Why do people keep saying Voyager weakened the Borg?

[DGCatAniSiri]

I say that the moment the Borg lost their teeth for me was Dark Frontier. On its own, a very impressive episode. As a part of the overall Trek mythos, it took the menace of the Borg away. A small scoutship manages to walk onto the Borg's front doorstep and fly away unscathed. That should never have happened. The moment the Voyager crew made it to the unicomplex was the moment that the Borg lost their fangs. This is supposed to be the heart of Borg space, the seat of their 'power,' for lack of a better word. And the Voyager crew manage to make a fool of the Collective and walk away.

THAT was when they lost their ability to be a terrifying villain, at least in my book.

 

[Anwar]

If they had found some teleporting device that allowed them to pop to the Unicomplex and then teleport away without anything left to trace, would anyone complain about that?

 

[zar]

Along with this zombie effect there was critical color added to all borg functions....green...tractor beams, lights of any kind and weapons were suddenly and inexplicably all green.

Wait... what became green that wasn't already green? In Q Who, the Borg ship had a green inner glow, green torpedoes, a green tractor beam, a green transporter effect, and there was green energy crackling around the tools on the drones' arms.

 

[SonicRanger]

The simplicity with which the crew was un-Borged in Unimatrix Zero had to be one of the worst "weakening" issues. Why didn't they get cortical nodes in the middle of their foreheads?

 

[Anwar]

Picard got de-Borged pretty easily. He didn't have a cortical node either.

I'm guessing they didn't get them because they were all adults when they were assimilated, as opposed to an undeveloped child.

 

[ALF]

I thought what they did with the Borg was fine.
The two parter set in the "minds" of former drones was pretty boring to me, though.

 

[Saquist]

Along with this zombie effect there was critical color added to all borg functions....green...tractor beams, lights of any kind and weapons were suddenly and inexplicably all green.

Wait... what became green that wasn't already green? In Q Who, the Borg ship had a green inner glow, green torpedoes, a green tractor beam, a green transporter effect, and there was green energy crackling around the tools on the drones' arms.

No there was no green inner glow in Q who. Nor Green spolt lights.
The tractor beam in Q Who is blue. The BOBW borg tractor beam might be considered green.

 

[Anwar]

The inner glow in Q Who? and BOBW was white.

No, the Borg Tractor beam in BOBW was blue and the cutting beam was white/yellow.

But in BOBW we also see them shooting some kind of energy weapon that's green (when they're shooting down the Mars Defense ships).

The Borg weapons in "Descent" are all green though. From the troopers to the big ship.

 

[zar]

No there was no green inner glow in Q who. Nor Green spolt lights.
The tractor beam in Q Who is blue. The BOBW borg tractor beam might be considered green.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Category:Memory_Alpha_images_by_episode_(TNG:_Q_Who)

Green inner glow can be seen in the first cube interior shot and all the exterior shots.

The green tractor beam is in the very last shot.

There's also a green "shield neutralizer" here.

The only Borg effects in this episode that weren't green were the personal shields and the cutting beam.

 

[Anwar]

I liked the blue tractor beam better, actually.

 

[ALF]

Is this going to be the next "Blue Warp Nacelles" thread?
Instead blue Borg tractor beams?

 

[F. King Daniel]

Someone put a sombrero on a Borg cube. A Borg cube shooting BLUE tractor beams! Right freaking now!!

 

[froot]

So, while digging through screenshots, I noticed they made the Borg in the flashbacks in "Dark Frontier" look like TNG-era Borg (they had mottled skin, though.)

They must have assimilated a species along the way who thought they looked silly and told them to update their look.

 

[F. King Daniel]

^
Thank you, froot

 

[Kadratis]

