Star Trek's Official X-Men Crossover Unleashed Marvel's Scariest Sentinel of All Time

Star Trek’s official crossover with the X-Men unleashed Marvel’s scariest Sentinels of all time. The X-Men’s enemies are many, and the Sentinels may rank as one of the scariest. These relentless mutant killers will stop at nothing to get their prey, giving them something in common with Star Trek’s Borg, and 1998’s Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men Second Contact fuses the two together to create pure nightmare fuel.

Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men:Second Contact was written by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton and drawn by Cary Nord. Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise have been sent to Earth-616 in the Marvel Universe, where they meet the X-Men. Thanks to the Enterprise’s visit, space-time is coming undone, and Kang the Conqueror is taking advantage of the situation.

As the two universes fuse, Picard and the X-Men encounter a Borg/Sentinel mash-up in an even darker version of the Days of Future’s Past timeline.

The Borg and the Sentinels Are the Perfect Star Trek/X-Men Mash-Up

The Sentinels and the Borg Are Some of the Biggest Threats to Their Respective Franchises

The Sentinels have been an ever-present threat to mutants since their introduction in the mid-1960s. First created by Doctor Bolivar Trask, the Sentinels are large, lumbering, mutant-killing robots. Usually employed by the military and the government, the Sentinels strike fear into mutants everywhere. There are many varieties of the robots too, with some Sentinels being microscopic. Others can build their bodies from other machines in the area. There are even organic Sentinels. The evil the Sentinels represent knows no bounds or shapes.

The Borg are the ultimate evil in the Star Trek franchise, a race of cybernetic beings whose sole desire is to assimilate the universe, adding a species’ biological and technological distinctiveness to their own. Debuting in the second season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Q Who?” and coming into their own in the two-parter “The Best of Both Worlds,” the Borg became one of Star Trek’s most popular set of villains, and would make other appearances throughout the franchise, including Voyager, Enterprise and Picard, as well as the feature film First Contact.

Mixing the Sentinels and the Borg Was Brilliant, and Helped Elevate Star Trek's Second Meeting with the X-Men

Second Contact's Creators Left These Mashups Largely to Fans' Imaginations

Picard and company were understandably horrified when they encountered the Borg/Sentinel mash-up. The Borg and the Sentinels are some of the biggest threats in their respective franchises, and fusing them into one was a stroke of genius. The two represent the darkest aspects of technology, and how it can be corrupted and used for dark purposes. The Sentinels were born in paranoia and theories of racial supremacy. They were a means to achieve dark ends. The Borg’s origin, while shrouded in mystery, is a cautionary tale about the integration of technology into society.

Second Contact does not dwell too long on the Borg/Sentinel mash-ups, leaving their exact nature up to fans' imaginations. The fleeting glimpse of the hybrid creatures is terrifying: they are Sentinel-sized, with clear and translucent heads. Inside the head units are what can be assumed are Borg drones. During the battle between the Borg/Sentinels and the X-Men, the drones are never deployed. Interestingly enough, the Borg/Sentinel hybrid does not seem to be concerned with assimilation, leading to questions about how the drones got there. The Sentinel drones are the most intriguing part of this mashup.

The Borg/Sentinel hybrid was perfectly placed in this mixed-up timeline. The narration refers to the hybrid’s timeframe as “post-atomic New York.” X-Men fans know that the classic Days of Future’s Past was set in a post-apocalyptic future, where humans and mutants were hunted to near-extinction. In the Star Trek timeline, the mid-21st century is one of the darkest eras in human history, thanks to a devastating nuclear war. The key difference is that humanity in Star Trek bounced back, but mutants had no such luck. Second Contact highlights the similarities, but also the differences.

Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Second Contact was a fun story that wrapped up Marvel’s second go at making Trek comics. The one-shot joyfully incorporates elements of both IPs, showing the common ground the two franchises share. The Borg and the Sentinels are some of the coolest, and scariest, villains in their respective universes. While Second Contact’s brisk pace leaves some story elements unspoken, such as the Borg/Sentinel hybrids, it still manages to stick to the landing. The mashup of Borgs and Sentinels ranks as an all-time disturbing moment for both properties.

Thankfully, Star Trek and X-Men Fans Will Never See the Borg/Sentinel Mash-Up Again

These Mashups Show the Similarities Between the X-Men and Star Trek

The likelihood that the Star Trek franchise will cross over with the X-Men again is slim, meaning the terrifying Borg/Sentinel mashups may never be seen again. Fans blasted the first Star Trek and X-Men crossover for violating the sanctity of both franchises, but Second Contact shows the potential in such meetups. The nightmare fuel Sentinel variants that debut in Second Contact demonstrate the shared values, and terrors, of each property. The Sentinels and the Borg are evil incarnate, and their mashup is bone-chilling.