Welcome to day 2 of the A to Z challenge. My theme is complex villains, with a focus on those characteristics that allows us a twinge of empathy, to see their human side, even as we hate them. One of my all time favorite badass villains is the Borg Queen (BQ) from Star Trek.

Played by Alice Krige in the movie First Contact and Susanna Thompson in the Voyager series. BQ slinks into our world with the swagger of a seductress, catching Lt. Commander Data in her claws. See her in action in the film First Contact.

BQ:     “Are you familiar with physical forms of pleasure?”
Data:    “If you are referring to sexuality, I am fully functional, programmed in multiple techniques.”
BQ:     “How long since you’ve used them?”
Data:    “Eight years, seven months, 16 days, four minutes, 22—“
BQ:     “Far too long.”

As Borg leader, she growls with the protectiveness of a mother tigress shielding her young.  Watch her in Endgame with Seven of Nine, a borg drone returned to humanity in Star Trek Voyager.

BQ:     “Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01. It’s been too long.”
Seven: “What do you want?”
BQ:      “Do I need a reason to visit a friend?”
Seven:  “We’re not friends.”
BQ:      “No. We’re more than that. We’re family.”

She may not be human, but the humanity in that demeanor cannot be denied and she demonstrated an emotional vein, not present in the drones, making her  available to our hate.  The borg drones are victims, and can elicit only our pity even as we fear them.

The Borg Queen, as lover and mother, simultaneously brings us closer to her and separates us from her entirely.  To protect her collective, her family, she must terminate us.   Picard and Data defeated her, but only Captain Janeway, another mother guarding her family, destroys her. As with Ellen Ripley and the Alien Queen. It seems to take a mother to outmaneuver a mother.  An interesting twist when dealing with female baddies.

It’s her protectiveness, her sultriness, and her focus on clear world-domination objectives that makes the Borg Queen great, and gives us a way to understand her as we hate what she does. We understand her even though she’s alien.   Those nuances, that ability to touch individuals, reminds us that but for fate, we are not that far away from villainy as we sometimes like to think.

I’d love to hear from you.  What characteristics make up a great villain?  Do they differ between male and female baddies?

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10 Replies to “Badass Borg Queen #atozchallenge”

    • I totally agree. They have to be relatable. Does gender offer some different pathways to that relatability?

    • Thanks. I first realized the mother vs mother issue in Aliens 2 (Ripley vs the Alien queen to protect the little girl). That motherhood piece is an open door to a touch of empathy. Mothers are supposed to protect their young. We get that.

  • Intriguing post! I love thinking about what makes a good villain! Definitely have to make them human in some way. I think that the most relatable ones are the ones we can identify with in our own humanity.

    • Thanks. Seeing a touch of humanity is key, even if they turn their back on it, it has to be there.

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