The second decade of celebrating borg via the Hall of Fame begins!  It’s been another long year of great entertainment.  It’s time for the eleventh annual round of new honorees for the borg Hall of Fame.  We have several inductees from 2023 films, television, and various print media – 19 in all – new borgs or groups of borgs, updated variants of past members, and we also look back each year to find borg from the past.  The new honorees bring the borg Hall of Fame total to 335.  You can always check out the updated borg Hall of Fame linked at the bottom of our new re-designed home page under “Know your borg.”

Some reminders about criteria.  Borgs have technology integrated with biology.  Wearing a technology-powered suit alone doesn’t qualify.  Tony Stark aka Iron Man was named an honoree because the Arc Reactor kept him alive, not because of his incredible tech armor.  The suit worn by this year’s Blue Beetle Xolo Maridueña, like the Spider-Man suit worn by Tom Holland, is similar to Tony’s, but it’s not integrated with its wearer’s biology.

Also, if the creators tell us the characters are merely robots, automatons, or androids (as in Westworld, the Synths of Star Trek: Picard, the new Dark Troopers of The Mandalorian, the very human appearing Simulants of The Creator and the detective Gesecht of the Japanese series Pluto, or the similarly human appearing Demerzel from Foundation), we take their word for it.  Again, integration is key.

 

In 2023 we saw the return of past inductees in new shows, like Nebula and Rocket and his ill-fated friends in the Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Ash in Army of Darkness comics, Jean-Luc Picard and Seven in Star Trek Picard, Sam Rutherford in Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Synthetics from Alien in tie-in novels like Bishop in Aliens: Bishop. 

So who’s in for 2023?

For the 2023 honorees in the borg Hall of Fame, you’ll notice writers are creating more female borgs these days, and borgs selected from the past tended to reflect male cyborg beings.  Let’s begin with a character that arrived late this year in the first entry in Zack Snyder’s new sci-fi movie series Rebel Moon.  Nemesis is a cyborg swordmaster recruited by series lead Kora.  What we know from interviews is Nemesis cut off her own arms as part of an ancient rite of passage, and replaced them with cyborg parts, after her children were killed.

One of the best borgs from the expanded Star Wars universe is Lola, an artist and former Sith haunted by her past.  Sporting cybernetic enhancements not yet explained, she made her first appearance in the second season of Star Wars: Visions animated anthology series.

Frankenberry was the first borg admitted to the Hall of Fame.  This year artist Ant Lucia introduced a counterpart: Franken Betty, a perfect follow-up in the tradition of the Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein legacy, with similar cyborg components on her head.

The Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation M.O.D.O.K. finally made it to the big screen in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.  The result of experiments that made the Marvel villain able to be used as a supercomputer, its name stands for Mental / Mobile / Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing.

Sir Ballister Boldheart was a deluded outcast knight framed for a murder he didn’t commit in the Netflix movie Nimona.  After his arm was lost in a joust, it was replaced with a robotic one.

Detective Constable Iris Maplewood is one of the detectives in the TV series Bodies.  She took on bionic components so she could walk, a controversial decision in her future era of the 2050s.  She has an implant called SPYNE, which connects to her spine and overrides her disability.

It’s a spoiler if you haven’t seen it, but the 2016 movie Morgan introduced two interesting cyborgs.  The first is title character Morgan played by Anya Taylor-Joy, a hybrid biological organism with the capacity for autonomous decision making and sophisticated emotional responses.

But she was bested by Lee Weathers, a mentor of sorts testing Morgan’s abilities.  But moviegoers would learn Weathers was the more advanced creation.

Looking back to past borg, the 1970s British science fiction series Blake’s 7 featured the Mutoids.  Mainly female in form, they were technologically modified humans use as military for the series’ Federation forces.  Like borg of other incarnations in sci-fi, their histories were “blanked.”  They are unique in that they take nutrition directly from a blood serum.

Back in 1981, for Debbie Harry’s solo album KooKoo, Alien movie artist H.R. Giger turned the pop star into an unnamed cyborg for her music videos and album cover art.

H.R. Giger himself would sport a cyborg costume and makeup for the video and photo shoot.

In the 1996 Dennis Hopper sci-fi movie Space Truckers, Dr. Nabel aka Captain Macanudo was a space pirate who rebuilt his own body with cyborg parts, and is the antagonist of the movie played by Charles Dance.

Luc Deveraux was Jean-Claude Van Damme’s sci-fi hero in the movie series Universal Soldier.  In later installments he is referred to as a reanimated cyborg, but he was once a deceased Vietnam War soldier brought back to life in a secret government project to become a Universal Soldier, or UniSol, a remote- controlled superhuman, with several appearing in the series.

Grey Trace is the lead character in the 2018 movie Upgrade who hates technology.  A mechanic in the year 2046, he had a chip implanted to return the use of his body following a mugging.

Major Jax Briggs is a major character in the game Mortal Kombat, as well as other tie-ins, and he was a high point in the 2021 movie.  He lost his arms in battle, and they were replaced with powerful enhancements.

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a recurring antagonist is Krang, once a brilliant scientist, he was stripped of his body and continues with android enhancements.  By his appearance he looks like he has some commonality with M.O.D.O.K.

Batou is a key character in the Ghost in the Shell series and films.   He’s been called a battle-hardened cyborg with a distinguished military career.  He has several cyborg enhancements, most obviously his eyes have been replaced.

Here is a fellow we overlooked from the fun 2006-2012 series Eureka!  It’s Lowjack, a shaggy dog who was saved by nanobots when he was hit by a car.  A bit in the realm of Rocket the Raccoon in the medical experiments used to cause his changes, his IQ was 130.

Finally, we met our first OMAC on the big screen this year with Blue Beetle’s cyborg villain Carapax, aka Indestructible Man.  He is a legacy Jack Kirby creation, and just the latest named OMAC character from DC Comics in the Hall.

Give them all a (cybernetic) hand, the 2023 inductees–our 11th year--of the borg Hall of Fame!  Find the entire list updated here.  And don’t miss all our Best of 2023 lists here.

Thanks for reading borg this year!

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg