How Humanity Created The BORG! - Star Trek Explained

[@KingOfMadCows]

I like the idea of the Borg coming from outside the galaxy. It would reconcile Guinan's claim that they've been developing for thousands of centuries with the Vaaduar's claim that the Collective only had a small number of planets during their time. The Borg could have developed for thousands of centuries in their home galaxy before arriving in the Milky Way during the time of the Vaaduar's empire. It would also mean that there could be an entire galaxy or even multiple galaxies assimilated by the Borg out there.

[@antonhei2443]

I agree. It would be fun. Although they wouldnt be in humanoid form.

[@2490debrick]

No, I dont agree! I believe they were an accident created by an inept race like the Pakleds tinkering with technology they didn't understand!

[@williamainsworth2256]

In one TOS episode, there were a group of refugees who were from the Andromeda galaxy who said they were fleeing from a galaxy wide war that destroyed their civilization. Someone, I don’t remember who, theorized that it might have been the Borg. Would make sense.

[@Ascelot]

@@antonhei2443 Borg is the technology, not the form, the humanoid form is what they assimilate.

[@Streifi]

@@williamainsworth2256 Didn't they flee from galaxy-wide rising radiation levels though?

[@Kirmz]

In one of 7 of 9's earlier episodes, she flat out said to Harry Kim "When the Borg first arrived at this galactic cluster."

[@sonofawil]

Contentious opinion: the Borg queen was a mistake. The Borg was scarier when it was an anonymous collective, capable of complex thought but without a single central personality. The queen came about due to a shortsighted need for a conventional antagonist.

[@stankbox]

Agreed, I've said the same and including Locutus.

[@Falstaff0809]

Yes! Their first appearance was truly horrifying. After that they became weaker and more conventional. A great idea that the producers really couldn’t handle.

[@brianbartlett9823]

I also agree. Before the queen and locutus. Borg were much better villains. Perhaps too good.

[@jamesb7257]

I would say it would have been better if the queen was actually an "administrator profile" specifically designed to determine what does and doesn't get assimilated. Then if you remove one queen another drone gets updated to become the next queen.

[@drkdze]

I couldn't agree more. Man, Q introducing the Borg is still one of TNG's greatest episodes. And that episode set a great tone as to who the Borg were. It a shame that over time their role in trek as a serious threat was constantly diminished to them being a joke by the last time we see them in Picard.

[@coyoteflightcenters9469]

The best origin story I have ever found for the Borg was in the Shatner books. Shatner along with Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens tied V-ger from the movie Star Trek the Motion Picture to the Borg. Spock finds himself kidnapped and about to be assimilated by the Borg. The assimilation machine however stops after 'discovering' that Spock had already been assimilated. After Kirk and Picard rescue Spock, they share a mind meld. During the meld, Picard and Kirk find out that Spock had melded with the Borg many decades earlier when he melded with V-ger.

[@adrianfeliciano7404]

@@coyoteflightcenters9469 I agree with you in the first star trek movie when v'ger explained the reason his changed accord

[@alanlafond9705]

@@coyoteflightcenters9469 Sounds like a flawed theory, based on the fact that somehow Kirk and Picard are working together, when Star Trek Generations has already established that Kirk and Picard met for the first time in that movie, and ended with Kirk's death, thus automatically relegating ANY other meetings of these two into the non-canon category.

[@jamiebraswell5520]

You mean the worst, most illogical idea. Why can't the galaxy...no, the universe...be huge enough for the Borg and V'ger to be completely separate? Why do fans desperately want to reduce it to the size of my back yard? There really is nothing similar between the two. V'ger is not a cyborg, nor is it a cyborg when it absorbs Decker. It needed Decker's mind, his consciousness, to become more than just pure logic, something that is the limit of the Living Machine's existence. V'ger was evolving, but could not reach the next level of evolution because believing in these higher levels of existence or other dimensions cannot be proven logically. V'ger ascends. It doesn't run off to create Borg. V'ger was not created by Borg either. The Living Machines are just that. They have no biological element at all, hence V'ger looking at carbon units as nothing but an infestation that should be patterned for data storage. The Living Machines nor V'ger either one share the idea of biological beings embracing the synthetic. Spock gained a lot of knowledge about V'ger via his trip inside the memory patterns and then the mind meld. At no time does he ever mention that there was a merger of biology and synthetic. They don't even fully comprehend how V'ger was able to absord Deck's consciousness in order to evolve. Borg are in no way a higher form of evolution. V'ger and the Borg are entirely unconnected. What a really silly idea. Please stop ruining both creations with this stupid idea.

[@Charlie97L]

@@alanlafond9705 I believe Kirk was resurrected in a storyline in the books. Yeah, I know.

[@dharusiokay9426]

You mean the book where they travelled to the central borg planet and literally flip a literal switch to turn the Borg off? Man, Shatnerverse was a wild Ride.

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

I still like the idea of Borg origins to be remained a mystery.

[@blacktronpavel]

Agreed

[@carnotantonioromero3024]

@@blacktronpavel Perhaps their origin should be left as the subject of an unresolved/unresolvable temporal paradox.

