By Norman on Sunday, January 3, 1999 - 07:28 pm:

Why does Guinan conceal information about the Borg to the Federation?

Guinan says she was not present when the Borg attacked, however in Generations her ship was in flight away from the Borg. So they were simply notified, etc. while orbiting in space?

In "Q Who," Q, who already knows Guinan, says that she is not the creature she appears to be. Guinan also appears to be able to withstand Q (when he takes everyone who was in Ten Forward out, Guinan remains and hides underneath the bar, demonstrating she can withstand Q's powers), implying she has unique abilities. She furthermore demonstrates in body posture that she can fight off other things Q can do. However, Guinan's past with Q, or her superhuman abilities (with the exception of her sense that something is awry in the universe, i.e. Q and changes of history from the introduction of the Enterprise C in "Yesterday's Enterprise" that there's not supposed to be a war to the existence of Sela, who Guinan "knows" Picard is responsible for) are never discussed again. In fact, her abilities are explained in "Generations" with the Nexus.

This is the only episode I remember where it is bad to have cups of hot chocolate (coffee, etc.) around the computer consoles, however in many other episodes we see members of Star Fleet placing cups of liquid around computers all the time.

In this episode, Q claims he was placed as an outcast with the Continuum, but by the end of the episode seems to imply it was only a test. However, in the next Q episode, he has been cast out of the Continuum, so was he also cast out then?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Ed Jefferson (Ejefferson) on Monday, January 4, 1999 - 01:08 pm:

Did the actually say her ship was in flight away from the Borg? I don't remember that.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jane Bond on Tuesday, January 12, 1999 - 02:58 pm:

A small observation:
The first Borg who beams aboard the Enterprise bears a striking resemblance to Brent Spiner. Does anyone know if it is actually him?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mike Deeds on Wednesday, January 13, 1999 - 07:33 am:

Nit: Troi states that she only senses a single collective mind with NO single leader. I guess she couldn't sense the Borg Queen.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Omer on Wednesday, January 13, 1999 - 12:35 pm:

maybe it's too far from the queen; Or maybe Troy doesn't have enough experience with collective mind to know that the Borg have a leader... or maybe s the Borg queen isn't a leader per se'perhaps she's just the collection of everything in the continuom, so that 'the Borg is her':-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Wednesday, January 13, 1999 - 08:21 pm:

A further inconsistency would be the Borg nursery. The Borg do not have children, they simply assimilate species into their collective.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 10:57 am:

However the borg assimilate worlds and on worlds there are bound to be children of all ages, so they would need a nursery even if they didn't produce children by the traditional method
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Thursday, January 14, 1999 - 03:25 pm:

True, but there is no further mention of "baby borgs" in any of the later episodes or in "First Contact". Also there is no mention of assimilation at all in this episode; one gets the impression that the Borg produce their own offspring.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By ScottN on Friday, January 15, 1999 - 02:40 am:

VOY: Drone mentions baby borgs. also 7o9 was assimilated as a young girl.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Friday, January 15, 1999 - 01:51 pm:

Yes, but wasn't that an isolated incident?
If the Borg assimilate every being from a culture, then there would be "baby borgs" and even elderly Borgs. I guess they just never show them. Also, I assume that an adult Borg would be more useful to the collective than a child Borg. When the child grew older then it would become more useful.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Omer on Friday, January 15, 1999 - 11:01 pm:

Do Borg age? cause if they do, and they don't procreate, at some point they will all die
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jonathan Raines (Jraines) on Friday, January 15, 1999 - 11:29 pm:

They assimilate as means of procreation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Saturday, January 16, 1999 - 12:57 am:

That's why I think the nursery is unnecessary.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Chris Thomas on Saturday, January 16, 1999 - 02:14 am:

Watch carefully as Picard, Riker, Guinan and Q talk in Ten-Forward in the early part of the episode - Jonathan Frakes almost comes in too early with one of his lines but stops himself, although is a slight, just before.
Guarantee me - it's there, I watched several times and pointed it out to my girlfriend who also noticed. You just have to watch carefully.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Omer on Saturday, January 16, 1999 - 09:48 am:

Jonathan - YEah, but what will happen when EVERYONE is assimilated?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jonathan Raines (Jraines) on Saturday, January 16, 1999 - 07:01 pm:

Then thats the end of all humaniod life.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By ScottN on Sunday, January 17, 1999 - 02:19 am:

