I, Borg

The crew discover a wrecked Borg scout ship with a single survivor: a young Borg drone. Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) insists on treating the surviving Borg despite the concerns of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). On Picard's orders, the drone is confined and monitored by security forces at all times and is prevented from contacting the Borg Collective. Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) assist Crusher in bringing the Borg back to health. As they come to understand the workings of the Borg, La Forge and Data devise an idea of using the Borg drone as a weapon of mass destruction. By implanting an unsolvable geometric formula into his mind and returning him to the Collective, the formula should rapidly spread (similar to a computer virus) and disable the Borg. Crusher is aghast at this suggestion, considering it equivalent to genocide, while Picard and the other senior crew deliberate on the ethics of this plan. The Borg drone initially calls himself "Third of Five", but ends up referring to and understanding himself as "Hugh"—the name given to him by La Forge. Hugh discusses how the Borg only wish to learn about other cultures through assimilation, but La Forge counters this argument, discussing aspects of individuality that make them human and unique. In further debates, La Forge finds himself becoming a friend to Hugh, and begins to doubt his previous idea. This is further complicated when Hugh shows elements of individuality. The crew now debate whether it is appropriate to sacrifice one individual to protect the majority, though Picard is still insistent on destroying the Collective. Crusher and La Forge arrange to have Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg), who has a similar loathing for the Borg because they destroyed her homeworld, speak to Hugh. She finds Hugh to be not a mindless drone but a confused young man, and she agrees Hugh is no longer a Borg. Guinan convinces Picard to meet with Hugh, as well, and Picard comes to the same conclusion, in part because Hugh refers to himself as "I" instead of the Borg's collective "we" during their discussion. Picard abandons the proposed plan and instead offers Hugh asylum within the Federation. Hugh expresses enthusiasm at the prospect of remaining with La Forge but ultimately refuses, recognizing that the Borg will still come looking for him. He offers to be returned to the crash site, where he will be found and re-assimilated by the Borg. Picard hopes that, once Hugh is reconnected, the sense of individualism Hugh has learned will spread throughout the Collective. La Forge accompanies Hugh to the crash site and, from a safe distance, watches the Borg recover him. Just as the Borg transport out, Hugh turns to give La Forge a parting glance. ==Production==

Following the Borg-based two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds", the production team were having difficulty in introducing the Borg to the series due to their unstoppable nature. Picard, La Forge and Hugh which resulted in a series of two character scenes in the episode. Story editor René Echevarria wrote the script, with an uncredited assist from executive producer Jeri Taylor. She compared the idea to the film Edward Scissorhands (1990), saying that she felt it would become a "classic" and that the Borg "would never be the same again". and later directed the episode "Force of Nature". "I, Borg" also marked the first time that Jay Chattaway scored a Borg-related episode; Chattaway continued to do so for the rest of the series and during Star Trek: Voyager. The arm piece was also redeveloped; rather than a single "club" piece as previously used for the Borg, it was built from a foam-rubber glove with attachments. Jonathan Del Arco had no concept of what a Borg was prior to the audition. He received his script on the evening prior to meeting with the producers and felt that it gave him a decent sense of the character. Instead, Del Arco later explained that he was deliberately antisocial towards the other actors at the audition in order to get into Hugh's mindset. When he performed for the producers, someone else read the lines assigned to Picard and La Forge, and he felt like he immediately got a positive result. He received a call back, and returned to audition once more. He had previously done a screen test for the role of character Wesley Crusher. Following his appearance in the episode, he later pitched a couple of story ideas to the producers to feature the return of Hugh. He was happy when the character later returned in the seventh season opener "Descent", which he felt was similar to his previous ideas. ==Reception==

The episode aired during the week commencing May 10, 1992, in broadcast syndication. According to Nielsen Media Research, it received ratings of 12.8 percent. This means that it was watched by 12.8 percent of all households watching television during its timeslot. When broadcast it was the seventh most watched episode of the season, behind both parts of "Unification", "A Matter of Time", "Power Play", "Cause and Effect" and "The Game". James Van Hise, in his book The Complete Trek: The Next Generation, said that the episode "enriched the creative tapestry of the series" and gave the writers a number of possibilities for following it up. Zack Handlen gave "I, Borg" a grade of A− in his review for The A.V. Club, and while he was disappointed that the Borg were made less "nightmarish", the question of genocide that hung over the episode and the expansion of potential story ideas from the plot made it worth it. Empire ranked this the 34th best out of the top 50 episodes of the 700 plus Star Trek television episodes. Screen Rant ranked "I, Borg" the sixth best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Variety ranked it as the 13th best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Hollywood Reporter ranked it among a top twenty five episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sven Harvey included "I, Borg" in a list of 25 "must watch" episodes of the series compiled for Den of Geek, describing it as "a wonderfully written and executed episode which lays a path for later developments". Newsweek noted this episode for emergence of independent identity, and of empathy and forgiveness. They remark, "As the Borg, cut off from the collective mind, begins to recognize itself as an individual, so do Picard and Guinan."'''' Den of Geek ranked Jonathan Del Arco as in Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of the top ten guest star roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He appears in the role of Third of Five (i.e. Hugh), in "I, Borg" and "Descent, Part II". They propose a story arc with the Enterprise 1701-D confronting the Borg, that would include "Q Who?", "The Best of Both Worlds", "I, Borg", and "Descent". == Home media release ==

"I, Borg" was first released on VHS cassette in the United States and Canada on October 7, 1997. The episode was later released in the United States on November 5, 2002, as part of the season five DVD box set. It was subsequently released as part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective – Borg collection on DVD, which brought together the Borg-themed episodes from The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. The first Blu-ray release was in the United States on November 19, 2013, followed by the United Kingdom on November 18. ==See also==