Customer Reviews

Star Trek Fan Collective - Borg

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Designed for "Trek" fans who don't want to purchase (or like myself can't afford) to buy all the of the boxed sets for all the Trek series, "Star Trek: Fan Collective Borg" Assembles 14 of the finest episodes produced by the "Trek" franchise. This set features episodes voted on at the Startrek.com website by fans. Running chronologically the set begins with the "Enterprise" episode "Regeneration" where the survivors of the Borg sphere destroyed in the film "Star Trek: First Contact" are discovered buried in the ice by a group of Federation scientists. Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) must deal with this unknown menace as the Borg proceed to try take a Federation vessel and assimilate his doctor. Next we get "Q Who?" the episode that introduced the Borg. The all powerful Q challenges Captain Picard's assertive statement that they don't need his help to get out of jams by flinging them across the galaxy to their first encounter with the Borg. Unprepared, outgunned and with the Enterprise being carved apart by the Borg Picard must decide whether or not he wants to swallow his pride and call on Q to help them escape. "The Best of Both Worlds" is a two part episode and, perhaps, Next Gen's finest hour. Written by the late Michael Piller, the Borg finally arrive and begin assimiliating entire worlds as they move towards Earth. Picard and his crew must stop the Borg but not before a key member of the Enterprise crew is kidnapped and turned into a Borg against his will threatening the Federation and all of humanity!

"I Borg" humanizes the Borg a bit. The Enterprise receives a distress call and when they arrive to help they discover the lone survivor of a crashed ship is a Borg Drone. As he spends time with the crew he wants to explore his individuality. Picard is torn because Star Fleet wants to use "Hugh" as a weapon to destroy the collective. "Descent" is another two part episode in which Lore Data's "brother" trains Borg cut off from the collective to serve him. It seems that Picard's plan to reintroduce Hugh the young Borg they saved in "I Borg" has worked all too well introducing the concept of individuality but at a terrible cost.

The Voyager episodes featuring the Borg were among the finest the show produced. Starting with "Scorpion" we're introduced to 7 of 9 (Jeri Ryan)and a war brewing between Species 8472 creatures from fluidic space (from another dimension)as alien as the crew has ever encountered. Janeway agrees to help the Borg develop a weapon against the creatures in return for safe passage through the quadrant. When the crew terminate their agreement with the Borg 7 of 9 is trapped aboard Voyager. She slowly begins to rediscover her humanity. In "Drone" A transporter accident causes the advanced circutry of the doctor's mobile emitter to combine with Borg technology creating an advanced drone who calls himself One. In the two part "Dark Frontier" Captain Janeway decides to steal a transwarp coil from a Borg ship that would allow them to get home faster. 7 of 9 volunteers for the mission but elects to stay with the Borg. In "Unimatrix Zero" 7 of 9 discovers there's a collective "dream" where Borg meet to explore their individuality. Her involvement with these people threatens Voyager. In the final two hour grand finale for Voyager "Endgame" Admiral Janeway travels back to the past to offer Captain Janeway technology from the future that will allow Voyager to get home quicker. While her reasons for doing so are somewhat mysterious Captain Janeway accepts her offer. Unfortunately the Borg detect the technology and want it for themselves.

This set has text commentary tracks on "The Best of Both Worlds Parts 1 & 2" by Michael and Denise Okuda as well as on "Unimatrix Zero Part 2". There's also the original commentary track by writers Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong on "Regeneration". There aren't any featurettes or documentaries on this set. A pity that there aren't any audio commentary tracks for the other "Next Generation" episodes. You'll notice that there aren't any "Deep Space: Nine" episodes here because the Borg didn't really appear on the show.

This is a great place to get your "Star Trek" fix with the show's most memorable villans. Image quality varies quite a bit as these feature the exact same transfers as the original boxed sets but overall they look pretty good. Only "Enterprise" is presented in widescreen and actually looks the best of all the series here simply because it's the most recent.

For those of you who are curious exactly what Borg episodes are contained on this set, I'll list them below for you.

