I am Locutus, of Borg.

• FREEDOM IS IRRELEVANT •

• SELF-DETERMINATION IS IRRELEVANT •

• DEATH IS IRRELEVANT •

YOUR ARCHAIC CULTURES ARE AUTHORITY DRIVEN — 

TO FACILITATE OUR INTRODUCTION INTO YOUR SOCIETIES, 

IT HAS BEEN DECIDED THAT 

A HUMAN VOICE 

WILL SPEAK FOR US IN ALL COMMUNICATIONS. 

YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE THAT VOICE

….because You are Trying to Have Heaven without God

“Now, Post-Modern Theology is quite a proposition — because you’re saying you want to have Theology without God.”

Shatner :

Did you realize that The Next Generation, 

it was possible to characterize it as 

Gene Roddenberry's 

Dream of Heaven? 

Branon Braga :

I would never have thought that at the time, 

but now that we're talking,  

with his conception of The Future 

and Human Beings in The Future, 

and Q — Q is God. 

I mean, just look at the character, 

look at everything about 

the character. 

Shatner :

Gene was a well-known Atheist, 

but he invents Q. 

Q. :

Typical, so Typical. 

Savage Life Forms 

never follow even 

Their OWN Rules.

Ronald D. Moore :

As I sit here it's pretty startling — 

God's a character, a LITERALISED character, 

on Star Trek : The Next Generation. 

Shatner :

By An Atheist. 

Ronald D. Moore :

By An Atheist. 

Very interesting.

Hurley: 

Gene's IDEAS about 

The Future and about Man  — 

are wacky doodle. 

He sees Us now in Our Infancy 

where we just gather and accumulate 

like a three-year-old in a crib,

‘That's Mine, that's mine, 

give me this, you can't have that 

I need this, I need that.’

He believed that Mankind in the twenty-fourth century had •resolved• ALL Conflict between themselves.

Dorothy Fountuna : 

That developed between the first Star Trek 

and the second Star Trek. 

David Gerrold : 

Back in the 60's, Gene wanted 

to be The Womaniser and always 

gets the beautiful woman and always 

punches out The Bad Guy 

and always wins. 

And in 1986, Gene is not going to be 

down there on the front lines punching, 

but he WILL be The All-Seeing ADVISOR, 

The WISE Man.

Shatner: 

The real Trouble in Year One

is the dictums, how to 

get a good script OUT. 

If you tell A Writer that the characters can't have conflict between them, you're just cutting his legs off. 

Some writers really chaffed against 

Gene's Vision of A Better Future 

where there was No Conflict —

The ESSENCE of Drama is Conflict.

“There was No Evil.”

“There's No Money anymore. 

There was No Jealousy. 

There's No Fighting anymore. 

No separate Individual 

GOALS or IDEAS — 

We just negotiate. 

No Tension, what?”

Branon Braga :

I liked the Dramatic Constraints 

it put on ME as A Writer.”

Shatner : 

Really? 

Branon Braga :

Well, I had to find new ways 

to tell stories.”

“When you look at The Original Series 

there's a LOT of Conflict between 

those characters, they argue a lot, 

and crewmen on The Enterprise 

are YELLING at each other — 

If Our People are Perfect and have No Conflicts 

or Problems between them, 

there is no STORY here. 

We would walk around in each others' offices going, 

"I don't know how to write about that, 

I don't know how to write about Perfect People." 

Hurley :

That was Gene's vision of 

Star Trek: The Next Generation, take it or leave it 

and work within it or DON’T.

I don't think you can sustain a show 

where the characters are not 

accessible to the audience. 

Where you don't see somebody 

over coming A Flaw, 

if there's no Conflict and no tension 

between people, then there's no relationship 

between people and that show will wither. 

And that's what was happening. 

I tried to make it sustainable, 

I wanted to create this new adversary, The Borg, 

I want the Federation to form allies against this OVERWHELMING, awesome adversary. 

At the end of the first season 

there's an episode called ‘The Neutral Zone’, 

which was the arc for the second season, 

and the arc for the second season was going to be 

“Here come The Borg.”

At the end of the second season 

they DEFEAT The Borg.”

Shatner : 

Then what happened? 

Hurley :

Writers Strike. 

End of the first season, 

Writers Strike begins. 

Couldn't talk to The Writers, 

couldn't talk to Roddenberry. 

And the hiatus dragged on and on and on, 

it was five and a half months

“Patrick kept saying the trouble with the show is 

there's not enough f-ing and f-ing. 

Fighting and Fornicating.”

