@@soylentteal oh man no kidding. Imagine if he stayed on. Imagine if he were in charge of the music for DS9? He'd make the dominion war the stuff of legend on his music alone
@@RoboBreaker Yea. To say that Best of Both Worlds is the pinnacle really sells the franchise short. Arguably it isn't even the best of TNG. I actually think Redemption and All Good Things outclass it. BOBW is actually a bit overrated in my opinion because the second part is rather weak. The ending is a bit too abrupt.
@@JenkoRun I don't get the fucking idiots who say "TNG" Borg were space zombies. Do they look like zombies to you, bro (not you @JenkoRun)? They literally were a combination of humanoids with technology and represented our fear of AI
Up to that point I had seen like 3 of the movies and several episodes of the original series and a few episodes of TNG. Yesterday’s Enterprise got me very interested in the show but this episode got me addicted to Star Trek
Not just the Federation. One wonders if it weren't for Q if maybe the Borg might have gone towards the Delta Quadrant instead and came across the Dominion. Assimilated Jem'Hadar is the source of many more nightmares.
I think that the Federation's philosophical assumption was that the more advanced a civilisation was, technologically, the less likely they were to be aggressive. So, any antagonist civilisation would likely be equal or inferior to the Federation in technological terms. The Borg came as a huge shock - Something that the Federation had long assumed as being impossible on the grounds of assumptions on how cultures and societies evolved - a far more technologically-advanced civilisation that was implacably hostile and culturally predatory against all other life-forms.
This is the Borg I remember. No queen, the ability to make the Federation seem inferior, rarely present, very very alien, and a feeling of absolute dread whenever they are around.
The Borg were always more alien, more terrifying when there wasn't a "queen". A true collective hive mind acting as one. That's how I'll always think of the Borg.
This is literally star trek at its most terrifying and yet so exciting. When the enterprise gets the hell out of there you realize just how massive the cube is, even as 1701-D was absolutely huge and powerful for a starship. So amazing to watch this and remember how scared I was as a kid for the enterprise and her crew, but just funny now. 10 out of 10 on the music.
sometimes i still miss they never added an episode with the ships added in start trek armada 2, the rts game. it has a Fusion Cube, 8 cubes fused together (and a Tactical Fusion Cube. those things blow up starbases in seconds, they are basicly indestructable
Depends on what kind of story you are looking for. ;-) Way of the Warrior or Year of hellwhere also pretty great in dramatic and action ways. But for me, Paste Tense is the best two-parter and it even became better in recent years.
Hmmm I think Way of the Warrior in DS9 actually edges this out. Bigger battle, Worf taking center stage and lots of Klingons. It's the first time we see the Federation and the Empire in all out war and the station defenses were phenomenal.
I remember thinking the same when I first saw this as a ten year old. The relentless, almost obsessive pursuit of the Enterprise by the Borg was scary.
I always liked how Patrick Stewart did this scene. How Picard some how feels that their situation is hopeless but understands the importance of notifying command of the engagement because he feels that they won't last long against such an enemy. For a maverick officer who's faced insurmountable odds and death before, to somehow feel desperation for the first time in his career. It's great foreshadowing to the end of the episode. I remember waiting months until the follow up thinking are they going to kill off Picard. No internet spoilers in those days!
I still remember the admiral saying the Federation will make their last stand at "Wolf 359," then the next transmission he sends is all blurry and distorted, he starts by saying "the fight does not go well, Enterprise." That shit is haunting, that guy KNEW they were screwed, but they have to try, even if they are most certainly going to their deaths, and sure enough, they were slaughtered. Imagine being on the Enterprise, the Borg is on its way to Earth, and the "last stand" just got smashed like a boot on an ant. Its just this feeling of "we're doomed, aren't we"
Picard says "we have engaged the Borg" think about that, at the point when he said it they had only observed/ come into contact with the cube. "Engaged" in military terms means "we're fighting", Picard already knew that just seeing the cube meant they were going to have to fight.
@@RyanHayes1984 Picard- That'll teach your ass to give orders on my ship. We reverse when I say we reverse! Shelby- WHAT KIND OF SHIP IS THIS?!?! *On the Cube* 3 of 8- Dude I think they just shot their first officer. 8 of 12- Was he attempting mutiny? 3 of 8- No, I think he just wanted them to back up a little! 8 of 12- The hell? Um, Call the Queen...I think we might want to reconsider this assimilation.
I remember a Trek nerd doing the calculations from the time they first encounter the Borg and how fast it was chasing them and extrapolated that and calculated that if the Borg Cube never stopped chasing after them it would have arrived in their sector right at the time that episode came out That is freaky, the Cube never slowed down after reading their database and learning about Sector 001
Thanks for confirming you aren't Rick Berman. I kid, because it really is such a shame that Ron Jones was disrespected like that after creating such a wonderful haunting atmosphere for this episode in particular.
Great visual and musical moment when the cube was magnified onscreen. They had been building toward it for more than a year and it gave me goosebumps when it finally happened. Composer Ron Jones was a genius! And the smug look on Shelby’s face after freeing the ship was priceless.
yea this is more the ship that was called when archer beat the freighter that was assimilated. On the day exact it was 100 years. And given the borg dont pass up a chanze to assimilate something it could take a cube around that time.
