Q Who Slice...

[PhoenixIreland]

Were the people in that slice of the Ent-D the borg cut out assimilated? to give the borg a taste for humans? See if they added to perfection?

[MeanJoePhaser]

They were vented into space.

[Christopher]

PhoenixIreland wrote:

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Were the people in that slice of the Ent-D the borg cut out assimilated? to give the borg a taste for humans? See if they added to perfection?

At the time the episode was written, assimilation hadn't been conceived yet; Q states that the Borg have no interest in people, only technology, and Riker finds that the drones are incubated from infancy. So no doubt Maurice Hurley's assumption was that those 18 people had died. In retrospect, however, it's logical to assume that at least some of them were assimilated, just like the multiple other assimilated Alpha-Quadrant individuals seen in VGR.

In my recent TNG novel Greater Than the Sum, I confirmed that at least one of those 18 people was assimilated and ultimately liberated in "Unimatrix Zero."

[Lt_Wandrey]

Some of them were at the wrong place at the wrong time and could've gotten sucked out into space or killed as the beam sliced through the ship. I agree if there were any survivors from all that they were probably assimilated right away.

[Christopher]

Lt_Wandrey wrote:

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Some of them were at the wrong place at the wrong time and could've gotten sucked out into space or killed as the beam sliced through the ship.

Unless the cylindrical beam that extracted them was also a containment field holding in the atmosphere. The Borg may have wanted them alive for study and/or assimilation.

[PhoenixIreland]

I was watching a you tube clip of it and even though assimilation had not been added to the storyline at this stage it's really the only thing that makes sense to me. Why else would they cut a section out of the crew quarters? Theres no valuable technology there.

I assumed that because the tractor beam seemed really tight around the cut out section it was also acting as a forcefield keeping the air in.

I can just imagine some poor bastard walking into his living room after a shower and suddenly his quarters are in space surrounded by a forcefield being sucked towards some giant borg cube

[Trekker4747]

It was always my asumption that it was because of the Borg and that slice of the ship that they started assimilating. They had those 18 people, decided to hook them up to the network and then gained Starfleet's sense of "assimilation" of cultures. Which is mostly what it is they seem to do. (Though less severely than the Borg do) And Starfleet has a sense of trying to "perfect" themselves and unify the galaxy under those protections.

So the strong ideals drilled into the heads of those 18 Starfleet/Federation officers infected the Borg so they went out and did just that and took the idea too far.

It was perfect and harmonious. Beautiful, really.

Then Voyager came and fucked that notion all up.

[PhoenixIreland]

Shrekker4747 wrote:

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It was always my asumption that it was because of the Borg and that slice of the ship that they started assimilating. They had those 18 people, decided to hook them up to the network and then gained Starfleet's sense of "assimilation" of cultures. Which is mostly what it is they seem to do. (Though less severely than the Borg do) And Starfleet has a sense of trying to "perfect" themselves and unify the galaxy under those protections.

So the strong ideals drilled into the heads of those 18 Starfleet/Federation officers infected the Borg so they went out and did just that and took the idea too far.

It was perfect and harmonious. Beautiful, really.

Then Voyager came and fucked that notion all up.

Thats a very interesting theory, I was gonna ask if voyagers flashbacks messed with that but you answerd that in your last line

[Maurice]

Or...they just sliced out a random chunk to have a look at what they were about to "consume". It was just a taste.

[billcosby]

I thought for sure Voyager had run into plenty of borg that were former Federation members, linking to TNG episodes.

[M'Sharak]

DS9Sega wrote:

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Or...they just sliced out a random chunk to have a look at what they were about to "consume". It was just a taste.

Hors d’oeuvres?

[Christopher]

billcosby wrote:

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I thought for sure Voyager had run into plenty of borg that were former Federation members, linking to TNG episodes.

Several, yes. Riley from "Unity" and Laura from "Unimatrix Zero" were taken at Wolf 359. Marika in "Survival Instinct" was taken from the Excalibur in an unspecified instance that could've been Wolf 359. Seven recovered the memories of a couple of Starfleet personnel in "Infinite Regress," including at least one Wolf 359 participant as well as an ensign from the starship Tombaugh, which was assimilated with its entire crew in 2362, several years before the official first contact in "Q Who." We also met a Romulan ex-drone in "Unity" and an assimilated Klingon general in "Unimatrix Zero." So there were no specific links to any TNG episodes other than BoBW.

[Sheliak]

A cellular peptide cake, with mint frosting.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

M'Sharak wrote:

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Hors d’oeuvres?

Drone: "Hey, I love these new snacks! Crunchy on the outside and a chewy center!"

[Holdfast]

M'Sharak wrote:

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Hors d’oeuvres?

On the Borg scale, I think it barely qualifies as an amuse bouche.