Patrick Stewart : 

And I said I have a feeling Our Audience 

might like to see Our Captain just getting 

blown away by meeting Somebody New.

Ira Stephen Behr :

The Writers were real excited. 

Well Rick says, ‘You've got to 

go in to see Gene.’ 

So I go in and he's very nice but he says, 

‘I like the idea of The Pleasure Planet 

and I want it to be a place where 

you see women FONDLING and 

KISSING other women, 

and men HUGGING and 

holding hands and KISSING 

and we can imply that 

they're having SEX 

in the background.’ 

Huh? Really? 

I'm going, "Oh, man, I'm in 

The freakin' Twilight Zone." 

I go back to Rick, he goes, 

‘Pft, pay no attention to that, 

just get The Captain laid."

Ride The Scorpion’s Back

“There's a story I heard as a child, a parable, and I never forgot it --

A Scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side. 

Suddenly he saw A Fox. 

He asked The Fox to take him on his back across The River. The Fox said, “No. If I do that you'll sting me, and I'll drown.”

The Scorpion assured him, “If I did that, we'd both drown.”

So The Fox thought about it and finally agreed. So The Scorpion climbed up on his back, and The Fox began to swim. 

But halfway across The River, The Scorpion stung him. As The Poison filled his veins, The Fox turned to The Scorpion and said “WHY did you DO that? Now you'll drown too.”

“I couldn't help it,” said The Scorpion. “It's My Nature.”

CHAKOTAY: 

I'm going to end This Alliance Here and Now. 

We're going to drop The Borg off 

on the next uninhabited planet, 

give them the nanoprobes 

and take our chances alone. 

They can wait for a Borg ship to pick 

Them up and finish The Weapon. 

I'm in command now and I have to do what I think is best for This Crew. 

Tom, I want you to scan for the nearest uninhabited planet and set a course. 


PARIS: 

Aye, sir. 


TUVOK: 

I must caution you, Commander. 

The Borg may not go quietly.


CHAKOTAY: 

We'll see. Bring that female drone 

to the Ready room. Dismissed.

[Ready room]

CHAKOTAY: 

Once we've beamed you to the surface, 

we'll send down the nanoprobes 

and all our research.


SEVEN: 

Unacceptable. 

We don't have time for 
—

CHAKOTAY: 

This isn't open for discussion. 

I'm not turning This Ship around. 

You're getting What You Wanted. 

I suggest we part ways amicably.


SEVEN: 

There is another option. 

We could assimilate your vessel.


CHAKOTAY: 

If a single drone steps one millimetre out of that Cargo Bay, 

I'll decompress the entire deck. 

You won't pose much of A Threat floating in Space.


SEVEN: 

When Your Captain first approached Us, 

We suspected that an agreement 

with humans would prove 

impossible to maintain. 

You are erratic, conflicted, disorganised. 

Every decision is debated, every action questioned.

Every individual entitled to 

their own small opinion. 

You lack harmony, cohesion, greatness. 

It will be your undoing.


CHAKOTAY: 

Escort our guest back to the Cargo Bay.

[Sickbay]

(Chakotay briefs his comatose Captain.) 


CHAKOTAY: 

Well, I've made My Decision. 

If it were only a matter of going against the orders of my superior officer. 

You're more than just my Captain. 

You're my friend. 

I hope you'll understand.

[Cargo Bay Two]

BORG [OC]: 

Species 8472 has penetrated Matrix zero one zero, grid nineteen. 

Eight planets destroyed. 

Three hundred twelve vessels disabled. 

Four million, six hundred twenty one Borg eliminated. 

We must seize control of the Alpha Quadrant vessel, 

and take it into the alien realm. 


SEVEN: 

We understand. 


(Seven enters a Jefferies tube.)

[Bridge]

PARIS: 

Class H moon. 

Oxygen-argon atmosphere.


CHAKOTAY: 

It'll do. Take us out of warp 

and enter orbit.


PARIS: 

Aye, sir.


CHAKOTAY: 

Tuvok. Stand by to transport the Borg directly from the Cargo Bay. 

After they're on the surface, have security run a sweep of 
—

KIM: 

I'm reading power fluctuations in the deflector array.


CHAKOTAY: 

Cause?


KIM: 

It looks like The Borg 

have accessed deflector control. 

They're trying to realign the emitters.


CHAKOTAY: 

Shut them out.
KIM: They've bypassed security protocols.
(A green beam is emitted from the deflector dish.) 


TORRES: 

We're emitting a resonant graviton beam. 

It's creating another singularity.


CHAKOTAY: 

Reverse course.


