I, Borg
It usually meant things went big and dark when the Borg came to town, but season 5’s “I, Borg” finds a brilliantly fresh way of tackling the villains as it explores one lost Borg drone regaining his individuality. Jonathan Del Arco delivers a great guest performances as the Borg who comes to be known as Hugh, with LeVar Burton getting a real chance to shine as La Forge wrestles with his unexpected growing friendship with a being he once thought an enemy.
The crux of the episode is the tough moral dilemma the Enterprise crew face: they could use Hugh to destroy the Borg for good, but it would not only mean committing genocide but also sacrificing an individual being for the greater good. “I, Borg” also sets up the all-important idea that Borg can become individuals again, which comes into play big time in the season 6 finale “Descent” and with Voyager‘s Seven of Nine.
Tapestry
In what’s essentially Star Trek does A Christmas Carol, Q grants Picard the chance to change a key event in his youth – the time getting stabbed during a bar brawl left him with an artificial heart. Thinking that his life would’ve been better if he hadn’t been so rash in his younger days, Picard alters his past. But in the present, his life is not as rich as it was before – his newfound aversion to risks means he’s only a middling officer of no distinction – and he learns that his life-threatening injury changed him in positive ways he never understood.
“Tapestry” kicks off with a ballsy move – Picard actually dies in the opening scenes, before Q resurrects him – and only gets better from there. Stewart and John De Lancie bounce off each other wonderfully as usual and it’s fascinating to dig deep into what made Picard the disciplined captain we know him as. Plus, there’s a terrific exploration of how every thread in the tapestry of our lives makes us who we are and to undo one of them would irrevocably alter the whole.