The first episodes of the Borg on TNG were the scariest episodes of Star Trek ever! I thought maybe because I was a kid when I first saw them, but even as re-watching as an adult, it is still a bit scary.
@@StinkyGuff It somewhat makes sense that they would be weakend in Voyager because of the virus that was sent to the Borg with Hugh, along with the fact that species 8472 was the main focus for the Borg to deal with in the Delta quadrant, so they weren't overly focused on assimilationg Voyager
@@llpalm08 Hugh only managed to infect one ship. The Borg probably have buffers set up between ships to prevent computer virus-infected vessels from infecting others.
@@llpalm08 Not really that was only a small portion of Borg. Now I enjoy "Voyager" as much as the next man but everything with the Borg on "Voyager" were hilarious retcons. The whole thing with the Hansens discovering the, by then, pussified zombieish Borg, when the Borg near Federation space started with "The Neutral Zone," although it was hinted, not to mention the other changes "Voyager" did to them. "First Contact" fucked them up but "Voyager" really fucked up when it came to them. Way more.
First time I saw that opening sequence, with that music, was just so visceral; it sent a chill up my spine, gave me goosebumps and tightened my stomach. All these years later it still gets to me. Probably always will.
It’s the way the flutes, piccolos and strings come together when they first put the Borg ship on the screen. Very much an “Oh shit, here we go” moment for the viewers.
the way piccard is told there are 18 people dead and he doesn't even bat an eyelid because it can wait for later is part of what made him such a great character. while we've seen entire episodes previously devoted to the investigation of a death of someone not part of the enterprise crew.
Picard was totally in control here...as soon as Shelby's tactic with the phasers worked he immediately gave orders on velocity and heading...with his frikkin legs crossed giving the classic order to ENGAGE.
What would he have done if Shelby and Data hadn't saved the ship? His intention was made to run before that happened when he realized the new modifications weren't working and his ship was vastly overpowered. However, Picard didn't come up with the saving maneuver, Shelby did. She deserves all the credit and Data who fluctuated the Phaser freqs so rapidly you could see them coming along the disc, blue, red, green, yellow, and almost white, then at several times you can see that the outgoing Phaser beam is actually multicolored, incredible!
@@dark_ops1651 which the plot ignored as it willed so our heroes could possibly stand a chance, and so the borg could be replaced with shitty 90's cgi monsters. Honestly I don't think there's been a trek series more disappointing to me than Voyager.
@@Doc_Fun fr? I think voyager is my favorite show out of all of trek. Dont get me wrong, I love TNG and DS9 but I never quite connected with the characters as much as I did with the crew of Voyager
Voyager would roll out Borg episodes when ratings were down lol and it was usually bullshit! Species 8472 was a great concept but they ruined that as well, Voyager was better than Enterprise and all the crap that came after, but TNG and DS9 were better! DS9 the first couple seasons were rough, once the Dominion War opened up, it became a great and dark show.
Somehow I never noticed the viewscreen image of the Borg was a long corridor with rows of Borg drones. As a kid I always thought it was just a bunch of latticework and wiring, like Picard was being forced to talk to a breaker panel.
Probably because a lot of us watched this on crappy old 14" tube televisions with a super grainy picture. Lot different in high-resolution video, you can actually see whats happening.
@@andrewm3210 They didn't need to put detail that would stand up to 2k in there, but they painted it in there originally, even if we can only appreciate their work now!
Worf: "transmission signal failed. show resolution quality draining. 90%.....80%." Geordi: "trying to recalibrate antennae......DAMN!" (Our rabbit-ear box televisions displaying static-y, warped video feed) Worf: "picture lost!" Commander Shelby: "random pixels, data, keep it changing. don't give the viewers time to adapt."
@@andrewm3210 And now, thanks to the HD remaster, we can see the drywall screws holding the bridge consoles together. Or the chinsy wood veneer on Worf’s console that’s peeling at the corners. Or the black tape on Geordi’s console down in Engineering!
I love how composed the Captain was throughout the entire encounter...cool calm and collected in the face of a powerful enemy...who says star trek can't teach you real life values!
Music is absolutely everything to setting the tone of a scene and should never be overlooked. Watch this again muted - it has zero gravitas. Its like Lester Burnham's monologue at the end of American Beauty, when you watch it muted you feel nothing. With the music score, it changes everything. Music done right can really grip a viewer in a scene.
@3:34 I love that cocksure "I gotcha" look out of Commander Shelby! They should have brought this actress back. She delivered much need flare on her first appearance. She clearly had a iron grip on how to play this character.
This is the stuff of legends. At once, a space opera of real and tangible Human realities of a possible future. And a statement about Politics and war on a stage interstellar with Humanity as the lynchpin. What a glorious thing Star Trek was once. My intellect and powers of observation are hardend like carbon. And my level of engagement would never be sustained by network TV for entertainment, yet Star Trek is on of the few franchises that can succesfully suspend my disbelief.
@@Ericwvb2 Yeah. She had bragged to Riker that she had what it took and here she proved it to him. That self satisfied look was basically her saying “Yeah, that’s right!”
