Star Trek: Picard has been back in production since February, but we’ve just learned about a classic character who will be turning up in season 2.
Borg Queen returns
Actress Annie Wersching is playing the Borg Queen in Star Trek: Picard season 2. The news was first reported by Deadline. Wershing has a recurring role, appearing in multiple seasons two episodes.
The character of the Borg Queen was originally created to provide a villain who could personify the Borg Collective for the 1996 movie Star Trek: First Contact, and was played by Alice Krige. The character returned in a number of episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, played by Susanna Thompson, and Krige returned to play the Queen in the Voyager series finale in 2001.
Alice Krige and Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: First Contact
The Borg played a big role in season one of Picard, focusing on the aftermath of former drones (called xBs) trying to rediscover their identities. This included bringing back the TNG character Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) and Voyager’s Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). Season one had some exploration of the lingering impact on Jean-Luc Picard of his assimilation and unwilling transformation into Locutus, which was also explored in First Contact.
The Queen fits into some of the hints we have seen about season two. First Contact was about the Borg going back in time to stop the first contact between humans and Vulcans. From previously released trailers, all indications are that season two of Picard will also deal with time travel and/or alternative timelines. Another hint came today from co-showrunner Terry Matalas, who tweeted, “Watch… your future’s end,” a line of the Queen said to Captain Picard in First Contact.
“Watch… your future’s end.” https://t.co/lkIcnl3X9i
— Terry Matalas (@TerryMatalas) September 2, 2021
A return to Trek for Wershing
Annie Wersching has been on many well-known TV series including 24, The Vampire Diaries, Castle, Timeless, The Rookie, Marvel’s Runaways, and Bosch. And this isn’t her first time in Star Trek either; she played Liana in the 2002 Enterprise episode “Oasis.”
Annie Wersching in Enterprise
The actress also celebrated her Star Trek news on Twitter with a series of emojis.
— Annie Wersching (@Wersching) September 2, 2021
The Borg Queen isn’t the only classic character returning for season two. John de Lancie will appear in six episodes, reprising his role as the impish omnipotent Q. Also returning are Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine and Brent Spiner, presumably in his season one role as Dr. Altan Inigo Soong. There were also early reports that Whoopi Goldberg would be reprising her TNG role of Guinan.
John de Lancie in preview for Picard season 2
Hiding in plain sight
It turns out there was a big clue about the Borg Queen being part of season two that missed our notice. The season two teaser trailer released in April ended showing a Queen of Hearts playing card, that dissolved to just show the letter Q. At the time this Queen clue was seen as both tied to the opening scene of Picard season one where Data held a hand made up entirely of Queens, as well as a clear clue about Q himself. However, Picard production designer Dave Blass poked fans on Twitter with the message “I bet you missed that Queen just sitting on the table.”
I bet you missed that Queen just sitting on the table. #StarTrekPicard #BorgQueen pic.twitter.com/LFAUqQ9iJf
— Dave Blass (@DaveBlass) September 2, 2021
Star Trek: Picard season two arrives in 2022.
Find more news and analysis on Star Trek: Picard.
Wow. Excited about this new season!
My answer is Hell yes
Perfect!
So cool! I really loved her in oasis, I’m a fan of season 1 + 2 of ENT. She stood out to me in that episode, hope she does the same in such an iconic role!
She looks a lot like Kes in that episode :-)
Stimmt
This is exciting, but I’m hoping they don’t retread too much. I don’t want to read into anything, of course. They could be doing something really interesting. I just loved how season 1 was so different, and want that to continue
We haven’t seen the Borg Queen in twenty years. Gave the character a long enough rest. Kinda figured the Queen would show up at some point. It felt like an open ended mystery as to where the Borg Queen from the Artifact had ended up.
Yeah, that’s fair. I just view Picard’s history with the Borg as a story of trauma, and one that concluded someone well in Picard’s first season. I was hoping that would be it for him. Like I said, not jumping to any conclusions, I just like the different direction of the first season (more than most, I think)
Remember Picard is not the only one on the show affected by the Borg. Seven also plays a big part in that and honestly much more so than Picard ever did since she was assimilated longer than a weekend. And she faced the Borg Queen directly quite a few times in Voyager. So it could just be about Seven’s trauma as it is about Picard’s.
