October 18, 2026
After being away from Star Trek Online for a few years, I came back to a lot of catching up, and the Kings & Queens arc was at the top of my list. Eight episodes later, I'm happy to say it was a great way to return. Warning, spoilers ahead.
The arc starts with a simple idea: vortexes are opening up, and the universe is leaking into ours. From there it hops from the mirror universe to fluidic space to alternate dimensions, with a different flavor of Borg waiting in each one. We meet Mirror Borg, Control Borg, Iconian-Borg and Chimeran Borg, plus our own Prime Borg. By Episode 5 I had to keep a mental scoreboard of who was fighting whom. I've always enjoyed stories about alternate realities, so I loved it.
The arc also has a lot of fun with familiar faces. Harry Kim shows up in the first few episodes, then gets promoted from Ensign to Borg King, which made me laugh out loud. We also meet Borg Queen Tasha Yar (Romulan ears and all), Captain Sela, Ezri Dax, Seven of Nine, and Director Hugh of the Borg Cooperative. The arc only works if these characters feel earned, and for the most part they do. Seven punching an Aetherian in the face and then vaporizing him might be my favorite moment in the whole arc.
The Aetherians are the arc's central mystery, and I never trusted them. Something about all their talk of harmony and unity felt off to me, and the reveal that they're Borg-Iconian confirmed it. The writers also keep the stakes escalating. Every time we think we've solved the problem, a new faction shows up, and the arc finally leaves us on the edge of a war between all of them. At this point, a temporary alliance with the Prime Borg is the only option left.
If I have a narrative criticism, it's that a few moments don't quite make sense. Kuumaarke gets a distress call and then decides it's the perfect time to chat on her bridge. Having us talk to her first and then activate the gateway would have been more natural. She also waits for us before investigating some debris she already knew about. They're small things, but they stood out.
Like most of STO, the arc loves the number three. We scan three asteroids, check three consoles, and so on. It's a running joke by now, but I'll admit it still makes me smile.
The pacing across the arc is good. Episodes alternate between combat-heavy ones like "Taken By Surprise" and "Scorpion's Abyss" and slower, more story-driven ones like "Wish Upon a Star" and "Axiom." The exception is "Axiom," where we have to scan fragments of a recording over and over and then put the story in the correct order. It felt like filler and it reminded me of Blue's Clues. A cutscene would have gotten the point across much faster.
On the other hand, there were some fresh ideas. Controlling Grendat-Bex's abilities in "Situation Under Control" was a nice twist, and floating through the Llesiset's singularity core in an EV suit in "Best Laid Plans" was a really fun mechanic I haven't seen in the game before. I also enjoy the protection missions, whether it's the endless waves of NPCs crumbling to my away team or the multitasking of having someone do a job while we hold the line. Being stranded alone on the MIDAS array in the final episode was a great change of pace too, though it helps that I play an Engineer and can spawn exocomps to keep me company.
The rewards are solid as well. The Extirpating Remodulator is great, and I equipped it right away. The Advanced Chromodynamic Armor is a good option for anyone without better armor, or for your away team officers. If you use directed energy weapons with a red matter capacitor, the Tzenkethi Protomatter Capacitor is one you'll want.
Visually, this arc does a lot of its best work in the details. The heat wave effects on the Tholian ship look like the shimmer you see rising off a road on a hot summer day, and they made the ship feel like it belonged to a species that lives in extreme heat. The Jefferies Tubes in "Taken By Surprise" are a small thing, but watching an Ensign get pulled off a ladder as the hatch slams shut is a moment of horror I haven't seen the game do before.
The Borg are where the visuals shine, since each variant gets its own look. The Control Borg ships are wrapped in a bluish cloud, and their Tendril drones are creepy in the best way. The Chimeran Borg are unsettling even from the little we see of them, and the "terraformed" cubes and station at the end of "All That Matter" look like something went very wrong with the Prime Borg. Exploring a cube without access to our map adds mystery and suspense, since you never quite know where you are.
The assimilation sequence in "Scorpion's Abyss" is the standout. I didn't expect to be assimilated, and the graphics they used for it are some of the best I've seen in the game. The EV suit section in "Best Laid Plans" deserves a mention too. The camera takes an unusual angle, and floating in any direction while flying into the Llesiset's singularity core is as much a visual treat as a gameplay one.
There are also a few moments that stuck with me for being creepy or strange. The hall of Grendat-Bex in "Axiom" gave me the chills, and the giant eye-like Aetherian construct in "Best Laid Plans" was a memorable boss. Harry Kim as a Borg King with a detached head is just as ridiculous to look at as it sounds, which is part of why it works.
The voice acting is great throughout, and a lot of it comes from Trek alumni. Jeri Ryan returns as Seven of Nine and Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh, which feels right for an arc this focused on the Borg. Garrett Wang voices the Borg King version of mirror Harry Kim, Nicole de Boer returns as Ezri Dax, and Denise Crosby plays both Sela from the Control universe and Borg Queen Tasha Yar. I love that the actress who originally played Tasha Yar gets to voice her as a Borg Queen, and Wang clearly has fun with Harry's promotion. Nicole de Boer's Ezri was a highlight for me, and the small detail of her standing with her hands behind her back is something only DS9 fans would notice. Kipleigh Brown has been the voice of Kuumaarke since 2015, and it shows in how natural the character sounds.
The smaller roles stand out too. Lord Kaskene's Tholian voice sounds like a Bill from marketing, which is both hilarious and weirdly perfect. Bright Eyes, the Tholian officer, sounds like a reverberated Robert Picardo to me. Hearing so many characters from across the franchise really sells the idea that we're hopping between realities.
Kings & Queens is a fun, ambitious arc that mixes beloved Star Trek characters, strange new versions of the Borg, and a few gameplay ideas I hope Cryptic reuses. It has its weaknesses, like the filler in "Axiom" and a few odd story choices, but the strengths outweigh them. The war is only getting started, and I'm excited to see how it ends.
One last thought: wouldn't it be interesting to find an alternate version of ourselves who is a Borg King or Queen? We could even team up with our mirror self to stop it.