The Borg. The second you see them, your life, because it has been, is already over. The Protostar crew is about to seek out out if resistance is futile.

Star Trek has loads of iconic villains, even when they don’t stay villains perpetually. The Romulans, Klingons, the Founders, the Xindi, and on and on. The one factor all of them have in widespread with our heroes is that they’re, in the end, people. And, on a person degree, reasoning can happen. Star Trek normally lives and dies by the concept that all individuals within the cosmos have extra similarities than variations.

The Borg (at the very least up till very just lately) are completely different. There isn’t any actual particular person degree. To be a person is to be the other of the Borg. Because the Borg are an all-consuming hive thoughts, bent on assimilating the thoughts, physique, and soul of everybody and all the things they encounter. And you ain’t you with out alternative.

For many years the Borg have left Star Trek followers spellbound and horrified in equal measure. And in “Let Sleeping Borgs Lie” we learn the way they impression the Protostar.

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To Boldly Recap

The Diviner left a weapon in opposition to the Federation on the Protostar. We know that and now the Protostar is aware of it, too, due to Gwyn’s reminiscence returning. A fast search of the ship turns up a hidden passage that may solely be opened by Gwyn’s Heirloom. In a secret subdeck, they uncover what seems to be a residing weapon.

Jankom tries to shoot it, however it strikes round his weapon fireplace. And whereas Rok and Dal focus on completely different strategies of disposal, Zero makes a plea for a extra nuanced method. After all, they’ll’t throw the weapon out of the airlock as a result of then another person will discover it. And since “killing” isn’t an choice, absolutely there have to be a technique to cause by the issue.

And that’s when a really dangerous thought presents itself within the type of a Borg Cube stuffed with sleeping drones. Dal and firm don’t know the Borg, however Hologram Janeway does. And she tells them to run instantly. After all, the Borg can adapt to any type of assault or protection, and beat any weapon.

But if they’ll beat any weapon, can’t they beat the one stashed on the Protostar? Can’t the staff simply beam aboard the Borg Cube, use their expertise to determine methods to clear up their sentient weapon downside, and hightail it out of there earlier than the Borg get up?

Of course, they’ll’t. But that gained’t cease them from attempting anyway!

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Danger Cubed

The Borg sleep as our heroes make their technique to the Borg’s central hub, the Vinculum. The excellent news is that they arrive there safely, however the dangerous information is that the one technique to interface with the system is to hitch the hive thoughts. And since Zero, as a Medusan, is the one one who’s already been a part of a hive thoughts, they volunteer. But regardless of their finest intentions, Zero is sort of instantly seduced by the security offered by the Borg hive thoughts.

The drones get up and provides chase. Gwyn is the one one to flee whereas the remainder of the crew finds themselves dragged towards assimilation. Gwyn makes an attempt a rescue however finds an interruption within the type of Borg Zero. She implores Zero to drag themself from the clutches of the Collective, reminding that Zero that they have already got a collective within the Protostar crew.

Zero pulls themselves out of the hive thoughts, sending out an electromagnetic pulse that briefly shuts down the drones close by. The crew will get off the dice and escapes. Unfortunately, the one factor Zero learns from the hive thoughts about their weapon is that it can’t be destroyed. As a consequence, Dal decides the Protostar can not return to Starfleet but. They head off to analyze a close-by misery name as a substitute.

Meanwhile, Admiral Janeway helps heal the Diviner who ends “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” by waking up enraged.

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To Boldly Review

Star Trek: Prodigy is a CGI animated sequence. They can painting an alien race just like the Borg in any method that they wish to. But relatively than pushing the envelope and making the Borg extra robotic than ever earlier than, the sequence appears to be like again. And it pays off huge.

It’s humorous trying again now. People joke in regards to the authentic Borg design from the TNG episode “Q, Who” due to all of the white pancake make-up, vacuum hoses, and holographic stickers. But you understand what? That look labored again then and it nonetheless works now.