The Borg Queen kind of ruined The Borg though and made them just a more normal major adversary. It’s like they thought us fans could not handle the truly alien Collective concept, and so we got this cybernetic sexy queen. Pretty much ruined the whole idea in my opinion
And notice how they picked a really good looking female actress again for this part…sigh! All we need now is a “Husbands of Borg Queens” reality TV show. LOL
Unfortunately, they already way over-jumped that shark in regards to this for season 2. They are already bringing back Q, Riker, Geordi, Guinin and Brent Spinner for Season 2.
I was really enjoying the original cast and the way they were setting up new adventures with Picards new team for Season two, but because so many of the fans online bitched and moaned about Season 1, they are now going FULL FAN SERVICE RE-TREAD on Season 2.
I liked season one but to be fair to those fans that ‘bitched and moaned’, they did at least do it in response to watching the show, you’re bitching and moaning about a season you haven’t actually watched yet.
No, I am bitching and moaning about them doing what is essentially a “reunion series” instead of going where no one has gone before. The S2 casting has been reported…it is what it is.
What’s the problem with bringing back established characters and why shouldn’t they be able “to go where no one has gone before” with beloved characters? When someone wants to go where no one’s gone before without known characters, one can watch something like discovery and not – Picard-, which is one of the best known characters in star trek history itself btw..
“What’s the problem with bringing back established characters and why shouldn’t they be able “to go where no one has gone before” with beloved characters?”
Dude, you do know the Borg is going to be the baddie again, right? Come on man!
Well, a reunion series could still boldly go where none of them had gone before. The problem is they most likely won’t… not in this series. I guess that’s DSC’s, PRO’s and SNW’s job now… PIC will be more of an inward journey stretching the boundaries of canonicity and time itself.
You know, Picard (S1 for sure) isn’t a reunion show AT ALL. I know this for sure because that’s the main let down of the show FOR ME PERSONALLY. You call a show a reunion series where (besides Picard) 2 of the 7 original cast members (riker & troi) are in ONE episode and data has 5 min screen time IN THE ENTIRE SEASON(S?)?
For my part I’m very disappointed from Patrick Stewart personally for having the power as executive producer and center figure anyway for not bringing back the people without Picard (and Patrick Stewart) wouldn’t be the Huge man he became over the years. TNG became so popular because of the magic of the crew (among other things). It’s a wasted opportunity because everyone would be in and they all love each other off screen for decades. At least I thought they would. Because that’s not a move that seems like Stewart does honor the people without he wouldn’t became “Picard”. My opinion.
I admit I never understand this argument either? If people don’t want to see returning characters, then maybe don’t bring back an iconic returning character to begin with that will naturally have connections with all these other characters and storylines that fans will just naturally want to see.
The second the show was announced Picard was coming back that signaled to me the TNG era in general was coming back. How can you bring back Picard but don’t expect to see others he had not only deep long term relationships with but characters who helped defined the character as well.
People call it ‘fan service’ but bringing back Picard himself is already fan service in itself. If you’re bringing Picard back, naturally you’re going to want to see others in time with him. This is just how franchises work and CBS clearly knows this. They are trying to get fans to subscribe to their fledging streaming site, that’s why 3 of the 5 shows now star iconic characters: Picard, Pike and Janeway, And naturally they are going to make connections to those old shows and characters they came from as we know they already said it will happen with Janeway and Prodigy and hinted at it with SNW.
Now if you want a Trek show that doesn’t constantly work on nostalgia, you don’t bring those people back in the first place. You can set your show a century or even centuries ahead with brand new characters to avoid that if you REALLY want to do that, which they finally did with Discovery. And even then, I still expect Riker to show up somehow lol. I don’t think it will happen, but you can never say never with Riker. ;D
So you’re not bitching and moaning about something you haven’t seen?
I guess that virus didn’t work after all…
LOL, nothing keeps the Borg Queen down! She’s like Loki, she always finds a way to show up again. ;)
Or maybe it did and the borg queen only shows up in the alternate reality/time travel created by Q?
