve, Lynn Salvatori). This includes randomly fluctuating the frequencies and power of their phasers and shields to deal damage before the Borg can adapt and working with Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to reconfigure the ship’s deflector dish into a destructive energy discharge. Shelby’s ambition impresses Admiral Hanson and Picard but clashes with Riker, who’s not ready to stand aside despite being offered another captaincy and who finds Shelby’s reckless and insubordinate as she takes too many risks and lacks his “seasoned” experience. This creates something of a crisis for Riker, who questions why he keeps refusing the captain’s chair and his place aboard the Enterprise-D and is dismayed to think he’s lost the hot-headed qualities that Shelby possesses. Riker discusses this with Counsellor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Picard, who’s eager for him to take the next step in his career, and routinely puts Shelby in his place, maintaining his composure around the crew but chewing her out for going over his head and defying his orders. Shelby sees Riker as an obstacle. She respects him as her senior officer but she’s happy to step over him if it means advancing her career, especially as she sees him as being too comfortable in his role as Picard’s second, leading them to clash on multiple occasions and be begrudgingly forced to find a middle ground to combat the Borg.

Though focused on conquering and assimilating Earth, the Borg exhibit an uncharacteristic interest in Picard here, deviating from their course to order him to submit to them and act as their representative for their attack. Although Picard naturally refuses, he quickly uses this to his advantage and lures the Borg cube into a nearby nebula to repair the damage caused by the Borg and strategise for their next attack. Picard receives counsel from mysterious bartender Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), whose race were driven to near extinction by the Borg, and is fully prepared to give his life, and sacrifice the Enterprise-D, to stop the Borg’s advance. Picard remains steadfast in his defiance of the Borg and resolute in leading the charge against them, utilising every option available to score even the smallest of wins and fully confident that the deflector dish plan will work. Even when he’s abducted by the Borg, Picard remains insolent, despite their claims that “resistance is futile”, which makes it even more impactful when he’s transformed into “Locutus of Borg” and his knowledge and experience are twisted to serve the Borg. Locutus is cold and unemotional, using Picard’s knowledge and familiarity with the Enterprise-D crew to to mock them and shrug off even their energy beam. Using Picard’s intel, the Borg easily wipe out Admiral Hanson’s armada at Wolf 359 and counteract every strategy the Enterprise-D comes up with since Picard was fully briefed on their plans and knows the crew, especially Riker, intimately. Although extremely lucky to not have any of his appendages or organs replaced by Borg technology, Picard is nonetheless riddled with Borg implants and transformed into their malicious representative. However, it’s made clear that Picard is fully aware of his actions and conscious of the torture he’s enduring, which allows him to reaffirm his personality thanks to Data circumventing the Borg neural network.

Picard’s assimilation rocks the crew. Worf is especially shaken to see his captain transformed, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) is heartbroken and desperate to try and recover him so they can try and save him, and Riker struggles to acclimate to his field promotion in the wake of the tragedy, especially as Picard “wrote the book” on the Enterprise-D and was such a commanding and inspirational force. Riker adapts to his command very well, taking charge and even publicly burying the hatchet with Shelby to promote her to First Officer, but it’s clear Picard’s “ghost” haunts him. Riker’s mannerisms and command style emulate Picard, to the point where Guinan encourages him to “let Picard go” as it’s damaging to his authority and their mission. I loved how threatening the Borg are here. While their drones and even the cube is partially damaged by modulating phaser fire and forced to slow when the away team damage critical power nodes to “make them scratch”, they’re presented as an unconquerable force who immediately adapt to every situation. Their cutting beam devastates the Enterprise-D, their technology drains their shields, and they’re seen as so superior that they don’t even care when the crew transport aboard the cube as they don’t consider them a threat! As the Borg rip through Earth’s defences, Riker desperately tries to keep pace and slow them down but is forced to make repairs and re-strategise. Knowing that Locutus will be fully aware of their plans, Riker uses this against their corrupted captain and pretends to employ a diversionary tactic they discussed, distracting Locutus with talk of surrender while the separated saucer section unleashes anti-matter that allows Data and Worf to penetrate the Borg’s defences and reacquire their former captain. Beverly is practically giddy at the prospect of studying a captive Borg, as fascinated by their technology as Data is, and is confident she can remove all the relatively non-invasive implants but not while Locutus is still “plugged in” to the Borg neural network.

