After I Borg, why does Picard go Ahab in First Contact?

[ConRefit79]

Had the events of I Borg not happened, I could see Picard maybe losing it in another encounter. But they did occur and he couldn't bring himself to commit genocide. Even in Descent he didn't seem to lose his cool. So what pushed him over the edge in First Contact?

 

[The Old Mixer]

Possibly that they were threatening Earth again. He may have been kicking himself inside for not having taken stronger action against them in "I, Borg."

 

[BillJ]

Crusher ran out of 24th century Prozac and the nearest Starbase that carried it is three-hundred years in the future.

 

[ConRefit79]

Crusher ran out of 24th century Prozac and the nearest Starbase that carried it is three-hundred years in the future.

So you're saying he's been on meds since he was de-assimilated? And now he's off them?

 

[jimbotron]

Patrick Stewart wanted to be an action hero, pretty much. 'Tea, earl grey, hot' diplomat Picard is not what he wanted to be in a movie. That's why he's taking on the Borg single-handed, and later driving a dune buggy.

 

[Ithekro]

Well they were assimulating his ship out from under him.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Picard didn't not wipe out the Borg because he felt bad about it, it was because he felt bad about using Hugh who at the time was not a member of the Borg collective.

And it wouldn't be genocide anyway. The Borg are not a species. They are a virus that enslaves other species. They're basically techno-zombies. Wiping them out would be curing an illness.

 

[Ithekro]

I'm pretty sure they didn't know that yet. Only after First Contact and after Voyager reports in do they get that idea.

 

[Makarov]

Picard was always a bad ass even in season 1 where he's playing murder mysteries on the holodeck. As for why he flipped out, because the borg were overrunning the ship and very close to wiping out earth. Hugh was not anywhere near that..

 

[Nebusj]

And it wouldn't be genocide anyway. The Borg are not a species.

Similarly, if someone came through and destroyed every Federation world, that wouldn't be genocide, because the Federation isn't a species.

 

[Timo]

The movie opens with Picard having nightmares. It doesn't suggest Picard would have those nightmares often - and he certainly doesn't seem to remember any nightmare featuring the Borg Queen.

The implication IMHO is either

a) that the Borg are sending out transmissions specifically to spook out Picard and prepare him for his task in rebooting history, or
b) that the Borg, now a stronger presence than ever (no full-sized Cubes involved in the preceding events, and no Queen present, at least not physically), are unwittingly sending out these strong transmissions.

Add to this that something has clearly happened in addition to the adventures we saw in the episodes: the Borg have "advanced" and the UFP has "fallen back". We don't know how this happened, and whether it involved Picard personally, but clearly it must have been bad, because the Borg "advancing" rather than just raiding must mean they have taken possession of new territory. And that means they have assimilated people, perhaps planetfuls of them...

I'm pretty sure they didn't know that yet. Only after First Contact and after Voyager reports in do they get that idea.

Picard is Locutus. He isn't allowed to remember about the Queen, but he does seem to remember a lot about being Borg otherwise. He'd be the first to see the quadrillions of Borg as just a single foul stain on the universe, something in need of hard wiping even if (and especially if) it meant killing a quadrillion humanoids.

What stops him from pursuing that in "I, Borg" indeed seems to be the fact that Hugh isn't Borg any more - he has achieved what Picard hopes to achieve with that über-genocide, the termination of horrible mental slavery that is worse than death. There's hope there, and Picard clings on to that hope. In the other episodes, he doesn't have the means. And in the movie, he has abandoned hope, and sees the killing of Drones as his humane duty.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gul Re'jal]

Because meeting Hugh didn't change what the Borg had done to him, didn't remove his nightmares and horror of memories. I don't see those events as related at all.

 

[Sybok Was Wrong]

I don't think it was for "story" reasons, it was for "big-screen, box-office, appealing to the actors' ego" reasons.

The producers wanted to bring in a bigger audience, ad you cant blame them-which means more action, less intellectual

 

[BillJ]

Crusher ran out of 24th century Prozac and the nearest Starbase that carried it is three-hundred years in the future.

So you're saying he's been on meds since he was de-assimilated? And now he's off them?

I think it is something that should be considered. Obviously, Crusher wasn't able to fish everything out of Picard's skull as he was still in contact with the Borg in First Contact.

