Star Trek Picard: Everything You Need To Know About The Borg
3. The Borg Queen Vs. The Queen B
Star Trek Voyager's finale Endgame is a divisive episode. It undoubtedly ends abruptly and relies on Janeway Ex Machina to get the ship home, yet, it is an episode full of heart and feeling. I
t does feel like an episode that came at the end of a season that was never aired and perhaps would have benefitted from being stretched out over several more episodes - not to mention a longer coda - but there is an element of the story that is both critical and maddening and that is the crippling of the Borg.
For this episode, Alice Krige returns as the Borg Queen for the first time since Star Trek First Contact. She brings a very different dynamic to the show. She is more maternal and sensual once again, offering Seven the embrace of family rather than the return to the many. She shows anger and hate toward Admiral Janeway. She is full of emotion and this sets her aside from Thompson's Queen. There are plenty of arguments as to which actress played the role better but this story is somewhat hampered by this Queen who is full of emotion.
Compare these two Queens for a moment to Jack Torrance from The Shining. The novel's version sees Jack as a good man descending into hell. The movie's Jack is a clearly dangerous and disturbed man from the beginning. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Krige's Queen is full of feeling from the beginning and so her fear and final laugh at Admiral Janeway lacks what could have been a chilling arc for Thompson's colder Queen. Consider the impact had a cold, emotionless Queen suddenly began to melt before Admiral Janeway, looking in horror and her disassembling body, before turning with an insane smile to taunt Janeway about the death of her crew.
In another universe, perhaps.
Endgame allows the Borg to be overcome by the pathogen that Janeway introduces by allowing herself to be assimilated. It is never quite explained how this manages to do so much damage to the Borg but if the events of Star Trek Picard are any indication, the Borg are not gone. They are still out there.