[@anthonyscarfe4853]

@@carnotantonioromero3024 Well it’s been shown that their whole interaction arc with Earth is simply a bootstrap paradox in order to remove a potential threat that effectively destabilises their overall collective, but also saves them from extinction by another species. The fact that they may have bootstraped before with other species and ended up rebuilding remnant collectives on multiple occasions, which is hinted at by their terrible knowledge from prior centuries, may suggest that they just keep going after anything that ultimately leads to a destruction of the collective and then they just reformed afterwards again. They also may have been created on many occasions and rebuilt themselves out of the remnants of the past versions of similar designs.

[@jamiebraswell5520]

Exactly. The universe is huge. The small speck that is the Federation cannot possibly know the origins of the Borg. They could be from another galaxy, or even exist in the void between galaxies. The mysterious barrier that surrounds our galaxy (as seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before") 0may have been placed there billions of years ago by some entity to protect the Milky Way from the Borg, but some weak spot over time allowed a few to enter, severing them from the rest. Who knows how this affected them or enabled them to go in their own independent direction, becoming the Borg that we know. The destruction of the Borg in Picard Season 3 may only be for the Collective that made it to the Milky Way. There may be more out in the universe. Just throwing ideas out that are mysterious and infinitely better than the crapola that these comic books and novels put out.

[@armosamarosso]

Like Doctor Who...evidence that when you try and do an origin story and make it overtly political...you destroy the franchise. The Borg are most mysterious because we know nothing...

[@gionova1]

The scary thing is that the collective appears to be a type of nexus being. In Picard it was stated that the Queens were aware of time disruptions and capable of traveling through time. This would suggest that they have no real singular beginnings and that even all the possible origins might all be technically true at the same time.

[@johnjames4834]

hey what if the borg who can live in space entered the nexxus ribbon they could pop out anywhere in time and space and create havoc

[@Nick1979BN]

Guinan's people was almost wiped out by the Borg, no? "Your biological distinctivnesses will be assimilated"?

[@krzosu]

@@johnjames4834 Ribbon reacted very destructively to technology so most likely it would shred the Borg who tried to enter it.

[@Immortal-Headcase]

I read a short story on their creation once years ago. Future federation archaeologists decided to investigate the genesis of the borg using a time window so they could view everything in secret. They viewed a desperate scientist father on a pre warp drive planet slightly more advanced than today, injecting his daughter with prototype nanites because she was dying. Unfortunately, the time window wasn't perfect and irradiated the nanites, which were controlled by a basic AI hive mind, deleting and scrambling some of its original programming from replicating and improving the body to peak condition into assimilate and achieve perfection, then after the daughter, being controlled by the nanites, assimilated her father the planet suffered a cyborg zombie apocalypse, later a warp capable ship landed to plunder the resources and ended up getting assimilated. The rest is history.

[@nealjroberts4050]

Probably the best of the origin stories relative to the video

[@benminor31]

I really like this origin story 😊

[@theelder4797]

Their adaptive tech was one of the first 100 species that were assimilated - think that was in Vendetta.

[@madebycarter]

Wouldn’t that make it a predestination paradox?

[@sulla1537]

Pre warp would explain why it’s taken them thousands of years to evolve

[@mrdonigan]

When the Borg first came onto the scene in TNG, I immediately thought that it would be cool if they were created after VGER and Decker merged. When Guinan said they'd been developing for thousands of years, I figured that the newly created VGER/Decker could have returned to the blackhole only to be sent back in time. This will always be my head canon. I don't personally like the Borg Queen idea. Only because she is something that can be reasoned with, and the Borg were far more frightening as a complete collective that didn't understand the difference between bad or good, but only understood their need to assimilate and grow.

[@hackman669]

Perhaps the Queen is just one type of Borg. Like with other species the Borg could have various kinds to their race?😅

[@shawn092182]

​@@hackman669Don't you mean Queens?

[@toddeberly4826]

In one of the Star Trek novels written by William Shatner, The Return, it is revealed that it was the Borg who found VGER and repaired and upgraded it and sent it on it's way.

[@TubeYouViewer12099]

:) Great minds think alike.

[@jesspace4069]

Yea they were a race that could be used like routers kinda i thot

[@TheRealMrAndrew]

I wish they’d do a series on the how the Borg became what they were. Start with a civilization on the verge of collapse and then they start integrating cybernetics until the hive mind comes online.

[@trazyntheinfinite9895]

Humanity did not create the borg. But humanity destroyed them wigh inconsistent scriptwriting.

[@baddestpro9879]

Depends on what you look at

[@whitejason963]

@@trazyntheinfinite9895 v'ger was the start of the Borg. What the original motion picture

[@wolfmeadows]

That's just a fan theory

[@saiboogu]

@@whitejason963 Fan theory with zero canon confirmation.

[@trazyntheinfinite9895]

@@whitejason963 it was not. The Borg were supposed to be insectoid but it got changed because of the impossible budget it would have demanded. Also: compare the absolute POWER of V'ger and then look at the Borg. How the fuck did they get so weak? The V'ger Borg connection is retarded fan wank.

