Why were the Borg so obsessed with Earth?
- Thread starter Infern0
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Robert DeSoto
Lieutenant Commander
I don't think they were obsessed. They only sent two ships, and took like what? Six years in between?
When they attacked the El-Aurians, they "swarmed" the system. In Dark Frontier, the Borg sent three ships (at the same time) to assimilate an alien world that had 39 starships defending it. And for more important targets, like Species 8472, they send entire fleets.
If the Borg were really obsessed with assimilating Earth, they could send an entire invasion fleet of cubes and it would be over. Hell, the entire Alpha Qudrant wouldn't stand a chance. And when the Borg assimilate Bajor, they'll go through the wormhole and assimilate the Gamma Quadrant too.
When they attacked the El-Aurians, they "swarmed" the system. In Dark Frontier, the Borg sent three ships (at the same time) to assimilate an alien world that had 39 starships defending it. And for more important targets, like Species 8472, they send entire fleets.
If the Borg were really obsessed with assimilating Earth, they could send an entire invasion fleet of cubes and it would be over. Hell, the entire Alpha Qudrant wouldn't stand a chance. And when the Borg assimilate Bajor, they'll go through the wormhole and assimilate the Gamma Quadrant too.
I always wondered why they only sent one cube. If they really wanted Earth for their collection, why not send 50 cubes? Starfleet wouldn't have a chance in hell. Especially since they have this transwarp hub thingy in 'Endgame' which can spit out ships anywhere in the Milky Way at the drop of a hat. Also, yes, they should have taken out Bajor. Then the Gamma Quadrant would be theirs as well.
It might already be, though. As might Alpha, and Beta. It's not as if anybody can stop them from doing what they want to do there, after all.
So what if all they want of us is to poke at our primitive civilization and watch us panic and run in circles? That's their prerogative as a superior species...
timo Saloniemi
So what if all they want of us is to poke at our primitive civilization and watch us panic and run in circles? That's their prerogative as a superior species...
timo Saloniemi
number6
Vice Admiral
Earth is a founding member of the UFP. It's headquarters are there. Humans are considered the root of humanity (for the Star Trek universe, anyway..), so it's reasonable to conclude that assimilating Earth is the first step in assimilating all of humanity. With Jean-Luc Picard the de facto leader of Starfleet, the exploration arm of the UFP, it seems reasonable to believe that Picard should have been turned into Locutus to be a familiar face for the newly assimilated from Federation worlds.
That said, I don't think they were obsessed, but Earth was certainly important to their ultimate plan.
YMMV..
That said, I don't think they were obsessed, but Earth was certainly important to their ultimate plan.
YMMV..
It looks more like Picard just happened to stumble upon the Borg, by virtue of Starfleet considering him suitably experienced/expedient/expendable to investigate the silencing of the Jouret colony. He wasn't chosen by the Borg.
Also, when entire species were previously assimilated by the Borg, it appeared that the homeworld of the species was their very last target - as in the backstory of "Hope and Fear" or the example from "Dark Frontier". Virtually all the other members of the species had already been hunted down at that point, leaving Arturis the sole survivor (to his best knowledge) in "Hope and Fear" and the small shipful of refugees in "Dark Frontier" the only loose end for Seven to tie up at the Queen's behest.
Timo Saloniemi
Also, when entire species were previously assimilated by the Borg, it appeared that the homeworld of the species was their very last target - as in the backstory of "Hope and Fear" or the example from "Dark Frontier". Virtually all the other members of the species had already been hunted down at that point, leaving Arturis the sole survivor (to his best knowledge) in "Hope and Fear" and the small shipful of refugees in "Dark Frontier" the only loose end for Seven to tie up at the Queen's behest.
Timo Saloniemi
With the exception of a small number of Queens, the Borg wouldn't seem to have any kind of upper level command structure, it's possible that the Borg have considerable amount of trouble making long range strategic decisions.
The Borgs heavy reaction to species 8472 might have been just that, a reaction. Defensive in nature. Q intimated that the El Aurians were more dangerous than they seemed, or at least Guinan was. Again defensive in nature. The two cubes that attacked Earth (at six year intervals) might have been the result of passing whims on the part of the Borg collective consciousness. A consciousness that has trouble paying attention to anything for any period of time.
The Borg have ADHD.
The Borgs heavy reaction to species 8472 might have been just that, a reaction. Defensive in nature. Q intimated that the El Aurians were more dangerous than they seemed, or at least Guinan was. Again defensive in nature. The two cubes that attacked Earth (at six year intervals) might have been the result of passing whims on the part of the Borg collective consciousness. A consciousness that has trouble paying attention to anything for any period of time.