 

[Timo]

Yet Crusher originally did think she had been successful in de-Borgifying Picard.

At that point, she didn't even indicate awareness of the entire nanoprobe thing. Perhaps she just assumed macroscopic surgery would suffice. But we could assume that Picard's dormant nanoprobes could awaken at any moment, and in ST:FC they did, rapidly constructing a subspace transceiver within Picard.

Macroscopic surgery might have been a failure to begin with, too - after all, Bashir was unable to remove Garak's wire. But at least it was obvious to him that the wire was there once he started looking. Why would Crusher have missed a device inside Picard's head when she knew from the get-go that devices inside Picard were her primary worry?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

Why would Crusher have missed a device inside Picard's head when she knew from the get-go that devices inside Picard were her primary worry?

Something we will just have to file under "nobody's perfect".

As far as medication goes, Picard could have been prescribed something that was seemingly unrelated to Borg hardware.

 

[TheSubCommander]

And it wouldn't be genocide anyway. The Borg are not a species.

Similarly, if someone came through and destroyed every Federation world, that wouldn't be genocide, because the Federation isn't a species.

That would be multiple cases of genocide: one for each planet destroyed.

The assimilated people of the Borg aren't a single race, but its possible to argue the technology assimilating them (IE nano probes) could be an artificial race thanks to the events of TNG's Evolution, and possibly Measure of a Man, I guess.

In any event, the hand wringing that went on in I, Borg was certainly not something that people should have pondered, realistically. I chalk that kind of writing up to a pre-9/11 outlook on the part of writers, because if the Borg were written today, they would be handled more like the SGC handled the Replicators in both SG1 and SGA.

The Federation was basically in a state of war with the Borg (one they really couldn't win at that time), and why the Borg never returned with a fleet of Cubes to wipe them out instead of just another single ship in FC, is a bit Ex Deus Machina, IMHO. But the potential of that happening was there, and and with not just Earth being in danger but the entire quadrant, so I think Picard would have been justified in using the virus in I, Borg, and really should have listened to AMRL Necheyev, and told Crusher, Guinan (Guinan of all people arguing for Hugh was ANOTHER plothole altogether) and Geordi to STFU. Not to mention, it seemed Starfleet didn't have much of a problem with Janeway using a technovirus in Endgame. Hell, they promoted her.

 

[Timo]

Actually, one for each species destroyed, I trust.

Which I suppose was NebusJ's point. There's less danger in using horrid words than in using pretty ones - in calling people "retired murderers" rather than "war veterans", or events "slaughter" rather than "riot control", etc. Sure, some will take offense, but that's a very welcome thing as opposed to apathy. But there's always the eventual dilution of effect to consider...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TheSubCommander]

Actually, one for each species destroyed, I trust.

Which I suppose was NebusJ's point. There's less danger in using horrid words than in using pretty ones - in calling people "retired murderers" rather than "war veterans", or events "slaughter" rather than "riot control", etc. Sure, some will take offense, but that's a very welcome thing as opposed to apathy. But there's always the eventual dilution of effect to consider...

Timo Saloniemi

For each planet destroyed by the Borg? Probably more accurate to say.

But if you mean for each captured species now part of the Borg, I suppose you can make that argument too, especially if almost 100 percent of a species was assimilated. But the thing is, it really comes down to an US VS THEM argument in the end. If a bigger, stronger enemy who has attacked you in the past and likely will in the future (indeed the Borg DID attack Earth a second time, and were on their way for a third in End Game, until it was thwarted), AND they have the capability of not just defeating you, but utterly destroying you and turning you into a technozombie, and there is no negotiating any peace, then killing them first before killing you, is justified, as long as it is done out of survival, and not malice.

No one should be concerned if the Borg nanites are sentient or not. And as for those captured by the Borg, who is to say that the virus is going to kill the assimilated species of the Borg. It could have actually liberated them.

 

[Marsden]

Crusher ran out of 24th century Prozac and the nearest Starbase that carried it is three-hundred years in the future.

I think that's as good an explanation as any how Picard can be recovered so fast so many times.

He's been assimilated, tricked into thinking he's a flute player, kidnapped, kills a whole team of terrorists single handedly, tortured, and is forced to stay in a cave with Wesley, (I saved the worst for last)

The guy must be medicated or he'd be in the tank with Garth and Dr Van Gelder.