Star Trek: 11 Things You Didn't Know About The Borg Queen
Forgotten everything you knew about the Borg Queen? Must be something you assimilated!
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00:00She's the head honcho herself, she's the hostess with the mostess, she's going to assimilate
00:05you, your entire family, and your world.
00:08Make sure you read the original article by the wonderful Jack Kiley, I am Sean Ferrick,
00:12and here is 11 Things You Didn't Know About The Borg Queen.
00:18Number 11.
00:19Enigmatic Entity.
00:21It's difficult to fathom now, but the introduction of the Borg Queen in Star Trek First Contact
00:25wasn't well-received by all at the time of the film's release.
00:29Controversy among Star Trek fans?
00:31Well, I never!
00:33Before First Contact, the Borg were a homogenous, single-willed foe with no clear leader, or
00:37rather, without the apparent need for one.
00:40This kind of impenetrable, indivisible hive-mind, save for Locutus, was, for some, their distinctive
00:46appeal.
00:47The fact the Borg Queen had never been mentioned in The Next Generation made the character
00:51equally perplexing for some fans.
00:54As First Contact co-writer Brannon Braga discussed in an interview with StarTrek.com, it was
00:58quickly realised that a robot-zombie, tight-lipped adversary wouldn't quite work for a feature
01:03film.
01:04This is why the Queen was created, to speak for the Borg, and not just because they were
01:08gunning for sexiest on-screen kisses.
01:11Fans were also left unclear by the film as to the exact role the Queen played within
01:15the collective.
01:16You could think of the Queen as some sort of central processing and command hub from
01:20within the central nexus.
01:22As First Contact screenwriter Ron Moore also stated, the Borg Queen was always intended
01:26to be a literal person, and not merely a manifestation of the collective.
01:31Number 10.
01:32Maybe she's Borg with it.
01:33Maybe it's make-believe.
01:35For their appearance in Star Trek First Contact, the Borg got a significant wardrobe and makeup
01:39upgrade overseen by the incomparable Michael Westmore.
01:43Individually moulded bodysuits and Borg implants were created, and airbrushing was used for
01:47the creepier, more intricately technological look on the skin of each drone.
01:51In the end, the whole process of Borgification took around five hours for each actor.
01:56Electronic makeup artist Michael Westmore Jr., son of above, also got creative and made
02:01the light on each one of the new Borg eyepieces blink the names of members of the cast and
02:06crew in Morse code.
02:08The transformation was the most extensive for Alice Kreeg.
02:11It took on average six and a half hours for the actress to get into the Borg Queen makeup
02:15and suit.
02:16The first bodysuit that was used caused her blisters, and the silver contact lenses that
02:20formed part of the look were so painful, Kreeg could only wear them for a maximum of
02:24four minutes at a time.
02:25The floating head sequence in First Contact was done mostly through practical effects.
02:29To achieve the scene, Kreeg was separated into two, a prosthetic Borg neck with an animatronic
02:34spine fixed to her neck at an angle, and the rest of her body wrapped in blue, placed on
02:39a slant board attached to a crane rig to lower the actress down to the set.
02:44Just to be clear, the Borg Queen was separated in two.
02:47Alice Kreeg was not bifurcated for this film.
02:499.
02:50The Royal We
02:52As the Queen herself put it, I am the beginning, the end, the one who is many.
02:57Far from being a contradiction in terms, the Borg Queen is instead probably the ultimate
03:01example of the majestic plural.
03:03We have seen multiple different versions and copies of the Borg Queen over the years, leading
03:07to a lot of speculation as to just how this system of replacements works, still largely
03:12unexplained in canon.
03:13The Queen was by Picard-Lacutus's side on the cube headed to Sector 001 in The Best
03:18of Both Worlds, Wolf 359 was an inside job, and yet, despite that cube's destruction,
03:24was very much alive and assimilating during the events of First Contact.
03:27Having dissolved in plasma coolant at the end of that movie, the Borg Queen nonetheless
03:30made a second appearance in the Star Trek Voyager feature-length episode, Dark Frontier.
03:35Alice Kreeg was unavailable to reprise the role for the episode, and so Susanna Thompson,
03:39who had auditioned to play the Queen in First Contact, was hired.
03:42Whilst this Voyager version was meant to be in the same line as Kreeg's incarnation,
03:46Thompson's Queen was also intended to be somewhat distinct.
03:50Thompson wore the same bodysuit as Alice Kreeg, with only a few alterations made to fit, and
03:54the Queen's make-up got a bit of a retouch.
