Why Star Trek: Picard Teamed The Borg Up With The Changelings

In the "Star Trek: Picard" episode "Võx" (April 13, 2023), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) used her empathic abilities to reach into the mind of Jack Crusher (Ed Speleers) to explain the mysterious, brief psychic spells he periodically and uncontrollably falls under. Jack had revealed that he possessed martial arts skills he never knew he had, can occasionally read people's thoughts, and even invade the brains of others, taking control of their bodies. Nothing is known about Jack's powers, other than he was being murderously pursued by Vadic (Amanda Plummer), a vengeful Changeling who hoped to unlock their secrets.

It seems that years ago, the Federation kidnapped several Changelings, including Vadic, and performed cruel medical experiments on them. Vadic only wants revenge for the Federation's unacknowledged war crimes. Jack has something to do with her plan.

In "Võx," it was revealed that Jack's powers came from, rather unexpectedly, the Borg. It seems that Picard (Patrick Stewart), Jack's father, unwittingly passed a Borg gene (!) into his son's brain, giving him latent Borg superpowers. Jack, upon learning of his Borg genetics, flees distraught to a nearby Borg ship, where Vadic's true mastermind is revealed: a dying Borg Queen (Jane Edwina Seymour, voice of Alice Krige). She reveals the Borg were in cahoots with the Changelings this whole time, and that their plot was ... well, read below for a fuller explanation.

In 2023, "Picard" season 3 showrunner Terry Matalas took to Reddit to answer questions from fans. During his Q&A, Matalas revealed why he paired up the Changelings with the Borg, stating that he felt the two notorious "Star Trek" antagonists have a lot in common.

Matalas didn't explain how the Changelings and the Borg first came into cahoots, or how they were able to form their partnership, so Trekkies have to take it for granted that the two groups of villains met at some point, compared grievances with the Federation, and hatched a mutually beneficial plot. The Borg revealed to the Changelings that the corpse of Admiral Picard was being held at a Federation black site, locked up in a vault. Picard's consciousness was shunted into an android body at the end of "Picard" season 1, so his dead organic body was fair game for storage.

The Borg also revealed that a deadly brain ailment embedded in Picard's gray matter was actually the aforementioned Borg gene, only mistaken for a disease. It was left behind from when the Borg assimilated Picard several decades before. The Changelings stole Picard's dead body, extracted the gene, and then infiltrated dozens of Federation ships. Using many, many Federation transporters, the Changelings were able to implant the Borg gene into the brains of anyone who beamed anywhere. A wrinkle: the implanting only worked on anyone under the age of 25, as they were more susceptible to brain gene manipulation.

Once infected with the Borg gene, the Borg Queen could "activate" the Federation's youth, assimilating them all at once, and forcing them to attack their commanders. The Changelings and the Borg would get to see the Federation fall.

The team-up is odd from the outside, but Matalas felt it was organic, writing:

"The Changelings/Founders and The Borg have a lot in common. They both have had Starfleet attempt to wipe them out with weaponized viruses. 'DS9' and 'Voyager.' They both are kind of like a Hive. It seemed like the perfect Team-up."

Perfect? Hm...

The weaponized virus Matalas referred to is a morphogenic virus implanted in the Changelings during the seventh season of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." The changelings were said to be the founders of the Dominion, a powerful, warlike empire from the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy, hence Matalas' reference to them as Founders.

The Borg virus was a neurolytic pathogen that Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) deliberately infected herself with. She then allowed herself to be assimilated by the Borg, spreading the disease through their cybernetic network. This was the plot of the final episode of "Star Trek: Voyager," titled "Endgame" (May 23, 2001).

Matalas was well-versed in "Star Trek" to recognize the similar plights suffered by both the Borg and the Founders and decide that they should team up. He clarified that Vadic had been talking to the Borg Queen for the entire season; when Vadic retired to her quarters, she severed her own hand and watched it grow into a weird, goopy face that she could communicate with. This was, Matalas clarified, the face of the Borg Queen, somehow able to used Vadic's own body as a communication device:

"The Gelatinous Head was the Borg Queen speaking to Vadic via a long-range communications device. If you look at the face and the Queen, they are the same."

It seems out of character for the Borg to outsource their villainy; they have historically been more like cyborg zombies, marching relentlessly forward, sharing a group mind and only thinking of assimilating others. Some Trekkies wondered how a deal might have been struck.

Did the dying Borg Queen meet Vadic at a coffee shop to brainstorm plans? Perhaps not, but that's an amusing visual.