Yep I saw that body language too haha. Also Riker pointing out to her earlier that the earlier protection may not work. The blu ray works well to show the acting and body language :)
Mario Jerez : It's an unfortunate (& annoying) practice in high adventure/heroic fiction that some writers seem to feel the best/easiest/only way to promote the newbies is by having them diminish/tear down who or whatever has been established as a major force to be reckoned with by their predecessor(s). They just don't get (or care) that they might be diminishing the long term integrity of the lore just to get some momentary quickie 'oohs & ahhhs'.
3:18 brilliant on your feet type thinking on her part... respect..lucky data has crazy skills...the ability to randomly change phaser resonance frequencies on the fly
You can see her thinking it out a bit up to that. She was studying the effects of the phasers. She likely figured out what would do the trick and took a bit before she realized who could do it fast enough.
Shelby made some mistakes during this epsiode, but no doubt she saved the enterprise's bacon and everyone aboard thanks to her quick thinking. too bad we never see her again on the show, only in some of the novels.
This episode is so great. Especially the music in this show. It’s different from any other episode in the series. Really shows the gravity of the situation
Even as a casual Star Trek fan who hasn't watched every single series, it is immensely satisfying to hear a Captain especially one who is known as a diplomat say fire all weapons
0:05. Every time that plays I get goosebumps. This is when you know this real, this is scary, and you know that there's nothing the Enterprise or Picard can do to stop them.
2:00 Love Shelby’s dark look at Riker saying “I know Borg 101 you insecure dipsh*t, I’m the Borg specialist and you don’t need to posture in front of everyone to make yourself feel better”
And then the look at 3:35 where she's like "Yeah i did" LoL. I never noticed all those little looks and attitudes when i watched this originally, but she's quite a spunky chick that one...
Borg 101 or not, Riker had actually been in combat with the Borg before, and he knew that those rapid Borg adaptations were really basically instantaneous. The shield modulations she said “had them confused” literally failed 4 seconds later.
@@nicolasg8091 But had anyone else said it, Rikers response would have been a bit more tempered. He didn't like Shelby because she threatened his position which was why he responded the way he did. Riker could be a real prick at times.
@@Spacegoat92 And Shelby wasn’t? She told Riker she intended to be his replacement. She went on an away mission without approval, went around him to tell Picard her plan. She literally told him he was “in her way”, said he “sat in the shadow of a great man”, and that if he couldn’t make the “big decisions”, he should “make room for someone who could.” Riker never insulted her back or said anything as unprofessional, in fact he did actually like Shelby and said good things about her to everyone who brought it up. He said she reminded him of his younger self.
Five words that still send shivers down one's spine (or at least tied with "I am Locutus... of Borg"). Edit: Back again. You will be too. Anyway, I don't think I can understate just how bone chilling it was seeing that vague, hulking mass of cube floating ominously toward the screen.
3:17 Congratulations to both Shelby and Data for inventing the rotating phaser frequency right here, this proved to be an invaluable tool in dealing with the Borg on many encounters after this. Lucky the Borg seem to forget this trick alot! !) So yeah even though it sucks we never saw Commander Shelby again after this landmark two parter, at least the rotating modulation has made an enduring impression on the entire franchise! :)
The Borg are not negotiationble, they just want to take you make you one of them.... I just watched Jeremy Jahns review of star treak and nice to see we are talking about these shows. Love it. Every day coming home from secoundry school walking down that hill to watch Star trek with my dad.
It was Calculated 2 1/2 Years for the Enterprise at Warp 9 to get from the Borg Territory to the Nearest Federation Outpost....the exact Same Borg Cube Reached them within 1 Year. Truly Terrifying
Most of the episodes with the borg always gave me chills as a kid. When the Star Trek Convention came.to Spokane WA in the 90s, someone came in a homemade Borg outfit even the voice and he scared the shit out of me.
I remember seeing this part for the first time a gazillion years ago... got chills as the Borg ship appeared to that eerie choral background music. Back when shows knew how to make villains actually scary.
I loved the borg episodes as they were fantastic and edge of your seat action! When I first saw the borg ship I thought they will be an awesome enemy in show! The borg was brilliant entry in the show and each episode was exciting. Picard was fantastic in each episode especially when he became one! The Borg were great!
I'll say it again: this was the moment where The Next Generation became superior to the original series and stepped right out of its shadow. While there were already a number of excellent episodes, from this point on, TNG remained consistently good and just got better and better.
I was literally scared for months after this.......my lord, what an enemy. The Borg. Copyright - scared to ask a girl to dance to "a whole new world" from Aladdin in 1996.
"We are the Borg, we wish to join with you in holy matrimony and add your uniqueness to our own. Resistance is heartbearking. Will you marry us?" ...we have engaged the Borg.
When the announce extraterrestials on television. Humanity, we have engaged ET. Every coffee cup, glass, ipad, iphone, all shattering to pieces over just one, ONE, announcement. ET's response..
Love Geordi. Fun fact, as a kid my next door neighbor looked like a younger version of him. To this day my toons on STO are Engineers who have some sort of connection to Geordi :)
A reminder that while scifi can imagine a lot of things, some things we do figure out slip through the cracks. Although it was shown the drones did have a certain wireless connection.
one second you think you are the superior power in alpha q and next second you face a hopeless fight against an enemy who can counter all your technology.
