Borg Queen

The Borg

A Borg insignia, designed by Rick Sternbach (first appeared in the episode Q Who)
Founded	Before the 15th century
Base of operations	Delta Quadrant

The Borg are a fictional alien group that appear as recurring antagonists in the Star Trek franchise. The Borg are a vast collection of "drones", or cybernetic organisms linked in a hive mind called "the Collective", or "the Hive". The Borg annex the technology and knowledge of other alien species to the Collective via a process of "assimilation": forcibly transforming individual beings into drones by violently injecting microscopic machines, or nanoprobes, into their bodies and surgically augmenting them with cybernetic components. The Borg's ultimate goal is "achieving perfection". Aside from being recurring antagonists in The Next Generation television series, they are depicted as the main threat in the film Star Trek: First Contact. In addition, they played major roles in the Voyager series, and serve as the way home to the Alpha Quadrant for the isolated Federation starship USS Voyager. The first encounter between humans and the Borg is depicted in the 2nd season of the series Enterprise in the episode "Regeneration" in which the phrase 'you will be assimilated; resistance is futile' is heard by the crew of Starfleet's starship USS Enterprise for the very first time.

The Borg have become a symbol in popular culture for any juggernaut against which "resistance is futile". TV Guide named the Borg #4 in their 2013 list of the 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

In the text commentary to the collector's edition of Star Trek: First Contact, Michael Okuda revealed that Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) writers began to develop the idea of the Borg as early as the first-season episode, "Conspiracy", which introduced a coercive, symbiotic life form that took over key Federation personnel. It was thwarted by the Enterprise crew and presumably never heard of again (the 'alien conspiracy' plotline itself was scrapped when it became clear that the concept was too grim for Star Trek's target audience). Plans to feature the Borg as an increasingly menacing threat were subsequently scrapped in favor of a more subtle introduction, beginning with the mystery of missing colonies on both sides of the Neutral Zone in "The Neutral Zone" and culminating in the encounter between Borg and the Enterprise crew in "Q Who?".