10 Reasons Why Star Trek: First Contact Ruined the Borg

5. Captain Ahab € er € Picard

It has been six years since Picard€™s assimilation by the Borg. In the intervening time there have been several other Borg encounters---€œI, Borg€ and €œDescent€, for example. In those episodes, Picard as a character wrestles with the moral dilemma of the Borg but doesn€™t seem to be affected emotionally. In fact, in €œI, Borg€ he had the chance to destroy the Borg as a race and thus enact the ultimate revenge against the transgressors that violated him. He ultimately decided this was unethical. In First Contact, however, Picard ceases to be the diplomatic, peaceful Captain we€™ve known and immediately takes up arms with the intent to destroy every Borg he can find. We have taken this journey with our beloved Captain starting in the season 4 episode €œFamily€ and saw him reach his ultimate closure in €œI, Borg.€ This sudden drive for vengeance makes less sense than his sudden ability to €œhear€ the collective as if he still had Borg implants; worse still is the fact that six years have passed and Picard can apparently still hit the vulnerable part of a Borg ship with his eyes closed. If this had been the case all along then wouldn€™t the fleet have wanted him in charge at the film€™s opening? More importantly, wouldn€™t he have been a better choice to head up Starfleet€™s task force than Shelby? The fact that the film references the six year time gap several times only to then ignore it is simply bad writing.
Contributor
Contributor

A paragon of all things geek, by day Adam repairs computers for kids grades K-12 who go to school online. By night he writes articles about (mostly) Star Trek for What Culture as well as working on several creative projects (http://maddeningmuse.blogspot.com) He lives in Ohio with his Polyamorous life partner and their three children.