Hypothetical: You are a writer in 1990. ‘The Best Of Both Worlds’ 2-parter has just finished airing. You have been tapped to be the “Borg Person” in the Star Trek writing room. You are tasked with writing the next Borg episode as well as given the opportunity to create a story bible for future Trek writers to adhere to for the Borg.
Your episode is to be ready for some time through the end of season 4 to the middle of season 5. What do you do with the episode and the Borg? You are not constrained by Borg canon that has been written after BOBW.
Some rules:
You can’t not use the Borg. I know some people just want them to be mysterious and not show up again, but to engage with the question you have to write something.
You can’t just kill off all the Borg. They must be usable for future writers. If you make them disappear, know it will be undone.
The ideas must be plausibly filmable with the resources of TNG production.
This is 90s TV, so you can do a 2 or maybe even 3-parter but your Borg ideas can’t eat the entire show. TNG must still be able to support non-Borg episodes.
Dance party.
Obviously.
(Also, I would find a way to link any future Borg stories with Conspiracy so that didn’t go unresolved forever.)
Inclusion of the Conspiracy bugs might help explain the change in strategy employed for Picard. But mostly to scratch that 36 year old itch.