In the TNG espisdoe descent the rogue borg have long range wrist mounted weapons... that we never see again. Which doesn't seem very "logical," even if the Borg are trying assimilate they could use a stun setting and then inject the nano probes in the unconscious targets. I can see the real reason is that they don't do that it is that it would make them over powered and hard to for the heroes to survive, but I wonder if there is a way to justify it in universe.
That's an interesting question. Maybe a stun would interfere with the assimilation process somehow? I'm pretty sure that every time we see someone being assimilated the person is always conscious. Maybe they need them that way for some reason.
Except if the target is stunned, they could more easily be taken to a secure place where they could be reawakened for assimiliation. I also think it would have made more sense if the Borg could simply shoot assimilation nanites at a target, thus assimilating targets without having to directly touch them. That would be scary effective!
Well, stunning victims and relocating them for later assimilation certainly makes sense on a smaller scale, even when dealing with largish starships. But it's hard to see how that would work on a larger (let alone planetary) scale. And yes, I agree, it would have been MUCH scarier if the Borg could have simply assimilated victims by shooting them. If the Prime Universe had continued, I'm betting they would have eventually gone there.
I'm surprised each Borg cube doesn't release Borg nanoprobes in the air of their cubes so anyone who boards (insane people like Starfleet) becomes a Borg. They could even just teleport people aboard instead of boarding their ship.
They planned to attack Earth with a nanoprobe assimilation virus in "Dark Frontier" but seemingly never bothered. Nobody in Trek makes the most of their technology - they could send a cloud of nanites against the galaxy, either assimilating everything or destroying, like in the Day the Earth Stood Still remake.
Out right assimilating the earth would seem to be a bad idea. Better to threaten them, thus spurring them to develop new technology. Which you then assimilate from time to time. In essence farming the civilization.
In the end, the likely reason we rarely saw the Borg firing weapons to stun people was to save on visual effects. Much cheaper and easier to film a drone extending tubes from his hand into someone's neck than it is to have them firing laser beams.
I think the nanoprobes are more fragile than some people think. 8472's cells can (or could at one time) destroy them. The Doctor in Voyager used activated and deactivated nanoprobes on a few occasions, as I recall--which means he probably exposed them to something that deactivated them--something EM? High-energy particles of some kind? But any of that exists in abundance in relatively dense galactic (as opposed to intergalactic) space. I doubt the nanoprobes can survive in vacuum also. So wholesale release into the galaxy at large would probably be meaningless. -------------- I never understood why, in First Contact, the Borg simply didn't travel back in time in the Delta quadrant, and then transwarp to earth and assimilate it. Any time they want to.
They can manipulate 28 cubic kilometers (Cube) to transwarp speeds and can't manipulate a nanoprobe through the air? I think they didn't do it because it would be to difficult for story tellers to get around.
I think the nanoprobes are too fragile for airborne transmission. They must use those injection tubules for a reason.
Then put the nanoprobes in a "bullet" type projectile and fire the bullet. When the bullet breaks apart inside the target, the nanoprobes are released to do their thing.
Because a cyborg alien (who once you shoot, you can't shoot any more) lurking towards you to stab you in the neck to make you one of them is terrifying. That's more good storytelling than practicality.
I like this idea. The initial Borg incursions generated technological growth resulting in new weapons and defensive measures, perhaps only sending a single Cube to Earth every couple of years is their way of farming the Federation...