Think of it because the distinction between the shambling Night of the Living Dead zombies and their sprinting, 28 Days Later period cousins. Sure, quick is horrifying. But it’s the gradual inevitability that’ll actually ship a shiver up your backbone. After all, loss of life not often runs at us instantly – it simply good points on us over time till it’s throughout. Until we cease being who we’re. Until we cease all the things.

And that’s simply the visuals of “Let Sleeping Borg Lie”! In truth, that’s only one side of the visuals. We’ve by no means “seen” the Borg consciousness till now and there’s one thing lovely about it. Something alluring that makes Zero’s temporary heel flip comprehensible. Speaking of which…

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Zero the Hero

“Let Sleeping Borg Lie” is, above all, a Zero episode of Star Trek: Prodigy. It begins with Zero’s ongoing guilt over almost driving Gwyn insane earlier within the season. And we see their want for understanding by how they take care of the Diviner’s residing weapon. After all, isn’t Zero a weapon of a kind? If they wish to be redeemable, don’t they should entertain the chance that this weapon, too, may be turned to the facet of fine?

But nobody else sees the weapon that method. Everyone else needs to destroy it or toss it out an airlock. And that’s what Zero fears the crew needs for them as properly. Heck, that’s how Zero views themselves generally.

And that’s why the Borg are so alluring to Zero. The Borg don’t flinch at Zero’s look. In truth, the Borg see a worth in Zero. Of course, that worth is in Zero as spare elements relatively than as an individual, however it takes Zero instances to work that half out.

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(Don’t) Let Sleeping Borg Lie

Star Trek: Prodigy (like all Trek reveals) is beloved by outsiders. And outsiders are sometimes taken in by cultish teams with straightforward solutions. The Proud Boys. The Gender Critical motion. QAnon. It’s straightforward once you really feel alone to be original right into a weapon by the massive groupthink. And that’s what the Borg are in the long run. Just a gaggle that merely tells us what to suppose, who to be, and who makes use of us as pawns for the destruction of everybody who isn’t Borg else till nothing is left however Borg.

Zero is a nonbinary particular person with out a house. They had been a part of a gaggle thoughts, however they don’t have one anymore. It’s like Zero misplaced their household they usually aren’t positive in the event that they’ll ever discover that feeling of security ever once more. The crew of the Protostar could be a discovered household, however there’s a problem there. And if nobody is actually listening to Zero, they are often misplaced to one thing just like the Borg.

Thankfully Gwyn, who arguably is the particular person most harmed by Zero within the first, does pay attention. And she reminds Zero that they’ve a collective, a household, with the crew of the Protostar. The Protostar, like all nice Starfleet crews, is awash with completely completely different sorts of species and people. And when it counts, they pay attention to one another. They worth one another’s variations.

And they don’t take the Borg for something aside from what they’re: a risk to individuality and to life itself. Never let sleeping Borgs lie. Because the Borg might sleep, however they by no means sleep for lengthy.

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References: Gotta Catch ‘Em All

They are usually not loads of Easter eggs on this episode of  Star Trek: Prodigy except for the plain ones. The Borg appear like their authentic incarnations within the TNG episode “Q, Who”. The Borg Vinculum makes its first look within the Star Trek: Voyager sequence finale “Endgame”.

There is one different reference to “Endgame”. The cause the Borg Cube in “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” is “asleep” is due to a neurolytic pathogen. That is how alt-future Admiral Janeway fights the Borg in “Endgame”.

Also, present Admiral Janeway drinks tea, not espresso. And if there’s one factor all Janeway followers know, it’s that Janeway loves espresso greater than life itself.

All in all, this is among the finest makes use of of the Borg because the TNG episode “I, Borg”.

4.5/5 stars

Lina is a ten+ yr leisure journalist veteran whose bylines embody SYFY Wire, Looper, and Screen Fanatic. She has written comedian scripts for IDW Comics and Zenescope Enetertainment and has written Doctor Who shorts for BBC Worldwide. She is a long-time podcast host and producer who has labored on Who Won the Week, SYFY’s Every Day sequence, and the Amazon podcast Untold Story. She at the moment co-hosts the New York Times really useful podcast Song vs Song.

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