The Last Generation

Can We Save Who We Are?

Photo by Noorulabdeen Ahmad on Unsplash

Picard Season Three spoilers within…

A comment received about part two of this series asked a pertinent question; “[should we] stop spending our time and energy running from the Borg?” That is a good question and one I seek to answer in this article. I do not believe we should run from “the Borg” which stands for fundamentalism here. No, we should resist the rising tide of fundamentalist thought and desire for control by showing a better way. We will investigate this idea through the story of the series’ finale of Star Trek: Picard, “The Last Generation.”

In my last article, we were left wondering what was going to happen to the Federation, now faced with the organic programming of the Borg. The original officers of the Enterprise D were searching for the Borg ship that was transmitting collective commands to the now assimilated members of Star Fleet. The story seemed hopeless and the tilte, “The Last Generation” was ominous. Even though deep down, every Star Trek fan knows that the stories of the various series always contain a thread of optimism, there is always tension in our hopes. But faced with overwhelming force and strength, how can the Borg we overcome? The key is in relationship; something the Borg do not hold dear.

The key to the Borg’s strength of biological assimilation is using Picard’s son, Jack Crusher as an amplifier. This brings up many emotional tensions. Picard has only learned of his adult son within weeks of the Borg assimilation. Yet, like a father who wants to know his son, Picard refuses to allow the Borg to be the last say in Jack’s story. While their friends back in proximity to earth are resisting as they can by attempting to incapacitate the younger, assimilated members of the crew, the newly refurbished Enterprise D and her small crew confront the enormous Borg ship at Jupiter. The Enterprise is tiny compared to the Borg cube they find, but they must discover a way to stop the signal.

Picard and others transport onto the cube to find Jack and the source of the transmission. They know they may not survive this incursion, but they cannot allow the Borg to take over without resisting. While the Borg ship is found to be almost empty, they realize it is what is left of the Borg who once assimilated Picard to assimilate the Federation. The team locates Jack, whom Picard moves toward as the others seek the source of transmission. Picard discovers Jack is assimilated with technology and directing the assault around earth. We come to the beginning of an end.

Picard faces the Borg queen who had assimilated him previously. She has been subsisting off of the Borg soldiers in the cube, but is twisted and starving after having been flung to the far reaches of the galaxy with nothing to assimilate. She is angry and vengeful. She begins a monologue to Picard to show him that the end is here. The Borg has evolved and no longer need to assimilate because of that evolution. Instead, the Borg will now annihilate by destroying that which is not Borg. But Picard is defiant in what appears to be defeat. The perfection that the Queen claims is countered by Picard, “Perfection isn’t evolution, this is death.” The truth Picard is revealing is that what the Queen sees as perfection is death. I make the same claim about fundamentalism in my previous article, “When the Borg Come to Church.” We are about to see the way to quit running from the Borg and resist without using the same weapons as the Borg.

Picard has no hope to defeat the Queen through violence because she is more powerful. But, he has a secret weapon, which we will get to. But first we need to know what is happening outside the Borg control room. The source of the transmission has been found, but it is deep in the Borg cube. The path to that location is deemed impossibly difficult to navigate and those on the Enterprise are feeling defeated. Yet Data gets a resolute look and steers the ship startling the small crew. They ask him what he is doing and Data states he can pilot the ship to the source. They all look at Data incredulously and exclaim the probabilities as almost zero. Data, as a newly integrated being with emotions, counters that he knows he can do it, he doesn’t care about the probabilities (met with shocked faces) and he knows he can do it in his “gut.” Eventually the crew agrees and Data takes the Enterprise into the cube, discovering that destroying the source will destroy the cube and all aboard. They know they will only have minutes to rescue their friends, but they also face the reality that rescue may be impossible.

Picard is aware of the danger, but refuses to leave his son’s side, eventually doing the most painful thing and connecting himself to the Borg collective once more. Picard realizes the only way to save Jack is to join him in the collective and show Jack a better way. Much like the conflict between Data and Lore previously, this is a conversation being had inside while a larger conflict is going outside.

Relationship becomes the key to resisting the Borg. Picard does not stop telling his son there is a better way. He shows his son love and tells him he will die with him if that results from resisting the Borg. Picard shows his son how keeping distance so others do not see your pain or struggles only intensifies those struggles. He invites his son to recognize relationship and to understand that what the Borg offer is not a true release of his pain, but an intensification of that pain, As the Borg cube is exploding around them, Jack realizes that love is the answer and removes himself and his father from the collective. Counselor Troi locates Picard, Jack , and the others through the loving connection of her husband, William Riker, and Data pilots the ship close enough to rescue them and rush out from the ship that is being destroyed. We breathe again, but are taken back to earth where there is about to be a confrontation leading to death between assimilated and non-assimilated.

But the destruction of the Borg Cube does its job, and the conflict stops with the assimilated feeling remorse. One more picture of forgiveness as those fighting embrace one another and we see that unity in diversity will win the day. The rest of the episode is wrapping the story up, but here is where we connect to our current situation.

I talked about how Wesleyan-Holiness people are drawn toward fundamentalism in my previous article, but now I will be more specific. The Church of the Nazarene has always had those who do not fully trust the Holy Spirit to change hearts. That mistrust leads to both fundamentalism and legalism. While the two are often not connected in the same actors, their weapons of control, demands for uniformity, and use of power are connected. This is lived out in factions and arguments to make us into something we are not; fundamentalists around an idea of holiness that lacks true love.

My clergy peer who wondered whether we should spend energy running from the Borg has a point. I agree, we should not be spending time and energy running from those who would shape us into dead and shallow faith such that we no longer have a beautiful story of God to tell, but are left with a dry, empty shell of faith driven by fear. I believe we should resist the calls to both fundamentalism and legalism because those are not beautiful or scriptural, but lifeless frameworks of control.

But our resistance should never look like a fight with weapons and anger; this is the difficulty of our tensions. Picard gives us a clue to how we can resist that is more powerful than any argument or rule. That resistance is love and relationship. Those who do not wish to see the Church of the Nazarene turn into another isolated, legalistic, or fundamentalist sect must resist with relational love. We must show that there is a better way to holiness that exists in a tension of unity in diversity of non-essentials. Is it messy? Of course, but are not all relationships messy? If we can’t love one another within a big tent, how can we love others when that tent shrinks so much that there is no longer room? The beauty of our current positions is that we are traveling a middle way and seeking to live out holiness in a world torn by partisan hatred. Why must we use that same weapon in the Church?

Do I have hope that we can weather the current onslaught of legalism and fundamentalism? Yes I do, but I am a Star Trek fan and within that universe there is always hope. My prayer is that the Church of the Nazarene remains the beacon of hope in radical holiness in love that we claim to be. That our optimistic spirit flowing from the Holy Spirit is such that we embrace our particularity while living in the tensions. I pray that this is not the last generation of the Church of the Nazarene as a Holiness and Wesleyan denomination.

Previous posts in this series:

Data Lore

When the Borg Come to Church