PARIS: 

We're fighting intense gravimetric distortion. 

I can't break free. 


CHAKOTAY: 

Bridge to Cargo Bay Two : 

Stop what you're doing, 

or I'll depressurise that deck and blow you out into Space. 

This is your final warning. 

Do it! 


(Borg drones are expelled from Voyager. Seven manages to hang on in the Jefferies tube.) 


TUVOK: 

Decompression cycle complete.


KIM: 

I still don't have deflector control.


TUVOK: 

Commander, A Single Borg 

has Survived.


PARIS: 

We're being pulled in!
CHAKOTAY: Report.
TUVOK: We appear to have crossed an interdimensional rift.


PARIS: 

We've definitely left Our Galaxy. 

No stars, no planets.


CHAKOTAY: 

Let's see.


(The viewscreen shows a murky brown green expanse.) 


TORRES: 

I'm re-calibrating sensors. 

The entire region is filled with some kind of organic fluid. 

This isn't Space. It's matter.


SEVEN : 

Commander Chakotay. 

We have entered 

The Domain of Species 8472. 

Report to the Cargo Bay.


CHAKOTAY: 

Paris, repressurise Cargo Bay two. Tuvok.

[Cargo Bay Two]

SEVEN: 

Our entry into fluidic space has created a compression wave. 

They know We're Here. 

A fleet of bioships is already converging on our position. 

Time to intercept, three hours, 

seventeen minutes.


CHAKOTAY: 

You've been here before. 

How else could you know about fluidic space?


SEVEN: 

We must prepare This Ship for The Altercation. 

We will construct a complement 

of biomolecular warheads. 


CHAKOTAY: 

Why? Why were you here? 

You started This War, didn't you? 

What's the matter, Our Galaxy 

wasn't big enough for you? 

You had to conquer new territory? 

But this race fought back. 

A species as malevolent as your own.


SEVEN: 

Species 8472 was more resistant than we anticipated. 

Their technology is biogenically engineered. 

It is Superior to that of 

all species we have previously encountered.


TUVOK: 

Which is precisely what you wanted.


SEVEN: 

They are The Apex 

of Biological Evolution. 

Their assimilation would have greatly added to 

Our Own Perfection. 


TUVOK: 

So instead of assimilating these aliens you opened a door for them to our galaxy. 


SEVEN: 

There is only one course of action. 

Destroy Them first. 

My subspace link to The Collective 

has been weakened by 

the interdimensional rift. 

We cannot signal for help. 

We are alone. 

We must construct a compliment of biomolecular warheads and modify your weapons to launch them.


CHAKOTAY: 

I've got a better idea. 

Why don't you open that rift again 

and take us back?

SEVEN: 

If I did that, you will 

no longer cooperate.

BROTHER SUN : Fight The Future

 If We stop breathing, 

We Die —

If We stop fighting Our Enemies, 

THE WORLD Will Die.

So Point The Finger,

Say, “No More!”

Where it Touches :

UltraWar!

  

...As he goes to touch the now dead tube and pull it from Scully's mouth, 

a violent shaking takes over The Ship, 

a reaction to The Vaccine's •unwanted• intrusion. )

Cut to Old Smokey in a room full of equipment and monitors. 

A Man is seated in front of a monitor showing a graph of some kind.

MAN LOOKING AT GRAPH: 

There is 

A CONTAMINANT 

in The System!

Cancer Man looks at The Graph in HORROR.

CSM: 

Mulder has 

The Vaccine!

 "Survival is The Ultimate Ideology."

Your Father wisely refused to believe this.

END GAME 

     ACCESS CODE>

     CONFIDENTIAL 

     DECEMBER 22, 2012 

     "THE DATE SET FOR MOBILIZATION OF ALIEN FORCES CULMINATES IN THE COMPLETE ... 

     .. OF CIVILIAN AND MILITARY ... 

     .. WAS FIRST RECORDED BY ... 

     .. DANIEL M. MILLER UPON ... 

     .. -IGENCE IN ROSWELL, N.M., I- ... 

     .. -ONTACT WITH ALIEN FORCES ...

     .. MILITARY OFFICIALS ARE INSTRUCTED 

     .. FOLLOW EMERGENCY PROTOC- ... 

     .. -RUCTIONS. IT IS ANTICIPATED... 

     .. -MENT WILL BE DESTROYED ... 

     .. RESULTING IN THE TRANS- ... 

     .. THE FEDERAL EMERGENCY ...

SCENE 18 

WASHINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

(DOGGETT is leaving a hospital room. He looks back through the window. MULDER and SCULLY approaching the corridor.)

