'Dark Frontier' Where the Borg went wrong?

[AllStarEntprise]

So I'm still on my first watch through of VOY. After completing Dark Frontier I feel this is where the Borg went bad in Star Trek.

From the introduction of the Mary Sue ship Voyager destroying a Borg ship with a single photon torpedo.

To the Mary Sue and totally inappropriate Hansen family and their quest to study the Borg. How inept are the Borg to let a single ship stalk them for 3 years and even neglect the transporter singles of drones being beamed off and back, and Papa Hasen's on recon on to the cube. OH WAIT THEY'RE GENIUSES. That explains everything, and all their ingenuity.

The stupid frakking Queen, and her duality for 7 of 9's soul against Janeway.

To Tuvok being able to disable the shields for a Borg cube capable of destroying the entire cube.

There are more things I dislike about this episode but what do guys think?

At times it feels more like an episode of NuDoctor Who. Where the 11th Doctor can just talk the Daleks in to submission despite the Dalek's reputation as no BS killers. The Queen is at a Unimatrix with millions of Borgs, and yet she is overcome by Janeway talking to her when she could just order her drones to kill/assimilate Janeway.

[JirinPanthosa]

I couldn't agree more. It's the first episode to drastically weaken the Borg just to justify Voyager to continue surviving them.

[Brit]

And I don't agree with you all. The Borg had to have weaknesses in order to be interesting, otherwise everyone that encountered them would have been assimilated and then no more show. The Borg always were weak in certain ways and the more we saw them the weaker they became, they simply don't work any other way.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the mighty Borg meet their doom at the hands of Janeway and Picard. They were on borrowed time anyway, such a society could only grow so long as they could assimilate technology, they couldn't create. It would be inevitable that one day they would meet the Society they couldn't assimilate or the one with the power to resist. The Federation had the cohesiveness of the collective without losing their individuality, and therefore their creativity. The Borg were simply not smart enough to fear them.

The Borg were doomed from the beginning, but once the Federation became aware of them that doom was sealed.

In fiction the only interesting villain is the one you can defeat, otherwise the story goes nowhere fast.

[Melakon]

AllStarEntprise wrote:

---

At times it feels more like an episode of NuDoctor Who. Where the 11th Doctor can just talk the Daleks in to submission despite the Dalek's reputation as no BS killers.

As Voyager predates the 11th Doctor, it's more accurate to say he feels more like Voyager than the other way around.

I've watched the episode several times in the past weeks, including earlier today. I never quite understood how that torpedo was beamed aboard in the teaser, since the Borg presumably keep shields up if in range of a potential target and should be able to detect an attempt to penetrate their defenses. Showing how Voyager overcame Borg shields would have been nice.

I'm not a big fan of the use of flashbacks, whether in literature, television, or film (that's right, I'm not a big fan of Casablanca except for the "Major Strasser has been shot!" scene).

There are some good moments, though. I like the Fort Knox rehearsal and subsequent mission. I especially like David Bell's score in those scenes.

Neelix still gets on my nerves.

For me, the weakening of the Borg as villains began with TNG's "I, Borg".

[teacake]

Melakon wrote:

---

For me, the weakening of the Borg as villains began with TNG's "I, Borg".

I see that as the episode that weakened Picard.

[Melakon]

He should have used that invasive program or whatever it was.

[teacake]

Of course he should have, I think I literally threw something at the tv when he didn't. Why is it okay to blow up borg cubes but not infect them?

[Guy Gardener]

It's alright to infect the Borg, it just wasn't alright to use an innocent and polite kid like Hugh as Subject Zero.

It's like putting smallpox infected babies in a catapult and firing them at your enemies camp is a little underhanded.

Don't use babies.

Find some cattle or old people.

(If Hugh had been an evil asshole, it would have been all above board.)

What Picard didn't do is what Icheb's parents did do which is what Janeway wouldn't do with Seven when she was infected.

Seriously.

Janeway had a Borg BWMD and she could have plagued the shit out of all of Borg space if she just turned around and headed back to Borg space, but going home (She went back to Borg space in Flesh and Blood... Too early still.) was more important than the right sort of genocide that would save the Federation form the next Borg Invasion.

[teacake]

And we all saw what happened in Treklit because of everyone's happy sentiments. What was it, 400 Billion people dead?

Okay how about we call for volunteers. Let yourself be borgified by Hugh or 7, infected with the software and sent off to a hive. Suder might have done it, it would have been the most GRAND killing ever. He might have loved the idea.

[USS Firefly]

For me, the weakening of the Borg as villains began with TNG's "I, Borg".

I agree, they shouldn't have used the Borg so often.

[teacake]

I never got Borged out.

[Melakon]

I got the Fan Collective: Borg on the 3rd, and have watched everything except "I, Borg".

[Guy Gardener]

I know I'm contrary but this is one of my favourites.

Nechayev is so powerful, she's inches from taking Picards command away and handing it over to Riker, who will resign rather that benefit from the bushwacking Picard, and then it's the Captain Data Show.

Sadly a missed opportunity.

[Melakon]

Or it could have become George Takei's chance for the Captain Sulu Show.

[Guy Gardener]

He could have been 20 years younger than McCoy conceivably.