Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Hugh, a Borg character who appears on several episodes of TNG.
Hugh is found by the crew of the Enterprise-D in a wreckage of a Borg scout ship in the Argolis cluster, in the episode I, Borg. Over the objections of Captain Picard, Doctor Crusher and Geordi nurse Hugh back to health and find out how to nourish him in a similar fashion to when he was a part of the Collective. Picard decides that Hugh will provide a perfect opportunity to implant a program in the Borg to destroy them, which Crusher does not agree with.
Before Picard tries to put this plan into action, Hugh interacts enough with the members of the Enterprise crew to understand humanity better and individuality. He begins to understand and accept different views than what he was taught at the Collective, and these new views come out when Picard tests him later in the episode. The changes in Hugh were enough that Picard realizes the change in him and backs off his plan to destroy the Borg with him.
Picard offers asylum to Hugh, but that is refused as Hugh realizes he will be hunted down until found by the Borg, putting the Enterprise crew at risk. He is found by the Collective and assimilated back into another cube crew, but his individuality was spread to other drones and it led to a complete disarray on his cube. Ironically, the individuality given to Hugh was just as deadly as any virus Picard has originally hoped to implant.
The Collective left the cube to drift, at which point Lore, Data's brother, discovers the cube and begins putting the Borg to his own uses. Hugh leads a group of drones to oppose the actions of Lore, including assisting the Enterprise crew again when Data needs rescued from Lore in the Descent two-part episode. So while Hugh does not bring down the Collective, he does prove important years later and a good lesson for the Enterprise crew to not burn bridges.
The name Hugh is a pun based on a mispronunciation of the word you, and this was meant to carry the meaning of individuality for the character. His character name was regionalized in many countries to be a similar sounding word to the local language equivalent of you, which means this character is Tim in the Czech Republic, Tug in Italy, and Lou in France. The pun doesn't work in Japanese, so they called him Blue there.
Hugh was another good piece of the evolving Borg puzzle that played out over the course of TNG and Voyager. The fact that Picard could be restored to humanity and Hugh could take on individuality were key cogs in what eventually became the Seven of Nine main character. By giving the Borg more depth and facets, this character added to one of the greatest villains of the series in a meaningful way.
Hugh was played by Jonathan Del Arco. He originally auditioned for the role of Wesley Crusher, but after not getting the role, the casting of the show did not return to him for guest roles until 5 years later with Hugh. This Uruguayan actor has played in other TV shows including Miami Vice, The Wonder Years, and The Closer. His Dr. Morales character on The Closer was so good he has continued in the role for 6 years of a more recent show entitled Major Crimes, which is his most recent work.
Before Picard tries to put this plan into action, Hugh interacts enough with the members of the Enterprise crew to understand humanity better and individuality. He begins to understand and accept different views than what he was taught at the Collective, and these new views come out when Picard tests him later in the episode. The changes in Hugh were enough that Picard realizes the change in him and backs off his plan to destroy the Borg with him.
Picard offers asylum to Hugh, but that is refused as Hugh realizes he will be hunted down until found by the Borg, putting the Enterprise crew at risk. He is found by the Collective and assimilated back into another cube crew, but his individuality was spread to other drones and it led to a complete disarray on his cube. Ironically, the individuality given to Hugh was just as deadly as any virus Picard has originally hoped to implant.
The Collective left the cube to drift, at which point Lore, Data's brother, discovers the cube and begins putting the Borg to his own uses. Hugh leads a group of drones to oppose the actions of Lore, including assisting the Enterprise crew again when Data needs rescued from Lore in the Descent two-part episode. So while Hugh does not bring down the Collective, he does prove important years later and a good lesson for the Enterprise crew to not burn bridges.
The name Hugh is a pun based on a mispronunciation of the word you, and this was meant to carry the meaning of individuality for the character. His character name was regionalized in many countries to be a similar sounding word to the local language equivalent of you, which means this character is Tim in the Czech Republic, Tug in Italy, and Lou in France. The pun doesn't work in Japanese, so they called him Blue there.
Hugh was another good piece of the evolving Borg puzzle that played out over the course of TNG and Voyager. The fact that Picard could be restored to humanity and Hugh could take on individuality were key cogs in what eventually became the Seven of Nine main character. By giving the Borg more depth and facets, this character added to one of the greatest villains of the series in a meaningful way.
Hugh was played by Jonathan Del Arco. He originally auditioned for the role of Wesley Crusher, but after not getting the role, the casting of the show did not return to him for guest roles until 5 years later with Hugh. This Uruguayan actor has played in other TV shows including Miami Vice, The Wonder Years, and The Closer. His Dr. Morales character on The Closer was so good he has continued in the role for 6 years of a more recent show entitled Major Crimes, which is his most recent work.
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