Star Trek Picard: Everything You Need To Know About The Borg

Deep within the Collective, there was a place where the Drones could escape during the hours of regeneration. It wasn't every drone who had access to it but it was enough that secret communities began to build, existing only in the dream state. It was called Unimatrix Zero and Seven of Nine was a community member. When she went back into her regeneration state, she would visit with the other people she had come to know. It was like shore leave for the drones. It was a place to escape.

The Borg Queen, as played here by Susanna Thompson, was a very different creature from the one seen attempting to seduce Data. This Queen had no interest in seduction. She was a scientist at heart, though one not interested in the scientific method. She would sacrifice countless drones if it meant destroying the linked freedoms between them and their dream states. She managed to invade and effectively reassimilate dozens of drones with methodical ease, fighting again with the crew of Voyager.

Unimatrix Zero was an interesting idea, again playing on the notion of individuality within the Collective. Here, the Borg could have their cake and eat it - they were drones by day, individuals by night. More than that, even Seven, who was an individual in her own right, was more relaxed and more at ease there. It seemed to be not dissimilar to a respite club or spa. It was antithetical to the Collective and to the Queen.

Seven and the crew of Voyager were able to liberate hundreds of drones from the Collective and dealt a heavy blow to the Queen's plans for domination. This did, however, expose a weakness at the heart of these interactions. With the continued exposure that Star Trek Voyager was giving the Borg, they lost their mystery and position of fear in the franchise. Certainly they were still an evil and deadly foe, but each time that Voyager survived an attack, it lessened the Collective.

Gone were the days of the creatures who invaded the Federation. Gone were the frightening vampires of First Contact. Excellent and cold as Thompson's Borg Queen was, she had the power to send a fleet of vessels to capture Voyager and instead opted not to. The Borg needed a refresh.