I don’t think Q is responsible for creating the alternate timeline. Rather, he is going to allow Picard to go back and fix what changed it. In that context, maybe she is “the woman who would be Borg Queen if history remained on course”. I do hope we’re surprised and see the origin of the Borg, not just “the next actress to play the Queen”.
wolf 359 may have been a boon for the fed, getting them ready to face tougher problems like the dominion.
Oh, yeah. When Q accelerated their encounter with the Borg prior to Best of Both Worlds he prepared them for everything that was coming down the line.
That’s such three dimensional thinking.
Thanks.
Q is altering history, apparently.
I think it’s more like All Good Things… Q, in his own unique way, is helping Picard fix something someone else screwed up.
It would be very interesting if they use time travel / alternative reality to explain that the future of S1 already had been an alternate reality. As much as I liked some of the ideas, the world of S1 was very gloomy, bleak and not very Trek-like. If they used S2 to provide a clean slate and return to a more optimistic timeline, I’d be very pleased…
Or maybe that’s exactly the notion that causes even more unmitigated disaster…
That is not likely to happen, though. That would be the future they would be restoring.
I never connected her as the actress from both Runaways and Oasis before now.
Good for this actress getting work, & I’m sure she’ll be great.
Alice Krige was AH-MAZING. Why not her?
One word: old.
Sad but true. Such is life.
That sounds ageist. Patrick Stewart is older if “old” is a problem. She’s still active & incredibly talented.
The Borg are absolutely ageist; if a drone or queen is no longer at peak condition, they’re discarded.
You’re being incredibly naive if you believe a double standard doesn’t exist between men and women in Hollywood. Picard is supposed to be old in this show. A Borg Queen doesn’t, and in universe, I’d imagine a worn out Borg would be unplugged from the collective, anyway.
Ageism is the last ism that is still acceptable in Hollywood.
That and Russophobia.
Ageism aside, the prosthetics and the costume look taxing. May not be a game for the seniors.
Its not as if you’d really be able to tell how old she is under all that make-up.
Old? She’s 44!
We are talking about Alice Krige dude. Hollywood considers a 67 year woman too old. That’s just the way it is, I don’t like it anymore than anyone else.
They’re talking about Alice Krige, who is 67.
She’s 67.
Also there is a precedence for recasting the Borg Queen and maybe there are more than one queen and when one is gone another drone takes its place with a different face.
That’s the reasoning I was using there. It makes sense.
Doesn’t each Cube have a Queen?
I for one would like to be surprised and have it turn out that it is the Borg Queen’s origin, the start of the Borg, rather than the “next Borg Queen” post Endgame.
Good point!
Thanks.
Actually one of the ideas for season 5 of Enterprise was going to do the Borg Queen origin story. NOT the Borg origin story (want to make it clear) but the Borg Queen and how she was going to be assimilated and chosen by them. And remember, the Borg Queen is NOT as old as the Borg itself. In Dark Frontier she told Seven her species was also assimilated by them and how she became their queen.
Of course season 5 didn’t happen but I would be all for that if the story was going to take that angle.
She wasn’t necessarily the first Borg Queen. There might have been a queen for as long as the Borg have existed, but she was originally a different species.
Also true Damar. I was going to say that as well but I get so long winded a lot of times lol.
There could’ve been Borg queens for thousands of years and the one we seen since First Contact is just the latest one.
I remember reading that. I truly do hope they’re going in this direction to do something new with it.
That was true of the Borg Queen on Voyager, but she wasn’t the first Borg Queen.
Right. I’m just talking about the one we were first introduced to.
isn’t ‘destiny’ a book trilogy that ties in TNG, ds9, Voy and Ent?
Yes, it’s from the Relaunch Litverse continuity.
It’s the absolute Alpha & Omega story of the Borg and humanity’s interactions with them. It also makes sense of the concept of a Borg Queen in a way that respects the original way the Borg were presented in TNG.
