So I just wanted to make one thing clear the Borg in this episode were the ones Picard dealt with in First Contact right? So why didn't Picard scan the surface before he left and see that there were still Borg down there? I remember him saying he didn't want to contaminate the timeline, but didn't he do just that? The episode implied that Picard through a paradox set the wheels in motion for the Borg attack right? Can anyone explain why Picard would leave Borg down on the surface before returning to his time?
The Enterprise was more than half Borgified at the time. I doubt much was left in proper working condition.
Another possibility is that the debris didn't strike Earth immediatly after the Borg Sphere was destroyed but was Debris that they thought would burn up in the Atmosphere but it somehow managed to survive entry.
On the other hand, given the catastrophe that would result if Borg seeds were overlooked, and that there's no time constraints on when the Enterprise goes back, it's hard to see why the ship couldn't take the time to repair enough sensors to be confident that no Borg equipment had survived. Maybe Picard believed his Locutus Sense when it told him there wasn't any further workable Borg Stuff on the planet.
It didn't pollute the timeline. Picard knew the drones in the wreckage would be discovered, and he made sure that history would play out the way his history books said it had to.
I bet he wishes he'd read those history books before taunting Q that one time. Or maybe actually asked Guinan WHO she was fleeing from back in 2294?
Actually, I could see a severe constraint there: the Vulcans arrive. And while they miss the E-E, thanks to "the Moon's gravitational field", what they miss is the hasty escape of the starship. Had she remained behind for a minute longer, she could have been subject to thorough Vulcan scans - the species is known for being anal-retentively methodical, after all. (Also, I could well see the Vulcans immediately thinking "There are only drunken monkeys down here - where did that warp technology really come from?", meaning it would be very important to hide the starship very quickly!) Timo Saloniemi
I have to disagree with this there is no way Picard would leave drone Borg on the surface intentionally.
^ Unless Picard had full knowledge that this was a natural part of the timeline and should not be interfered with. Which is a stretch, but possible.
It wouldn't be the first time that Picard felt he had the right to try and tamper with history (see also Yesterday's Enterprise)
Really? Even if he knew that to remove them would mean that history would play out differently and could change the future?
How could Picard possibly know that is my question? He had no knowledge of the events that would take place once the Borg were discovered by the scientists. Why would he think this is the natural part of the timeline? The episode implies that Picard in a weird Star Trek way set the wheels in motion for the eventual Borg attack 200 years later and that rubbed me the wrong way.
That was just Picard's bit of spin to try and convince his senior staff to go along with the word of a bartender. In reality, he had no way of knowing whether the last 20 years of history were "correct" or not, since he had lived every day and they were very real to him! Call it what you will, this War-Picard had made the unilateral decision to try and change history for everyone.
Correct. Why didn't the borg just go back to when humans just started evolving and whipe them out them? You can go round and round and round... The standard "don't contaminate the timeline" line in Star Trek... No, that was Q. Picard was simply reacting to events at the Battle of Wolf 359. You can make up any excuse you want. The one that I think might be plausable is that the explosion of the Borg Sphere happened just as they "showed up" in 2063. Picard had a little more on his plate than worrying about some debris. For all we know, These Borgsicles didn't land in the great white north for some time. As we saw in Enteprise, the debris wasn't covered with much ice and snow it was just located in a region that didn't get much attention.
He looked in the history books and saw it there. Or, he had the Borg's knowledge of it after being assimilated in The Best of Both Worlds.
To quote O'Brien "I hate temporal mechanics" "Regeneration" is one of those things that creates a paradox that cannot really be untangled. The real question is, were the attacks along the Neutral Zone a random scout and recon mission by the Collective, or was it a result of the signal sent by the drones in "Regeneration"? If the first is true, then it was Q who screwed up the timeline by introducing Picard to the Borg earlier than what history had planned. Had "Q Who" not occurred, the Federation (and the Romulans) would have not learned who destroyed their outposts in "The Neutral Zone" and the whole Alpha Quadrant would have been taken unaware by the Borg. There would have been no prep time noted in "BOBS", and no Defiant class. The Borg (or at least their Queen) wouldn't have singled out Picard who was used to defeat them during their first really attack on Earth. Our side of the galaxy would have probably fell pretty easily. If the second is true, then it was the Borg themselves who understood the complexities of the timeline (which the Queen and Seven of Nine both imply) and, realizing their second attack upon Earth was going to fail, "reset" the timeline into a loop by launching the sphere and giving them endless opportunities to successfully assmilate Earth. The Borg do not seem to regard a temporal directive. Being able to open temporal vortexes gives them a million changes to take the Alpha Quadrant.