Speaking of the Borg and how they were executed at the very beginning, I have to say that I definetely prefer the pale white ghostly TNG-era Borg over these one-button-clicking, discolight dancing, weak and lousy Borg from VOY.
*snicker*
VOY did take things too far, Unimatrix Zero
easily comes to mind...
The TNG versions did have more menace, especially Q-WHO and TBOBW and even I Borg up to a point.
Once STFC introduced the tubules that can start to convert anyone on the fly did they start to suffer. They can assimilate with a magic wand. A few years later Starfleet can fake assimilation with a magic wand and yet it's a cliffhanger we're supposed to be scared by. Borg rot did start before VOY, which is fun since VOY's life got extended because of the Borg and the Borg Queen wasn't even brought into VOY until season 5, suggesting seasons 3 and 4 were almost trying to ditch the idea of a Queenand go back to basics with the Collective...
When I remember watching "QWho" there was such a great tension from the moment when Guinan knew something was wrong. In this episode and the following two parter between the seasons 3 and 4 the Borg were really powerful, relentless, unstoppable and so frightening. Even today I'm more scared than everything when I see the first Borg acting. And I was totally fine with the fact that there was no queen, although they later said that she was there.
Those episodes hold up amazingly well, even with what one would have guessed correctly beforehand or despite what did transpire. The writing and acting are so perfect. And both, especially QWho, sell the danger of a true unknown threat extremely well. No Queen is really needed to tell us about limited three dimensional terms (she's like the Master from Doctor Who or Palpatine from Star Wars, returning with the smallest (if any) explanation. )
Or the Queen could have been a new factor instead of a retconned one; the Borg - despite their size and prowess - needed a central coordinator to prioritize instead of being one big lumpy gestalt. And not a generic drone either, this new model needed free rein. So in a way they did adapt, even though it's not really needed to have done. She is well acted by both, but still the idea of a gestalt as large and scaled as the Borg were formidable on their own and Riker nailed their description in QWho.
The only problem is that every time the Federation conjures up a solution that the Borg need to adapt as well. The Borg rarely did... Granted, "I Borg" took what is actually in concept a novel turn. The outcome was iffy but there was still a sense of threat and menace. Until the plot demanded that characters, who were very resolute before, now change so quickly so fast and in a situation that's atypical if not outright abnormal. How come nobody tried to find the distributed/redundant communications subsystems instead of showing them a signed "Wish you were here" postcard of some annoying image, which wouldn't cause them to go nuts - and only because it wasn't Kirk that signed it... Kirk's reputation after TOS season two is indeed galactic; the very sight of his name causes computers across the galaxy to go haywire. The moment he shows up and utters a syllable is when most of them promptly explode.
I also dig the sets they built for the cube. They were sterile looking and really interesting to look at. I wish they would have had a bigger budget in the TNG days.
And proof that a big big budget isn't always necessary to sell it. They did
wonders with what they had and it wasn't even lit with < 10 lumens to hide imperfections. Right down to 5.25" floppy drive covers cleverly repurposed. (By 1985, 3.5" disks were standard and 5.25" units were on their way out, so wherever they got their dumpster o' goodies from they were eminently creative in making them add to the looks of something vastly different and I love it. Even the green monochrome monitors had more presence than the RGB ones (or those circular lightning generation things you'd find at Spencer Gifts) used in the big budget films and later series.)
Concerning VOY Borg sets I would say that darker does not mean more frightening, right?
Total agreement. The green and yellow hues were there to duly sell a sense of sick, but it feels more theatrical than QWHO and TBOBW, which relied more on lighting for shadow detail as well as the mystique and sense of presence -- instead of the Studio 54 lights to complement an overly darkly lit set, which feels artificial and even phony. At the time it looked better than what preceded it but long after then, the "shiny newness" and bias that goes with it wore off.
And yes, I'm okay with how the Borg evolved during TNG. Initially starting as a race of a collective that assimilates and consumes technology from other species and later wiping out and assimilating whole civilizations. That made them even more frightening.
My only real issue with that is that the Borg are clearly more advanced than the Federation and its regular gaggle of adversaries. Save for the cloaking device, of which that could be used only once for dramatic shock horror effect but then the return on it plummets. But I digress, if the Borg are so much more advanced then what's so great about the flagship's technology? Are they going to build a Cube than can separate into lots of itty bitty cubes? I mean, they already have directional phasers. Or never bothered to take what they learned prior to STFC and make numerous phaser arrays or find a way to have multiple beams shot out simultaneously or fast enough, or even to just bring over two ships instead of one to be done with the pesky Federation ships, etc- they only adapt when the plot needs to and they don't because they're not allowed to win in the script. At least each hand phaser allows them half a dozen shots before the Borg adapt to the 1 or 2 shot chance claimed (come on, the Borg's collective beanie would quickly analyze the frequencies and add to them and faster than Geordi changing the shield emitter to change frequencies every time a Borg cube or sphere or diamond or clover or horseshoe arrives). But multiple itty bitty cubes -- that would look more comedic than anything else...
To me it is good and bad they did not overdo the Borg during TNG. I would have liked to see them in their collective state being intact again with a new story involving the Ent-D, assimilating people but on the other hand, the dose they wwre used was perfect if you put it in contrast to VOY.
Yeah, that harks back to "Scorpion" - which IMHO is VOY's best Borg outing. Season 4 had a lot of Borg-themed episodes, which worked, but as far as actual Borg-are-the-baddies episodes, "Dark Frontier" might be their last best outing and even then part of me still prefers "Scorpion", warts and all.
Well there is still so much potential to the Borg collective. Soon I will read the Destiny cicle.
There still is but how to flesh it out, so to speak, without it coming across as hollow, superficial, empty, done redux to death, etc... Maybe PIC will succeed in this. It's way too early in the show's run though.
