The Best of Both Worlds (TNG episode)

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Star Trek: TNG episode
"The Best of Both Worlds"
Locutus of Borg
Episode no.	74 & #75
Prod. code	174 (Part 1) #175 (Part 2)
Airdate	July 1, 1990 (Part 1) September 24, 1990 (Part 2)
Writer(s)	Michael Piller
Director	Cliff Bole
Guest star(s)	Colm Meaney George Murdock Elizabeth Dennehy Whoopi Goldberg
Year	2366
Stardate	43989.1 44001.4
Episode chronology
Previous	"Transfigurations"
Next	"Family"

"The Best of Both Worlds" is a two-part episode from the third/fourth seasons of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

1 Overview
2 Plot summary
- 2.1 The Best of Both Worlds
- 2.2 The Best of Both Worlds, Part II
3 External link

[edit] Overview

"The Best of Both Worlds" is a significant and highly regarded two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that was written by Michael Piller and directed by Cliff Bole. Part I first aired during the week of July 1, 1990 as the third season finale and ended as a cliffhanger and fandom speculation began to mount about the fate of Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. Part II concluded the story as the fourth season premiere during the week of September 24 of 1990, to many fans' delight and praise. Many fans and critics regard and praise it as the best episodes of the entire Star Trek series, having achieved an almost cinematic level of story and scope. It is as of this episode that the television series is considered to have finally emerged from the shadow of its predecessor. It won Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series" and "Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Drama Series" and was nominated for two others, including "Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series." It appeared in TV Guide's 100 Most Memorable Moments in TV History feature in its July 1, 1995 edition, and also in another issue on the 100 greatest TV episodes of all time.

The events portrayed in the episode were revisited in "Emissary", the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and the movie Star Trek: First Contact. "The Best of Both Worlds" itself follows up on the Borg threat first indicated by the first season episode "The Neutral Zone" and later confronted in the second season's "Q Who?".

"The Best of Both Worlds" originated the quotes, "I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us," and "You will be assimilated," which became a part of pop culture, sometimes used, for example, in parodying Bill Gates, Microsoft and other institutions.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode is set in late 2366. The stardates given during the episode are 43989.1 and 44001.4.

[edit] The Best of Both Worlds

Suspecting that the Borg are responsible for the destruction of the New Providence colony at the edge of Federation space, Starfleet dispatches the Enterprise to investigate accompanied by Lt. Commander Shelby, a Federation tactician and expert on the Borg. Shelby is also highly ambitious. After their introduction in Picard's ready room, Shelby and Commander Riker take a turbolift together, and she remarks that she wants to show Captain Picard that she's "the right one for the job." Riker is puzzled and asks, "What job?" "Why, yours of course," she replies, explaining she heard Riker was "leaving" for his own command. Shelby later embarrassed Riker at "Poker Night" when she called his bluff, showing how aggressive she can be. The next morning, Shelby takes Data to examine what was left of the colony, before the away team was scheduled to beam down.

An electromagnetic signature, a "Borg footprint" as Riker called it, confirms that the colony was razed by a Borg cube. When Admiral Hanson informs the Enterprise of a distress call that identified its attacker as "cube-shaped," Picard orders a course change for that location, and the Enterprise encounter what appears to be the original Borg ship from "Q Who?" The Borg ship demands that Captain Picard personally surrender himself to them, unusual as Riker noted, because the Borg were supposed to be interested only in technology, not individuals. The Enterprise escapes and takes refuge in a sensor-blinding nebula to give Commander La Forge time to modify the main deflector dish into a weapon. The Borg, though, send "magnetometric-guided charges" into the nebula to flush them out. The Enterprise tries to make a run for it, but the Borg overtake the ship, abduct Picard, then race toward Sector 001: "the Terran system." In other words, Earth

It is the Enterprise that now gives chase, but the Borg are traveling at warp 9.6, and the Enterprise will be forced to disengage in only two hours and forty-three minutes. As La Forge completes the modifications, Shelby leads an away team to the Borg cube in an attempt to force it to drop out of warp. Power waveguide conduits lead Dr. Crusher to suggest "the mosquito's point of view," that destroying them might make the Borg "stop for a minute to scratch." Worf picks up Picard's communicator signal, but all they find is his empty uniform in a drawer. With time running out, they begin destroying some power distribution nodes. Borg drones start attacking them, but just before the away team is beamed back, they are horrified to see an assimilated Picard.

Although unable to save Picard, their actions force the Borg drop to impulse and give the Enterprise a chance to use their weapon. Riker asks if the weapon is ready, and Geordi confirms. Shelby, though, wants to try to save Picard, though there are only minutes left and the Borg appear ready to return to warp. Suddenly they are hailed by the Borg ship. "Picard" appears on the viewscreen, and delivers an ultimatum:

"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us."

Faced with the prospect of losing his captain or risking the future of humanity, Riker orders Worf to destroy the cube - "Fire."

[edit] The Best of Both Worlds, Part II

La Forge's deflector weapon fails to damage the Borg cube due to Picard's prior knowledge, of which he informs them seemingly mockingly.

The Borg proceed to Earth. Starfleet sends forty ships to intercept the cube at Wolf 359 but the Borg's assimilated knowledge of Starfleet weapons and tactics allows them to easily defeat the fleet, destroying 39 vessels, and (as later established in the fourth season episode The Drumhead), resulting in the loss of eleven-thousand lives. The Cube continues to Earth after leaving the Starfleet armada in tatters.

Commander William Riker, now given a field promotion to Captain, realizes that he must devise a tactic that Captain Picard, whose knowledge is now possessed by the Borg, would never anticipate. He separates the saucer section of the Enterprise from the stardrive, as per a contingency plan discussed with Picard. With Picard's knowledge of Federation starships, the Borg ignore the saucer section and focus on the stardrive - the segment containing the Warp Core and Navigational Deflector. Meanwhile, however, the saucer section emits an anti-matter shower against the Borg's electromagnetic shields, interfering with their sensors. Worf and Data then take a shuttlecraft through the Borg cube's shields, tranquilize Locutus, and beam the three of them back to the Enterprise just before the Borg destroy the shuttlecraft. Locutus assumes that this was a rescue attempt motivated by the crew's sentimental attachments to Picard and that it is tactically worthless, so he decides to remain on the Enterprise to represent the Borg while the cube proceeds to Earth. Dr. Crusher, however, sedates and restrains Locutus, and Data then establishes a neural link with him to gain access to the Borg's technologically telepathic "Collective Consciousness" while the Enterprise races to Earth and confronts the Borg cube in high orbit above the planet. Data quickly exhausts various possibilities, noting with dismay that most of the important systems and command structures in the Borg collective mind are high security and unreachable. Out of options, Riker orders Wesley to ram the Borg cube at Warp speed. Just before engaging the engines, Data calls Riker and the bridge crew and tells them to stand by. Suddenly, the Borg ship goes offline, and their weapons and shields deactivate. He informs the bridge that he has implanted an unprotected, low-level command into the Hive Mind, in effect fooling the self-repairing Borg into thinking it is time to regenerate - "I put the Borg to sleep." However, the Borg recognise the malfunction and initiate a self-destruct sequence. Rather than attempt to disable the self-destruct sequence, saving the cube for further study, the Enterprise flees the scene as the cube explodes in orbit over Earth.

The episode ends with Riker, having been offered his own command for the third time in the episode, electing to remain as First Officer on board the flagship, Shelby leaving to help rebuild the destroyed fleet, and Picard staring out the window of his ready room, pondering the death and destruction that he helped the Borg to exact, a character thread that would continue into the next episode, "Family" and remain for the rest of the series.