I find the ending to "I, Borg" perplexing. One, no one bothered to remove the Borg implants from Hugh in the first place. The series proved that Borg implants could be removed in the case of Picard. But not once did anyone consider to do this to Hugh. And two, why did Hugh give up Picard's offer to become a Federation citizen. Hugh's explanation that the Collective would come looking for him did not make any sense to me. They didn't bother to hunt down Picard after he had ceased to be Locutus. Why would they hunt down a drone no longer connected to the Borg Hive? And if they had remove Hugh's Borg implants in the first place, perhaps the writers would not have come up with this ridiculous ending.
"I, Borg" Ending
- Thread starter Fish1941
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Picard didn't want to "force" Hugh to do something he didn't explicitly agree with. So that is why they didn't try to remove the implants.
Hugh has the right to his own opinion does he not? It is his reason to think whatever he wants to think. If he thought the Borg would come looking for him then he has that right. I agree with you that I don't believe the Borg would search for him, but that is just our opinions. Even if true, a person has the right to believe whatever they want. (a bigger can of worms than you'd think)
I never liked this episode too much. I didn't think a Borg would act like that. I would think they are just mindless zombie type creatures, that if captured and detained somehow would just pace the cell back and forth, or stand at the closest edge of the barrier door and stare at the guard....
Hugh has the right to his own opinion does he not? It is his reason to think whatever he wants to think. If he thought the Borg would come looking for him then he has that right. I agree with you that I don't believe the Borg would search for him, but that is just our opinions. Even if true, a person has the right to believe whatever they want. (a bigger can of worms than you'd think)
I never liked this episode too much. I didn't think a Borg would act like that. I would think they are just mindless zombie type creatures, that if captured and detained somehow would just pace the cell back and forth, or stand at the closest edge of the barrier door and stare at the guard....
Well he did better than Ensign Lynch 
They couldn't take the implants out because he had been a Borg for too long. Picard had a line about how the Borg's brains become dependent on the biochips. If they'd removed his implants, he would've died.
There are those that find the zombie-concept more appealing, but I have to agree with the TNG writers on this one 100%. The horror does not lie in the zombification, but in the ongoing shred and potentiality of individuality that is subjugated. There is so much more interesting ground to find there than mindless zombies.
This is what gives heightened horror and depth to Borg in First Contact as well.
But as so many things, there are these two basic camps.
^ Agreed. Plus the additional horror of being separated from the Collective, and starting to remember your individuality and not being able to process it. And even if you were to recover physically, the psychological scars and problems (as seen in Picard and somewhat less in Seven, due to her upbringing) never completely go away.
As far as the implant issue goes, it's somewhat debatable how much can be removed and how long they've been in the body. Picard might be considered to be a short term assimilation and therefore a better candidate for recovery, whereas Seven still had some implants which couldn't be removed without killing her.
As far as the implant issue goes, it's somewhat debatable how much can be removed and how long they've been in the body. Picard might be considered to be a short term assimilation and therefore a better candidate for recovery, whereas Seven still had some implants which couldn't be removed without killing her.
Well I like the whole episode, but yeah that part is awesome. I know it's obvious and some people might understandably call it cheesy, but the way they played a dramatic music cue as Picard said that really worked for me. It made me realize what a huge moment it was for Picard and Hugh and get excited.
I'm more thoughtful of how many millions of innocents were killed after Picard let his plan to destroy them fall through.
Adm. Nechayev was correct in scolding him to make that foolish decision.
Adm. Nechayev was correct in scolding him to make that foolish decision.
They were assimilated. Not killed. The Borg don't really go around killing people for fun, they'd rather add your technological and biological distinctiveness to their own. We've seen that you can be (mostly) un-assimilated, or if not un-assimilated, at least freed (VOY: Unimatrix Zero). So by killing all the Borg, you're killing a bunch of once-individuals who could someday be that way again. Not okay, IMO. Blowing up a cube in defense of your ship or planet is one thing ... what Picard was proposing, and what we saw in Endgame, was quite another.
This whole argument is what makes this such a great episode. This is Trek at its finest dealing with moral issues in which you are damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I have to say I freaked the first time I saw this episode during the scene in which Picard goes to see Hugh and states, "I am Locutus of Borg." For a split second I thought, "OMG, what if he is still a Borg? What if being near Hugh, some nano-implant has reawakened??" Then when he makes the tough decision, it comes back to haunt him. Oustanding writing. Poor Geordi, though. His only real friends are an android (Data), a hologram (Leah) and a cyborg (Hugh). Even Wes was able to get a girlfriend or two. Poor, lonely Geordi the social misfit.
Agreed, this is one episode where the PC brigade went to far. Sure they want to destroy everything you've built over the past three hundred years. But that's okay... they used to be people once. Even Picard said that he was doing Ensign Lynch a favor in First Contact.
Picard should have done what needed to be done. Let the historians debate whether the actions were right or wrong. At least they'll be around to debate it...
I remember think the same thing the first time I saw it.
The ep has it flaws, but over all, I enjoy watching this one.
Indeed. One could argue quite effectively that the blood of everyone killed and/or assimilated by the Borg after that point in time is on Jean-Luc Picard's hands.
Somewhere early on in TNG's ongoing bout with the Borg, I seem to recall Data and Crusher coming to Picard with a proposal to seed the Borg with a virus they've developed that would wipe out the Borg as a species. At the time, I believe Picard says no. (Possibly he regrets this later. Or possibly he worries that he might be vulnerable as a once-Borg.) It always seemed out of character to me that Dr. Crusher, who throughout the series advocated in favor of preserving life and lifeforms in some of the most unlikely circumstances, presents a proposal here for genocide. No matter how much they hate the Borg and the threat it represents, that seems a bit over the line for her. (OK, she did also lead a Borg cube to incineration within a star in some episode, but that was just one cube....)
I think you may be a little confused with the timeline and specifics here. The virus idea that you refer to is one of the key plot points of 'I, Borg'. This was the first time in TNG that the possibility was discussed. As far as Beverly leading a 'cube' into a star, it wasn't a Cube at all. It was the odd configuation seen in Descent (which is the follow up to 'I, Borg') and took place when Beverly used metaphasic shieldng to take the Enterprise into the sun's corona to hide from the Borg. When the shielding began to lose integrity she had only an 'us or them' choice, so she went with Taitt's idea to cause a solar fussion eruption with the tractor emitters and destroy the Borg ship. If she hadn't, the Enterprise would have been lost.
Well, PC or not Picard DID do the right thing seeing how the virus wouldn't have worked. I seriously doubt the Feds were the first race encountered by the Borg to think up a virus of some kind, and at worst using a virus would have been ineffective while having the Borg raise their threat assessment of the Feds. Then they'd send a REAL invasion force to deal with them, an invasion the Feds wouldn't survive.
Viral weapons are certainly an interesting idea when it comes to the Borg, as we've seen certain ones can work on VOY. I wonder how many races might have attempted such a defense and how much the Collective might have adapted.
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