03:56Thompson would play the Queen once more in the Voyager two-parter Unimatrix Zero, and
04:00Kreeg returned in the season finale Endgame.
04:03In Season 2 of Star Trek Picard, we would meet a different, but equally familiar Borg
04:08Queen, portrayed by the sadly missed Annie Wershing, and the character was then given
04:11a surprising twist by Alison Pill.
04:14Technically speaking, Seven of Nine was also the Borg Queen of her own mini-collective
04:18on the Artifact Cube for a hot minute.
04:20For her appearances in the final season of Star Trek Picard, the Borg Queen was played
04:24by two people.
04:25Reprising the role, Alice Kreeg gave her immediately recognisable voice to the Queen, and it was
04:30Australian actress Jane Edwina Seymour who stood in on set with a tour-de-force and bloody
04:36scary performance as her body double.
04:388.
04:39A Dating Profile The origins of the Borg Queen remain one of
04:42the most mysterious parts of Star Trek.
04:45We know very little about how this embodiment, perhaps mastermind of the collective, came
04:49to be, or even much about her daily existence.
04:52Do multiple Queens exist simultaneously?
04:54Similar to the Bee, does any drone have the potential to become Queen?
04:58From canon, we know that the Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant thousands of centuries
05:02ago, much like any other humanoid species.
05:04At an unknown point in their history, they began to incorporate cybernetic technology
05:09into their bodies.
05:10As the Vadwar revealed in Star Trek Voyager's episode, Dragon's Teeth, the Borg had only
05:14assimilated a handful of systems by what was the 15th century on Earth.
05:19It's never indicated if the Borg Queen was around, practising her high-wire act in the
05:221400s.
05:23The collective itself may not have known, as their memory of that time was fragmentary.
05:28Only the few bits of dating we do get for the, or a Queen, comes from two Voyager episodes.
05:34In Dark Frontier, the Queen states to Seven that we all originated from lesser species,
05:39I myself came from species 125.
05:41Later, in Unimatrix Zero Part 2, the Queen intimates that, when she was assimilated,
05:46she was just about the age of the child she speaks to during her visit to the Borg virtual
05:51reality.
05:52While this would at least tend to mean that the Queen became Borg at some point rather
05:56than being created in situ, it would be difficult to date her assimilation, especially given
06:01the fact that the Borg use maturation chambers, which may accelerate growth.
06:06Number 7.
06:07Tales worthy of assimilation.
06:08The seductive appeal of the Federation's greatest foe has been hard to resist for creators
06:13of Star Trek beta canon.
06:14What seems to entice writers the most is origin stories for the Borg and their monarch, and,
06:19given that the series and films have provided us with very little on how the Borg, let alone
06:23the Queen, came to be, they have had a lot of creative space for invention.
06:28The very nature of the species tends to lend itself to origin stories along the themes
06:32of technology run amok, or experiment gone awry.
06:35For example, both the Star Trek The Original Series manga story Side Effects from the Shinsei
06:41Shinsei anthology and the Strange New World 6 short story The Beginning depict the creation
06:47of the first Borg Queen as the result of ill-fated medical experiments attempting to cure a deadly
06:52disease.
06:53In the Star Trek Destiny trilogy by David Mack, the predecessor to the Borg Queen was
06:58the disastrous result of a last-ditch attempt for survival by a member of the highly advanced
07:03alien race the Coeliar, capable of forming their own hive-like mind called the Gestalt,
07:09and a group of humans from the Columbia NX-02 stranded in the past.
07:12Some of the novels do expand upon the role of the Queen within the collective.
07:16In the Star Trek Voyager book The Farther Shore by Christy Golden, the Borg have a royal
07:20protocol to quickly replace a Queen, whereas in the Destiny series, several Queens can
07:25exist at the same time.
07:26In the game Star Trek Legacy, a Queen was needed to unite the Borg, who were originally
07:30created by V'ger.
07:32In Star Trek Online, the Borg and their Queen returned in 2409 to launch an assault on the
07:37Alpha and Beta Quadrants.
07:39In the perfectly-titled The Next Generation Mirror Universe novel The Worst of Both Worlds
07:44by Greg Cox, there's also a Borg King.
07:486.
07:49Don't be so three-dimensional.
07:51Equally outside of what is considered canon, what you might not know is that the Borg Queen
07:55was central to the story of the Star Trek The Experience Borg Invasion 4D attraction
08:00in Las Vegas.