The Borg have ADHD.
In the Borg Collective, Earth is listed as "mostly harmless" and only worth assimilating for some dish called pizza...
The Borg can't inovate, but they know other species can. So I figure that they send less than their best against non-assimilated species, learn from those encounters, and in the case of the Federation, those defeats, and then, when the Borg believe the species has reached the point where they can't inovate anything better, they unleash the might of the full Collective on them. They learn more from the Federation that has created numerous weapons designed specifically against the Borg than they would have from the Federation that hasn't had to come up with these ideas to fend off the Borg.
read the Destiny trilogy.
The borg were probably more interested inQ's ability to travel at massive speeds and wouldn't have know that this wasn't a technological aspect of the Federation until they had assimilated a few ships and people. Generally speaking though, I can't see any reason why they'd be that interested in large numbers of humans or human technology.
'Cos that's where all the main characters, and the viewers are from!
Well as I see it, the Q were pretty interested in Humanity because of our apparent ability to quickly develop technology compared to most other species and had a unique perspective on the universe (or so Star Trek would have us believe anyways)
They only sent one cube because from their past experience with the Enterprise D, they didn't need to send anymore and figured one ship would be efficient enough to complete the task.... which they later learned that they over estimated our abilities to adapt and defeat them.... thus we were on a slight level of challenge and interest for them.
After they lost one cube (which at the time I assume was something very uncommon for the borg to experience) they seemed to take their time after that to calculate their next move more carefully...... they've been around for like ever, the Federation didn't seem to be an extreme threat to their existence, thus a couple of years here and there between attacks probably wasn't that big of a deal for them.
The borg had yet to expand into the gamma quadrant and by the time the Federation found the worm hole and encountered the Dominion was around the same time the Borg had their hands full with Species 8472 in the Delta Quadrant.... thus I imagine Humans were sent to the back burner in regards to their plans of assimilation.
I often wondered what'd happen if the Borg assimilated the founders...if it's even possible.
I assume they'd be similar to Species 8472.... mainly because.... well.... how do you apply Borg implants to a glob of goo that reverts back to its natural state after a few hours?
They were probably only testing the water to see how far the Fed has advanced. They sent a total of two ships...and they were probably the least valuable drones and ships... Not all species are the same.... Humans, for example, make poor drones, with below average cranial capabilities and physiologically. They probably calculated which is the best way to use their resources in order to assimilate earth, the Fed, and the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. Sending something, like, a fleet of huge tactical cubes or other more valuable ships from the other side of galaxy would waste a lot of their energy resource. A major drain in the resources which could be spent building more ships, or whatever it is that they do. Kindda like the Borg economy! 
So what did they do? They built a transwarp conduit, which led directly to Sector 001. And from there, they could spread out and conquer the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. I mean... If you consider Voyager as part of ST...
So what did they do? They built a transwarp conduit, which led directly to Sector 001. And from there, they could spread out and conquer the rest of the Alpha Quadrant. I mean... If you consider Voyager as part of ST...
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Give your enemies time to create new technologies then nick them. Which is what they do - assimilate.
We never saw the Borg R&D team - there wasn't one. Which is why they struggled against Species 8472 and needed Voyager's help
I suppose the real question is since Time-Travel is so easy to them in First Contact why they don't just cheat and use that more often, but maybe they can see that gets complicated
Maybe it wasn't all that easy for them. The time travel device used in First Contact might have been one of a kind. The Borg assimilated it from a ship they encountered, from the crew they found out how to use it, however they could not reverse engineer the time travel device and so couldn't reproduce it.
The Borg don't invent, they use.
The cube that went to Earth in FC was the cube that originally assimilated the device and those Borg mounted it in their sphere, possibly it wouldn't move the entire large cube through time. Being one of a kind the Borg weren't going to use it unless they had to, to accomplish their assimilation of Earth.
Alternately, we could argue that the Borg only use time travel when other means catastrophically fail them. And so far, we haven't exactly seen Borg failures - except for the final one, in "Endgame".
Perhaps VOY followed a particularly interesting timeline to its conclusion, after which the Borg reset it with time travel so that the transwarp node was not lost after all?
Timo Saloniemi
Perhaps VOY followed a particularly interesting timeline to its conclusion, after which the Borg reset it with time travel so that the transwarp node was not lost after all?
Timo Saloniemi
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