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The Borg are one of the most mysterious and feared alien entities in the Star Trek universe. They are known for their disturbing ability to forcibly assimilate species, referred together as the Borg Collective. The alien group has made frequent appearances throughout the Star Trek franchise. In Star Trek: Picard Season 2, the Borg Queen (played by Alice Krige) will assimilate and merge with Dr. Agnes Jurati (played by Alison Pill), paving the way for Jurati’s hybrid Borg Queen avatar.
Jurati’s Borg Queen is very different from the antagonist we have known all along in Star Trek. Despite the creepy look and intimidating tone, Jurati’s hybrid Borg is more empathetic to Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart). At the end of Season 2, she will even help stop a catastrophic energy wave with the help of the Starfleet.
In Picard Season 3, Prime timeline Borg Queen does make a comeback, but Jurati’s hybrid version is nowhere to be found. A case can be made that the final season focused on The Next Generation reunion, but since the season largely saw them destroy the Borg, the audience was left wondering whatever happened to Jurati. After all, she could have made a significant impact.
How Dr. Jurati became the Borg Queen?
Dr. Agnes Jurati was known for her work on advanced android research along with Dr. Bruce Maddox. In Season 1, she would accompany Picard and friends to stop the destruction of Synthetic life forms by the Romulan secret agents known as Zhat Vash.
In Season 2, thanks to Q (played by John de Lancie), Picard and friends find themselves in an alternate reality where the Federation is replaced by the totalitarian regime known as the Confederation of Earth. This alternate reality also has its own version of Borg Queen, who is in a dire state after her Borg Collective was destroyed by the Confederation. To change the reality, Picard and friends must fix an event from the past.
As the saying goes, ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’. To fix the timeline, Picard and friends are forced to seek help from the Borg Queen herself. She helps them travel to 2024 Los Angeles, where they must ensure that Renée Picard (played by Penelope Mitchell) is successful with her Europa Mission, and thus, guaranteeing that the Federation exists.
However, shortly after the crew travels back in time, Borg Queen starts manipulating Dr. Jurati. Initially she would be the voice in her head, but slowly she takes over the Starfleet scientist completely. Jurati allows the Borg Queen to assimilate her willingly but still maintains control over herself.
After merging with the Borg Queen, Jurati ideates that the Borg Collective will henceforth composed of people who volunteer and not assimilate by force. They would exist separate from the original Prime timeline Borg. At the end of the season 2, she appears in her full Borg Queen avatar. She would draw in the Starfleet in order to prevent a galactic disaster in the 25th Century, helping save millions of lives.
Dr. Jurati’s Borg almost made it to Star Trek: Picard Season 3
Fans were left wondering why Dr. Jurati’s hybrid Borg did not make an appearance in Star Trek: Picard Season 3 finale. Executive Producer Terry Matalas took to X to share that they did have an early draft with a brief appearance from Jurati and they would be referred to as ‘the Jurati’ instead of the ‘Borg Collective’.
He wrote,
“In one of the earlier drafts of the finale, Starfleet recognized them as the Jurati.”
As per Trekmovie.com, Matalas shared that there were talks on how to make Jurati’s story part of Star Trek: Picard Season 3’s storyline. He said,
“We did have a line on the Enterprise-D from Riker—when he talks about the Borg transwarp conduit at Jupiter and that the one that Jurati was guarding was a distraction, the Queen’s way of saying, “Go over here.”… We had a whole thing about it. But when we got to the cut, it was just like this big exposition dump that was like, nobody cares. His son is on board, Starfleet is assimilated. There’s this giant thing and now we are retrofitting and explaining the Jurati Borg.”
He goes on to explain how they could not incorporate the proposed scenes with Jurati,
“Let’s say you want to do in a in a final sequence—and we talked about it, having Jurati and her Borg show up. Well you have to get Alison [Pill]. Alison is not free. You’ve got to now build those Borg assets. And it sort of took away from what we were doing with Seven of Nine and what we doing with the Enterprise-D and how they’re the last resort and to then have the Borg cavalry show up and fight other Borg just seemed bad to us.”
The Borg has appeared in various Star Trek ventures including Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard Season 2 and 3.
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