Well, then, we'd better hope that Guinan's "Cat Hands" work as well against the Borg as they do against the Q!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By BrianB on Saturday, April 10, 1999 - 06:22 am:

'Tis a shame they never followed up on what presumably makes Guinan so powerful. Just hold up six fingers and you're warding off Q? This one brief moment, unexplained, makes it the silliest moment in TNG. We can only guess that Guinan, all El Aurians are Q-like but are wise enough not to flaunt their powers and create mischief. Then came ST7:G where El Aurians tried to enter the Nexus and some allegedly died in the attempt. And Soran had to use conventional technology to enter the Nexus. That pretty much shoots down the theory of super powers. I love John de Lancie's answer at cons to what his relationship with Guinan is. "A really bad date!"
Maybe infant Borgs are incapable of being drones. Maybe by the time they're toddlers, they enter the collective. Can you imagine the frequent "hand-me-down"-cybornetic fittings they go through as they grow up?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Keith Alan Morgan on Friday, April 23, 1999 - 08:06 am:

I liked Ensign Gomez, unfortunately they only used her once or twice after this episode.

For being Hot Chocolate neither Picard or Ensign Gomez complain about the heat. Picard seemed annoyed that his uniform was messed up and Gomez didn't seem to realize that she had been doused. How hot was that chocolate?

Troi comes on the bridge apparently worried about something and asks, "Where's the Captain?" But they never say why she was so anxious. Did she sense Q and wanted to warn Picard or did it have something to do with a crewmember she was counseling? ("Watch out for Ensign Gomez! She wants to dump hot chocolate on you!")

When it is discovered that the Captain and a shuttle are missing, Data says that sensors show no ship in this sector. Well, since a sector is a cube about 20 light years across, those are some sensors. Later they examine the area a shuttle traveling at impulse could travel in six hours, but according to the Star Trek Omnipedia, it would take a ship at full impulse 80 years to cross one sector. If the Enterprise's sensors are so good they can detect a ship in a whole sector, why do they doubt that they can miss a shuttle at a mere 1,002,000,000 miles? (Impulse is about 167,000,000 miles an hour.)

When Picard and Q return to the Enterprise, why was Ten Forward empty? Was this Q's doing or did everyone who was off duty just decide to spend their time elsewhere?

Why did Guinan need to turn on her viewing screen? What did it show that wasn't visible from the window? Why was the room with the viewscreen down the hall from Ten Forward? Wouldn't a bartender's office be in a room somewhere behind the bar area?

Why doesn't Security arrive at Engineering before Worf and Picard? For supreme effectiveness Security personnel should be stationed at key areas all over the ship to be ready to spring into action at a moments notice. Instead Worf and Picard, both of whom were on the Bridge, walk into Engineering followed by two Security people. This was an Intruder Alert, in one of the most sensitive areas of the ship and instead of racing in like the Marines, Security apparently said, "We'll just let the Captain and Worf walk in first to see if it's dangerous. Pass me a donut."

Why did Worf send an Ensign to stop the Borg? Doesn't he usually ask and beg to be sent into battle?

Worf lists damage to several sections then says "There were 18 people in that section." Shouldn't he have said 'those sections'?

Why couldn't the Enterprise sensors detect eighteen bodies floating around the ship after that piece was taken out?

Why does the Enterprise just sit there after punching a few holes in the ship? If this had been a Romulan or Cardassian vessel do you think they would have just sat there like that? Earlier the Borg tell them that if they resist, they will be punished and the Cutting Beam is used as punishment, but when the Enterprise punches a few holes in the ship and destroys the Tractor Beam, no punishment follows and yet the area where the Cutting Beam came from hasn't been touched.

Guinan describes the Borg attack on her homeworld as a swarm. Riker asks why this Borg ship didn't attack and Guinan states, that they don't do that individually. Implying that the Borg don't use just one ship to attack. She further states that they don't do anything piecemeal, when they come, they come in force. Obviously something has changed in the century between the attack on her homeworld and The Best of Both Worlds, because in that story the Borg try to takeover the entire Federation with just one ship. (A mistake which is repeated in Star Trek: First Contact.)

On page 185 of the NextGen Guide II, Phil asked who that mysterious shadow in the conference room belonged to. In True Q where it was revealed that the Q can disguise themselves as shadows. Obviously the shadow was Q.