SCULLY: 

Agent Doggett.

DOGGETT: 

Is this it? 

(pointing towards SCULLY's abdomen)

(MULDER and SCULLY look at each other, smiling.)

SCULLY: 

No. No.

MULDER: 

We just came by to visit 

Agent Harrison.

SCULLY: 

How is she?

DOGGETT: 

She's on the same anti-venom treatment I got. 

Her eyesight's pretty much back, the doctors say she's gonna be fine physically.

SCULLY: 

Skinner said she won't be returning to the X-Files.

DOGGETT: 

That was her choice. 

So it's gonna be me for a while.

(SCULLY looks thoughtful.)

MULDER: 

I want to return something to you that I think you deserve to keep.

DOGGETT: 

I appreciate the gesture but if it's all the same to you, 

there's someone else who should have it.

(Cut to HARRISON, smiling, holding the Apollo medallion.)

HARRISON: 

No way. This means, 

I can't tell you what this means to me.

(MULDER looks a little awkward.)

HARRISON: 

Can I ask you something?

(SCULLY looks impassive, perhaps not sure what's coming.)

MULDER: 

Sure.

HARRISON: 

When you went to Antarctica to save Agent Scully from being taken by that spaceship and you ran out of gas in your Sno-cat. 

How did you get back?

(SCULLY looks enquiringly at MULDER, 

who is looking perplexed. 

Throughout the following dialogue, 

MULDER and SCULLY talk across each other, 

SCULLY is being Scientific, 

MULDER is being MULDER, 

HARRISON is enjoying the banter. 

The whole scene is *very* enjoyable to watch.)

SCULLY: 

Um, well, first of all, 

it was never (coughs) 

actually proven that it was 

A Spaceship ...

MULDER: 

It wasn't?

SCULLY: 

Well, no, What Happened Was 

that we fell off of something that ...

MULDER: 

Something?

SCULLY: 

... that rose out of The Ice.

MULDER: 

Well what do you think that was?

SCULLY: 

Well, I don't know What it Was. 

But we never got, 

we didn't actually get to 

see A Spaceship.

MULDER: 

I can't believe that you're saying 

it's not A Spaceship.

SCULLY: 

Well, it couldn't have been A Spaceship.

MULDER: 

‘Course it was A Spaceship!

SCULLY: 

Well, we don't know it was A Spaceship. 

But you don't have A Picture of it or anything.

MULDER: 

You know it was a spaceship. 

You saw it.

SCULLY: 

No, no, no, no, remember, 

I was unconscious 

and when I woke up 

there was no spaceship.

MULDER: 

Now, come on, Scully. 

It was A Spaceship.

SCULLY: 

Mulder, n-n-n-no.

SCULLY: 

And you were frozen, and I hugged you .... 

(Their voices trail off.)

( Camera pans out to corridor. DOGGETT is standing looking in as MULDER and SCULLY continue their debate. He looks sad and walks away down the corridor. Alone. )

[THE END] 

Back to Mulder. 

The cryopod hallway he's in begins to fill with steam 

as it shoots out from the floor and ceiling. 

Mulder turns back to Scully and sees her move. 

He grabs the tube and begins to drag it out of her throat. 

Once it's all removed, and it's a long sucker, 

so it takes a sec or two, Mulder stares at her, 

waiting for A Sign of some kind.

MULDER: 

Breathe! Scully, can you breathe?!

Scully begins to cough, 

spitting out what's left of the slimy goo. 

Finally she starts breathing on her own, 

gasping for each sweet taste of oxygen. 

She tries to speak and barely manages a weak ..

SCULLY: 

Cold ... I'm cold.

MULDER: 

I'm going to get you Out of There.

He starts to whack away at the ice with a metallic cylinder next to him, 

probably shaken loose by the rocking and rolling 

The Ship is still experiencing.

Cut to the graph/monitor room, sparks flying from various machines as the men are tossed like ragdolls. 

It's time to give up The Ship, boys.

CSM: 

Abandon your posts! 

Evacuate!

Cancer Man walks towards one of the ladders the men are now scrambling down. Another man stops and says ..

MAN: 

What's happened?!

CSM:

It's all gone to hell!

MAN: 

But, what about Mulder?!

CSM: 

He'll never make it!

Cut back to Mulder as he gently lifts 

a naked Scully out of the cryopod, 

her body glistening with goo, 

and lays her down on the floor. 

Next we see him carrying her. 

She's now wearing some of Mulder's clothing, 

right down to a pair of boots, 

don't ask me where THEY came from! 

