Picard: Star Trek Has Finally Delivered On First Contact's Borg Tease
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 8 - "Mercy"
The Borg Queen (Alison Pill) teaming up with Dr. Adam Soong (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: Picard season 2 finally delivers the alliance teased in Star Trek: First Contact. The Borg Queen (Annie Wersching) has found a new avatar in Dr. Agnes Jurati; after assimilating the cyberneticist, the Queen manipulated Agnes into performing a Pat Benatar song to release endorphins and enable her complete takeover. Despite Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd) tracking her, the Borg Queen has found her new ally in Dr. Adam Soong, which further echoes the events of Star Trek: First Contact.
It was in Star Trek: First Contact that the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) made her debut. The Borg implemented a plot to time travel to the 21st century and assimilate humanity at its weakest point and prevent First Contact with the Vulcans. However, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) led the USS Enterprise-E to stop the Borg. Picard isolated the cyborg villains and their Queen on the Enterprise and prevented the Borg from landing on Earth. Meanwhile, Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) led an Away Team to ensure Dr. Zephram Cochrane (James Cromwell) launched humanity's first warp flight and achieved First Contact with the Vulcans. But aboard the Enterprise, the Borg Queen attempted to seduce Commander Data (Brent Spiner) in order to turn the Enterprise's android officer into her consort. While he was tempted by the organic skin grafted onto him, Data ultimately sided with Picard and helped defeat the Borg Queen.
Although Dr. Adam Soong isn't Data, he is an ancestor of the android's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, and a lookalike of them both. Further, Star Trek: Picard's Borg Queen isn't the original physical entity from First Contact but she is the same being otherwise. Star Trek: Picard's unholy alliance between the Borg Queen and evil geneticist Adam Soong delivers on First Contact's tease of the Queen and an evil Data. Of course, the Queen doesn't regard Soong as her 'counterpart' the way she intended Data to be. Adam is just a means to an end for her greater scheme to commandeer La Sirena and use the starship to escape Earth. Yet the Borg Queen and Adam Soong is the latest variation on Star Trek: First Contact by Star Trek: Picard season 2.
Seven of Nine theorized that the Borg Queen intended to assimilate humanity in the 21st century, which was her scheme in Star Trek: First Contact. However, it seems like global assimilation isn't what the Queen is looking for. Rather, the Borg's ruler coerced Adam Soong into delivering soldiers from his military contractors, Operation: Spearhead. The Borg Queen then assimilated the troops, turning them into her mini Borg Army to take La Sirena from Jean-Luc Picard and his motley crew. From there, the Borg Queen intends to leave the Earth, although to fulfill her side of her bargain with Soong, she will make sure Renée Picard's (Penelope Mitchell) Europa Mission fails. This way, Adam Soong becomes the focal point of the timeline and ensures the future ruled by the Confederation of Earth.
Of course, it's also very possible the Borg Queen could betray Adam Soong and assimilate him in the end. After all, if the Confederation does rise thanks to Soong, then it will lead to them wiping out the Borg Collective by the 25th century. The Borg Queen could kill two birds with one stone by taking out Soong and Renée Picard so that neither the Confederation nor Star Trek's proper Prime Timeline come to fruition. The Borg Queen could then rebuild the Borg Collective - and perhaps evolve them into synthetic Borg thanks to Agnes Jurati's genius - and take over the Earth in Star Trek: Picard, just like she planned to in Star Trek: First Contact.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.