It's incredibly easy to think of your enemies as less than human when you never have to meet them. When you hear about the terrible things they've done, when you see the results of their ways, and when you understand that they despise you for what you are...it makes it easy to hate them. To wish death upon them. To never sympathize with their situation, their plight, or even their suffering at your own hand. But when you meet them face to face, and look them in the eye, it's quite different. You might just realize that they are human after all. People just like us, that have been raised to believe different things and see the world through a different lens than we do.
This is the problem everyone is having with Third of Five when they come across his dying body on an away mission. It starts with Beverly, whose oath to do no harm won't allow her to leave the drone to die. She forces Picard to go along with bringing him on board. It spreads to Geordi, who is tasked with studying the drone and tending to his needs. Geordi is chastised by Guinan for befriending such a monster, until she accepts his challenge to meet with the drone herself. As soon as she sees that he is no longer Third of Five, but is now Hugh, she also softens her take on the manner. In fact, she presents the same challenge to Picard. She dares him to look Hugh in the eye and condemn him to death.Hugh recognizes Picard as Locutus of Borg, and Picard decides to go along with it. He orders Hugh to aid in assimilating the crew. He refuses on the grounds that they do not wish it. He retorts that they will resist, and resistance is not futile. Picard is convinced. The pile of flesh, bones, and circuitry before him is not an "it." On the contrary, this is Hugh. A person just like you and me, with desires to not be alone, to make friends, and to think things through. It's remarkable.
All along they've been devising a plan that deep down they all knew they couldn't go through with. Infecting Hugh with a virus that would destroy his entire race is not very Star Fleet. While true, there are no civilians in the collective, genocide just doesn't ever seem like a good solution. Hugh decides to rejoin the collective, not because he wants to, but because he knows that him staying on the ship would mean danger for his new friends. As he beams away, his friend Geordi at his side, he comments that he does not wish to forget that he is Hugh. Damn, I'm tearing up over here."I, Borg" is a Fantastic episode of Trek, certainly up there with the best that this series has to offer. It's messages are so clear that they do not even need to be spoken. Truly a beautiful and important part of the Trek universe. It's singular purpose comes through loud and clear, without a B story getting in the way.
Published February 8, 2020
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