Trivia: Robert Picardo plays the Voyager's Holographic Doctor. Picardo played the same role in Star Trek: First Contact.
Trivia: Tom Paris was originally written to be Nick Locarno, the cadet Robert Duncan McNeil played in the 'Next Generation' episode "The First Duty." Because the character was the intellectual property of that episode's writers, royalty fees would have had to been paid for every new episode in which Locarno appeared. To avoid the unnecessary expense, the 'Voyager' producers instead created a new character, using Locarno as a building block.
Chosen answer: Before Q sent the Enterprise to the beta quadrant to officially contact the Borg, there were already indications that the Borg was beginning to reach Federation territory. There were remarks towards the end of the first season of the Next Generation that several of the furthest Federation outposts were being attacked by some unknown enemy. They suspected the Romulans, but when contact with the Romulans was re-established, they learned that it was not them. The Hansens had simply figured things out much earlier than anyone else in the Federation. They learned about the Borg nine years earlier, but Starfleet mainly took notice when their outposts started getting wiped out. It is logical to assume that there were indications of Borg scouting parties and research efforts well before that.
Garlonuss ★