Seven's Borg Implants (spoilers for S2)

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

In S2, Seven of Nine wakes up in Bizarro World thanks to Q changing the past and shielding Picard and friends from the changing timeline. She got to spend 7 1/2 episodes Borg-tech free. After being fatally stabbed, the Borg Queen saves her via assimilation. Now, she could have just used her Borg tech to just heal the stab wound. She could have just randomly partially assimilated Seven. How did the Borg Queen know to partially assimilated Seven to exactly how she was in the prime timeline?

 

[fireproof78]

In S2, Seven of Nine wakes up in Bizarro World thanks to Q changing the past and shielding Picard and friends from the changing timeline. She got to spend 7 1/2 episodes Borg-tech free. After being fatally stabbed, the Borg Queen saves her via assimilation. Now, she could have just used her Borg tech to just heal the stab wound. She could have just randomly partially assimilated Seven. How did the Borg Queen know to partially assimilated Seven to exactly how she was in the prime timeline?

She read Seven's mind.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

She read Seven's mind.

Would Seven's 100% human brain retain the exact configuration of 18% Borg technology throughout her body?

 

[fireproof78]

Would Seven's 100% human brain retain the exact configuration of 18% Borg technology throughout her body?

I imagine there is some measure of visceral memory that goes along with those implants since they are meant to replace and enhance the physical body.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I imagine there is some measure of visceral memory that goes along with those implants since they are meant to replace and enhance the physical body.

Perhaps, but when Seven was deborgified, the remaining Borg tech couldn't be removed, because it replaced organic elements that just didn't exist anymore, at least that's how I always understood it. I remember her left eye was synthesized by the Doctor to replace her eye piece as she no longer had a left eyeball. I get they wanted her to look "restored to ex-Borg," but it shouldn't have been identical to before.

 

[fireproof78]

Perhaps, but when Seven was deborgified, the remaining Borg tech couldn't be removed, because it replaced organic elements that just didn't exist anymore, at least that's how I always understood it. I remember her left eye was synthesized by the Doctor to replace her eye piece as she no longer had a left eyeball. I get they wanted her to look "restored to ex-Borg," but it shouldn't have been identical to before.

Familiarity breeds comfort.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Familiarity breeds comfort.

OK?

 

[fireproof78]

OK?

So, if Seven needed implants she might want the familiar ones if her body remembered them.

 

[evilchumlee]

How did the Borg Queen know to partially assimilated Seven to exactly how she was in the prime timeline?

There is an indication that the Borg Queen has some sort of vaguely defined connection to other universes/timelines. The Confederation Timeline Borg Queen had some form of access to the knowledge of the Prime Borg Queen's knowledge, who in turn would know Seven's implants.

For a more exotic answer... the Queen didn't just heal Seven through traditional assimilation. Whatever it was that she did actually temporally shifted Seven, essentially merging her with her Prime form.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

So, if Seven needed implants she might want the familiar ones if her body remembered them.

Her body can't remember, her body has never been assimilated, only her consciousness was forwarded from prime timeline to Bizarro World. Realistically, only her wound would need "assimilating." I just think it'd have been interesting if Seven had a new partial-Borg look. When Q snaps he back to the future, she can go back to her "familiar" look.

 

[fireproof78]

Her body can't remember, her body has never been assimilated, only her consciousness was forwarded from prime timeline to Bizarro World. Realistically, only her wound would need "assimilating." I just think it'd have been interesting if Seven had a new partial-Borg look. When Q snaps he back to the future, she can go back to her "familiar" look.

Meh. It's Q. It can remember what he wants it to remember.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Meh. It's Q. It can remember what he wants it to remember.

But that's not what we're shown. Q is dying, either old or ill, and his powers are almost dried up. He was even having difficulty changing the past, having to do things the human way for the most part.

 

[fireproof78]

But that's not what we're shown. Q is dying, either old or ill, and his powers are almost dried up. He was even having difficulty changing the past, having to do things the human way for the most part.

I don't believe Q.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

There is an indication that the Borg Queen has some sort of vaguely defined connection to other universes/timelines. The Confederation Timeline Borg Queen had some form of access to the knowledge of the Prime Borg Queen's knowledge, who in turn would know Seven's implants.

For a more exotic answer... the Queen didn't just heal Seven through traditional assimilation. Whatever it was that she did actually temporally shifted Seven, essentially merging her with her Prime form.

The Borg Queen is aware of alternate timelines, not parallel worlds. Q shifting the timeline plus the Queen's isolation from the collective ('cause they are dead) likely screwed with her head as we saw in the show. Once she jumped back in time to before the timeline forks, she got it together. You do make a point, the Queen would likely know exactly how Seven's ex-Borg implants were laid out. Why recreate that, though? There's nothing in the episode that says anything "temporal" happened.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

I don't believe Q.

Well, it's what the writers were going for.

 

[fireproof78]

Well, it's what the writers were going for.

Possibly.

It doesn't land as convincing from the season, as well as the way Q has been in the past. So, him "dying" sounds as significant as Q convincing Picard that he was about to die in "All Good Things."

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Man, that's a moment that fell entirely flat for me. I get that they were doing a thing about Seven's Borg implants being a part of who she was, or whatever (I forget), so it made sense for the storytelling that she'd look the same as she did in the Prime Timeline. But she really shouldn't have looked the same as she did. There's no good explanation for that and certainly nothing my brain could provide me in the moment.

The sad thing is, Picard season 2 was so ridiculous that it didn't even break my suspension of disbelief. I'd stopped taking any of it seriously weeks ago, so it was just one more dumb thing for the big pile of dumb.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Man, that's a moment that fell entirely flat for me. I get that they were doing a thing about Seven's Borg implants being a part of who she was, or whatever (I forget), so it made sense for the storytelling that she'd look the same as she did in the Prime Timeline. But she really shouldn't have looked the same as she did. There's no good explanation for that and certainly nothing my brain could provide me in the moment.

I think there's a simple way to have handled this. Let the partial-Borgified Seven look different when the Queen "heals" her. When she snaps back to the future via Q, she also reverts to the Borg tech in her body she had prior to Bizarro World. This gives the audience both new and familiar.

The sad thing is, Picard season 2 was so ridiculous that it didn't even break my suspension of disbelief. I'd stopped taking any of it seriously weeks ago, so it was just one more dumb thing for the big pile of dumb.

CSI: Picard

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Yeah, that's how I wish they'd done it. Make her look like one of the freshly assimilated crewmembers in First Contact. Not full Borg but not her Prime Timeline look either. Then when she returns to the future, she gets her familiar appearance back.

 

[Admiral Jean-Luc Picard]

Yeah, that's how I wish they'd done it. Make her look like one of the freshly assimilated crewmembers in First Contact. Not full Borg but not her Prime Timeline look either. Then when she returns to the future, she gets her familiar appearance back.

Overall, Season 2 was fun. There's just a lot of WTF "CSI: Picard" nonsense going on. It opened with 3 strong episodes and ended with 2 strong episodes, so there's at least that. I feel like they had story here to do a 4-5 episode arc and didn't know what to do mid-season.