Which was the federations greatest enemy?

For me, it's a tough choice between the Borg and the Romulans.

The Borg are an obvious choice because of the success of so many of the episodes they were in and First Contact. They presented a huge threat to the federation which transcended anything that starfleet was dealing with within the alpha or beta quadrants. Their mystique and raw power made them extremely intriguing. Their unique view of the universe and their main goal of perfection also sparks a big level of interest. Not to mention the basics of what they are, being part biological and part machine. Which is cool just by itself.

The ruthlessness of the Borg was a real point of wonder in a sort of sick way haha. It was as though you knew what they were doing was wrong, but also understood that it might be how a machine thinks, and therefore they didn't necessarily seem to be "pure" evil. You knew that they didn't actually believe what they were doing was making things worse for the people they attacked. They genuinely believed it would be better for those people if they were apart of the collective. Even once the Queen came about and more sinister human type emotions were added to the Borg, she still went about things in such a way as to assimilate rather than destroy. For the most part at least. Sometimes she went off on a tangent haha.

Whilst the Romulans had many great episodes in the series. Nemesis did fail to be a great movie in many aspects. I especially think the Romulan Empire was not portrayed in as grandiose a way that it should of been, and that their huge military power was not put on show at all basically. Star trek 2009 did much the same thing, yet was a more critically acclaimed movie compared to Nemesis no doubt.

The Romulans always invoked images of power and pride. Their ships were bigger and better than federation ships. Their culture was also shrouded in mystery and in most instances it certainly felt as though the Romulans were in fact the most powerful faction of the quadrant. It was always cool to have such an imposing force right on the doorstep of the federation. Just the name alone sounds awesome... "Romulan Star Empire". If some alien you ever ran into said they were apart of the Romulan Star Empire, you'd be like "that sounds awesome, can I join?".

Something about Romulan ships is what does it for me mainly I think. The look of the the type B warbirds and their imposing look and practical power and evasiveness from their cloak. The Scimitar though. That ship is one of the coolest designs to ever come out of a sci-fi franchise in my opinion. It just looked so menacing and it had the best introduction of any ship in all of star trek. No other ship made Picard and the whole crew freak out as much as the Scimitar did when it first was introduced. It had everything. The look, the double shields, the amount of weapons of whole fleet, it's cloak, and it also had a doomsday device which made it the supreme threat in all the galaxy.

So yeah, I'm not sure if I can decide to be honest haha. I like the Borg because of their vastness and unusual methods and philosophy. However, I also like the Romulans because of just how grand their culture is and how awesome their star ships are.

If someone has the dominion as their choice, then I'd like to hear why? Because I have only recently begun DS9 again to try and get into it (for some reason it never took off for me). So far I've liked it a lot. The Dominion seem as though they could hold a similar position to the Romulans. So I'd like to hear thoughts on them as well

 

The Founders.

 

Itself, of course.

 

Definitely the Borg.

Although the Dominion are a close second.

 

The Federation's biggest enemy is obviously...

MAN!

 

"Gene's vision."

 

Brian Brophy and Pennywise

 

Actually? Haha

 

The

Is that first one actually from star trek or just a picture of a giant blunt in space? Haha

 

Human behavior

 

Its own sheer fucking hubris.

 

Perhaps the market's desire for "grit", "more realism", and "darker stories". That caused organisations such as section 31 to be thought up within the Federation, after all.

(Which is not to say I thought it was a bad idea story-telling wise.)

 

Why is everyone saying the federation was its own worst enemy? Haha

I'm not sure if it's reasonable to say that something like the federation is its own worst enemy. For other organisations or people who don't strive to be better than they are on the whole, and have a core belief system that basically promotes a sort cannibalism of itself, then yeah I'd say it's ok to label that particular thing as an enemy of itself.

Yet the federation isn't like that at all. It's core beliefs and the majority of star fleet are what guides progress and makes it possible. Only a select few within star fleet are responsible for major set backs or dissent. These people don't act using the ideals of star fleet but rather act upon selfish desires.

I can't remember an episode where a person openly or covertly revolted against the federation or defied it's belief system whilst at the same time having a more "ethical" belief system of their own of which they were working off.

I'm talking mainly about TNG and Voyager here by the way.

Although I did see quite a bit of arrogance at the top of the chain of command within star fleet. I still have to say that, overall, they seemed to be doing their best to overcome the parts of the human condition that make us fall short sometimes.

I mean, to say that the federation is its own worst enemy is almost like saying old age is the human body's worst enemy even if that human body is in a war with a Romulan, a Borg and Jem Hadar haha. It's like yeah, old age does suck, and it's part of the make up of that body. But there are many other things around it wanting to cause it harm of a more immediate and destructive nature.

 

The Cylons.

 

Because we see so much ability for corruption at the top of the chain of command in Starfleet. In DS9 Admiral Leyton attempts a coup from the Federation president due to fears over the Founders. He is able to do so because the president trusts him so much and he has built up so much support within Starfleet.

And that's not the mention various other admirals who go a little crazy.

 

The Federation’s greatest enemy is itself.

 

Insane admirals.

 

Yeah I understand that, but out of all of the admirals and throughout all of star fleet, how many have we seen revolt to some degree or attempt a coup? Not counting ones that are under the effect of mind control or something. Only a handful really.

Now that's not to say that still isn't a problem. Yet like I've said, it's hardly their greatest enemy.

I certainly wouldn't put seditious admirals above the Borg haha On one hand we have a rare few humans trying to abuse the system basically. On the other hand we have a species (or group of species) that is determined to destroy the federation and almost succeed multiple times.