Disk 1
Star Trek: Enterprise - Regeneration
Star Trek: TNG - Q Who
Star Trek: TNG - The Best of Both Worlds, Part I
Star Trek: TNG - The Best of Both Worlds, Part II

Disk 2
Star Trek: TNG - I Borg
Star Trek: TNG - Descent, Part I
Star Trek: TNG - Descent, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager - Scorpion, Part I

Disk 3
Star Trek: Voyager - Scorpion, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager - Drone
Star Trek: Voyager - Dark Frontier

Disk 4
Star Trek: Voyager - Unimatrix Zero, Part I
Star Trek: Voyager - Unimatrix Zero, Part II
Star Trek: Voyager - Endgame

I hope this helps!

This is one heck of a great collection for people like me who don't want to get all the episodes from all the series. As I really like the Borg episodes and I already have the complete TOS and DS9 collections, this is excellent as no TOS episodes(obviously) and no DS9 episodes are on this which means I get to avoid any overlaps!

This collection starts with one of the few good Enterprise episodes, "Regeneration" where Borg are discovered on the North Pole, remnants from the encounter with Cochrane and the time-travelling TNG crew as detailed in the Borg movie, are inadvisedly revived by clueless scientists and it's up to Archer's gang to clean up the inevitable mess that's caused.

We next get the introduction of the Borg as Q decides to teach Picard a lesson in humility by sending the Enterprise into the Delta quadrant to face the Borg. Once this Pandora's box is opened, the episode ends with the foreboding feeling that this would not be the last time that the Federation would have to face the Borg.

We then get the 2 episodes of "The Best of Both Worlds" which end disc 1 where Picard becomes assimilated! Disc 2 begins with "I, Borg" where Picard faces the ethical dilemma of using an "innocent" disconnected member of the collective as a vehicle to infect the Borg with a killer virus or to send "Hugh" back unharmed? The next 2 episodes, "Descent, I & II" are probably the weakest ones on this whole collection as we get to see Hugh again but with Data getting his loyalties confused due in no small part to the designs of his evil brother. The plot is weak and the episodes very weak overall but fear not as the other episodes more than make up for this.

We now get Voyager episodes that are among the best ever of the series in "Scorpion I & II" which introduces us to Seven of Nine and a species that is actually stronger than the Borg! Next we get an episode that is very similar to "I, Borg" except that "One" instead of "Hugh" gets to be the star for an episode. Disc 3 ends with "Dark Frontier", where we get to see the Drone Queen in all her dark majesty.

Disc 4 contains both episodes of "Unimatrix Zero" where we see Janeway and her crew manage to plant the seeds of dissent and individuality into the collective mind and finally with my favourite Voyager episode, we get "Endgame" where Janeway defies Starfleet and goes back into time to secure a better, alternative future for her crew.

All the episodes here are ordered so well and all tell of a very unique element of the Borg while introducing key characters in doing so. As I'm not a fan of Q and I had to tolerate his appearance on thankfully just the one episode on these discs and as I already have the best time travel and Klingon episodes both here and on TOS and DS9, until they release other themes of Fan Collectives, this Borg Collective is all I need for now.

Very highly recommended!

The initial concept of the Borg was chilling in its simplicity: they are a cyborg collective consciousness that consumes all. Everything they encounter is viewed as raw material to be absorbed and made Borg. The Borg are not interested in power or conquest or wealth. They consider being Borg pretty much the pinnacle of existence. They want to "raise quality of life for all species," as Picard-Locutus insists. The way to do that, in Borg philosophy, is to make all species Borg.

This was the pure idea of the Borg introduced in 1988 in the episode "Q Who" and continued on an epic scale in "The Best of Both Worlds," both stories featured in this excellent collection. While I think the idea of the collection is terrific and I bought it on sight, the episodes gathered here only highlight how the Borg concept became corrupted by writers who decided to meddle with the core idea in search of ways to explore well-trodden issues rather than confront the real problems thrown up by the Borg concept: what do you do with such an opponent? How can you win? Is there any chance of a negiotated co-existence? If so, on what terms and how to get there?

The rot starts with "I, Borg," when we meet the cuddly Borg, Hugh. Hugh, once disconnected from the collective, turns to be just a nice kid, a bit pallid and prone to weaing silly black outfits. In a stroke, the writers butchered the pure Borg concept by making individuals of the drones. Now the collective Borg consciousness was cast more as a tyrannical ruler over coerced individuals, and not a single organism with multiple dependent parts (the drones). The movie (not included) continued down this path by introducing the Borg Queen. They tried to make it seem like the Queen was merely a manifestation of the collective, but the tyrarnnical nature of that collective was only reinforced by its incarnation. The Borg became less chillingly alien and more familiar: they had power structures after all, an identifiable ruler with whom Picard could argue and win points of order.

