arent you guys tired of literally the same exact scene being recycled like 6 times over the last 30 years?
A star trek captain (whether its picard or janeway) somehow sneaks onto a borg ship and infiltrates into the inner sanctum (borg security is total shit apparently) where they meet the borg queen (its always a queen). the borg queen being another cheap plot device because you need an individual to trade dialogue with. then the captain lobs the usual "you'll never defeat us" shit at the BQ. BQ in turn lobs the same smug "oh but i already have" with typical villain trope lines, while the starfleet crew is doing some shit in background: releasing nanoviruses, blowing up beacons, uploading furry porn to central mainframe, whatever the latest gimmick is. BQ and captain go back and forth for a while then captain miraculously escapes, mission accomplished.
Did you really just complain that there isn't a Borg King? That's literally been her ultimate motive since she was introduced (and retconned as to why Picard became Loctus). There is always a Borg Queen because its a hivemind like an beehive or ant colony, its fine.
Noone will really know how far the writers originally envisioned the Borg to be around for. They were a neat but one dimensional bad guy, but eventually you cant just have Picard talking to a viewscreen of a cube, so giving the Borg a leader made sense for the Borg to not become boring. She never escapes by the way...cannon is that she would be rebuilt after death, however Future Janeway's virus really fucked the Borg so she couldn't anymore hence why she was so fucked up looking as she was cannibalizing the last of her uninfected drones.
I said to me this season was a 10/10 while the parts themselves were not. Yes there was shit to nitpick, yes some of it was eyeroll worthy or whatever, but from the start of this show I wanted a fun TNG reunion with stakes so Picard and co could come and save the day. I wanted characters to be aged and more mature versions of themselves but have experienced growth over the time since Nemesis, and yea i wanted serious scenes and even humorous ones like the old show did. I dont need "Chain of Command" or "Measure of a Man" serious tone repeated for 8-10 episodes that would be exhausting to watch. Give me some action and humor as well, and to me they did. Picard and Crusher getting together and having a kid made sense. Geordi refurbishing the old Enterprise made sense, and his kids being in their position also made sense, since if you are going to have a dad in Starfleet to teach you shit, cant do much better then him. I LOVED Worf this season, and the way they handled Data and Lore worked for me. Bret Spiner is as much as a problem as Patrick Stewart when it comes to those characters so him doing his weird Data thing is whatever, I get why Data is how he is now and I don't blame the writers for it as he wouldn't play the character unless its his own way.
And yea I did fanboy Q coming back at the end because as far as we know the Q that dies in season 2 could have been from 50,000 years in the future and was thinking back to his old friend Picard who died alone.
So yea this got long winded and you said you didn't watch the whole season, but I will leave you with a clip that is probably my favorite scene of the season. It kinda shows it all in terms of how much better the quality of the show was this season. RIP Shaw you were the best character created post DS9 outside of The Doctor from Voyager. I hope Star Trek Legacy happens, and that Paramount gets their head out of their ass and hires Terry Matalas to oversee all of their Star Trek shit.
It was nice to see atleast someone was actually pissed at what Picard did cause I know realistically there would be a million Shaw's with those feelings.