08:01The immersive experience, which included a number of live performers, was set aboard
08:05a Starfleet research outpost.
08:07Guests on the ride were told, by the Doctor no less, that they were there as part of medical
08:11research into their possible genetic immunity to Borg assimilation.
08:15Naturally, a Borg cube arrives to put a stop to all that, with none other than the Borg
08:19Queen aboard.
08:204D effects mounted in interactive chairs were used to make the audience feel like they were
08:25being infected by nanoprobes as the Queen appeared.
08:28Admiral Janeway arrives aboard Voyager and, with a little help from the Doctor, saves
08:32the day.
08:33Alice Krieg, who had played the character only about a year earlier in Endgame, was
08:37the Borg Queen, as we find out in the Voyager Season 7 DVD extra The Making of Borg Invasion
08:444D.
08:45All of the original Borg who worked on First Contact were hired for the filming, making
08:49it something of a family reunion for Krieg.
08:515.
08:52Mind your beeswax.
08:54For the new Borg Queen of a beehive to hatch from her cell, she must first chew through
09:00a wax cap in which the worker bees have encased her.
09:04The wonders of nature.
09:06Yeah, planet Earth this ain't.
09:08For her mechanical majesty in Star Trek, Queen cells also exist aboard Borg vessels, although
09:13they seem to function as a place of temporary residence or hiding, a locus of control, and
09:18somewhere to flee from.
09:19The Queen cell contained a powerful piece of technology called a Spatial Trajector,
09:24assimilated from the Delta Quadrant species the Sicarians, capable of transporting the
09:28Queen up to 40,000 light-years, but only in the event of an emergency.
09:31Each appearance of the Queen, aside from Star Trek Voyager's Endgame, has been in disembodied
09:36form.
09:37In Voyager, within Unimatrix 1, the Queen descended from a central alcove as little
09:40more than a head and shoulders, only for the knees and toes to join her from compartments
09:44beneath the floor.
09:45She's introduced in first contact in disassembled mode, and Annie Wershing's Queen in Picard
09:50is similarly disincorporated, although with arms and more of a torso this time.
09:55It is likely that the Borg Queen spent most of her time disassembled in the central alcove,
09:59only going walkabouts when the need arose.
10:01By the time we see the Queen in Season 3 of Picard, however, she could only dream of such
10:06flawless heights.
10:07Number 4.
10:08The Janeway Factor.
10:10Captain Janeway and the crew of Voyager had bounties of battles with the Borg Queen, and
10:13yet for the most part avoided the nanoprobe treatment.
10:16As they hitched a transwarp ride back to the Alpha Quadrant, they even managed to decimate
10:20the Borg and destroy the – or at least one – Queen with just one hyperspray full of
10:25a neurolytic pathogen.
10:26It was also thanks to Voyager that the research of pioneering exobiologists, the Hansons,
10:31was found.
10:32The couple had set off in search of the Borg.
10:34During their three years in the field, before their eventual assimilation, the Hansons became
10:37aware of the existence of the Borg Queen and of her primary residence, Unimatrix 1.
10:43Such knowledge was well in advance of the Federation, who, we assume, only found out
10:47about the Borg Queen after the Enterprise-E returned to 2373.
10:52Until recently, since her presumed death in Endgame, we hadn't seen another prime version
10:56of the Borg Queen, aside from the hilariously holographic entrance to Boimler's perfection
11:01in Lower Deck's episode, I, Excretus.
11:05Well that was until the last two episodes of the Star Trek Picard Season 3, and prior
11:11to that, as a voice inside Jack Crusher's head.
11:133.
11:14Resistance is Retro
11:15Star Trek Picard introduced us to a very different Borg Queen from the beginning of its second
11:19season.
11:20Looking more like she's about to work the runway and read you for filth than rumble
11:23your resistance, this Queen, who had fused with Dr. Agnes Jurati, was looking for peaceful
11:28cooperation with the Federation to prevent destruction of galactic proportions.
11:34This wasn't the first time we'd seen a different sort of Borg in Trek history, however.
11:38In the Star Trek Voyager Season 3 episode, Unity, Chakotay, and may as well have been
11:43a redshirt Anton Kaplan, come across a group of ex-Borg who, by the end of the episode,
11:47have formed a new kind of hive mind amongst themselves called the Cooperative so they
11:51can get along with their rowdy neighbours.
11:53Unity was also the first episode to show that the Borg as a whole had survived the destruction
11:58of their Queen in first contact, which wasn't a given at the time.
