Star Trek Top 50 #47: “I Borg” (TNG)

Let me tell you something, when this “kid’s” big brothers come looking for him, they’re not gonna stop until they find him. And they’ll come looking for us, and they will destroy us. And they will not do any of the soul-searching that you’re doing now.

LCARS-47

Logo-TNG“I BORG”
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Robert Lederman
Original Air Date May 11, 1992

One of the things that Star Trek did better than almost any other science fiction television show is it took moral quandaries and explored them from every angle — or at least as many angles as was possible in a 45-minute episode without losing the sense of action and tension and grinding the episode to a talky, preachy bore (okay, it did occasionally commit that crime). It was also great at exploring the value of life and what it meant to be human. The Next Generation did this better than any of the other Trek shows. And “I Borg” is one of the finest examples.

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ST50 #51: “Shattered” (VOY)

LCARS-51

Logo-VOYSHATTERED”
Star Trek: Voyager
Written by Michael Taylor; Story by Mike Sussman, Michael Taylor
Directed by Terry Windell
Original Air Date January 17, 2001
Guest Stars: Manu Intiraymi (Icheb), Scarlett Pomers (Naomi), Martha Hackett (Seska)

Voyager passes by an anomaly which emits a chronokinetic surge, fracturing the ship into numerous time zones. Chakotay takes a direct hit from the surge which knocks him into a state of temporal flux. Rushed to sick bay, the Doctor injects him with a chronoton-based serum to stabilize him. As a result, he is the only one who can pass through the time barriers, aware of each different time zone. This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Costume Design, and also has the distinction of being the first Star Trek episode broadcast in a new century (January 17, 2001).

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