Hypothetical: You are a writer in 1990. ‘The Best Of Both Worlds’ 2-parter has just finished airing. You have been tapped to be the “Borg Person” in the Star Trek writing room. You are tasked with writing the next Borg episode as well as given the opportunity to create a story bible for future Trek writers to adhere to for the Borg.
Your episode is to be ready for some time through the end of season 4 to the middle of season 5. What do you do with the episode and the Borg? You are not constrained by Borg canon that has been written after BOBW.
Some rules:
You can’t not use the Borg. I know some people just want them to be mysterious and not show up again, but to engage with the question you have to write something.
You can’t just kill off all the Borg. They must be usable for future writers. If you make them disappear, know it will be undone.
The ideas must be plausibly filmable with the resources of TNG production.
This is 90s TV, so you can do a 2 or maybe even 3-parter but your Borg ideas can’t eat the entire show. TNG must still be able to support non-Borg episodes.
Something with an alien species that wants to join the borg. Maybe their home system is in a bad way, or they just believe in the Borg’s ideals.
Do you just let them throw themselves in and destroy their society? What about people who don’t want to join? What if them joining the Borg is strategically bad for the federation?
Maybe this was done and I forgot
I’d remember a transhumanist species. It would be an interesting premise for an episode…