Every Star Trek Reference In Futurama
25. Assimilation In Raging Bender
When mentioning the word Assimilation in relation to Star Trek, one word comes to mind: Borg. In the episode Raging Bender, The Borg do not make an appearance, although there is similar assimilation.
The episode features a brain slug which latches on to Hermes and assimilates him. His actions mirror those of characters assimilated by The Borg in Star Trek. Part of this is his desire to assimilate others. A slug tries to assimilate Fry in the episode but dies due to lack of brain activity. Unlike The Borg, deassimilating is easy as all the drew need to do is remove the brain slug.
The Borg are introduced in Star Trek The Next Generation and are major villains in Next Generation and Voyager, as well as making appearances in Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. They are a hive mind made up of drones assimilated from various races that they come across. They use cybernetics and nanoprobes in order to control those they assimilate. They have become known in popular culture for their catchphrase 'resistance is futile.'
It is no surprise that Futurama would reference The Borg in some way, they are synonymous with Next Generation and Voyager and to have so many Star Trek references, they would need to reference them eventually.