[@DanaBerg-n1h]

I like the idea that the TOS doomsday machine was intended for the borg.

[@darryldouglas6004]

Oh snap I just posted this. It’s in a book. 😃

[@Donathon-f6f]

Really.. which one.. please... thanks ​@@darryldouglas6004

[@richardajoy79]

The designations the Borg use for labelling a species is numerical, literal starting at Species 1 and going up, which kinda makes sense, but one funny thing, the Ferengi are numbered 180 & even though distance-wise aren't too far from Earth, Humans are Species 5618. I would've thought if a human was the first Borg, humans would be Species 1... it would be nice to get some canon backstory.

[@mammutMK2]

Either it was the caretaker (as there's a reference in an Episode of Voyager) or seeking new ground for profits they send some ships out.

[@corwinberry]

The Ferengi traveled everywhere. Like all over way before humans did. They def fucked around and found out early with the borg.

[@TheKingofkrypton]

All borg sub-collectives (proper term for cubes or groups?) would likely be creating these designations in tandem across their locations in the universe. This could lead to sudden increases in assimilation designator numbers in a very short time.

[@Mephilis78]

Maybe the borg are species one

[@tomaszwolf8262]

Borg looks like a type of thing from meta cooler movie... This star that assimilated cooler and tried to assimilate namek

[@tarotreadingsbysteven8545]

I like the theory that the Borg don't really have a origin as they are an amalgamation of various civilizations and parts of civilizations that let their technology run out of control giving them many origin points as the smaller collectives interact with and become absorbed by the main collective.

[@mysterymayhem7020]

The Destiny series of books are some of my favorites to read.

[@ohnen818]

I like that Destiny series origin of the borg much more.

[@JSamuelson55]

I believe that the Destiny story explains the Borg story best. It explains their obsession to reach Earth

[@Sam1787]

Destiny should be canon.

[@erikawanner7355]

Fun fact. Roddenberry created them because of the criticism over the utopia that TNG season 1 was showing.

[@davidhurcombe6505]

@@erikawanner7355 my favourite episode in S1 was and is still one of my favourites of all TNG Skin of Evil. Another good thing about that particular episode was it killed off Tasha whose character I don't have an issue with but the actress who played her wasn't suited for the part at all. In the first episode during the trial of humanity her overacting was just hard to watch! She was probably more at home on the stage than the screen.

[@jawanzamarsh3867]

It's so funny that I come across this video this afternoon when I actually just got done rereading the Star Trek Destiny trilogy and its version of the Borg's origins just a couple of days ago. Despite it not quite squaring with Guinan's explanation to Captain Picard in TNG season 2 that the meshing of organic and cybernetic elements had been developing for thousands of centuries, I still found it the most compelling Borg origin story because of the irony of humanity's involvement in unintentionally creating one of its most deadly enemies. It felt less forced than the paradox suggested at the end of the Enterprise Borg episode that it was unknown, unintended consequences of the crew of the Enterprise-E thwarting the Borg's attempt to stop First Contact and not Q flinging the Enterprise-D into the path of a Borg Cube at system J-25 that made the Borg fully aware of humans and the Federation. Voyager's stories of the assimilation of Seven and her parents had already provided loose explanations for how the Borg knew enough about humans to pull off the attacks on the remote outposts along both sides of the Federation-Romulan border near the Neutral Zone. At any rate, the very first time I read that part of the Destiny story that the Borg derived crazed member of the Caeliar forcibly enslaving surviving members of the Columbia NX-02, I couldn't help but wondering at the reactions of both Jonathan Archer and Vulcan Ambassador Soval had both those characters survived into the 24th century to hear Erika Hernandez's discovery of the Borg's connection to the Caeliar and humanity. especially Soval's reaction to the human connection.

[@BlokeOnAMotorbike]

given a constant rate of assimilation, it has been variously estimated that the Borg spawned from their homeworld somewhere in the Delta quadrant sometime between the ninth and 14th centuries.

[@TheKingofkrypton]

Is that constant assimilation rate based on the very long timeframe that they've been assimilated, assuming an average for the constant value that would hold true even with dramatic changes over shorter time periods? Or is it based their observed assimilation behavior indicating a more or less constant rate? I could buy the former, but the latter would be basing this assumption on too short a time frame, I think.

[@angelrivera2339]

I remember a very old Fanfiction story that future Starfleet had traveled in time to the original Borg homeworld and renegade Starfleet members of the crew decided it was a good time to destroy the Borg. They decided to introduce some nanites before the collective was formed. the thing was that the original nanites were meant to gather medical data to better treat diseases. so the renegade's nanites alter the original nanite and it made it assimilate the first person. that person started assimilating others. The other Starfleet officers tried to stop the renegades, but they were too late. The last line was one of the officers guarding the renegades was glad the was not the JAG officers that would have to clean this mess. It has been years that I have seen the story and I could not find it again.

[@vin6135]

An excellent opportunity for a Borg origin story was in Voyager. The Borg and Videans should have had a shared ancestry. The phage that was destroying the Videans could have separated their species into 2 factions. One chose to pursue harvesting other species and integrating their organic parts. The other also chose to integrate cybernetic tech as well.