Though slowed by the abduction of their figurehead, the Borg continue on regardless and Locutus promises not to harm the shellshocked crew (though he does amusingly threaten and mock Data and Worf). Collaborating with Beverly and Troi, Data desperately works to bypass the Borg neural network to slow or stop the Borg by planting commands into their systems. The effort allows Picard’s consciousness to break through and make basic contact as Data struggles to access vital systems and the Enterprise-D faces imminent destruction. Picard’s simple statement, “sleep”, inspires Data to trick the Borg into entering their regeneration cycle, causing their weapons and systems to shut down. Somehow, this also causes a feedback loop throughout the Borg cube that sees it self-destruct, which Riker decides to risk not preventing in favour of getting to safety. Luckily, this pays off as Picard is restored following the cube’s destruction and Beverly easily removes his implants. However, Picard is left rattled by his experiences with the Borg, clearly disturbed by the ordeal, despite the Federation making plans to strengthen their defences against the Borg. It’s actually crazy that Picard returns to duty so quickly considering everything. This also might’ve been a great opportunity to spend at least half of the fourth season with Riker in command of the Enterprise-D while Picard recovers in various sub-plots. Of course, Picard’s experiences with the Borg and his time as Locutus would come back to haunt him throughout his life, and beyond, and these episodes represented something of a turning point for Picard and the show as it explored the fallout from this arc and ensured that the Borg would be a terrifying threat throughout the entire franchise.

Final Thoughts:
I’m extremely biased when it comes to “The Best of Both Worlds”, which are two of my favourite episodes of The Next Generation (and in all of Star Trek). The Next Generation was my main source of Star Trek as a kid beyond the movies with the old crew and I’ve always enjoyed their adventures. Additionally, the Borg are one of my favourite antagonists from the franchise for how disturbing they are. Piloting simple, unassuming cube-shaped ships, the Borg are a horrifying threat as they don’t just conquer and destroy, they transform and supplant entire cultures with their own. Assimilating the technology and knowledge of entire civilisations, the Borg are extremely formidable in their ability to adapt. Their hive mind culture means they are in perfect harmony and unison, lacking empathy and emotion and focused only on expanding their empire and getting closer to “perfection”. Their assimilation of others, especially Picard, is seen as a physical violation akin to torture or even rape. Picard is forced from his loved ones, his personality erased, his body transformed, and becomes little more than a soulless puppet for the Borg as Locutus, who wields Picard’s knowledge like a weapon and uses it to effectively decimate the Federation and the Enterprise-D, forcing the crew to fight against their enigmatic and inspirational captain. The visual imagery of Picard transformed by the Borg is striking, even if the Borg look quite cheap and tacky at this point, and seeing him slowly lose more of his humanity, even weeping a single tear for his fate, is incredibly impactful for both audiences and the crew, who must adapt to the new threat,

If you’re a fan of Riker, then this is the story for you as Will is forced to take centre stage and assume command of the Enterprise-D. Obviously, it would upset the status quo of the show if Riker did the natural thing and graduated to his own command, but “The Best of Both Worlds” explores why he chooses to stay where he is and gives a glimpse of his capability as captain. He does a decent job, but he struggles to shake off Picard’s influence in his mannerisms and decisions. It’s a hell of a test for him to go head-to-head with his former captain, who anticipates and derails his every move, forcing Riker and the crew to come up with new solutions to outwit Locutus. Shelby makes for a perfect rival for Riker as she’s everything he once was (ambitious, headstrong, and a risk taker) and forces him to confront the fact that he’s not that person anymore and has matured. She is a royal pain in the ass and I’m always a little sad she didn’t get some comeuppance but she was invaluable to besting Locutus and I enjoyed seeing Riker chastise her insubordination. This two-parter gives most of the bridge crew something to do, with even Beverly aiding Picard’s restoration and Troi helping Riker to acclimatise to his new role. I would’ve liked to see a bit more from Worf, perhaps a more interesting fight between him and the Borg and focus more on his anger at Picard’s transformation, but I enjoyed Data’s solution to defeating the Borg and it went a long way to showing that innovation and adaptability are key to overcoming the Borg. Though I would have loved to see the status quo mixed up for a few episodes after this, I really loved the long-term implications this two-parter had for Picard and how it established the Borg’s threat. It’s one of the quintessential Next Generation stories and led to bigger and better things, so it’s always a blast to put this one on and see Locutus act so cold and cruel towards his beloved former crew.

My Rating:

Fantastic

Is “The Best of Both Worlds” one of your favourite Next Generation stories? Were you shocked to see Picard transformed into Locutus? Did you enjoy seeing Riker take command or do you think he’s better as the First Officer? Were you a fan of the rivalry between Riker and Shelby? Did you like how fearsome the Borg were presented, even with the dodgy costumes? What are some of your favourite Borg episodes and how are you celebrating Captain Picard Day this year? Whatever your thoughts on “The Best of Both Worlds”, support me on Ko-Fi and leave a like and a comment.