It's been a long time since there was a Borg episode, but then again, there hasn't been any Star Trek on tele in over a decade now. I for one am not adverse to the Borg featuring in either the JJverse (as they are out there) or in the new series and potentially taking them back to basics.
Hmm, that reminds me, it's been thirteen years since the last Borg episode, and that aired fourteen years after the Borg were introduced. So we've gone almost as long without the Borg on screen as the timespan in which they were a regular presence.
I think it'd be fun to see JJverse Borg. I'm completely happy with Destiny removing the Borg from the litverse forever, don't get me wrong, but I think the Borg would come out pretty well in a giant action movie like the two JJTreks so far.
The Borg are really rather dull now, I find. I've not read any books for a while, but know the jist of the bigger plots, but going by canon sources they've lost their real sense of menace--seeing as how they were outsmarted/defeated too many times by the likes of Voyager. The less done with the Borg the better, IMHO.
If I have to read one more novel that is associated with the Borg or an ex Borg, I'm going to scream.
To me, the Borg come off as Star Trek's take on the "slasher" and "gross-out" sub-genres of horror. And about the only slasher/gross-out movie I've ever been able to stomach was the spoof of that whole realm, Student Bodies. That said, Lily's line, "Definitely not Swedish," was almost worth having the Borg in ST:FC
I'd say they're more "body horror" than "gross out", honestly. Less Wes Craven and more David Cronenberg. Unless you categorize them together, that is; to me, "gross out" brings to mind buckets of blood and gore, but it doesn't really include the terror of having your body twisted and distorted in inhuman ways outside of your control. That feels like a distinct concept to me, kind of more fundamental of an attack on the self rather than just outright trying to disgust.
Yeah, and "slasher" specifically means bloody murder, dismemberment, gory horror like that. The Borg, at least from First Contact onward, are based more on zombie horror than slasher horror. And before FC, they weren't even really that, since it wasn't until then that the whole assimilation bit became their standard MO rather than an exception they made for Picard.
Haven't the Borg very specifically and definitively been ended as an active race in both those series'? That was a pretty effective authorial decision, though, I think it made the Borg a lot scarier. It may have been that, prior to First Contact, the Borg were only interested in technology, and at some time between BoBW and FC, they assimilated the technology of a species that allowed them to rapidly incorporate other species into the collective, as seen in FC. Doesn't Locutus speak to the Enterprise crew at one point in BoBW and tell them how great it will be once they are assimilated, that their culture will adapt to service the Borg, that Worf will make a sweet addition to the collective, etc? Doesn't that imply that they DO routinely assimilate species, and did so before it was represented onscreen in FC?
Thing is, it isn't until TBOBW Part 2 that assimilation starts getting talked about. Part 1 makes it seem like turning Picard into a Borg is something unique, and then Part 2 abruptly begins talking about assimilation as though it's SOP.
Right. And even if it was talked about in BOBW, it wasn't shown in the rest of TNG. "I, Borg" made it clear that Hugh had never had any identity beyond being a drone. He wasn't abducted and turned into a Borg, he was born a Borg. (In fact, I've always felt that, paradoxically, is why he was so much more easily "humanized" than Seven of Nine was -- because it was his nature to conform to the mentality of those around him, so when he was on a ship full of individuals, he just reflexively followed their example.) Similarly, the other liberated drones from "Descent" were vulnerable to cult leader Lore because they were complete blank slates who had no prior identity or culture or beliefs, who didn't know what to do with their individuality, and thus Lore was able to win their allegiance by giving them a purpose. So despite the dialogue in BOBW part 2, TNG never actually showed an assimilated drone other than Locutus. Now, First Contact showed the Borg assimilating lots of people, but that was arguably because their cube and sphere had been destroyed, there were only a few drones left, and they had to rebuild their numbers by drawing on the available resources. So that could've been seen as an exceptional situation. But then Voyager's writers decided to make it the standard Borg practice, and from then on it was assumed that every drone was assimilated, completely contradicting TNG. (In Greater Than the Sum, I think it was, I explained this difference as a result of the war with Species 8472 -- the Delta Quadrant Borg were so badly depleted by the war that they had to adopt aggressive assimilation to replenish their numbers. And incubated drones like those seen in TNG were preferentially used on cubes that travelled far from Borg Space -- say, to the Federation -- because they had no pesky memories or past identities that might manifest if their link to the Collective were interrupted, so it was safer to send them into remote territories where communication might be less reliable.)
Picard was under Borg control for a few days at most, so I think it's a bit of a stretch to call him an "ex-Borg." By that standard, Janeway, Tuvok, and Torres would count as well. And Data, sort of.
I'm not gonna be that drastic . But it really is annoying that we can't seem to get to the next level in Trek Lit. Destiny was a big push forward, and now it's all Borg fallout politics.