The nadir was reached with the dreadful two-parter "Descent," where we get fully individualized Borg, complete with names and bad attitudes. Now the Borg really were little more than pale blokes in black suits.

The ST: Voyager stories compensate somewhat, esp. the epic two-parter "Scorpion." My main gripe here is that the post-movie Borg look about 50% as cool as the original ones introduced in "Q Who." The Borg outfits now look like jumpsuits with bits stuck on, there are far fewer tubes and mechanized limbs, their death pallor has given way to mottled skin with a greenish tinge, and they have menacing, snarling expressions. This makes the Borg malevolent and evil, when the beauty of the initial concept made them far scarier -- they were totally indifferent as they went about their Borg business and destroyed your way of life. The continued exploration of Borg Rehab with the individualizing of Seven of Nine in "Drone" underlined the mistakes made in "I, Borg."

Finally, it was a dreadful mistake to introduce Borg into ST: Enterprise, a story that opens this collection (which is arranged by Stardate chronology). This opened a series of glaring contradictions and discontinuities that go unresolved. If the Archer Enterprise encountered the Borg, photographed them, studied them, and fought them, why were they such a complete surprise to Picard's crew some 200 years later? Weren't they already in the Federation databanks? Hadn't the Federation been given a 200-year lead time to prepare for the inevitable invasion? If so, why the less than a year of thinking about them in "The Best of Both Worlds"? And if Archer encountered the post-movie Borg (with their injected nano-technology and green skin) why did Picard encounter pallid, non-nano-equipped Borg two centuries later?

The Borg represent a great idea that was corrupted by uninspired writing. But you still have to have this collective, if you're a Borg lover. I give it five stars, despite the presnce of dross like "I, Borg" and "Descent."

This Borg collection totally surpassed my expectations! I was a bit skeptable at first as the package looks a bit iffy. I had no idea that every episode would be so fantastic! I sat glued to my DVD for 2 days straight until I watched them all. I have to say this is notsomething one watches once and then stores it away. I look forward to watching them over and over again. Each time finding something new that I missed. You have to love the Borg. I know I do! (smile) Buy it..buy it!!!

This is indeed a worthy collection for Trek fans that can't afford the regular Trek seasons that usually run $100 each. Fourteen fan picked episodes are all here in this "Best of" collection of Borg. The box itself is wonderful and something that looks great in your DVD collection. These hand picked episodes go in order according to the story, which they sometimes refer back to a previous episode. The one thing I like the most about this collection is that you get more of a feel of who and what the Borg are when you watch all of these Borg episodes together. For those that don't have any of the season DVDs, this is worth getting. If you already have all of the seasons, it's a waste of money since you will only be paying for the box. There are no special features on here except for the commentary which is worth spending money on.

Paramount prepares fans for a great Star Trek set with Fan Collective - Borg, parading it as the fan-voted, top 10 Star Trek episodes featuring the Borg. What they deliver, however, is 14 of the top Star Trek episodes of all time.
The Fan Collective - Borg provides fans with a great selection of The Next Generation and Voyager episodes(all featuring argueably the best Federation foes in Star Trek), while also throwing in a nice intro to Enterprise for those who may have missed the show's UPN run. Some of the phenominal episodes included in this set: The Best of Both Worlds I & II(TNG), Descent I & II(TNG), Scorpion I & II(VOY), and Drone(VOY), among many others.
This 4-disc set has been downplayed by some as a set for the 'less devoted' fans, or some hogwash to that extent, but in my opinion it is simply a DVD for those college aged Trekkies, or perhaps the older ones who also can't afford Star Trek on DVD at $100 a season on top of their Klingon make-up and the uniform dry-cleaning receipts. If you have the seasons, then, of course, don't bother with this DVD; but for the rest of us this is a brilliant set and a breath of fresh air in the way of Star Trek on DVD.