It’s amazing, but it really focuses on the Enterprise under Picard, the Titan under Riker, and the new Slipstream technology ship Aventine under the command of newly promoted Captain Ezri Dax. There is also another historic ship and captain from another era (but not a hero ship) that plays a prominent role.
Voyager really only makes a cameo appearance.
Dax is amazing as a Captain. I firmly believe that it makes more sense for her than the limited vision that the DS9 writers room came up with in the Documentary. The Litverse really worked with the impact of having a mature candidate with many lives merged into someone completely unprepared for it. In using and developing leadership to stay in charge of her memories of her previous hosts, Ezri found leadership in herself and decided to switch to Command track. With continuing threats from the Borg and a decimated Starfleet after the Dominion War she got a brevet promotion that was confirmed. Great stuff.
I’ve never read a Star Trek novel in my life, but if I do I think this is the one I will be reading with all the praise it seems to get among the fans.
I finally followed your advice and watched TAS for the first time so I definitely trust you on this too. ;)
I guess everyone is invited to the TNG reunion show. So, the indestructible Borg will once again be destroyed by Picard and his merry crew. Does anyone really believe that this time, the Borg will succeed?? Maybe the Borg have come to their senses, and the Borg Queen is just enjoying a fun filled get-a-way on Risa….
Depends on context. If this is the Queen before the Borg, then it would work great.
Man it’s Star Trek and fiction. Which species has EVER succeeded in beating the Federation lol. Fifty five years, over 800 episodes and movies with more villains trying to take the down the Federation for literally centuries now and they all failed, right? Dominion came the closes but that took a multi-year long war to happen and they still lost in the end.
And I think this might be part of the alternative timeline created in the season. For all we know it could be the opposite and it’s the Borg on the run for a change due to the changes. Wouldn’t that be something?
But they were pretty much almost wrecked by a crying child. The whole Burn thing. I guess most people just pretend that isn’t canon.
Don’t remind me…sigh. 🙄
That’s the problem with these shows every season. So much promise and hype and they manage to screw the landing over and over again.
Sure sure
This Borg Queen works at Quarks.
Wow I literally just watched Dark Frontier again last night! That was her second appearance in the franchise.
Oh man, I’m now SUPER excited for season 2!!! The Borg Queen AND Q is back yall!!! I’m SO happy TNG era is back!!!!!
(Just please don’t suck this time like season one)
Dark Frontier is one of the many highlights of Voyager. It’s almost a mini movie. It needs the HD treatment though, doesn’t really look great on a big tv.
Yeah it’s one of my top Borg episodes and top 10 Voyager episode. And it’s interesting it’s never broken up into a two parter like the others on streaming sites. Both parts are always shown together like a movie.
I also agree, it really needs the HD treatment! It’s such a epic story it really needs it.
Is she alive because of Q. If the timeline is altered and Picard was never assimilated and the Enterprise never encountered the Borg. Or is she just alive you know because reasons.
Even in season 1 of Picard, Hugh basically implied the Borg Queen still existed. So I think she is just alive.
It’s also known that, like Ultron, her essence just transfers from host to host. Destroy one body, it’s downloaded to another.
Oh i see so like the Geth from Mass Effect she’d just download herself to another body.
I always assumed in my head canon they just cloned a new one if one of them died like the Founders did with the multiple Weyouns. But that can work too.
Tiger2, I did the same thing.
Nice! :)
She also died in BoBW, First Contact, and Dark Frontier. They don’t need an explanation for how she survived Endgame.
I’m not sure she died in Dark Frontier Damar. I literally just watched it again last night. They did go after Janeway but it’s never clear the vessel that followed them into the conduit had the queen on board. They never once showed who was on it once the chase started.
Wasn’t it her diamond ship that was chasing them? I think the implication was that the Borg Diamond was the Borg Queen’s ship.
It was but they never showed her in the ship once the chase started. I’m only saying its easy to say she beamed away or something before the chase started but sure she could’ve been there.
Why do you keep saying “literally?” How would one figuratively watch a TV show?
Just meant I watched it the other night and not exaggerating. ;)
Star Trek: First Contact is still my favorite Trek movie. This is awesome news!
