Star Trek’s Original Borg Queen Returns (& Why There’s A New One)
Alice Krige returns as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: Lower Decks and here’s why she’s back despite Annie Wersching playing her in Star Trek: Picard.
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Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 8 – “I, Excretus.”
The original Borg Queen played by Alice Krige returned to Star Trek: Lower Decks even though Annie Wersching will appear as the new Borg Queen in Star Trek: Picard season 2. One of the greatest villains in Star Trek history, the Borg Queen is an unforgettable (and controversial) menace who continues to threaten the 24th-century heroes of Star Trek in her multiple incarnations portrayed by three different actresses.
While the Borg Collective was originally introduced as a hive-mind in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the producers of Star Trek: First Contact decided the cyborg race needed a primary guiding force as well as an embodiment of its villainy. The Borg Queen was created as the ruler of the Collective, and she made a spectacular entrance in Star Trek: First Contact as a disembodied humanoid head and robotic spine that docked into her cyborg body. The Borg Queen revealed herself as the one who chose Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to become her counterpart as Locutus, but in Star Trek: First Contact, she chose the android Commander Data (Brent Spiner) to be her new mate instead. Although Picard and Data defeated the Borg Queen, she always survives and can’t be killed by conventional means. The Borg Queen returned in Star Trek: Voyager, this time played by Susannah Thompson, although Krige resumed the role in Star Trek: Voyager’s series finale, “Endgame.”
In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Krige once again played the Borg Queen, voicing her villainous alter ego in a holodeck drill that simulated her seduction of Data in Star Trek: First Contact. When Ensign Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) is asked by Ensign Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) to purposely lose his Borg holodeck mission, Boimler is captured by the Borg and brought before their Queen, who decides to assimilate him and add his biological distinctiveness to their own. “It’s kind of our thing,” the Borg Queen explains. Despite Boimler’s hilarious protests that he has hay fever and acid reflux, which “might result in a net negative for the Collective,” Bradward is assimilated by the Borg and became a drone named Excretus. Of course, it’s only a holodeck program, which explains why Krige’s Borg Queen returned.
Since Alice Krige returned to voice the Borg Queen in Star Trek: Lower Decks, Trekkers may wonder why the cyborg monarch was recast with Annie Wersching in Star Trek: Picard. One possibility is that COVID-19 protocols may have hampered Krige from resuming her iconic role. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Picard films in Los Angeles, and they likely opted to cast Wersching as the Borg Queen since she’s a fine actress known for her roles in 24 and Marvel’s Runaways, plus she also conveniently lives in LA. For her part, Krige has previous experience voicing the Borg Queen in Star Trek history: Krige played her cyborg villain in the Star Trek Armada II video game and for Star Trek: The Experience’s Borg Encounter 4D ride in Las Vegas.
Star Trek smartly created an in-canon rationale that allows for the Borg Queen to be recast. As the embodiment of the Collective, the Borg Queen doesn’t really need a corporeal form since she exists in the mind of every member of the Borg. When the Borg Queen chooses to take on a cyborg body, she assumes the form of a female humanoid but she can choose from several organic bodies to complement her cybernetic components. This justifies why the Borg Queen can look like Alice Krige, Susannah Thompson, and now, Annie Wersching.
If Star Trek: Enterprise wasn’t canceled, season 5 planned to tell the origin of the Borg Queen and explain her original human body was a woman from Earth played by Alice Krige. Yet regardless of who plays her, the Borg Queen is a fearsome adversary who has menaced two of Star Trek’s greatest captains, Jean-Luc Picard and Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew). Further, no matter who else played the Borg Queen in the past or in the future, Alice Krige’s original remains the most iconic version, and it’s Krige’s Borg Queen who Starfleet officially uses in holodeck simulations in Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-trek-borg-queen-original-return-alice-krige/