Star Trek: Picard & Seven of Nine Teamed Up to Stop the Borg YEARS Ago

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine may have recently teamed up in Star Trek: Picard, but that wasn't the first time these two intergalactic icons met. In a 2012 comic series, Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive, they joined forces to put a stop to the Borg's galactic devastation.

Although Star Trek: Picard has rendered this story non-canon, it is a fun alternate universe journey that brings the most iconic elements of '90s Trek together in one tale. With a story by Brannon Braga who wrote and produced Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager, this  Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, Joe Corroney, Matt Fillbach, Sean Fillbach, Hi-Fi Color and Shawn Lee miniseries brings two characters together who share similar experiences with the Borg. Both Picard and Seven of Nine were assimilated into the Borg collective, saved from their imprisonment, and struggle to find their humanity after.

The opening panels of the book show that hundreds of years into the future, the Borg have accomplished in assimilating the entire galaxy and that Picard has been re-assimilated into the Borg Hive as the king, Locutus. The rest of the story deals with how this future came to pass and how it's averted.

Chronologically, the story begins about 10 years after the movie Star Trek: First Contact, and it sees Picard taking the crew of the Enterprise on a mission to bring down the Borg. Picard recruits Seven of Nine as a secret agent to infiltrate the Borg Collective and feed the Federation information on how to end their reign. Picard's plan to keep Seven of Nine safe involves a filter that allows her to connect to the Collective without being fully assimilated. As the opening panels suggest, this plan does not go well. After the Borg realize that Seven of Nine is a secret informative, they feed false information to the Federation.

Picard's plan backfires, and the story jumps forward 500  years when the Borg have conquered the galaxy. Picard, as the Borg King, believes that the assimilation process is flawed. After so many years assimilated into the Collective, parts of his past personality start to shine through, and he again begins a campaign to stop the Borg reign. Picard finds his old friend, Data, and sends him back in time using a temporal anomaly with a nano-virus that can destroy the Borg. After deliberation on the morality of the situation, past Picard uses the nano-virus to infect the Borg Collective while protecting himself in the process using the filter made for Seven of Nine. The virus works in killing the entire Borg Hive and the future is saved as Borg Data disappears from existence.

In a heartfelt last attempt to save people, Seven of Nine severs the connection between 5000 drones and the Collective before the virus takes over. She dies in the process but was successful in her mission to help others like her. This group of saved Borg victims creates a peaceful colony in her honor.

Although this is a fun alternate universe storyline, Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine have a much different meeting in Star Trek: Picard. Both characters may be struggling with the same demons from their past, but they are tackling the present in very different ways.

In the show, Seven of Nine is part of a vigilante group called the Fenris Rangers and has dedicated her life to save those who have no one else to protect them. Picard is impressed with the group's bravery but doesn’t agree with their tactics. While they both want the same outcomes in the galaxy, they have wildly different means by which to obtain them. In the final minutes of one episode, Seven explains to her latest victim, “Picard still thinks there’s a place in the galaxy for mercy. I didn’t want to disillusion him.”

While the story between Seven of Nine and Picard is not over on the screen, Star Trek: The Next Generation – Hive offered a fun take on what kind of crisis could bring these icons together.

Source: www.cbr.com