Star Trek: Borg

Star Trek: Borg is a 1996 interactive movie and audiobook for PC and Macintosh, set in the Star Trek universe. Hilary Bader wrote the script, James L. Conway directed, and Dennis McCarthy composed the original score. The game follows Starfleet Cadet Qaylan Furlong, who is sent back in time by Q (played by John de Lancie) to save his father Ralph from dying in the Battle of Wolf 359.

The player takes control of Qaylan, who inhabits the body of security officer Coris Sprint aboard the USS Righteous, an Excelsior-class ship, just before the battle. Sprint is a Bijani, an alien race with the ability to enter a "Bijani Pain Trance" that lets him function despite severe injury—a key plot point. Q, meanwhile, assumes the role of Dr. Thaddeus Quint. The game presents multiple-choice scenarios; picking the wrong option can end the game or loop back to the choice, with Q resetting time if the player fails. However, too many mistakes cause Q to lose interest and end the game. Successfully completing all correct choices allows Qaylan to disable a Borg device on the ship's computer core. The Righteous then prepares to join the Battle of Wolf 359, but is told its help is unnecessary. Q, revealing himself, transports the ship and crew nine years into the future to help repel a new Borg invasion.

Bader, who started as a writing intern on *Star Trek: The Next Generation* and wrote episodes like "The Loss" and "Hero Worship," also wrote for *Star Trek: Klingon*. Conway and de Lancie had previously worked together on the *Star Trek: Voyager* episode "Death Wish." The live-action segments were filmed concurrently with *Star Trek: First Contact*; Conway had competed with Jonathan Frakes to direct that film, but Frakes instead directed the game's audiobook version. The USS Righteous sets were largely redressed from *Voyager*'s sets, except the bridge, which reused the *Excelsior* bridge from the *Voyager* episode "Flashback." Visual effects came from the *Star Trek: The Next Generation* episode "The Best of Both Worlds," which also depicts the Battle of Wolf 359. Most of the cast, except Murray Rubinstein and a few minor players, had appeared in Star Trek TV series—for example, Jeff Allin guest-starred in the TNG episode "Imaginary Friend," John Cothran Jr. played two Klingon roles, and Marnie McPhail appeared as an assimilated crewmember in *First Contact*.