If the Borg are all interconnected, then why did that one Borg walk by Riker, Worf and Data, make a brief connection to the empty slot, then walk past them again only to stand in a slot a little ways away? If the reason was electronic, it could have been transmitted to the proper slot and if it was mechanical... well, we did see the ship repair itself without using physical labor.

Supposedly the Borg assimilate the races that come with the technology. (Like the prize in a box of cereal.) However, all the Borg look like the same race. No pointed ears, fangs, nose or brow ridges, no multiple eyes, claws, or antennae.

Why wasn't the Borg nursery square? The rest of the ship was square and the Borg strike me as being a fairly orderly race.

The walls of the Borg Nursery seemed to be inspired by H. R. Giger.

When Q sends the Enterprise back, I can see the Borg Tractor Beam, but not the Borg ship. Shouldn't it have been behind the Enterprise?

The music for this episode had a nice eerie edge to it.

Q warns Picard how scary a place the galaxy is, with talk of things that would, presumably, destroy the Federation. As yet, all I can think of that he's talking about would be the Borg he's about to show them, and probably Species 8476 (or whatever they're called) and the Dominion. Voyager's travels are proof that the galaxy isn't THAT dangerous and overwhelming, so maybe Q is just exaggerating or underestimating Starfleet. Any ideas as to 'who' Q might be referring to beyond my examples?

Maybe he was referring to the aliens from the Fifth Dimension (as seen in "Bride of Chaotica")?!
Or perhaps on a more serious note, he meant the Breen. After all, they proved more dangerous than the Borg- they managed to destroy the Defiant!!!!
Oh, and a note to Phil &co.- perhaps you should delete this episode from the board. For any and almost all of the scenes in Voyager's "Dark Frontier" to be true, this episode of TNG could not have happened (since the Hansens know all about the Borg; Starfleet knows there are risks involved; the Borg know about humans from assimilating the Hansens; the Borg came to the Alpha Quad way before even the fabled events in "The Neutral Zone" etc. etc.)....

Of course, the alernative would be to delete Dark Frontier, or just to be on the safe side, Voyager altogether. ;-) ;-) ;-)

This episodes incompatability w/Voyager is not entirely correct.
Even here on earth, there are rumors of strange things called UFO's. Now most people logically believe that they have mundane explanations such as military aircraft or terran weather conditions. Yet, anyone who watches TLC or Discovery will notice that there are people on the fringe of "science" who spend their time studying these events. Yet for all of the "sightings," if a NASA astranaut were to come in direct contact with a real UFO in space, his/her reaction would probably have been quite similar to Picards. There would probably be shock and a response like, "what the heck am I staring at?!?"
Guinan and others probably have told people about the Borg, but were either scoffed at for blowing her story out of proportion or dismissed as a quack.
I would tend to believe that Anika'a parents, being on that "fringe" of science could not tell Starfleet they were going out to "hunt Borg" so they just substituted a more mundane explanation for requiring a science vessel.
In a similar manner, if a scientific group wanted to borrow a Navy research vessel to search for the lost city of Atlantis, they would probably be better off saying that they were looking at ocean-floor seismic activity. The only difference is that Anika's parents had the misfortune of finding their UFO's.

What do you mean, the universe is not dangerous? Voyager (and DS9) for that matter have been extremely lucky. The Dominion almost wiped out the Federation but for luck, and if I had a dime for every time Voyager lucked out. I think Q was right, and it was almost like it was a foreshadowing of the two spin-off's to come.

On another note, the nit should not be the nursery per se (I imagine the Borg assmiliated babies as well, but they have to let them mature. See Voyager's "Collective") but Riker's comment on the fact that the Borg are born normal then have implants on them. Wrong! Borg are assmiliated species. I think the above post was absolutely right, in Neutral Zone from TNG'S first season we see evidence in Borg activity (which we realize in this ep). Also, the Hansen's research was probably so classified even Picard probably didn't know it (after the attack on Earth, Starfleet probably figured it wasn't worth keeping the logs classified, and may even prove useful). Bottom line, Guinan and Q should have said this was the Enterprise's first contact with Borg. Not humanity itself.

You guys seem to forget, the Hansen's were assmiliated, and their ship was left in piecies in a planet in the Delta Quad. They had no way to contact Starfleet of their findings, so Starfleet had no way of knowing that they had found the Borg.

You guys should go easy on the inconsistancys in this episode. This was the first meeting with the Borg, and the creators hadn't yet set all the ground rules yet regarding the Borg.