Oh good- after bringing up the Borg for absolutely no reason in S1, now they can completely misuse the Borg Queen in S2. Def looking forward to that…
Every party needs a pooper…
That’s the spirit!
I know a lot of people still don’t love Picard and for the record it’s currently my least favorite show in the entire franchise. It’s dead last lol. But its also only 10 episodes, so I don’t want people to read into that too much. There is plenty of time to improve and hopefully they will take ALL the mistakes from season one and give us a much stronger season two. Fingers crossed!
So don’t watch it. Gheez. The fake melodrama is strong with this one.
I love Alice Krige in the role (and I just saw her in Gretel and Hansel and Carnival Row and she was still great) but I think Wresching could absolutely kill it. Has a lot to live up to, Krige in First Contact and the Voyager finale was so aces. But I think she can totally do it.
For a lot of people, the Voyager finale was one of the show’s worst episodes. Since I’m one of them, I am disappointed by this news. I’ll still give it a shot, though, because hey, it’s new Star Trek so I’m in.
Well I think the Voyager finale is okay to decent (I love the final scene) but I do think Krige playing the Borg Queen again in Endgame is the best thing about the episode. So I’ve also loved Wresching in anything I’ve seen her in so I’m willing to give her a shot, but it’s quite the hill to climb to match Krige. Thompson as the Borg Queen was … decent, okay. A bit stilted, which may suit the Borg a bit but it’s the slithery nature and physicality that Krige brought to the role that makes it such a juicy part. “You imply a disparity when none exists, I am the collective.”
The borg queen is going to be Picard’s Edith Keeler, instead of the guardian taking Picard through time it’s Q, and with that, somehow Picard has to let her get assimilated/create the borg, in order to somehow save the federation, Just a thought?
It could be a BORG Queen and NOT the Borg Queen.
Was that statement supposed to make sense?
It did not.
Pull my finger Lorna.
My least favorite aspect of the Borg is the concept of the Borg Queen, But That doesn’t mean I hate it. I just feel it makes the concept of the Borg less interesting, and to be honest less terrifying.
I’m interested to see what they do with the Queen in modern Trek. I’m also curious to see if they’re going to finally follow through on that Queen/Borg Origin story that has been rumored for the better part of 20 years and even played out in Video games and other works. It would be cool to finally see the story in live action.
Anyway, it looks like an interesting ride has been set up and I’ll just sit back and enjoy it like I did season 1!
I love the Borg queen to death but I certainly understand why her presence bothered others. But you have to blame that on a Paramount executive at the time who thought the hive concept would be too confusing or alienating for movie audiences when they were making First Contact and wanted a direct villain audiences could root against and the Borg queen was born.
This is exactly why I don’t love the movies as much as the shows, movie executives seem to think newbies who watches Star Trek are too stupid to get it sadly and has to dumb everything down; hence the Kelvin movies.
But I been a fan of the Borg Queen since FC and always loved her appearances on Voyager. And she’s not always used when someone confronts the Borg like what we saw in a few Borg episodes on Voyager and then ‘Regeneration’ on Enterprise. It was smart not to use her in every story and have the Borg feel like the original idea.
But I can’t wait to see how she is used here and it would be interesting if we do see her origin story on Picard!
I agree, the Borg queen was kind of the equivalent of Doctor Who’s Davros (only he could be quite good on occasion). I felt the moment she was introduced the Borg lost something; their implacable, aloof, terrifying alienness and inhumanity. The Borg Queen never seemed at all threatening to me, just quite camp and cliched.
Yeah, it does pull the rug out of the notion of collective intelligence. The hive mind is a pretty useless concept with an idiot Borg Queen…
Alice Krige or I’m out. JK (sorta) but this is interesting news for sure.
Ahhh, the Borg…one of the most easily defeatable aliens in Star Trek.
I hope that they offered the role to Alice Krige and Susanna Thompson, and both decided they didn’t want to spend that much time in prosthetics. Krige is 67, Thompson 63; either should have been able to play the role if they wanted to.