I have pondered this since the 90s lol. What Data should have done was transferred the new firing algorithm to tactical for Worf to do his thing. But evidently, it was faster for Data to fire the phasers. Also, Data was ordered by Commander Shelby to do it, overriding Worf.... and also Captain Picard who normally gives the order to fire weapons. Unprecedented times, I guess.
It does speak a little to Data’s weaknesses by the way Shelby directed him to keep modulating the weapons so the Borg couldn’t adapt. So, basically, she was smarter than Data, because he should have been able to figure this out on his own in nanoseconds.
The music sure does enhance this scene
Gives me chills when they zoom in to the cube.
The score for this was superb!
@@mhedge1979 and Rick Berman said you know what Ron Jones your music is too noticeable so we are going to fire you
@@LyonHall1 And what an unfathomable loss that was for the franchise.
@@soylentteal oh man no kidding. Imagine if he stayed on. Imagine if he were in charge of the music for DS9? He'd make the dominion war the stuff of legend on his music alone
The sight of that Cube invoked such terror in me still does😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
Scary. Tense. Chilling. A classic. And then, there's Geordi's door roll.
DO A BARROL ROLL!!!!
The LaForge maneuver
"I do my own stunts."
😂🏆
This is peak Star Trek. The absolute zenith of the entire franchise.
Agreed. It's the best two-parter in the entire franchise. Still infinitely watchable.
Well said....
Agreed.
No, Deep Space Nine eventually transcended TNG as the superior series
@@RoboBreaker Yea. To say that Best of Both Worlds is the pinnacle really sells the franchise short. Arguably it isn't even the best of TNG. I actually think Redemption and All Good Things outclass it. BOBW is actually a bit overrated in my opinion because the second part is rather weak. The ending is a bit too abrupt.
This was the episode that did it for me. The Star Trek addiction was born...
TNG Borg was terrifying.
Voyager Borg was... disappointing.
@@literate-aside Voyagers version are just space zombies.
@@JenkoRun I don't get the fucking idiots who say "TNG" Borg were space zombies. Do they look like zombies to you, bro (not you @JenkoRun)? They literally were a combination of humanoids with technology and represented our fear of AI
Up to that point I had seen like 3 of the movies and several episodes of the original series and a few episodes of TNG. Yesterday’s Enterprise got me very interested in the show but this episode got me addicted to Star Trek
I was 12 when this aired. Waiting the summer for the finale seemed like an eternity!
The most terrifying thing about this is just how unprepared the Federation was for an enemy like the Borg at this point.
Not just the Federation. One wonders if it weren't for Q if maybe the Borg might have gone towards the Delta Quadrant instead and came across the Dominion. Assimilated Jem'Hadar is the source of many more nightmares.
@@samsonguy10k The Borg were from the Delta Quadrant. The Dominion were in the Gamma Quadrant.
I think that the Federation's philosophical assumption was that the more advanced a civilisation was, technologically, the less likely they were to be aggressive. So, any antagonist civilisation would likely be equal or inferior to the Federation in technological terms. The Borg came as a huge shock - Something that the Federation had long assumed as being impossible on the grounds of assumptions on how cultures and societies evolved - a far more technologically-advanced civilisation that was implacably hostile and culturally predatory against all other life-forms.
Later on the federation is pushed almost to the max with Borg, dominion, breen etc
You always grow with your duties ... Starfleet was in good shape in comparison with the known species at this time ...
This is the Borg I remember. No queen, the ability to make the Federation seem inferior, rarely present, very very alien, and a feeling of absolute dread whenever they are around.
the queen was just stupid
The Borg were always more alien, more terrifying when there wasn't a "queen". A true collective hive mind acting as one. That's how I'll always think of the Borg.
All was lost when Janeway single handily took out the entire Borg collective herself.
This is literally star trek at its most terrifying and yet so exciting. When the enterprise gets the hell out of there you realize just how massive the cube is, even as 1701-D was absolutely huge and powerful for a starship. So amazing to watch this and remember how scared I was as a kid for the enterprise and her crew, but just funny now. 10 out of 10 on the music.
sometimes i still miss they never added an episode with the ships added in start trek armada 2, the rts game. it has a Fusion Cube, 8 cubes fused together (and a Tactical Fusion Cube. those things blow up starbases in seconds, they are basicly indestructable
Classic episode in every way. The best two-parter in the entire franchise.
Couldn't agree more. The best yet!! Nothing compares
Depends on what kind of story you are looking for. ;-) Way of the Warrior or Year of hellwhere also pretty great in dramatic and action ways. But for me, Paste Tense is the best two-parter and it even became better in recent years.
Agreed! Love it!
Hmmm I think Way of the Warrior in DS9 actually edges this out. Bigger battle, Worf taking center stage and lots of Klingons. It's the first time we see the Federation and the Empire in all out war and the station defenses were phenomenal.
Correction…the best cliffhanger in tv history!!
That look she gives him at 2:05 is hilarious lol. She's like "...bitch."
Cmdr Shelby: "That's quitter's talk, Mister. Keep fighting!"
What makes this even more horrifying is that this is probably the same cube they met at J-25, it just kept going after the initial encounter.
Ricard ask if it was the same cube and Data confirmed it was.
I remember thinking the same when I first saw this as a ten year old. The relentless, almost obsessive pursuit of the Enterprise by the Borg was scary.
The Borg were actually first encountered in the Star Trek Enterprise episode "Regeneration".