And there is nothing said in Generations, about Guinan's people being rescused from the Borg. Remember, when the Enterprise B rescued them, Guinan's people were in Earths solor system, the Borg hadn't been anywhere near Earth at this point!

Actually, this episode set ground rules for the Borg that were broken in later episodes.

A Changed Premise is a Changed Premise, not a Ground Rule after the fact.

But, of course, the timelines get mucked about so much in Star Trek that *anything* is possible and two different premises can exist because of changed timelines.

Guinan never touches her controls when Picard asks her to activate her view screen.

Phil, from his NextGen Guide Vol. II: PO#1: Q tells Picard that he is "Willing and able," ready to serve, but several moments later, Picard repeats Q’s statement, but mixes up the words, saying, "Ready and wiling, able to serve."
So what? This is perfectly normal. Where is the assumption that Picard, or anyone else, would not make this mistake?

Phil, from his NextGen Guide Vol. II: CP#2: Q tells Riker that he exonerated the crew after putting them on trial during their first encounter, but in "True Q," he tells Picard the jury is still out.
I agree. But since the primary information is in this episode, and the contradictory info was in that latter one, shouldn’t this nit be placed there?

Phil, from his NextGen Guide Vol. II: EO#2: Six hours after Q’s abduction of Picard, Data says they’ve scanned the area a shuttle without warp could cover in that time, but Picard’s shuttle has nacelles on it. Doesn’t this mean it has warp drive?
(Partial)Challenge: In fact, the shuttle does have the capability to go to warp 1.75 for 48 hours, and can be upgraded to have warp 2 capability for 36 hours, according to page 161 of The Tech Manual, so the nit is correct, but just so you know, the existence of nacelles has nothing to do with this. Nacelles are present on all shuttles, regardless of whether they have warp capability. All three of the shuttles on page 160 of The Tech Manual have nacelles, but not all of them have warp capability.

Kinda like selling chastity belts on Risa
If food and beverages aren’t allowed near the engineering control stations, then why is there a replicator near them? Shouldn’t it be in a room adjacent to engineering, like a lounge, or vending room?
Even omnipotent beings like to indulge themselves once in a while
Does Q regularly make pit stops to a beauty salon before immediately reappearing before others? Right before whisking himself and Picard from the shuttle back to Ten Forward in Act 1, a tuft of his hair hangs in front of his face. When they reappear in Ten Forward, his hair is redone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t detect such anomalies in Picard.(Sorry, that was uncalled for.)
The fact that it wasy "Fisher Price" on the side of the phaser may have something to do with it
When Worf first fires on the Borg drone, there is no effect. The appearance of the phaser beam making contact with the Borg scout is practically identical to that when Worf tried to blast through the hotel wall in The Royale; it just seems to go into him, as if he isn’t there. Then Worf chooses a higher phaser setting, and it kills the scout. A second scout appears, with deflector screens that deflect the phaser beam. My question is this: Why wasn’t the first scout affected by the first beam? Why weren’t the biological components of the scout affected? One might argue that it had some type of personal forcefield, but we saw that it didn’t have one; if it did, it would have become visible as a gray translucent screen when hit, as it did with the second scout.
Now I know how he got to be Chief of Security. He accidentally shot and killed all the other candidates during firefights on away missions!
When the Borg ship puts a tractor beam on the Enterprise in Act 3, Picard orders Worf to disable it. Worf fires phasers at the Borg ship, but instead of hitting the Borg ship on the upper portion of the section facing the Enterprise, where the beam is coming from, the phasers instead hit the cube on the edge where two of its sides meet, at a point much lower than from where the tractor beam is originating. Worf then says, "They still have us." Well, DUH, Worf! Why don’t you try targeting where the beam is coming from? Picard then tells Worf to use whatever means necessary to terminate the beam, Worf fires again, and he again misses! Picard then says to fire again, and Worf fires a third time and STILL misses!! He then fires a fourth time, and now, he finally hits the mark. Can’t Worf shoot straight? Can’t he program the targeting computer to zero in on the source of the beam?
Who designed these drones, Bill Clinton? (Okay, that was really uncalled for.)
When fallen Borg drones are beamed off the ship, why do they leave a body-shaped stain on the Engineering rug?
Well, maybe if you send them flowers and candy, and remark on how much weight they’ve lost…
In the last scene of the episode, Guinan tells Picard that Q sped things up between them and the Borg, forcing an encounter long before it should have naturally occurred, and that if the Enterprise encountered the Borg at the right time, they could’ve formed a relationship with them. Obviously, the writer of this line didn’t have a clear understanding of what type of enemy the creators were going to develop the Borg into, given all their subsequent appearances. Nothing indicates that the Borg can form a "relationship" with anyone. Why Guinan would say this, given that the Borg destroyed her world and scattered her people throughout the galaxy, is a mystery. If she was trying to imply that the Borg can form such relationships with those that have an equal or more superior level of technology, and that the only reason the Borg attacked her people and the Enterprise was because they had inferior technology, this is disproven in \b[Scorpion part I(VOY)}, when the Borg attack Species 8472, a race with far superior technology and resistance to assimilation. Scorpion part II(VOY) also displays that the Borg do not honor relationships with others.