12:01As reported in Star Trek Monthly issue 24, there was debate as to whether the Borg should
12:06return at all after first contact, with the film's co-writer Ronald D. Moore believing
12:10the death of the Queen and the other drones should have marked the end for the entire
12:14collective.
12:15And then along came Terry Metallus.
12:17At the climax of Season 3 of Star Trek Picard, we meet the Borg and their Queen very much
12:21post-Endgame, still crippled from the Janeway's neurolytic pathogen.
12:26In a similar manner to Annie Wershing's Season 2 version, this Queen is tethered in dismembered
12:31form, reduced to draining the life out of the few remaining drones to survive, even
12:35consuming their necrotic tissue in this horror show that sends chills down the spine.
12:40This place is a tomb, Riker notes ominously.
12:44With the help of the Changelings, who also shared the anger of a generation lost to Starfleet,
12:49the Queen created a new collective by assimilating the children of Starfleet through their genes.
12:53With the Queen's progeny Vox at the helm of the hive, these Gen Z Borg are no longer
12:59just about assimilation, but annihilation.
13:02Number 2.
13:03If we could turn back time.
13:06One fact about the Borg Queen's original outing is so strange, you almost won't believe
13:11it.
13:12Okay, I'll stop.
13:13As revealed in 2016, when discussions were being had about who should play the Borg Sovereign,
13:17a certain Oscar-winning global pop star's name was in the mix.
13:21Had she got the part, perhaps instead of being lowered from the ceiling, Cher's Borg Queen
13:25could have entered slowly down an engineering ladder singing Fernando.
13:29However, we'd have to agree that first contact was right in following makeup artist Scott
13:35Wheeler's advice when he said in the Hollywood Reporter interview that character would not
13:41have worked without Alice Creed.
13:42No offence to Cher, she's had some great moments, but it would have been so gimmicky.
13:47In another bit of if I could turn back timey-wimey, had Star Trek Enterprise not been cancelled
13:51after its fourth season, we might well have finally gotten an origin story for the Borg
13:55Queen that would have equally featured Alice Creed in the role once more.
14:00Creed would have played a Starfleet medical technician who would somehow have met the
14:04drones from Enterprise's episode Regeneration, leading to her becoming the Queen.
14:09Number 1.
14:10Is this the end, my friend?
14:12Star Trek Picard the series has reached its conclusion, and what an epic ride the final
14:16season has been.
14:17Not only was it the best of reunions for the next-generation cast of characters, it turned
14:23out their greatest enemy, the Borg Queen, was hiding behind that big red door inside
14:28Jupiter.
14:29In the series finale, the Queen is revealed in a mangled, ghoulish state.
14:32She does have arms, though, so it's not all that.
14:35Standing beneath her less-than-majestic majesty is Jack Crusher, looking rather good in his
14:39levelled-up locutus getup.
14:41Or, as Chris said, he is the Borg-er King.
14:44D'you get it?
14:45D'you get it?
14:47This Queen is desperate, vengeful.
14:50She has been working with the rogue changelings, all along to weaponise Picard's pre-synth
14:54corpse Borgified DNA.
14:56Jack, who would probably have preferred to inherit the vineyard, instead receives Picard's
15:01genes, altered enough to turn him into a transmitter for a new Borg code.
15:06He is the command signal for this new evolution of the Collective, and, in some warped way,
15:11the Queen believes she's his mother.
15:14It is family, both chosen and by birth, that wins the day, however.
15:18Picard's love for his son helps break Jack free from the Queen's grasp, and it's
15:22the unshakeable bond between the crew of the Enterprise-D and Riker Withers Amzadi that
15:26saves the day.
15:28The last we see of the Queen is her raising her hand in a futile attempt to shield herself
15:33from the fiery blast, screaming out with no one there to hear.
15:36The title of the final episode is The Last Generation.
15:40This is the end of Star Trek Picard, but could this really be the last we see of the Borg
15:45and their Queen?
15:46That's everything for our list today.
15:48Thank you so much to Jack Kiley for writing this list, and thank you so much to the wonderful
15:53editor Martin for making it look so pretty.
15:55You're all awesome everyone, thank you so much for following along.
15:59What do you reckon?
16:00Are the Borg done, or will they regenerate and come back?
16:04You let us know in the comments below, don't forget to get in touch with us over on Twitter
16:07You can also get in touch with us on Instagram
16:13Everyone, Slava Ukrania, look after yourselves, live long and prosper, and have a great time
16:19until I see you again.
16:20Thanks.