Stardate 50869.3: The Borg are invading. As Starfleet masses to fight one of the gigantic Borg ships, Captain Picard and the new Enterprise-E are ordered to patrol the Romulan Neutral Zone. Picard, who believes this is because of his experience of being assimilated six years ago, disobeys orders and joins the battle. One of the other ships taking part is the Defiant, commanded by Worf, who is beamed off the badly damaged but salvageable ship. The Borg ship is destroyed, but not before launching a smaller spherical vessel which the Enterprise chases into a temporal distortion. A glance at a Borg-assimilated Earth tells the crew what the Borg plan – to sabotage the past. The Enterprise finds itself orbiting Earth in the year 2063, on the day before the flight of the first warp-driven ship, built by Zefram Cochrane. History records that Earth’s first contact with aliens (the Vulcans) occured when the Vulcans noticed the warp signature of Cochrane’s ship. The Enterprise crew must stop the Borg from disrupting history, and at the same time must fight against Borg who have boarded the Enterprise and begun assimilating the crew.
Meanwhile, Data is captured and faces the predatory Borg Queen, and Riker, Geordi and Troi must convince the alcoholic Cochrane to keep his date with history. Another random element is Cochrane’s assistant, Lily, who has been transported to the Enterprise’s sickbay and escaped. Picard finds her and is able to convince her of the situation, as the Borg Queen tempts Data with the promise of giving him flesh, in return for handing over control of the ship. Picard offers himself in exchange for Data, as the equal the Queen seeks. It appears as though Data has agreed to betray his crewmates – at the Queen’s orders, he fires on Cochrane’s ship during its test flight…but the shots miss, and Data floods Engineering with a deadly plasma backwash. Picard climbs free, and the Queen is killed, her cybernetic implants unable to function without an organic component. Earth and the Federation are safe once more.
screenplay by Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
story by Rick Berman & Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga
directed by Jonathan Frakes
music by Jerry Goldsmith & Joel Goldsmith
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloane), James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane), Alice Krige (Borg Queen), Michael Horton (Security Officer), Neal McDonough (Lt. Hawk), Marnie McPhail (Eiger), Robert Picardo (Holographic Doctor), Dwight Schultz (Lt. Barclay), Adam Scott (Defiant Conn Officer), Jack Shearer (Admiral Hayes), Eric Steinberg (Porter), Scott Strozier (Security Officer), Patti Yasutake (Nurse Ogawa), Victor Bevine (Guard), David Cowgill (Guard), Scott Haven (Guard), Annette Helde (Guard), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice), C.J. Bau (Bartender), Hillary Hayes (Ruby), Julie Morgan (Singer in Nightclub), Ronald R. Rondell (Henchman), Don Stark (Nicky the Nose), Ethan Phillips (Holodeck Maitre’D), Cully Frederickson (Vulcan), Tamara Lee Krinsky (Townsperson), Don Fischer (Borg), J.R. Horsting (Borg), Heinrich James (Borg), Andrew Palmer (Borg), Jon David Weigand (Borg), Dan Koren (Borg), Robert L. Zachar (Borg)
LogBook entry by Tracy Hemenover
Stardate 50049.3: Sisko is leading an away team conducting a mineral survey on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant, when a Jem’Hadar warship crashes nearby. The team investigates and decides to take it home as a potentially invaluable aid to Starfleet intelligence. However, another Jem’Hadar ship arrives and destroys the away team’s runabout. It soon becomes plain that the Jem’Hadar and their Vorta supervisor desperately want something aboard the crashed ship. To stay alive, Sisko and the others must find out what it is. 