He reaches the bottom of a metallic shaft, 

sunlight beaming down upon them.

Cut to outside as an alarm sounds and men race out from the domes, running for the various Sno-Cats. 

Cancer Man gets into one, his mouth dangling open in shock as it "all falls apart". 

The vehicles drive off.

Back to Mulder and Scully as he drags her up a ladder. 

Far below them, the defrosting has begun and water drips down the walls.

From above, we see the Sno-Cats leaving, one passing within inches of the top of a shaft leading to our heroes.

Cut to inside where Mulder and Scully have found a momentary resting place. 

Scully is coughing and weak. 

Mulder urges her on.

MULDER: 

We gotta keep moving. 

Come on!

SCULLY: 

I can't.

MULDER: 

Yeah, you can.

Mulder picks her up and carries her in a fireman's lift, over his shoulders. 

He walks down a row of crypods, all ominously dripping with water from the defrosting ice. 

He spots a vent.

MULDER: 

Scully, reach up and grab that vent!

Suddenly, he spots movement in one of the pods. 

The creatures within have begun to stir. 

The vaccine has affected the whole structure, as the bodies were all obviously attached to the one creature.

MULDER: 

Scully, grab the vent! 

(no response) 

Scully?

He looks at her face on his shoulder, she's passed out. 

Mulder slides her off his shoulders, placing her on the floor and checks for a pulse. 

The creatures nearby, still encased in the swiftly melting ice are now violently thrashing about and emitting their high-pitched screams. 

With one eye on the creatures and one eye on Scully, 

Mulder begins performing a mean version of CPR.

MULDER: 

Please, breathe. 

Breathe ... breathe .... BREATHE!

(Scully begins to cough and splutter as she regains consciousness.)

MULDER: 

Breathe in, breathe in, breathe!

She begins to try and Speak, 

he has to place his ear almost on her mouth to hear.

SCULLY: 

I had you big time.

She smiles at him. 

No time for jokes, Scully, the aliens are coming! 

As Mulder pulls her to her feet, the ice-encased cryopods around them start to crack open as the creatures within begin to break free. 

He holds her up to the vent above her.

MULDER: 

Grab the vent. 

Pull! PULL!

Scully grabs the vent and pulls herself up. 

Mulder starts to climb up. 

One of the aliens breaks the pod and reaches out with its hand for Mulder. 

It grabs Mulder's leg. 

Scully stops and turns his head.

SCULLY: 

Mulder!

MULDER: 

Keep moving, Scully!

Mulder kicks it away and pulls himself up. They both climb through the tunnel, Mulder yelling encouragement from behind.

MULDER: 

Go! Go! Come on!

He keeps checking behind him as the alien screams continue, looking for any which may be chasing them. The light at the end of the proverbial tunnel gets brighter as they climb on.

MULDER: 

Almost there, keep going!

They pull themselves up to where Mulder first stopped after he fell through the ice, a slight turn in the vent. 

Just as Mulder clears the turn, an alien lashes out from behind but is cut off by the twist in the tunnel. 

They step over the part where Mulder first fell all the way down and make their way out the hole he originally made. 

Scully falls onto the snow, exhausted and Mulder perches next to her on one knee. 

He hears a sound and looks around for the origin. 

It's the ice ... 

it's cracking under their feet! 

He grabs Scully and throws one of her arms over his shoulder as they begin to run away. 

He stops for some ungodly reason and looks back seeing vents of steam starting to shoot out of the ice. 

They begin to run again as the ice begins cracking and falling away causing a huge crater to form. 

Suddenly the crater overtakes them and they disappear into the hole, but next we see them shoot into the air and slide off of the surface of the rising ship. 

They land on the edge of the crater. 

Mulder watches the spaceship as it flies overhead, his face glows with a heart-melting grin of childlike wonder and awe. 

Scully's face is turned towards the snow, too tired to move, 

as Mulder says, almost along with the audience ...

MULDER: 

Scully, ya gotta see this! Scully!

It's quiet, it's barely a mutter above a whisper, 

but we hear ...

SCULLY: 

I see it.

Spent from exhaustion, Mulder drops his head into the snow. 

Scully, finding the strength God gave 20 hearty men, 

scoots her body over to cover him from the freezing cold. 

She lifts his into her arms and cradles him as the camera pans back to show 

two lone figures perched 

alone on the edge of the bottomless crater 

left by the departing spaceship. 

Cut to Washington and don't start with me on 

How They Got Out of The Antarctic, 

there was extra gas can in the Sno-Cat, 

I don't know!