5. The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 And 2 (Seasons 3 and 4) The Rise Of Locutus Of Borg
The Borg finally make their way into Federation Space with the intention of assimilating Earth, which is incredibly racially egocentric in its designation as the centre of the Federation. In these two episodes, we learn two very important lessons: when the Borg want something they get it. We are also taught that the collective nature of the Borg is, as Dr. Crusher puts it: their Achilles Heel. Picard is abducted from the Enterprise and now the intrepid crew, led by the newly-appointed Captain Ryker, must combat not only the Borg's superior capabilities, but the added experience of Captain Jean-Luc Picard as well. Picard is incredibly violated in the process of his assimilation; the Enterprise is bested and Commander Ryker is put to the test to see if he will be able to overcome his loyalties to his former captain and destroy him to protect Earth. Given the fact that the invading Borg cube has just destroyed a fleet of 40 starships at Wolf 359, this is a bit of a tall order. In the end, Ryker halts the cube's advance by abducting Picard in return and uses him to access the collective consciousness of the Borg to order them to sleep. A resulting power feedback loop causes a self-destruct sequence and the Borg cube is destroyed. This is only after Ryker is prepared to ram the ship, at warp speed, into the Borg cube and Data is able to access Picard's consciousness through a series of neural connections. The chances of this succeeding are ... well, astronomical. But they do. Ryker confuses the enemy by presenting them with three simultaneous attacks. Then he launches a guerrilla cyber-attack on their systems -which has to be the first time a hack attack on cyber-systems is mentioned on science-fiction television. For 1989, this is innovative and astounding speculative writing. Wow. I mean, what was Michael Piller, the writer of the episodes, thinking? Not only does he manage to convince us that the Borg are indestructible, but he also simultaneously and totally conveys the unlikelihood of the Enterprise being able to defeat this enemy. Still, he does; they do, and that is a truly amazing moment in the history of the encounters with this enemy.