[@tu-uyennguyen5754]

@@vin6135 dang that would have been crazy freaky brilliant, tho already so terrifying

[@richardludwig3673]

Nah. If that were true, after thousands of years of the Phage there would be no memory of pre-phage society and they would be nothing but a group with all hope driven out. The reason the Videans were a good, and terrifying villain, is because there IS some semblance that, outside of their situation, they would have been a race of artists and philosophers - peaceful and maybe even like the Federation. The stage the current Videans are at is an appropriate distance from the the problem - far enough to see the ravages and evolution of the society and the desperation for survival - where there’s still “justification” for what they do, but not far enough that hope for normality has been completely driven from them and their society devolves into Chaos. Given the age of the Borg, the timelines wouldn’t have connected in a proper way.

[@catmoore2443]

@@vin6135 What a brilliant idea and it would've made so much sense .

[@H0wlrunn3r]

Oh sweet! I got into one of my favorite KZbinr’s videos! Much love ❤

[@TrekCentral]

You're the best!

[@theequalizer9154]

I'm glad you did this video! It makes me recall a news story feature I saw some 12 or15 years ago. It was about putting telephone and other electronic communications devices implants actually into the human body, for conveniences in the near future. When I saw that news feature, the first thing I thought about was the Borg and that is how the Borg were started.

[@lightbearer313]

In his fanfic 'Legend' (a ST:TNG & BtVS crossover) ShayneT had a similar story to this for the origin of the Borg, with a pre-warp society that develops interconnectivity to a high degree.

[@henrytimbrook4687]

Everyone knows the Borg were the Cylons, 200,000,ooo years ago

[@CalasTyphon488]

Fracking toasters

[@hackman669]

Better be related to original alien reptiles 👽 storyline. Dislike the reboot Terminators 😂

[@Elvisbackpack]

All this has happened before, and it will happen again.

[@absjones2916]

Number 6 one hot toaster.

[@CT-uv8os]

So say we all. ​@@Elvisbackpack

[@Rodimusbill]

Destiny was a great trilogy of books that used all Star Trek shows during that time.

[@jgraygaming225]

I've got a theory that kinda just adds to the mystery if im being honest. In Star Trek Enterprise, we see a group of humans find the Borg sphere in the Arctic. The Borg were destroyed in the episode, but not before transmitting a signal towards the delta quadrant. Most people already theorize that this is what sent the Borg on a warpath against humanity to begin with. My theory is that the Borg in the 22nd didn't exist as we know them. Instead, the signal was received by a single race version of the Borg, who used cyberneticly enhanced beings to do labor, almost as slaves. When they received the transmission from the 24th century Borg, the enhanced turned on the rest of their species and assimilated them. They then set out to assimilate others, knowing that they will eventually face humanity and could face extinction. This theory is based on the Bootstrap Paradox in which something has no observable beginning or end in time. It is merely a theory and has little proof to back it up. Any further insite, ideas, or contradictions are welcome

[@SuperGamefreak18]

I like the Vger idea alongside the columbia ideas, humanity had indirect influence on the creation of the borg but their true origins were long before that

[@jsizemo]

Vger could have been one of many borg type lifeforms that arose in the galax(y/ies)

[@JamieLamon]

I Agree. I never thought about that but it seems like that would be correct

[@Corilius1701]

I like the Star Trek Destiny novels' explanation best thus far

[@Streifi]

How did they explain their origin?

[@ericalbers4867]

I prefer the bootstrap theory. The Borg exist because they exist. They don't have a beginning, not originator or prime mover. The Borg arise because the Borg are discovered. They're discovered because future Borg ended up crashing back in time only to be discovered later and begin assimilating. Though they avoided powerful species at the time due to their low numbers and power.

[@MichaelTotin]

Star Trek the Motion Picture is my personal canon for the creation of the Borg.

[@MrSlothrun]

was this the "V g er" thing? i always assuming/thought it was that

[@DaNinja60]

I like the connection too.

[@jsizemo]

Who says that there need be a single “original” Borg species? If different civilizations can independently develop warp technology, then different civilizations could independently develop the cybernetic technology that forms the building blocks of (small ‘b’) borg life. And the overtime, these different “borgs”, including vger, encounter one another and become (capital ‘B’) Borg that we all know.

[@pokepress]

That’s actually an interesting idea.

[@christopherbowers7236]

Yeah, most of the time we see species resisiting the idea of being assimilated. But any borg-like collectives would always willingly assimilate believing either a) the new species to be better and worth assimilating into. Or B) that they were the better and that the other species would become subserviebt to their own.

[@ArtistryBranson]

Ok, this is now my head canon. Thanks!

[@krisgonynor689]

You just described the "Cybermen" from Doctor Who. They evolved in every other universe and even on multiple planets in ours because biological intelligent beings tried to add technology to themselves to improve their species. Which is why A.I. and things like the Neuralink are a very bad idea.

[@revengenerd1]

That is how the Cybermen have been described in recent years on Doctor Who, they always are meant to exist with different origins that eventually just meet each other.

