First Contact: Sphere's weapons = pathetic.

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Is it possible that was newly constructed?

[nx1701g]

In the novel and the script the Borg Sphere is explained to be an Escape Pod.

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

The movie also made this pretty clear given the Sphere did not launch until the Cube began to explode, and then the Sphere was destroyed pretty easilly by the Ent-E later on.

[WalkinMan]

First Contact works provided that you accept certain contrivances. One of those is that the sphere is rather weak. You could say perhaps that the power required to generate the chronoton vortex + the battle weakened the sphere's reserves.

(I can't believe I just came up with another Treknology justification )

Another thing that follows is:

"Sphere's shields/defenses = pathetic." A torpedo spread from the E-E destroyed it cleanly. Very different from the spheres encountered in VOY. That said, maybe the Queen deliberately allowed the sphere to be destroyed.

And to go off the weird conspiracy angle, perhaps she wanted the assimilation of both Earth and the E-E to get the best of both technologies.

However, the other contrivance is the whole idea of time travel...if this were so great a gambit, a cube could have time traveled in the Beta Quadrant and come over to Earth or something.

Oh well, it's still cool. Kinda like how James Bond dodges all those bullets, it so happened that the sphere stank when it was supposed to. But the Borg were still quite formidable in the film.

[Computer]

I can forgive the weakened state of the Sphere, Worf had said shields were down on the E-E so its possible this happened to the Sphere, without shields to stop the Q-Torps there was no way to adapt until it was too late.

I always assumed Borg shields acted as a scanner when they were hit by a P-Torp or Phaser to find the frequency/modulation of the weapon so it could adjust.

It would be similar to if I were fighting Mike Tyson and I had personal shields, the first few punches/bites would allow me to get a good idea where he plans to strike and adjust my game plan.
If my personal shields were down then id be sleeping after the first punch...

... I have no idea where that analogy came from.

[The Borg Queen]

WalkinMan said:
However, the other contrivance is the whole idea of time travel...if this were so great a gambit, a cube could have time traveled in the Beta Quadrant and come over to Earth or something.

I've been saying THAT ever since the film first came out! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[David cgc]

Actually, there's a good reason not to time travel, then head to your destination. Since time moves at different rates depending on your speed, and since everything in the universe is moving at its own speed, time does not flow at the exact same rate at different places in the universe.

The Borg could've gone back three hundred twenty years in the Delta quadrant, but when they got to Earth, they might've found they'd only gone back two hundred seventy years. Or they'd overshot, and gone back to the 20th century (why not? Everyone else was). Since they had a very specific target, they'd only be able to get the precision they wanted by going back at their destination.

Going back in time elsewhere would also increase the likelihood that they'd change history unintentionally on their way.

[Trekker4747]

nx1701g said:
In the novel and the script the Borg Sphere is explained to be an Escape Pod.

That explains it!

Those were just signal flares!



It was the best "weapon" they had.

[ancient]

This is the explanation I like the best:

The power needed to create a time vortex took up about 99% of the sphere's power, leaving its shields burnt out and its weapons running on extreme low power. And possibly with structural damage. Remember, the Ent-E got a free ride and it was pretty beat up too. I'd say neigther ship made it through with shields.

As Picard said, "They knew their ship was doomed." The sphere may have been on the verge of collapse before it was hit by the Ent-E torpedoes.

It's possible the Borg method of generating time vortexs has a very high failure rate, explaining why they don't always try time travel.

[Timo]

...Or then the Borg got exactly what they wanted: the bombardment was merely a means of luring Picard and his Chief Engineer to Montana, where they would "repair" the crazy tin can of a madman into a working warpship and thus help create the utterly unlikely Federation which in 200 years would provide such bountiful pickings for the Borg.

Or then the Borg really were off to kill Cochrane and destroy his ship, but they were discreet and wanted to use weaponry that could be mistaken for 21st century ECON ordnance. It would do the job in an hour or two, without suggesting extraterrestrial intervention.

As for time travel hurting the time traveler, it could be argued that the E-E lost her shields and sensors when the Borg tractor beam hit her, much like the E-D shields were always drained by Borg beams. There's no dialogue to indicate that the damage would be the result of time travel, to be sure.

Timo Saloniemi

[Computer]

Folks I think your all overlooking some very real possibilities:

1. The Queen wanted to visit Montana during her vacation but before she could file for a visa the Federation Starfleet shows up and blows her ship to hell.

2. They tavelled to the future and discovered a tiny little Fed ship would whip their ass in another few years and said "F that" and tried to stop Voyager from being launched by preventing the Fed.

[ancient]

Timo said:
...Or then the Borg got exactly what they wanted: the bombardment was merely a means of luring Picard and his Chief Engineer to Montana, where they would "repair" the crazy tin can of a madman into a working warpship and thus help create the utterly unlikely Federation which in 200 years would provide such bountiful pickings for the Borg.

Or then the Borg really were off to kill Cochrane and destroy his ship, but they were discreet and wanted to use weaponry that could be mistaken for 21st century ECON ordnance. It would do the job in an hour or two, without suggesting extraterrestrial intervention.

As for time travel hurting the time traveler, it could be argued that the E-E lost her shields and sensors when the Borg tractor beam hit her, much like the E-D shields were always drained by Borg beams. There's no dialogue to indicate that the damage would be the result of time travel, to be sure.

Timo Saloniemi

eh, I don't like any of those explanations. I think the Borgy-ball was trying to blow Cochrane up real good.

[Peach Wookiee]

Or yet again, the Borg greatly underestimated humanity...

[Timo]

Or vice versa. After all, if the Borg truly failed, wouldn't they try again? That's sort of inherent in time travel.

Queen: "My brilliant plan is to erase the Federation by tampering with their past. I will execute it tomorrow. I definitely will."

<waits>

<cybernetically augmented crickets chirp>

Queen: "Oh, well, apparently I didn't succeed. Okay, so my NEXT plan is to try even harder with erasing the Federation by tamperi... Wait, what am I saying? What is 'Federation'? Ah, no matter. Let's move on to the next item. Assimilation of Earth. You say it's a primitive world not worth tuppence?"

Drone #74656: "Indeed, my liege. Shall we proceed anyway?"

Queen: "Sure. In 6,300 years or so, when they have evolved enough. Do they have any interesting neighbors?"

Timo Saloniemi

[Peach Wookiee]

^Or maybe the Borg Queen assimilated Pinky and the Brain...
"What are we going to do tonight, Queen?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky... try to assimilate humanity."