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Idea for making the Borg scary again

I think the Borg should remain a past threat. There is some drama to be had from ex-Borg or civilisations struggling to re-build after loosing so many to Borg assimilations.
 
I think the Borg should remain a past threat. There is some drama to be had from ex-Borg or civilisations struggling to re-build after loosing so many to Borg assimilations.
This. Picard learning to see Borg as fellow victims instead of monsters in Picard was great, as was the whole idea of Romulans reclaiming drones on the abandoned cube in PIC.
 
They have been defeated by humans so many times, one wonders how adaptable they actually are. It would be really creepy if they actually changed strategy and tried something like diplomacy. Three dimensional villains were always the best. Think of this, they establish an embassy on Earth, and offer free, non-individualism-killing implants, or collective consciousness tryouts. It'd be really freaky if people actually started joining them of their own volition. Ooh, and that gives us shades of gray, gotta love them! Dunno where I'd go with that story, but it'd be a fresh new take on the worn out cyberzombies.

1. Well they do adopt the odd strategy of sending a single cube only at the 24th C Earth. There are no exact numbers on Borg fleet size, but it appears that it is large. I think 50 Cubes or 100 would be a lot harder to stop. Obviously.

2. Naturally where you would go is something underhanded, like they plan on activating some virus or program that will infect all those who volunteered to have the tech installed. This would turn them into drones.

3. I don't know if this would make them any scarier. I do think that if you offer people upgrades that make people superhumanly strong, radically extend their lifespans, improve their cognitive acuity, and with nano probe immune systems that made them virtually invulnerable to most diseases, etc there would be no shortage of sign ups.

But it would be better to do that thru front companies and proxies. For instance that trade in Borg parts and tech that we see in Picard could be written as something the Borg know about. They want their tech to reach a wide number of people. They may even be feeding bits of their tech to the Black market, exactly for that reason.

This I think is a better version of that story, than Borg openly offering it.
 
The Borg, regardless of how futile it is, love resistance. They strive off of it. They wanted Picard to develop that logic puzzle to them. They loved when the Brunali infected those kids and sent them off into the Collective. If you're a Kazon warping through their territory, whatever. Get moving, Bozo. But, hey, wait, you're this ten foot tall CGI non-humanoid monster with organic warp ships and impermeable to assimilation? Let's take a look at that thing! You can wander through the corridors of a Borg ship whistling Dixie all day long, and they won't blink an ocular implant, but the minute you start gunning down their drones... game on, motherf@!er!

The Borg seek perfection through active resistance, either offensive or defensive. When resistance is light or dwindling, they send another Borg cube to mess up their homeworld or take down a fleet or two. Just to get them back to work so they can get their latest adversary all the more powerful (nothing beats militarized technological development), so they get more powerful when then, inevitably win in the end.
 
I think the Borg are played out.

While the Borg is an interesting villain maybe there aren't many times when it can be used as a villain. If the Borg is beaten several times over and over again how scary can it be? Maybe the Borg should've been kept in TNG only and not used again after 'Descent' ?
 
CBR had the theory that humanity was being groomed…with a Destiny type invasion coming after the Federation had advanced to be more desirable
 
I think it would have been best if the Borg were used once-the Enterprise D's first encounter with them.

Which would have shown that there are terrors beyond known space that could overwhelm you.
 
In the Destiny trilogy, a fleet of over seven thousand Borg cubes invades Federation space with the new mantra, You will be annihilated. And they came damn close to succeeding in that claim, even up against transphasic torpedoes.

I won't spoil the books, but I can't really imagine a more suitable Borg storyline given the way they're regarded by fandom these days.

I think Picard should have gone more down the line of keeping with the novels. Having the Borg in there serves no real importance, and it’s going to make the authors scramble to figure out how to tie it all together. I thought the Destiny novels were great, with the added benefit of none of the following books having to deal with the Borg, either.
 
I think Picard should have gone more down the line of keeping with the novels.
That was never going to happen. It's a proven fact that the novels are only read by 1% of fandom. There's no way in hell a TV show was going to be made that would only make sense to 1% of the target audience. The tail does not wag the dog in the Star Trek franchise.
 
I think Picard should have gone more down the line of keeping with the novels. Having the Borg in there serves no real importance, and it’s going to make the authors scramble to figure out how to tie it all together. I thought the Destiny novels were great, with the added benefit of none of the following books having to deal with the Borg, either.

You missed the point of Picard. The Borg weren't there to be a threat, they were there to explore one of the larger themes of the season of how organic life has a tendency to dehumanise, misuse and abuse inorganic life.
 
I'm curious the status of the Borg in Discovery's new era. I get the impression they're gone or freed

Lower Decks implies that they exist in the Far Future at a point where Borg children are educated alongside humans, Ferengi, Andorians, and Caitians as apparent equals. This is presumably (but not necessarily) after the Discovery era.

Living Witness shows us Borg treated as an historical boogeyman by the 31st century Kyrians in their "Voyager Encounter" propaganda regarding events of the 24th century. It doesn't tell us if Borg were a known entity in 31st century Delta Quadrant society (where the Federation is an unknown culture, outside of Voyager), but does imply that they have multiple sources on exactly who the Borg were and what they did, beyond their comparatively incomplete sources regarding Voyager.

Lower Decks and Living Witness, in addition to the complete lack of Borg in Discovery's 32nd century, does show us that the Borg are likely doing what they've always seemed to have done: Staying in their territory and doing their own thing. They assimilate, certainly, but we've had zero evidence of recent expansionism on the part of the Borg. In the Lower Decks, O'Brien-Worshipping Culture, the Borg seem to have entered a period of peaceful coexistence with other galactic species (or, alternatively, that's an xB, a cosplayer, or just a cyborg who looks kind of like a Borg).
 
The Borg were mixed up in a Civil War with the free drones and then the virus from Endgame did a huge amount of damage so you expect The Borg were eventually defeated over the next decades or maybe centuries. The Borg civil war started in Voyager's 7th season was a great concept IMO and it should of played a part in Voyager's end but was just dropped.
 
We need to see how scary the Borg are in alternate timelines.

Borg cubes that cloak, can fire while cloaked, and have assimilated Krall’s swarm ships. Have them assimilate Earth, Vulcan, Qonos. See the Dominion and Remans struggle against them. Basically, we have to see how hopeless it can be facing the Borg. Remember in “Parallels” how in an alternate timeline Riker was terrified and stated that the Borg are everywhere? That’s what’s needed.
 
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