[@josephforrest3713]

Here is the theory that I think makes the most sense. 1. The Cylon theory. Sometimes, humanoid species make too many mistakes with nano technology and integrating cybernetics. At some point they decide to link their minds through technology, and in doing so over time, individual voices are drowned out and you get a hive mind. It is an unforeseen deleterious side effect, of linking minds together. And you essentially get Borg like species. They then amalgamate over time, into what we know as the Borg Collective. And the Borg Queen is merely an emergent property of this system.

[@bingbangbong3159]

Yeah just ask Elon

[@gillmartin1758]

I like the idea of the Borg being part of a Steampunk world or a world like Fallout where everybody still uses rotary dial phones but has nuclear powered cars. It wouldn’t be “The Borg “ it would be B O R G . Biomechanical Ordinance Research Group. Something that started small but slowly took over. The Enterprise would stumble across their home world now long dead and find billboards for BORG refrigerators and such.

[@taylormelvin5270]

Always liked the V-Ger theory. Also, the Borg refer to Earth as sector 001, which implies they are aware that in some way they originated from Earth.

[@graemebass2391]

My favorite explanation has always been the one explained during the "Destiny" series

[@CJonesApple]

I've always been a fan of the boom and bust theory of the Borg over thousands of years.

[@danielvroman7602]

There is a manga where Kirk's Enterprise fights the Borg when they are just beginning, the way it was laid out gave me the impression that the Queen is a Vidiian.

[@kittycat0876]

I wish they would do a Borg origins movie

[@lisaroberts8556]

Star Trek the Motion Picture

[@Streifi]

@@lisaroberts8556 I never liked that explanation for obvious reasons. V'ger was found and improved by a world of "living machines", not necessarily cyborgs. If they were Borg, they would have little motivation to find ancient, derelict space probes and restoring them to fulfill their original mission to an nth degree. They would either exploit its technology (if useful to them) or ignore it. Also V'ger turned Ilia into an android like machine with capacity to simulate some organic functions, something utterly different than the assimilation methods and cybernetic implants and processes the Borg we know use and we don't know how the merge between V'ger, Ilia and Decker turned out in the end. We never again heard about V'ger in canon Trek. "Control" in the second season of Discovery was way closer to be a possible origin for the borg than V'ger ever was. But then again, it still wasn't the origin of the Borg.

[@theelder4797]

And since they had TNG and X-Men crossover novel, they could X-Men Origins: The Borg.

[@theblitz9]

Another thing I like about the Destiny trilogy is that it explained why the Borg were so interested in the Omega Particle.

[@ralfhtg1056]

The Star Trek Destiny Novels are simply GREAT! I wished, these books would have been adapted as feature films or series. THAT would have been so great!!!! But no... it had to be something else!

[@StillSaber]

What do you mean something else?

[@ralfhtg1056]

@@StillSaber I am not happy with what we got with Star Trek Picard.

[@StillSaber]

@@ralfhtg1056 The Destiny books aren't canon, but it takes place in the time when Picard was still Captain of the Enterprise-E.

[@ralfhtg1056]

@@StillSaber I know. I wish it was Canon.

[@StillSaber]

@@ralfhtg1056 I wish it was to, I enjoyed the books, I always wanted to know how the Collective came to be, a species so powerful and relentless that would send shivers down anyone's spine would require an origin story, not just simple explanation from a Famous El-Aurian that doesn't give you much information, at least in Star Wars the Force was given an explanation of what it is, why not the Borg.

[@captainmaliuz7092]

I adore Vger idea of borg evolution. This is my first computer game, and in my head - this is a canon

[@ImmortalOne-LoLo]

Paradoxically, with time travel, the borg wanting to destroy us may have inadvertently caused them to go into the past to gain enough strength to defeat humans therefore beginning their origin in the future but also the past because of humans.

[@darcraven01]

it could be possible that the "borg" as we know it does not have one single origin but rather several cyborg hiveminds developed and eventually joined together.

[@golem2866]

I’m interested in the Vyger theory. Sounds cool

[@AmberDawnStJames1]

Actually the Borg started when the one guy Decker merged with V'ger in Star Trek the Motion Picture. Kirk even said he hoped they gave the new life form a good start. That's why when Spock went on board a cube, they didn't try to assimilate him because he was already part of the collective

[@amvids]

what makes them the ultimate antagonist is the fact that they've assimilated countless species and incorporated their knowledge with the central group making them near omniscient! Hard to beat someone who has information that for many is still unheard of!

[@jmg5878]

Man I’d love it if Paramount did a one off series about the Borg origin

[@bravebeard6225]

Said no one ever

[@jmg5878]

@@bravebeard6225 ok dude.

[@bravebeard6225]

@@jmg5878 You are just angry because you know I am right

[@jmg5878]

@@bravebeard6225 ok bro. I’m not angry just wondering why you’re being a troll about this.

[@basilreid257]

Intriguing

[@jedipath]

Star Trek Destiny would’ve made an amazing trilogy.

[@elliotkingaby5312]

I think sometime not having a origin story is better. Not knowing the origins of Characters like the borg or joker etc makes them more interesting, threatening and exciting. Leaving some things a mystery or unknown is not a bad thing.

