Every Borg Ship In Star Trek – Screen Rant
Summary
The Borg Cube is one of the most iconic Star Trek ships of all time, but there have been a handful of other notable Borg ships in franchise history. Introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 16, "Q Who", the Borg Collective became huge antagonists that struck fear into the hearts of the Federation for decades. Both the assimilation of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) into the Borg Collective and the Battle of Wolf 359 were watershed moments that finally helped TNG shrug off the shackles of Star Trek: The Original Series that had been hampering it since season 1.
Just one Borg Cube was capable of destroying 39 Starfleet ships at Star Trek's Battle of Wolf 359 which established them as a villain to be truly feared. The Borg threat was also existential, as they removed all uniqueness and assimilated individuality into their hive mind, turning their victims into drones that thought as one. The combination of the Borg Cube's power and the existential threat of assimilation into the Collective was enough to ensure that Star Trek never had to make too many updates to the designs to keep the classic villains fresh and terrifying. However, there have been one or two exceptions to this rule from across Star Trek history.
The biggest and best Borg ship is the iconic Borg Cube that was first encountered by the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2. The terrifying power of one Borg Cube was demonstrated at Wolf-359, but Star Trek: Voyager revealed that "hundreds" of Borg Cubes would surround a world before they destroyed it and assimilated the inhabitants. The interior of a Borg Cube was home to thousands of Borg drones. As these thousands of drones were intrinsically linked to the systems, the Borg drones could practically will the Cube to repair itself, which made it a formidable ship to face in battle.
It was once observed that a Borg Cube could still be operational even if it suffered considerable damage. The Borg Queen's stricken Cube in Star Trek: Picard season 3 proved this hypothesis by Commander Elizabeth Shelley (Elizabeth Dennehy) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Borg cubes also held the ability to navigate a network of transwarp conduits, allowing them to travel much faster than ships with Star Trek's traditional warp drive. In terms of weaponry, Borg Cubes had hugely powerful tractor beams and cutting equipment, used to hold ships in position while they began assimilating its technology and crew into the Collective.
Although it appears to simply be an escape pod on first viewing in Star Trek: First Contact, the Borg Sphere is a ship in its own right. Predominantly used for long-range reconnaissance and for tactical purposes, the Borg Sphere was an auxiliary vessel in the event of the destruction of a Borg Cube. They're not as strong as the Borg Cube, as demonstrated by the USS Enterprise-E's destruction of one when its shields were down in First Contact. However, it was still incredibly powerful, capable of creating a temporal vortex that allowed it to travel back in time and attempt to sabotage the first warp flight and change the course of Star Trek history.
Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) once led a daring heist to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg Sphere in the episode "Dark Frontier", which was one of a handful of Borg Sphere appearances in the show. In Star Trek: Voyager's finale, the USS Voyager was held inside a Borg sphere as the starship hitched a ride home through a transwarp corridor. Voyager destroyed the sphere from the inside and emerged in the Alpha Quadrant for a heroic return to Earth.
The Borg Sphere effectively replaced the Borg Scout Ship previously seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "I, Borg". In that episode, an Enterprise away team recovered a lone Borg drone, later-known as Hugh (Jonathan del Arco) who was the only survivor of the Scout Ship's crash. The structure that appears in the episode is much like the Borg Cube previously seen in TNG but is notably smaller compared to the more formidable mother ship.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Descent", Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D encounter a ship with the Starfleet designation of Borg Type 03. This ship was operated by a rogue group of Borg drones, led by Data's evil brother Lore (Brent Spiner). It was never entirely clear if Lore and his Borg allies had built the ship for themselves, or if they'd assimilated something pre-existing. Whatever the answer, it was incredibly powerful, with the Enterprise struggling to do any damage to it when in direct conflict with the ship. The Enterprise, under the command of acting Captain, Doctor Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) eventually destroyed the Borg Type 03 with an ingeniously timed solar fusion eruption.
The Borg Probe ship was only seen once, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Dark Frontier" when it attempted to intercept the USS Voyager. It was a smaller ship, described in the "Dark Frontier" script as "a geometric shape we've never seen, and much smaller than the average Borg ship -- about half the size of Voyager." Interestingly, the design was originally proposed as a possible replacement for the Borg Cube in Star Trek: First Contact, but was rejected. Although the Borg Probe was smaller than the USS Voyager, it was heavily armed with the purpose of matching the powerful Intrepid-class USS Voyager. The Voyager crew dispatched the new Borg vessel by beaming a photon torpedo aboard and detonating it inside.
The Borg Tactical Cube was a more heavily-armed version of the standard Cube design, which appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager two-parter "Unimatrix Zero". It differed from the standard Borg Cube in the sense that it had additional armor plating on the outside of the ship, and regenerating security fields inside, protecting the ship from invaders. The security on the Borg Tactical Cube was understandable given that it housed Janeway, Lt. Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ) and Lt. B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson) who had all been assimilated into the Collective as part of a daring attempt to spread dissent and create a Borg Civil War. The subsequent uprising forced the Borg Queen (Susanna Thompson) to self-destruct the Tactical Cube.
The ship in which the Borg Queen is hiding in Star Trek: Picard season 3 appears to be a partially destroyed Borg Cube, presumably the one from the Star Trek: Voyager finale. However, Voyager had previously introduced a designated craft for the Borg Queen in "Dark Frontier". To protect the Queen, the octahedron-shaped ship was more heavily armed than standard Borg Cubes but was also protected by a guard of honor, generally traveling with an entourage of Cubes. It was only seen in "Dark Frontier" when Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) was forced to rejoin the Collective before she was rescued by Janeway and the Delta Flyer. Janeway destroyed the Borg Queen's ship by collapsing the transwarp conduit it was traveling inside.
The impressive Borg Singularity ship appeared in Star Trek: Picard season 2, under the command of the more benevolent Borg Queen, Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill). This Borg ship was much more powerful than its contemporaries, not least because the Star Trek: Voyager finale had left the Collective in a desperate state. However, its more advanced technology was presumably due to the fact that Jurati had been developing her more benevolent Borg since 2024, after being left there in Picard season 2's penultimate episode. This new Borg ship was able to tear a hole in space-time to warn the Federation about a destructive transwarp corridor, which Star Trek: Picard season 3 largely ignored. With the destruction of the Borg Queen's Cube in Picard season 3, the Singularity may be the last new Borg ship that will ever be seen in Star Trek.
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