The only reason I give this 4 out of 5 is the overlap between the 3 sets, Borg, Time Travel, and Q, so for e.g Voyager endgame appears on the Borg and time travel sets, (because it contains both the Borg and Time travel) you can't argue with the logic but as most fans will probably buy all three collections seemes like a little like cheap on paramounts part to not give us an extra unique episode. Other than that a great collection that focuses on the best episodes and prevents you having to buy the whole gazillion series sets.

This is the last set I had to get and it does not disappoint.

The set begins with "Regeneration"
A sequel to Star Trek First Contact and a prequel to "Q Who" and "The Best of Both Worlds." I never have seen this episode all the way through when it first aired.
To be fair I never got completely into "Enterprise" and honestly it was done with care much like Sussman's other work on the show. I found it at least entertaining.
Commentary with writers Mike Sussman and Phyllis Strong does not disappoint . It does not put you to sleep. Both writers talk about their reactions to what fans had to say about this particular episode. As well as how this episode came to be as well as some other interesting trivia.

With TNG "Q Who?" the first aired appearance of the Borg.
the nail biting "The Best of Both Worlds" , the Borg Hugh is featured in "I,Borg" and its sequel story "Descent Parts One and two"

The next 3 Disk expand into Star Trek Voyager with Scorpion parts One and Two, Drone, Dark Frontier, Unimatrix Parts one and two and Endgame.

"Endgame" can also be found on the Time Travel Set. "Q Who?" can also be found on the Q Continuum set.

One of biggest quirks about most of the Trek DVD's at least for me has been the packaging. It does not have to be flashy or fancy they left the product speak for itself. Which it should be. They are still uniformed much like the other Fan Collections but theirs no fancy plastic of chrome all over the place.
And it is more apparent in The Fan Collection DVD's where the product speaks for itself. All four DVD's are packaged in a slim case about the size of the recent Movie Collector Editions. So if your worried about space.
To the powers that be make more...I know I would not be disapointed when the Klingon Set comes out.
If your a BIG Borg fan get it..
Where it really should have been.

I'm not a Trekkie (I have a couple of friends who are), and there is nothing wrong being one. The fact is, I'm more of a casual fan. I think the "Star Trek" franchise is not bad, and there are some great intriguing ideas explored in the stories, but I could never get that engaged into most of them. Then I saw the film "Star Trek-First Contact", and I was stunned. The Borg is, without a doubt, the most jacked-up antagonist the Federation ever had to face. I also saw a "Voyager" episode involving the Borg (it's on this collection), and I was hooked. Again, I'm still not a total fan. I don't really plan on getting the other collections, but the Borg is SCARY - in an awesome way. I did enough "research" so I was up to snuff on other storylines so I was able to enjoy this more.

For those who don't know, but if you're reading this you probably already do, the original "Star Trek" is not featured because the writers didn't come up with the Borg idea yet. "Deep Space Nine" is also omitted, but the other three shows are present. The episodes are presented in star date order. I'm not going to go into who or what the Borg is - if you're reading this, you already know. Besides, the less said the better, you have to experience it as it plays out.

I don't know too much about "Enterprise" with Scott Bakula, but it seems to be a real good quality show (except I feel it has one of the worst opening theme songs ever). This episode is great though, and it gives a good explanation about the Borg for the unintiated. Next, there are six "TNG" episodes, two of them are two-parters. "Q Who?" is, I believe, the first show to introduce the Borg. Although the Borg's appearance was not fully realized yet, "Q Who?" (scary & suspenseful) and "I Borg" (touching & endearing) are incredible, the best shows from "TNG". The others are good too, but they had a tendency to paint themselves into a corner, and they went on a tad too long.

Next, there are seven episodes of "Voyager". Two of them, "Scorpion" & "Unimatrix Zero", are two-parters; another one, "Dark Frontier", is a two-hour season finale, and "Endgame" is the two-hour series finale. Even though I felt "Voyager" was inferior to "TNG"; "Scorpion" (which introduced the character Seven of Nine) and "Endgame" (which got the actress who played the Borg Queen in the movie to reprise her role) are absolutely amazing. The other episodes are, of course, good, especially "Drone", but like "TNG" two-parters, they painted themselves into a corner (so to speak) and seemed reeeaaal long. However, "Voyager" really defined the Borg. Now, I'm a casual fan, and I loved this. If you're a Trekkie, you should be ashamed of yourselves if you don't own this. The fans have spoken, and they picked winners. Buy it, NOW!