[@hackman669]

Let's just say they are an unknown species that started a long time ago. Far, far away.😊

[@jaimebabb9968]

I think that the "convergent evolution" hypothesis for the Borg has a lot of evidence in canon; we've seen a number of antagonists that are "Borg-like" without being THE Borg, like V'Ger, CONTROL from Discovery, the station from "Dead Stop" on Enterprise, and even Badgey in Lower Decks season 4. No doubt, the Borg or something like them arise any time humanoid life has a disordered relationship with technology.

[@BillZBubb]

I see a lot of comments implicating nanites in Borg origins. Having watched all of TNG thru ENT in order on their original air dates I got the impression they didn’t start out with nanite assimilation technology. I thought the early assimilations were more brutal, akin the cybermen of DW, with nanites being introduced later as a more recently assimilated technology.

[@john-friend]

We need a new Star trek series that portrays the origin of the Borg.

[@rogue1938]

I think the Vegar theory could hold water more than other theories.

[@jackthelad7907]

I have the idea for the origin of the Borg being born from desperation. I see a human like empire expanding to its neighbours taking them over peacefully when possible and forcefully when not. After a long expansion, they eventually come across a system they cannot persuade or force. In the ensuing fight, they get forced back to their home system. In desperation, they create a group of enhanced soldiers to defeat their enemy. This works but the enhanced soldiers are so changed that they cannot live within the rest of the empire. They agree to live out their lives on one of the system's outer planets. Since the enhancements made them sterile, it is assumed that they will die out there. This seems to be the end and the empire expands again. However, a century later, a desperate plea is received from the planet that the enhanced soldiers had gone to. They were still alive and running out of supplies. The empire decides to let them come to the home world to pick up supplies only to find when the enhanced soldiers arrive that they have survived by becoming more and more enhanced. The empire also discovers too late that the "supplies" needed are more people to be enhanced. Thus the start of the spread of the Borg.

[@thecopperiris]

0:12. Yea.. a concern and threat until Janeway no-scoped them in the delta quadrant and Old man Picard clean-up killed the remainder of the collective..lol😂😂😂

[@iwillroam]

I had a dream years ago that the Borg Queen and her collective were basically scouts going ahead of the main Borg, who had assimilated about half of the universe. When Starfleet started to see them in our galaxy, it was because it was our turn. Chilling dream. I had probably binged a lot of Expanse around that time too, so elements of both mixed together.

[@VoidKami]

One way to reconcile the thousands of centuries, and being small a thousand years ago is if the Borg were nearly destroyed, with the ones we know of being a remnant that's growing.

[@hackman669]

Great idea 💡👍 Then have Borg with unknown alien origin. Leave a bit of mystery.😅

[@iamfiefo]

My fanfic head canon have the Borg first seen in Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future. Lord Dread and Overmind conquered the planet and just started to do the same with other planetary races.

[@mikee5718]

Didn't they not have contact with humans until the 1st encounter (with Q) and First contact film? Didn't Enterprise kind of resolve this a bit? I'm confused?

[@madcapmiguel5071]

You're correct, humans aren't responsible for the Borg. Slow news day. Even if the Voyager probe enabled it, a thriving alien civilization created the Borg from its wreckage.

[@robertallen6701]

The Episode in Star Trek Enterprise is a sequel to the movie First Contact. In First Contact, a Borg sphere goes back in time to before the first warp flight. Picard's Enterprise follows them back in time and destroys the sphere. Some of the wreckage crashes in the Arctic, where it's found during the time of Archer's Enterprise, and the drones are thawed out and reactivate themselves.

[@JohnSmith-bk9iz]

Lore Reloaded has an excellent video on this

[@Markfr0mCanada]

If nothing else, this video gave me the idea of using a black hole as a celestial freezer.

[@TrekCentral]

Happy to help :)

[@straycat1674]

I got your answer right here. Obviously this is not canon but if I wrote any of this I would make it cannon. You see in my mind Zai Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek are part of the same universe. The board are the evolution of the Cylons.

[@PizzaMineKing]

My theory for screen canon: Since the borg can time travel, I suspect the first borg queen assimilated herself.

[@Brenelael]

I always assumed the Borg were created by a society that plunged headlong into technologies like Artificial Super Intelligence and Neurolink without considering the risks involved... Like we are doing right now.

[@matthewwasser5621]

I always assumed that the Borg evolved slowly over time. They slowly added cybernetic parts to their bodies over time like we seem to be doing now or, at least, some want to do now.

[@manofaction1807]

The Spawn of VGER....

[@AdamSimmons]

There was another origin story in the book Star Trek The Return, a part of the William shatner series in the 90s. The Borg had a hand in the resurrection of Kirk after generations. The story talks about the Borg homeworld and I think it even touches on another version of V'ger being modified by borg. I know people look poorly on the series Shatners influence on it but I thought it was a pretty good story with borg origin elements.

[@dissectingdiy]

YESSS! Such a good story.