@@childelee2569 No, he said he was uncertain but that it had the same dimensions.
@@childelee2569 no he said unknown but the dimensions were precisely identical
Gives me chills when they zoom in on the borg ship.
Same.
DE MAGNIFY
Not just me then XD I could here picard say that line million times and never get old
"we have engaged.... *the borg."*
then we learned after the commercial break that the Borg had actually engaged the federation :(
I always liked how Patrick Stewart did this scene. How Picard some how feels that their situation is hopeless but understands the importance of notifying command of the engagement because he feels that they won't last long against such an enemy. For a maverick officer who's faced insurmountable odds and death before, to somehow feel desperation for the first time in his career. It's great foreshadowing to the end of the episode. I remember waiting months until the follow up thinking are they going to kill off Picard. No internet spoilers in those days!
I still remember the admiral saying the Federation will make their last stand at "Wolf 359," then the next transmission he sends is all blurry and distorted, he starts by saying "the fight does not go well, Enterprise." That shit is haunting, that guy KNEW they were screwed, but they have to try, even if they are most certainly going to their deaths, and sure enough, they were slaughtered. Imagine being on the Enterprise, the Borg is on its way to Earth, and the "last stand" just got smashed like a boot on an ant. Its just this feeling of "we're doomed, aren't we"
Picard says "we have engaged the Borg" think about that, at the point when he said it they had only observed/ come into contact with the cube. "Engaged" in military terms means "we're fighting", Picard already knew that just seeing the cube meant they were going to have to fight.
2:45
Picard: Fire at will
Riker: Oh f*ck
Worf: Delighted Captain!
Riker: Waaaaaiiiii *gets fired at*
@@RyanHayes1984 Picard- That'll teach your ass to give orders on my ship. We reverse when I say we reverse!
Shelby- WHAT KIND OF SHIP IS THIS?!?!
*On the Cube*
3 of 8- Dude I think they just shot their first officer.
8 of 12- Was he attempting mutiny?
3 of 8- No, I think he just wanted them to back up a little!
8 of 12- The hell? Um, Call the Queen...I think we might want to reconsider this assimilation.
@@Koays aw don't bring up the queen. What a disastrously stupid addition to the canon. Destroyed the borg's core concept almost as badly as Voyager.
@@Koays This is pure comedy gold!
I remember a Trek nerd doing the calculations from the time they first encounter the Borg and how fast it was chasing them and extrapolated that and calculated that if the Borg Cube never stopped chasing after them it would have arrived in their sector right at the time that episode came out
That is freaky, the Cube never slowed down after reading their database and learning about Sector 001
That music, using a choir since the Borg are multiple beings connected to a single mind = brilliant idea
Thanks for confirming you aren't Rick Berman.
I kid, because it really is such a shame that Ron Jones was disrespected like that after creating such a wonderful haunting atmosphere for this episode in particular.
The cube just shook off continent killing barrage from the Enterprise. Crazy.
I wish Star Trek still had the feel of TNG.
Great visual and musical moment when the cube was magnified onscreen. They had been building toward it for more than a year and it gave me goosebumps when it finally happened. Composer Ron Jones was a genius!
And the smug look on Shelby’s face after freeing the ship was priceless.
How is it that Shelby knew what to do?
As stated early on, she had become the Federation’s “Borg expert.”
@@soylenttealAh. Thanks.
I can't believe how hard my heartbeat is just watching this.
I'd like to believe the Borg ship they met in "Q Who" and escaped from has travelled at maximum warp for over two years to finish the fight.
yea this is more the ship that was called when archer beat the freighter that was assimilated. On the day exact it was 100 years. And given the borg dont pass up a chanze to assimilate something it could take a cube around that time.
If they don't use transwarp...
The first episodes of the Borg on TNG were the scariest episodes of Star Trek ever! I thought maybe because I was a kid when I first saw them, but even as re-watching as an adult, it is still a bit scary.
Same feeling here, but they made them less scary, and less of a threat in Voyager, which is my only disappointment in that series.
@@StinkyGuff It somewhat makes sense that they would be weakend in Voyager because of the virus that was sent to the Borg with Hugh, along with the fact that species 8472 was the main focus for the Borg to deal with in the Delta quadrant, so they weren't overly focused on assimilationg Voyager
@@llpalm08 Hugh only managed to infect one ship. The Borg probably have buffers set up between ships to prevent computer virus-infected vessels from infecting others.
@@llpalm08 Not really that was only a small portion of Borg. Now I enjoy "Voyager" as much as the next man but everything with the Borg on "Voyager" were hilarious retcons. The whole thing with the Hansens discovering the, by then, pussified zombieish Borg, when the Borg near Federation space started with "The Neutral Zone," although it was hinted, not to mention the other changes "Voyager" did to them. "First Contact" fucked them up but "Voyager" really fucked up when it came to them. Way more.
If only the Borg had stayed this awe inspiring.
First time I saw that opening sequence, with that music, was just so visceral; it sent a chill up my spine, gave me goosebumps and tightened my stomach. All these years later it still gets to me. Probably always will.
now that's good television right there.
It gets to you because its not a SiFi ,it’s a documentary ...
I totally get your point; but the fact that what you say resonates so well is what makes it GREAT Si-Fi.