Or perhaps it’s simple economics(i.e. the production budget couldn’t afford their fees)
That’s possible for Krige, who works a fair amount in films (I see she’s in the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre), but Thompson works steadily in TV and should be within Picard‘s budget. Though it’s possible she had availability issues.
Alice Krige works in a lot of TV shows as well. I’ve seen her in two of them in the last decade, The OA and Tyrant. In fact I just went and looked up IMDB, she did another show last year. So I don’t think it’s that. It could just be age as some implied or maybe she was too busy and why she wasn’t the Borg queen when she originally showed up on Voyager.
Or maybe she just turned it down. It takes 2 hours just to get in and out of make up for that character. Not everyone is dying to go back to something like that.
Why no Borgs of Color?
Um, because they’re all meant to look white/grey like cadavers. Nice try at trolling, though.
That was a ridiculous question. Lay off the drugs.
Cool!
the davros of ‘trek’.
easy to beat, so easy to beat the borg.
I’d say that the bigger connection is that, like Davros, the Borg Queen dies in almost every episode that she is in and then comes back with little to no explanation.
They killed Queenie!! Apologies to South Park
Annie Wersching’s character killed Susanna Thompson’s character in “Timeless.”
So I guess this a very strong hint this season is going to involve a tie back to First Contact?
Sometimes I just wish they would tell you who is set to apear in these shows.
Imagine the suprise when you watch it and the Borg Queen shows up…. Q shows up…
Would Not Tell you .. damn
This is good news for PICARD series.
What if Picard season two is not set in 2022 despite the poster making it seem that way and it is actually set post Enterprise’s fourth season? That way, Archer could show up and the plot involving the Borg Queen could be a reuse of the plot originally intended for ENT’s fifth season.
Imagine if this was the ultimate twist; because of the time travel element, season two of Picard is set after the fourth season of Enterprise and Wersching is reprising her role as Liana, who becomes the first Borg Queen. How great would that be?
… nope. Not really that great.
Why not?
It gives me a headache just thinking about it.
Lol. But it would be awesome.
So far everything I have heard about season two has a been there done that feel to it. And now we are getting the Borg queen AGAIN. This show does not sound promising at all.
They tried to do something new in season 1 and it was a complete flop. It was unsatisfying from start to finish. I’m happy they have the common sense to realise they have to go back to basics of what works best. It could still be a disaster I know but I think ANYTHING will be an improvement over season 1.
I appreciate that they tried to do something different in season one but in the end Picard was still boring. I didn’t find him pining over data to be interesting at all. In fact the most interesting part of the season where are the people around him. Not Picard nor what he was dealing with.
Just wait till Season 3. Borg King. Strategus of Borg – absolutely ripped (six pack, hench, big Borg muscles), one of his arms is a plasma canon, double personal shield, built-in jet pack.
It’s just so darn hard to not time travel or parallel universe everything. And why the obsession with rewriting cannon by these showrunners. Move forward not backwards. Star Trek history is becoming a convoluted, bloated mess. Good luck trying to explain Star Trek to anyone outside of it at this point. They’re self-gate keeping.
Yeah, well… if Lt. Commander Nella Daren doesn’t come back and play piano with Picard, this season will be a total waste.
They’d have to get a new actress to play her — Wendy Hughes died in 2014.
I’m really, really struggling to stay engaged with Trek these days. The recycling and rehashing is truly uninspiring and frankly feels like lazy fan-service. I love the idea of continuation of adventures established characters but the recooking of storylines and ‘villains’ just isn’t enough anymore. Sorry.
I’m sure she’s a good actress, but I’m really hoping they don’t bring back the Borg once more. Yeah, Picard got assimilated once–and then shook off the experience until First Contact decided to make Picard an angsty action hero. But that’s not really a strong reason to focus on a species done to death (literally) in Voyager. A show about Janeway makes a lot more sense for a Borg focus.
Ooo, I guess this means we’ll be leading up to an epic kung fu fight between Seven and the B Queen to SAVE THE TIMELINE. I love Star Trek.
Very dull actress
Why not cast either actress who played the role before ?
Hollywood ageism?
Also I hope kurtzman realizes that this character would have more relevance to Seven. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are no references to Seven at all though.