10 Times Streaming Era Star Trek Went Apocalyptic
They say time is the fire in which we burn, but in Star Trek, FIRE is the fire in which we burn.
It's the end of the world, but not as we know it!
Star Trek has often shocked and frightened the audience with depictions of colossal devastation, be it during or post. Enterprise showed us exploding Earths and burning atmospheres, while The Original Series delivered that great wind sock that ate planets. The fun of SciFi is that one can go nuts when it comes to destroying worlds, as it rarely depicts reality.
As the years passed, budgets increased and so too did Trek's bloodlust. The advancements made in CGI allowed the franchise to detonate Supernovae and swallow worlds whole. Sure, the Red Matter may make as much sense as the Transporter, but it definitely provided a feast for the eyes - if you weren't standing on the surface of Vulcan, that is.
This list focuses on the Star Trek we've seen since 2017, benefitting from beautiful graphics and, occasionally, the odd sociopathic leaning toward mass murder. If the earliest episodes of Star Trek had one thing in common, it was the theme of barely controlled fetish each week. When Star Trek moved to streaming, it moved from fetish to fatality, and the action hounds in the audience were all the better for it.
While we book in with our therapists, join us and start counting the bodies.
10. The Borg Take Control - Võx
Captain Riker was incensed to discover that Fleet Admiral Shelby supported something so 'Borg-like' when Starfleet elected to make its entire fleet remotely controlled. It was hard to disagree with his reaction once the full impact of 'Fleet mode' became known: it was all a front for the Collective.
The third season of Star Trek: Picard capped off a trilogy of dramatic stakes, all three of which featured the Borg in some form or another. Here, it was the true Collective (not that "weird sh*t" on the Stargazer), returning from the shadows, capturing Starfleet's youngsters like a demented Pied Piper.
The Queen, ruined and broken, worked alongside a faction of Changelings to rewire the fleet's transporters, installing Borg DNA in those younger officers. Once Starfleet (bafflingly) activated their fleet-wide systems, effectively turning each starship into a cog in a great wheel, the Queen struck. She activated her new drones and, in union with the fleet, set about destroying the Federation.
The visuals were spectacular, not least of which was Spacedock attempting to defend Earth against the entire fleet. Though the station did finally fall to the combined onslaught, and rumours of a ground war around Starfleet facilities were rampant, the crew of the Enterprise-D were able to destroy the Queen and the Cube in which she dwelt.
This is now the final (to date) appearance of the Borg Collective, who seem to have finally been defeated. Never say never, as all that it takes is a single nanoprobe to ruin everyone's days again.