It’s the way the flutes, piccolos and strings come together when they first put the Borg ship on the screen. Very much an “Oh shit, here we go” moment for the viewers.
Just watching it long enough to leave a like to the last reply here it still gets to me a bit. This NEVER gets "old".😆
the way piccard is told there are 18 people dead and he doesn't even bat an eyelid because it can wait for later is part of what made him such a great character. while we've seen entire episodes previously devoted to the investigation of a death of someone not part of the enterprise crew.
Yeah now imagine if Michael Burnham was in charge.
@@manco828 What kind of monster would burn ham?
Plus he had already lost 18 other crewmen in the previous encounter. It was expected at this point lol.
He was probably surprised it was so low. It's a miracle any of them survived more than 5 minutes.
Picard was totally in control here...as soon as Shelby's tactic with the phasers worked he immediately gave orders on velocity and heading...with his frikkin legs crossed giving the classic order to ENGAGE.
What would he have done if Shelby and Data hadn't saved the ship? His intention was made to run before that happened when he realized the new modifications weren't working and his ship was vastly overpowered. However, Picard didn't come up with the saving maneuver, Shelby did. She deserves all the credit and Data who fluctuated the Phaser freqs so rapidly you could see them coming along the disc, blue, red, green, yellow, and almost white, then at several times you can see that the outgoing Phaser beam is actually multicolored, incredible!
"They have the ability to analyse and adapt, Commander." Voyager kinda forgot this...
no not really. they did have the ability to adapt to phaser frequencies and such
@@dark_ops1651 which the plot ignored as it willed so our heroes could possibly stand a chance, and so the borg could be replaced with shitty 90's cgi monsters. Honestly I don't think there's been a trek series more disappointing to me than Voyager.
@@Doc_Fun fr? I think voyager is my favorite show out of all of trek. Dont get me wrong, I love TNG and DS9 but I never quite connected with the characters as much as I did with the crew of Voyager
Voyager would roll out Borg episodes when ratings were down lol and it was usually bullshit! Species 8472 was a great concept but they ruined that as well, Voyager was better than Enterprise and all the crap that came after, but TNG and DS9 were better! DS9 the first couple seasons were rough, once the Dominion War opened up, it became a great and dark show.
So did first contract, they were toned down
3:21 one of the only times, if not the only time, Data is shown using the lower control stack on his console. "Here goes nothing"
Somehow I never noticed the viewscreen image of the Borg was a long corridor with rows of Borg drones. As a kid I always thought it was just a bunch of latticework and wiring, like Picard was being forced to talk to a breaker panel.
Probably because a lot of us watched this on crappy old 14" tube televisions with a super grainy picture. Lot different in high-resolution video, you can actually see whats happening.
@@andrewm3210 They didn't need to put detail that would stand up to 2k in there, but they painted it in there originally, even if we can only appreciate their work now!
Worf: "transmission signal failed. show resolution quality draining. 90%.....80%."
Geordi: "trying to recalibrate antennae......DAMN!"
(Our rabbit-ear box televisions displaying static-y, warped video feed)
Worf: "picture lost!"
Commander Shelby: "random pixels, data, keep it changing. don't give the viewers time to adapt."
@@andrewm3210 And now, thanks to the HD remaster, we can see the drywall screws holding the bridge consoles together. Or the chinsy wood veneer on Worf’s console that’s peeling at the corners. Or the black tape on Geordi’s console down in Engineering!
This was a frightening episode. The Federation were completely unprepared for an invasion by the Borg.
The Borg is truly the most terrifying Star Trek episodes.
And just to think that in reality they really want to do this to people. Connecting the human brain with AI.
@@mattfurry3205 you mean controlling brains as its own
the borg ARE not IS....... ffs learn to use english grammar dumb a s s yank...
@@mattfurry3205
That's a very simplistic view
2:05 That look from Shelby to Riker... could cut steel.
I love how composed the Captain was throughout the entire encounter...cool calm and collected in the face of a powerful enemy...who says star trek can't teach you real life values!
Music is absolutely everything to setting the tone of a scene and should never be overlooked. Watch this again muted - it has zero gravitas. Its like Lester Burnham's monologue at the end of American Beauty, when you watch it muted you feel nothing. With the music score, it changes everything. Music done right can really grip a viewer in a scene.
You haven't "engaged" the Borg. You're exactly where they want you to be.
TNG is when the Borg were scary!
It's like an insect saying "we have engaged the T-rex." Good luck with that, fam.
@3:34 I love that cocksure "I gotcha" look out of Commander Shelby! They should have brought this actress back. She delivered much need flare on her first appearance. She clearly had a iron grip on how to play this character.
This is the stuff of legends. At once, a space opera of real and tangible Human realities of a possible future. And a statement about Politics and war on a stage interstellar with Humanity as the lynchpin. What a glorious thing Star Trek was once. My intellect and powers of observation are hardend like carbon. And my level of engagement would never be sustained by network TV for entertainment, yet Star Trek is on of the few franchises that can succesfully suspend my disbelief.
Not a space opera. That implies the Borg are Latin. Idiot. They're Germanic. This show was gritty
@@robjackson5245 Race-obsessed loser.
And now it's just dumb "pew pew laser hologramsl
The first Star Trek I ever watched was the Borg episodes box set, I’ve been a super fan ever since
Still the best looking Borg cube in any Star Trek series.
