I Borg

The Enterprise finds a lone Borg drone, separated from the collective, and brings him aboard. The drone begins to reassert his individuality, but his presence causes differing levels of fear and sympathy from various crew members.

I felt like telling Dr Crusher to stfu for most of this episode. I'm surprised Riker didn't tell her to get off her high horse and stop pontificating. The Borg kill every human they encounter, yet she's disgusted at the idea of leaving this horrifying murderer to die.

Only Guinan seems to make any sense in this episode reminding everyone of the extreme dangers of keeping the Borg unit on board.

Worth watching for sure!

Enterprise picks up an injured Borg drone and Captain Picard faces a moral dilemma.

This is a strong episode that has in intriguing situation, great continuity from previous seasons, and excellent characters moments.

We are presented with a drone who appears to be regaining his original identity and Picard must decide his fate. The plot tears open the plaster from the psychological wounds both Picard and Guinan suffered at the hands of the Borg, and it unfolds is quite a compelling character drama.

Picard and Guinan for me are the main attractions of this episode. Both Patrick Stewart and Caryn Johnson on top form with their characters, for once, taking the more aggressive stance in a situation.

Contrasting them are Geordie LaForge and Dr Crusher, who take the more humane approach. These scenes are played out nicely and LeVar Burton and Gates McFadden contribute well.

The best scene for me is the much built up confrontation between Picard and Hugh the Borg drone played by Jonathan Del Arco. It was a great idea by the writers to have Picard test Hugh the way he does.

Del Arco does a great job of getting his character some audience sympathy in the build up to Picard's decision. He portrays Hugh with a childlike harmlessness, under freakish looking makeup, not unlike Johnny Depp in Edward Scissorhands. Not that he's in the same league as Depp, but I personally felt those type of vibes from the character.

For me it's a 8.5/10 but I round upwards.

The Enterprise comes upon a wounded individual from the Borg collective. They are able to dampen his ability to communicate and they bring it aboard the ship to treat it. However, there is a big divide as to what to do--Picard wants to implant the Borg with a virus so that it will infect the others when it's returned but the Doctor just wants to treat it and give it a big hug! Well, not exactly...but close. She, and later, others, worry about the morality of infecting it---though they seem to forget that he is a BORG member!!! I thought this was stupid and they should use the virus. However, as they get to know this new individual, the rightness or at least the effectiveness of this plan becomes questionable.

All the Borg episodes are good--and this one is no exception. Well written and worth seeing.

The "Borg" idea was inspired by studying the real life character by the name of Broden Borg who always tries to get everyone around him to assimilate with what Broden wants them to do. Resistance is futile ! The Captain of the Enterprise tried to get Data to erase the "Broden Borg" from the memory banks but couldn't leading to the plasma conducts becoming blocked. Troy believed the only way to remove the "Broden Borg" from the Enterprise was to place the "Broden Borg" on top of the warp coils, but the "Broden Borg" was too strong ranting and raving about it's own self worthiness resulting in Data blowing a circuit. Most Trekies don't realize that the "Broden Borg" is far more dangerous than the "Borg" on their own. 9 out of 10 for this one.

The moral dilemma alone, that basically everyone goes through in this episode, is worth the watch. Also great acting from everyone, as usual. And the biggest thing is that you find yourself in the same moral dilemma as well. "Hugh" is sweet, innocent and likable and it doesn't take me long to jump on the "please don't hurt him" train.

Brilliant, by the way, working in what happens here in a letter episode, but I won't spoil that for anyone.

What made me love this even more, was learning of Jonathan Del Arco's portrayal of the Borg, where he channeled the recent loss of a partner into his performance. That made this even more heartbreaking.

Great story, great dilemma and so many moral, ethical and even human emotions and lessons to be learned from this episode.