I just assumed that the dead Borg were vaporized, not beamed, and that the stain was a burn mark.

Phil, from his NextGen Guide Vol. II: CP#2: Q tells Riker that he exonerated the crew after putting them on trial during their first encounter, but in "True Q," he tells Picard the jury is still out.

Q is not exactly the most trustworthy character on the show. To me it seems perfectly in his nature to lie about such things as part of his little games.

First of all, KAM, vaporization usually involves an output of heat and light. There is none here. The drone simply disappears.

Uh, scratch that "first of all" preface. I had 2 parts to my response, but dispensed with the second.

LUIGI NOVI: ***When Worf first fires on the Borg drone, there is no effect. The appearance of the phaser beam making contact with the Borg scout is practically identical to that when Worf tried to blast through the hotel wall in The Royale; it just seems to go into him, as if he isn’t there. Then Worf chooses a higher phaser setting, and it kills the scout. A second scout appears, with deflector screens that deflect the phaser beam. My question is this: Why wasn’t the first scout affected by the first beam? Why weren’t the biological components of the scout affected? One might argue that it had some type of personal forcefield, but we saw that it didn’t have one; if it did, it would have become visible as a gray translucent screen when hit, as it did with the second scout. ***

The Borg seem to be pretty sturdy beings. If Worf had his phaser set on stun I wouldn't but it beyond the Borg to withstand the impact. Especially since they have their implants to bolster bodystrenght.

I have to agree with Teral. Enhanced nervous systems to withstand the stun effect and denser skin to not only work in a vacuum, as shown in first contact, but to help prevent minor injuries.

"Why does Guinan conceal information about the Borg to the Federation?"

Because Guinan seems to be following her own version of a "prime directive": Let them make their own explorations, discoveries and mistakes. Advise, but don't spell it out. Of course the point of the episode is that the Enterprise crew won't grasp just how dangerous an enemy the Borg can be until it's too late, despite Guinan's "turn back now" warning.

Q and Guinan both take up defensive postures when they discover each other, implying they can fight one another like they're evenly matched. that's not silly so much as it is amusing, and suggestive of so much more than could be scripted.

"Worf lists damage to several sections then says "There were 18 people in that section." Shouldn't he have said 'those sections'?

Why couldn't the Enterprise sensors detect eighteen bodies floating around the ship after that piece was taken out"

I assumed the 18 were assimilated.

NANJAO: This episode RULES!

OK...the title is a question, right?
So where is the QUESTION MARK? HUH?

Maybe Q was going to offer the Borg a jelly-baby.

John, the broadcast of the episode doesn't use a question mark so, I don't use one here. It should though.

I should clarify. The broadcast should of used a question mark in the opening titles.

DUMB MOMENTS:

When the Borg show up, Picard hails Guinan to activate a viewer of some kind to monitor what's going on. The question is WHY?
Why should she have to activate ANY screen when the Borg Cube is poised right outside the windows of Ten Forward for all to see? DUH!

When the Enterprise decides to leave the area, they go away at warp speed..they fire torpedoes...no effect. Later they go to maximum warp and fire more torpedoes. The question is WHY?
Didn't they already figure out that the torpedoes were useless? DUH!

The first "dumb momemt" was mentioned by KAM. My apologies. However, the scen is still dumb.

I meant, "SCENE" I miss spell check.

They probably fired more torpedoes because they were desperate to get away and anything that might give them a chance, no matter how small, was taken.