[@kerrycampbell8599]

When the enterprise with captain archer in one of the episodes when they found a space station with just found just a robot just talking but then found the corpse in crypto which they blue up but then it built itself up again would that be the origin and beginning of the borg

[@AusWolf1]

The borg are a time loop with no true origin. They started when a borg cube invaded Earth in ST8: First Contact. A sphere went back in time to assimilate Earth before first contact. The Enterprise and crew managed to defeat them, but a few specimens were left behind and discovered by a group of scientists in ST: Enterprise (I'm not sure which season). After an encounter with the Enterprise NX-01, few escaped into the Delta quadrant, established a colony and assimilated other species for 200 years.

[@ubncgexam]

According to Memory Beta (a FanDom-Wiki) the BORG emerges 4527 BC from the planet Arehaz in the Delta Quadrant; they were created when the surviving crew of the NX-02 Columbia that traveled back in time with the Caeliar, originating from 2168, were absorbed by the last surviving Caeliar, the now-degenerate Sedin. After they come into existence, they target their first victims, the Kindir.

[@janvanahn]

Star Trek Destiny Novels

[@zpascal2800]

I too enjoyed the Star Trek: Destiny version of events. Nice to see they made it in here.

[@etsequentia6765]

*How humanity created the BONG!* I might have misread the video title.

[@connorwatson6766]

The Borg do not have an official origin and it's better that way. Every origin fans have come up with is terrible and wouldn't work in canon.

[@Hurricanelive]

This 💯% I leave it as a dark mystery and that they are very expansive, like the Imperium that as they spread multiple portions are lost and become their own collective in a massively broader infinite universe. That there are even more malevolent or even benevolent Borg civilizations outside the known universe.

[@davidmckendry4491]

Yes I agree the mystery of the borgs origin helps keep them interesting.

[@fiktivhistoriker345]

My guess is, that it all started with the android David from Alien Prometheus and Alien Covenant. The head of the borg queen with the spine hanging on looks almost the same as Davids head, when the engineer ripped it off. And at the end of Covenant he had a spaceship full of colonists in hibernation and a sample of those highly adaptible Alien creatures. Maybe the ship fell through a black hole and came out in another place and time, now searching for the planet they came from.

[@cdc6985]

Wasnt V-ger the baddie in the 1st star trek movie? It was the voyager 1 probe

[@davidhanson9160]

I always thought of the borg as similar to the cybermen from Doctor Who as there is no real origin story to them.

[@Paul-FrancisB]

Exactly the true origin story being one of the writers saw a Mondasian Cyberman or one of the subsequent origins and thought that would be a good villain

[@alisonsmith4436]

Interesting 🤔 video thank you ☺️

[@bikkiikun]

With time-travel being a regular occurrence, the V'Ger origin story of a machine with the directive to collect information merging with Decker and then travel back in time seems the most Canon-ish. My only issue there is, that that the Borg have, again, forgotten the location of Earth. Although never really stated as such, that episode with Q flinging Enterprise into their way, heavily implies a first contact situation for both parties. Even though, Annika (Seven) and her parents were already part of the Collective at that point.

[@misterlyle.]

When was Janeway appearing as a Borg? The clip at about 9:30 seems to show this.

[@daviddiaz3924]

Unamatrix Zero part 1 and 2. The season 6 cliffhanger and season 7 season premiere. Janeway, Tuvok and Torres allow themselves to be assimilated to infiltrate a cube. They have tech to allow them to keep their individual minds but Tuvok's begins to fail.

[@misterlyle.]

@@daviddiaz3924 Thanks! I'll check it out.

[@JAGGEDJUNKIE103]

I do like the Vger idea, makes the Motion picture a lot better.

[@brotherchris13]

I like that they have not introduced a Borg origin story into canon. The mystery of their origins still gives them a bit of a horror edge to them. The introduction of nanites into their biology took away some of the horror edge. Without an official origin story, they're still the monster they were created to be

[@ignotiev]

I think canonically, the Borg should have found a way to engineer redundant origins so that time traveling groups would be unable to wipe them out.

[@TheKingofkrypton]

Time sprawling. I bet cockroaches have already achieved this, which may explain how difficult it is to get rid of them.

[@Eva_H]

I really wish we got S5 of enterprise because we would’ve seen a human version of Alice Krige’s Borg queen as a human starfleet officer with a backstory and becoming the Borg queen. Maybe this is something that can be addressed at some point, maybe if we get the Star Trek Legacy show?

[@Aquilla86]

Wasn't it said on Voyager by the Queen that they are an actual race that they assimilate? I've read the Destiny books but don't remember them saying she was human. Could be wrong.

[@Eva_H]

@@Aquilla86 as I said this was something that was going to be addressed in S5 of enterprise, we were going to find out that the Borg Queen was originally a human female and it was the origins of who is this person in starfleet, who was she and how did she become the Borg Queen.

[@harrypothead42024]

I always liked the idea that the Borg created V'ger but never liked the idea that Humanity was responsible for the creation of the Borg. It seems like every time somebody wants to add to Star Trek canon, they subtract from the size of the Galaxy. Everything can't be related; that is just being trite.

[@LaurenGlenn]

I would so watch an origin story of the Borg as a mini series.

[@reckersworld9351]

I think the Borg are like the Cybermen from Dr. Who. They are inevitable in every timeline.