I love how Shelby trying to supress a smile when Picard push her from his favorite spot xD
Also note the little smile she gave when she instructed Data to alter the phasers and it worked. She saved the ship!
@@Ericwvb2 Yeah. She had bragged to Riker that she had what it took and here she proved it to him. That self satisfied look was basically her saying “Yeah, that’s right!”
Yep I saw that body language too haha. Also Riker pointing out to her earlier that the earlier protection may not work. The blu ray works well to show the acting and body language :)
@@Ericwvb2 that more like smug to yourself then smile xD. That is acting, not that crying from Star Trek: Discovery.
The look Shelby gives Riker at 2:01 😂
Mr. Worf, dispatch a subspace message to Admiral Hanson. We have engaged the Borg.
@@Valokaari too bad voyager ruined the borg
Mario Jerez : It's an unfortunate (& annoying) practice in high adventure/heroic fiction that some writers seem to feel the best/easiest/only way to promote the newbies is by having them diminish/tear down who or whatever has been established as a major force to be reckoned with by their predecessor(s). They just don't get (or care) that they might be diminishing the long term integrity of the lore just to get some momentary quickie 'oohs & ahhhs'.
Chilling just to think about the message…..
Take a seat.
@@kellyleathers8806 mostly its usually the famous last words in Star Trek (at least until Voyager nerfed them).
3:18 brilliant on your feet type thinking on her part... respect..lucky data has crazy skills...the ability to randomly change phaser resonance frequencies on the fly
You can see her thinking it out a bit up to that. She was studying the effects of the phasers. She likely figured out what would do the trick and took a bit before she realized who could do it fast enough.
She's the true hero here. I love her proud smirk after.
Shelby made some mistakes during this epsiode, but no doubt she saved the enterprise's bacon and everyone aboard thanks to her quick thinking. too bad we never see her again on the show, only in some of the novels.
A literal Kobiashi-Maru test. This episode elevated Picard.
This episode is so great. Especially the music in this show. It’s different from any other episode in the series. Really shows the gravity of the situation
Even as a casual Star Trek fan who hasn't watched every single series, it is immensely satisfying to hear a Captain especially one who is known as a diplomat say fire all weapons
0:05.
Every time that plays I get goosebumps. This is when you know this real, this is scary, and you know that there's nothing the Enterprise or Picard can do to stop them.
The actors themselves said they knew they were making something unique - it had a whole different vibe on set.
Also when picard puts his hand on her shoulder. Amazing acting
I love that the Borg always interrupt Picard when they hail the Enterprise
Ha! Yeah. I guess that in all their travels they never assimilated a civilization that had manners.
2:00 Love Shelby’s dark look at Riker saying “I know Borg 101 you insecure dipsh*t, I’m the Borg specialist and you don’t need to posture in front of everyone to make yourself feel better”
And then the look at 3:35 where she's like "Yeah i did" LoL. I never noticed all those little looks and attitudes when i watched this originally, but she's quite a spunky chick that one...
@@Spacegoat92 It's a pity they never brought her back again (maybe as a captain on another ship). She was a great character and well-acted.
Borg 101 or not, Riker had actually been in combat with the Borg before, and he knew that those rapid Borg adaptations were really basically instantaneous. The shield modulations she said “had them confused” literally failed 4 seconds later.
@@nicolasg8091 But had anyone else said it, Rikers response would have been a bit more tempered. He didn't like Shelby because she threatened his position which was why he responded the way he did. Riker could be a real prick at times.
@@Spacegoat92 And Shelby wasn’t? She told Riker she intended to be his replacement. She went on an away mission without approval, went around him to tell Picard her plan. She literally told him he was “in her way”, said he “sat in the shadow of a great man”, and that if he couldn’t make the “big decisions”, he should “make room for someone who could.”
Riker never insulted her back or said anything as unprofessional, in fact he did actually like Shelby and said good things about her to everyone who brought it up. He said she reminded him of his younger self.
Five words that still send shivers down one's spine (or at least tied with "I am Locutus... of Borg").
Edit: Back again. You will be too. Anyway, I don't think I can understate just how bone chilling it was seeing that vague, hulking mass of cube floating ominously toward the screen.
Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.
Death is irrelevant.
0:05 There's something about that music cue that makes this scene timeless, one of Star Trek's most defining moments.
“Shields are being drained. 90%… 80…”
Picard: “This is fine.”
I miss classic Star Trek.
One of the most epic moments in Television history.
3:17
Congratulations to both Shelby and Data for inventing the rotating phaser frequency right here, this proved to be an invaluable tool in dealing with the Borg on many encounters after this. Lucky the Borg seem to forget this trick alot! !)
So yeah even though it sucks we never saw Commander Shelby again after this landmark two parter, at least the rotating modulation has made an enduring impression on the entire franchise! :)
We get to see Shelby in S3 of Picard! For a few seconds, at least….
@@HawkGTboy As a 5 star admiral on top of that too, the supreme leader of all of Starfleet.
3:09 I'm surprised his visor didn't fall off last second and he had to grab it Indiana Jones style.
The Borg are not negotiationble, they just want to take you make you one of them.... I just watched Jeremy Jahns review of star treak and nice to see we are talking about these shows. Love it. Every day coming home from secoundry school walking down that hill to watch Star trek with my dad.
