Star Trek's Everything You Need to Know About the Borg Queen states "Only one Queen exists at any given time".
But a recent episode
How do the Borg accept such a deviation from the norm? You'd think their minds exploded from their own paradox.
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It is pretty standard plot fayre. 'Everything you thought you knew was wrong' as either a cliff-hanger or just before Poirot tells us whether or not it was the butler who dunnit.– TetsujinApr 14 at 10:54
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1Possibly the writers of season three didn't watch season two. They certainly thought that the idea of a Borg crisis threatening the Federation with Picard as the focal point was a novel idea.– jeffronicusApr 14 at 16:57
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We’re probably going to need to wait for the final episode, but the Season 2 Borg Queen that merged with Jirati was from an alternate timeline, so there could be two now.– Princess AdaApr 15 at 11:20
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True, but the Jirati version joined the federation so should have been there to witness the original queen and her clan is probably protected from the original queen's mind washing, plus even if she wasn't around you'd think the contradictions of more than one queen will matter to both sides. Last but not least, off camera the actress mentioned "I know that season three will be the end. I wasn't a part of season three", so unless it was a lie...– LWCApr 15 at 18:53
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Well, the actress told the truth. The final episode passed and ignored her plot, thus making season 3 completely oblivious to season 2 and the notion of simultaneous queens.– LWCApr 22 at 19:28
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1 Answer
In the case of Picard, the reason is simple (and an explanation that is often encountered in contemporary motion fiction): "this Borg Queen was from an alternate timeline created by Q's manipulations and she merged with Doctor Agnes Jurati".1
Nevertheless, the idea of multiple, simultaneous Borg Queens has been suggested earlier, in the Destiny novel trilogy. From Memory Alpha (my emphasis):
In the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy, a newly installed Queen oversaw a massive Borg invasion of the Alpha Quadrant. It was later revealed that the Borg Queen was merely an avatar for the true power behind the Collective. The Destiny trilogy also mentioned that multiple Queens have been known to exist simultaneously in the Collective, but they all possessed the same agenda.
While these novels are not considered canon2 (Fandom even mentions how "Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek diverge significantly from the Destiny trilogy"), this notion of simultaneous Queens is obviously not new to Picard.
Wikipedia has a few more subtle remarks to add on the matter (my emphasis [and notes]):
Whether or not [the portrayals by different actresses] represent the same queen is never specified.
The queen appeared to be killed in both First Contact [1996] and "End Game" [2001], so there may be a total of three queens throughout the series. In First Contact, the Borg Queen is seen during a flashback of Picard's former assimilation, establishing she was present during the events of "Best of Both Worlds" [1990].
It is assumed the Queen can reincarnate, possibly into a clone, with their former memories; so, to some degree, these are the same avatars. There is no simultaneity here, but these incarnations are suggestive of change and individuality.
1: Source
2: Wikipedia Star Trek entry: "The Star Trek canon includes the Original Series, 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise; further adaptations also exist in several media."
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I see, but I refer to canon. In canon due to reincarnations there are only 2 simultaneous queens - the original one and the Jurati one (who might have originated in another timeline but then moved in Jurati's body to the original timeline). Even more so, since it was a cross galaxy federation gathering, the Jurati one was supposed to be present when the original queen did her move...– LWCApr 25 at 18:53