[@mr.e8566]

I also too think too, I imagine the current collective is the amalgamation of multiple origins through "convergent evolution" with the V'ger origin, the Caeliar, abuse of cybernetics, Control, time paradoxes by leaving their technology in planets in the past, forces outside the galaxy, being all possible thanks to the confirmation of multiple official timelines, the strongest collective will assimilate the others into their own, pretty much making their true origin irrelevant this is further corroborated by an article in the official Star Trek magazine, where it's theorized that the Borg is a recurring force in the galaxy, expanding, assimilating and then dies out due not finding something worthy of assimilation or gets opposed by a stronger force, leaving their technology around, and once another species or a new proto-collective finds it, it gets integrated to them and the directive of the original collective resumes, adapting from it's past errors and becoming stronger, which makes sense as they've existed since for thousands, maybe millions, as told by the Vaadwaur and the Preservers the most scary thing about this, is that their defeat in Picard isn't the last time we'll see of them, as LoreReloaded said, they will adapt, they'll return stronger

[@CompositesNG]

The “Borg” are Star Trek’s Mechanical version of Halo’s Biological “Flood.”

[@huntedwolf]

I always liked the destiny series explanation of humanity accidentally having a hand In causing the borg, thought it went some way to explaining their fascination with humanity

[@walterlyzohub8112]

“Too many cooks spoil the broth” is my opinion. The writers were not fully coordinated in the story writing causing some contradictions. Best leave it as a mystery for now until a real good idea happens.

[@donaldnoell5378]

Fatal flaw in the last part of possible borg origins. Species numbers. If Human were the directly the cause of the Borg wouldn't their species number be like 001, 002 or even 003?

[@RedPyramid-lf4sb]

Could you imagine one of them being 007? Yes, 007, as in Bond. James Bond.

[@NotRowsdower]

Feels like it'd be kinda fun if the Borg originated from an offshoot of the Progenitors: explains having advanced technology and would add weight to the effect of having stagnated due to lack of innovative thought.

[@marquonuk]

The Borg were clearly inspired by Doctor Who's Cybermen, that have appeared in various designs in that series since 1966. The idea of cybernetics being taken to unwise extremes by humanity is one of the most interesting sci-fi ideas. :-)

[@jmdavis333]

What’s that game at the 5:35 mark?

[@jim3129]

what about the cybermen from doctor who?

[@LabyrinthMike]

Well, I can't say that I like any of those origin stories. I'm personally fond of the idea that the collective was created by a group of scientists in order to research the most complex problems in the Universe, and then a mentally unstable individual joined the collective and drove the rest of them mad.

[@barrybend7189]

I prefer the borg to be more mysterious in origin.

[@Demobot1]

I agree. But the real power of the Star Trek Destiny is it goes over why the Borg do what they do. And it's more than achieving perfection. More importantly why the Borg value the Omega Particle so much.

[@ronaldjeffrey8712]

In my opinion, it makes for weak unimaginative writing to make humanity the root of all evil. Sadly, it seems as if an entire generation of writers are going down that road. The same philosophy has lead to the current trend toward trying to turn Superman into a villain.

[@kbanghart]

​@@ronaldjeffrey8712or instead of weak, it could just be different than what you were expecting.

[@ronaldjeffrey8712]

@kbanghart The thing is that at this point, it's been done so often that it's what practicly everyone expects.

[@hackman669]

Yeah best to have Borg be aliens 👽 from far off. Than to tigh everything to up with lame time travel and humans. Star Wars was ruined when everyone became related.😅

[@Plaprad]

Never liked the versions where they were made by humanity. Just makes it seem like Humans are the end all of the universe and we have to have a hand in EVERYTHING. In the grand scale of the universe, we're not that important. Kinda feels like a case of "Hey, someone did a science experiment in the future that actually created our universe due to subspace timey-wimey." Just, no.

[@2bstiff584]

I agree why are us humans blamed for everything

[@nealjroberts4050]

The ST universe always felt a bit bootstrappy timewise so I'm ok with the Borg's origins being future-ish shenanigans.

[@theromulanwarhawk]

I always wondered if the Borg and the Vidiian came from one species , who then diverged when they disagreed on how to proceed to cure the Phage.

[@stirling84]

Borg were my favourite, as a kid my stepdad had a borg cube vhs boxset I always thought was cool. I remember I would watch that a fair few times, but his original series vhs wouldn't even leave the shelf. Far too dated for me even back then

[@user-ns5zn1zl1z]

I've always prescribed to the multiple origins theory but with a bit different take. That multiple races developed give minds that at some point joined. So that from the Borg's perspective they have multiple origins. It doesn't matter what they were once called either they are Borg

[@paulphelps1583]

The Borg also turns up in Discovery season 2 when the probe comes back from the future

[@rubaiyat300]

Ugh I hope not. Humanity should already be more on the hook for Nomad and V’ger and the untold devastation they wrought. Making the Borg would put humanity up for deletion from the timeline and would be rightly carried out by the Q. And I bring them up only because they would absolutely not allow ignorance or someone else made those things worse as a defense.