One of the best five minutes of tv ever
The Borg terrified me as a kid. Only because they terrified Picard.
It was Calculated 2 1/2 Years for the Enterprise at Warp 9 to get from the Borg Territory to the Nearest Federation Outpost....the exact Same Borg Cube Reached them within 1 Year. Truly Terrifying
I always think of this music / score when there’s any cliffhanger throughout life.
I saw the remastered 2 part series in an anniversary showing at the Paramount in Seattle... It was friggen AWESOME!
"There was a time that I wouldn't hurt a fly...Then the Borg came. And they taught me that if there is one constant in the universe, it' DEATH."
"We lost a lot of good people down there". as opposed to "We lost a lot of nobody people who's absence will never be mentioned again"
Most of the episodes with the borg always gave me chills as a kid. When the Star Trek Convention came.to Spokane WA in the 90s, someone came in a homemade Borg outfit even the voice and he scared the shit out of me.
I remember seeing this part for the first time a gazillion years ago... got chills as the Borg ship appeared to that eerie choral background music.
Back when shows knew how to make villains actually scary.
I loved the borg episodes as they were fantastic and edge of your seat action!
When I first saw the borg ship I thought they will be an awesome enemy in show!
The borg was brilliant entry in the show and each episode was exciting. Picard was fantastic in each episode especially when he became one! The Borg were great!
Frankly I liked the Borg in their original omnipotence of space. Bring down the egos of those silly humans.
Shellby was so good..
If there's something strange
In the galaxy
Who you gonna call?
BORGHUNTERS!
That Borg Theme is both fascinating and horrifying.
Well composed!
I'll say it again: this was the moment where The Next Generation became superior to the original series and stepped right out of its shadow. While there were already a number of excellent episodes, from this point on, TNG remained consistently good and just got better and better.
I was literally scared for months after this.......my lord, what an enemy.
The Borg.
Copyright - scared to ask a girl to dance to "a whole new world" from Aladdin in 1996.
Scariest scene in Star Trek. Borg cubes are seriously mobile star bases.
0:15- "We have engaged the Borg."
My ex wife once said and I agree “that was I nice little show of strength there” when Picard took Shelbys command position the way he did..
I still love that when the borg find his ship they hail him and ask him to come aboard their ship.
The don't ask him, they TELL him...
"We are the Borg, we wish to join with you in holy matrimony and add your uniqueness to our own. Resistance is heartbearking. Will you marry us?"
...we have engaged the Borg.
Wow this thing looks crisp in HD. I'm tempted to give the series a watch.
Containment Breach: Laforge goes into action
Siri, send a message to my top 10 contacts, we have engaged the youtube algorithm
All in one movie Crossover with Galactica battle the new movie 👍👍💯1:37battle crossover
That music gives u an even greater sense of how much of a threat the ship poses.
Is it me or does those Borg look like those QR things
That's why they went back to 21st Century Earth to where the technology was around to scan QR codes and assimilate everyone all the more quickly.
The beginning scene is so dramatic, scary. And the music is so intense.
When the announce extraterrestials on television. Humanity, we have engaged ET. Every coffee cup, glass, ipad, iphone, all shattering to pieces over just one, ONE, announcement. ET's response..
Still one of their greatest episodes.
I am watching the Best of Both Worlds and what caught my eye were the Phasers firing from under the nacelle pylons. I had to look it up.
That chilling night in 1993 never forgot how if felt watching this as it aired and the follow up of wolf 359!
It aired in june 1990 for part 1
This Borg was like the Anton Chigur of space. You can't reason with it, you can't bargain with it. It's a force of nature.
pretty good comparison
Love Geordi. Fun fact, as a kid my next door neighbor looked like a younger version of him. To this day my toons on STO are Engineers who have some sort of connection to Geordi :)
If only Data was connected to the ship via Wifi
A reminder that while scifi can imagine a lot of things, some things we do figure out slip through the cracks.
Although it was shown the drones did have a certain wireless connection.
But homie does establish an SSH connection, tho. 🙃🖥
Good for them. I'm glad they found someone.
one second you think you are the superior power in alpha q and next second you face a hopeless fight against an enemy who can counter all your technology.
Picard is way too comfortable in his chair 💺
The one species they should have left alone was the humans.
I don't get why did Shelby tell Data to randomly change phaser frequency, shouldn't that be Worf's job since he's handling the weapons?
She knows Data can do it as quick as an android.
Data is also the science officer. So maybe given it was a more nuanced procedure? That's the best I've got anyway
I have pondered this since the 90s lol. What Data should have done was transferred the new firing algorithm to tactical for Worf to do his thing. But evidently, it was faster for Data to fire the phasers. Also, Data was ordered by Commander Shelby to do it, overriding Worf.... and also Captain Picard who normally gives the order to fire weapons. Unprecedented times, I guess.
Data can change phaser frequencies faster than worf.
Basically, Data could do it several times faster than Worf.
It does speak a little to Data’s weaknesses by the way Shelby directed him to keep modulating the weapons so the Borg couldn’t adapt. So, basically, she was smarter than Data, because he should have been able to figure this out on his own in nanoseconds.
3:19 The reason this works is because Data is faster than the Borg.