I could be mistaken, but I seem to think that soldiers would occasionally fire at planes & tanks even though most shots would be wasted, but sometimes the bullet would hit just the right spot.

personaly I would be firing whatever I could at that point in the hopes that the magic bullet would take effect and blast the Borg. Picard by that point was running out of ideas and was probably begining to get quite "creative" shall we say in his strategies.

It must be nice to be the Chief Engineer's "girlfriend".

In one of the scenes in engineering, when Geordi is working his tail off, you can see a bunch of people working and doing stuff in the background. Everyone except for Sonya, that is. She's just standing there, doing nothing.

Yeah, some women think they can just cruise on by because of their breasts, and since Sonya had THREE of them in Total Recall, you could imagine what a slacker she is.

Luigi, it's a relief to see a man admit this.

Though I'm not surprised it was you, knowing you're realistic (and just knowing you as well as I do.)

Wow. She put two little faces right next to one another. They almost look like....


Oh. Never mind.

It seems that the Borg MIGHT have visited "The Arsenal of Freedom"...seeing how they improve themselves with the next wave of Borg drones.

OK...Picard invites Guinan to all the staff meetings regarding the Borg....but not one time does ANYONE heed her warnings.

Why did Worf send an Ensign to stop the Borg?
I'm surprised no one's caught this nit yet, or, if someone has then maybe it was lost in the big kerplooey NC experienced a couple years or so ago when many, many posts were lost.

Anyway, when the Borg throws the ensign against a far wall the dude drops his phaser as he hits the wall. The phaser sort of points at the direction from which the ensign was thrown, pointing towards the drone, but then when the ensign's shown a second or two later on the floor his phaser's not only several feet away but pointing away from him.

When Guinan raised her fingers at Q did anyone else think, "Meee-owwrrr!"

I just saw this on DVD tonight and have been taking my time with them all. So far I'm not quite done with Season 2 yet, but that's ok. No hurry. It's been so long since I'd seen this ep before that I'd forgotten how simplistic the Borg costumes were compared to later appearances in TNG, VOY and the films.

Is this the episode where the female engineer spills coffee on the captain?

Even today I have seen commercials for pants which are "spill-resistant." This would create a nit for the episode, since by the 24th century clothing would all most likely be spill-resistant and therefore Picard wouldn't need to change his uniform top.

Well, if you'd read my post you would have seen that it was hot chocolate, not coffee.

Were spill-resistant pants created before or after the Eugenics War?

Given the time lag from concept to broadcast episode, I would guess that the Eugenics War was created sometime in 1966. My wife will tell you that there are no spill-resistant pants yet in my universe.

Regarding Guinan's comment at the end of the episode about the Federation one day being able to establish a relationship with the Borg:

Although it was probably just a result of the writers not knowing what direction they were going to take the Borg in, it is prophetic of events that will happen next season; Picard will be forced into a very intimate relationship with the Borg.

Lycia Naff had an odd career, going from playing the three-breasted woman in "Total Recall" to apparently, according to TVTome, writing for various Florida newspapers (and doing a bad job of it), and now works for The Globe, a tabloid.

Q says that the Borg are neither male nor female...so...

Where did the Borg babies come from?

Borg Storks? ;-)

John A. Lang: Q says that the Borg are neither male nor female...so...
Luigi Novi: The assimilated Boy George and RuPaul?

After many years, I rewatched The Color Purple and noticed that towards the end of the film, when Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) curses Albert, telling him that everything will go wrong for him until he does right by her, she makes the "cat's claw" defensive gesture she uses against Q. The idea in the film is that she's cursing Albert right back.

This is the first appearance of the Borg and the 3rd appearance of Q.

Oh and impulse at the end!

Here's an interesting thought reguarding Guinan...
Q states that this isn't her true form, or even her real name, So wouldn't it be logical to assume that she isn't El Arian (Dr. Sorans species)?
I just assumed she took this shape to mingle with other humaniods, and that she could easily take on Q, The Borg, or anyone..But choses not to--possibly because she either finds it distastful, or if she did she would be no better than Q.
Just my thoughts on Guinan.

I had wondered if Guinan was a Q or perhaps part-Q. It would explain how she could sense changes in the timeline(Yesterday's Enterprise) and why Q want to be around her(this episode). I thought perhaps all El-Aurians were like her, but Dr. Soran didn't seem to be as insightful as her, and neither did Martus(DS9's Rivals)

We know that Guinan used that name in the 19th Century, though we do not know if she used it continuously. (Time's Arrow)

Worf lists damage to several sections then says "There were 18 people in that section." Shouldn't he have said 'those sections'?

He was referring to the piece of the ship the Borg carved out as a whole, not each individual section that was in that part.

By Jane Bond on Tuesday, January 12, 1999 - 02:58 pm:

A small observation:
The first Borg who beams aboard the Enterprise bears a striking resemblance to Brent Spiner. Does anyone know if it is actually him?

Dang talk about something from a while ago............

I believe the answer is that it was Brent Spiner's photo double. In Hollywood they have people who stand in for the main actors while they are lighting and blocking (setting up the physical movements of the characters & cameras) for a scene. I recall in one of Phil's old newsletters or online columns he mocked the whole thing as pampered Hollywood stars who can't be bothered to do it themselves but there's a much more practical reason. Time & money, which make the world go 'round. The real reason is that while the director, cinematographer, grips, gaffers & everyone else are setting up the lighting & cameras the actors are in makeup, if you had to wait for them to get out of makeup you'd have that much less time to shoot per day, which means more money for studio rental and crew payments. But anyway Brent Spiner's double appeared in several eps (including The Game in Ten Forward,) probably because he was on set more than most, as Spiner spent more time in the makeup chair than anyone except for Michael Dorn (Worf) because of the amount of makeup they had to wear as an android and a Klingon.

To add on to Brian's comment, it may be Guy Vardaman (who was Brent's double/stand-in).

I am rewatching the episode. In most episodes, it seems like the shields are put up immediately after the order. In this case, the Borg beams to engineering after the shields are supposed to be up - so either a delayed reaction, or the Borg were powerful enough to beam through the ship's shields immediately.

Back when I was complaining about substandard Trek episodes, I actually chose to lump the entire second season in that catagory. I was obviously not thinking clearly with that assessment, as it was in the second season that this episode was part of. And even I have to admit just how much this episode totally rules!

One thing I would have had Q say differently would have been adding the Ferengi to the "pitiful adversaries" the Federation has encountered thus far. I really think Maurice Hurley should have had Q say something like "The Romulans...the Klingons...(and while scoffing and laughing a little bit say) the Ferengi!" I really think that would have been something totally in character for Q. And at the same time, the writers could have actually acknowledged the utter absolute failure of the Ferengi as Federation enemies, because as I said elsewhere, they were impossible to take seriously!

Also, here's a minor nit. Just what was Picard doing going down to Engineering way down on Deck 36, just so the would-be "love interest" for Geordi can spill hot chocolate on him? Was that ever explained, why he was even there in the first place? I've wondered that for a while. Of course, the short, real life answer would be "Because It's In The Script"! Oh, of course! Silly me.

And as for Guinan's defensive pose against Q, there has been speculation for many years that her species, the El-Aurians, did actually possess great powers and could use them for self-defense if neccessary. That would be in character for Guinan to do, I think.

I like the TNG-era Borg drone appearance better than the one they had in First Contact and on Voyager, by the way. In fact, I think that the Borg actually looked their coolest from "The Best Of Both Worlds" through "Descent". But that's just me. I've also wondered what it would be like to have cybernetic implants installed on and in me, but have it so that it increases my strength, speed, agility, and endurance, but I am still able to have independent thought and not be mind-controlled. In other words, I wouldn't mind having some of the advanced capabilities the Borg drones have, but I don't ever want to be "assimiliated" and lose my freewill and individual personality.

However, as Star Trek proved time and time again, you can either be an assimilated Borg drone with all the enhancements, or you can be an ordinary humanoid. You can't have it both ways!

When Q returns Picard to the Enterprise, we are shown a general view of Ten Forward, and the bar is clear of any object. Then the shot changes, Guinan comes up from under the bar and there are suddenly two glasses on the bar in front of her.

At the end of the episode, Picard and Guinan are discussing the recent events over some sort of 3d chess game. The pieces are blue and a dark greenish color. Guinan moves a green piece, then later Picard ALSO moves a green piece.

Why didn't anyone comment on how the Borg looked like those aliens that Archer and his crew dealt with, a couple of centuries back?

Well, Archer develops memory problems, Trip "dies" and joins Section 31 (so he's not talking), and Reed was never good at writing reports. As far as why the ship's computer didn't record the event; they don't make 'em like they used to!

Plus, they never identified themselves as the Borg, which is very rude so not worth remembering

Nice try, Awhite