Voyager Borg Episodes

Blood Fever: A dead drone; not applicable.
Unity: The cube was destroyed by the ex-drones via an overload; not applicable.
Scorpion: Didn't destroy any Borg; Borg destruction was performed by Species 8472.
The Gift: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Raven: No Borg ships; not applicable.
One: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Hope and Fear: Eventually avoided the Borg via Quantum Slipstream Drive; not applicable.
Drone: Borg sphere was destroyed by a Borg drone that was 500 years advanced than the current Borg (plausible). However, the lack of a swift attempt of an attempt to destroy and/or obtain the future drone is implausible.
Infinite Regress: The Borg ship had already been destroyed via an alien pathogen; not applicable.
Dark Frontier: A Borg probe is destroyed; Voyager had comparable firepower. However, the probe did not perform reasonable adaptation (partially implausible). A Borg sphere is boarded but not attacked by either party (not applicable). A Borg diamond (the Queen's Lair) was destroyed via torpedo destruction of a transwarp conduit (plausible).
Survival Instinct: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy: All Borg destruction with a photonic cannon is fantasized by the Doctor's imagination subroutine; not applicable.
Collective: The Borg cube's crew has already been destroyed/deactivated via an alien pathogen; five underdeveloped drones are in control of the cube. Voyager emits an energy pulse to retrieve Chakotay, Paris, and Neelix; however the pulse destabilizes the cube's transwarp core and the cube is destroyed (plausible due to the lack of adult/matured drones).
Unimatrix Zero: The destruction of a Borg Tactical Cube is performed by Voyager and a Borg Tactical Sphere (implausible).
Q2: The Borg cubes appear via young Q. The cubes quickly overcome Voyager's shields and board the Bridge. A drone attempts to insert his tubules into Janeway's neck when Q reappears. "If the Continuum has told you once, they have told you a thousand times: DON'T PROVOKE THE BORG!" (plausible)
Endgame: Several Borg ships (including a Borg Transwarp Hub) are destroyed using future Janeway's advanced armor and weaponry. Considering future-Janeway is later assimilated, the knowledge of the advanced technology should have been quickly counteracted (very implausible).

Meh, the Borg episodes of Voyager are more plausible to prior plot development from TNG and First Contact. I wouldn't call the Borg pussified.

So, while digging through screenshots, I noticed they made the Borg in the flashbacks in "Dark Frontier" look like TNG-era Borg (they had mottled skin, though.)

They must have assimilated a species along the way who thought they looked silly and told them to update their look.

"Gurl, go green! Makes you look slimmer!"

 

[Saquist]

No there was no green inner glow in Q who. Nor Green spolt lights.
The tractor beam in Q Who is blue. The BOBW borg tractor beam might be considered green.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Category:Memory_Alpha_images_by_episode_(TNG:_Q_Who)

Green inner glow can be seen in the first cube interior shot and all the exterior shots.

The green tractor beam is in the very last shot.

There's also a green "shield neutralizer" here.

The only Borg effects in this episode that weren't green were the personal shields and the cutting beam.

Note: the beam wasn't a tractor beam it served the purpose of draining the shields. Later they muffed this up in Emissary because the Beam is clearly blue that does the same task.

Voyager Borg Episodes

Blood Fever: A dead drone; not applicable.
Unity: The cube was destroyed by the ex-drones via an overload; not applicable.
Scorpion: Didn't destroy any Borg; Borg destruction was performed by Species 8472.
The Gift: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Raven: No Borg ships; not applicable.
One: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Hope and Fear: Eventually avoided the Borg via Quantum Slipstream Drive; not applicable.
Drone: Borg sphere was destroyed by a Borg drone that was 500 years advanced than the current Borg (plausible). However, the lack of a swift attempt of an attempt to destroy and/or obtain the future drone is implausible.
Infinite Regress: The Borg ship had already been destroyed via an alien pathogen; not applicable.
Dark Frontier: A Borg probe is destroyed; Voyager had comparable firepower. However, the probe did not perform reasonable adaptation (partially implausible). A Borg sphere is boarded but not attacked by either party (not applicable). A Borg diamond (the Queen's Lair) was destroyed via torpedo destruction of a transwarp conduit (plausible).
Survival Instinct: No Borg ships; not applicable.
Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy: All Borg destruction with a photonic cannon is fantasized by the Doctor's imagination subroutine; not applicable.
Collective: The Borg cube's crew has already been destroyed/deactivated via an alien pathogen; five underdeveloped drones are in control of the cube. Voyager emits an energy pulse to retrieve Chakotay, Paris, and Neelix; however the pulse destabilizes the cube's transwarp core and the cube is destroyed (plausible due to the lack of adult/matured drones).
Unimatrix Zero: The destruction of a Borg Tactical Cube is performed by Voyager and a Borg Tactical Sphere (implausible).
Q2: The Borg cubes appear via young Q. The cubes quickly overcome Voyager's shields and board the Bridge. A drone attempts to insert his tubules into Janeway's neck when Q reappears. "If the Continuum has told you once, they have told you a thousand times: DON'T PROVOKE THE BORG!" (plausible)
Endgame: Several Borg ships (including a Borg Transwarp Hub) are destroyed using future Janeway's advanced armor and weaponry. Considering future-Janeway is later assimilated, the knowledge of the advanced technology should have been quickly counteracted (very implausible).

Meh, the Borg episodes of Voyager are more plausible to prior plot development from TNG and First Contact. I wouldn't call the Borg pussified.

So, while digging through screenshots, I noticed they made the Borg in the flashbacks in "Dark Frontier" look like TNG-era Borg (they had mottled skin, though.)

They must have assimilated a species along the way who thought they looked silly and told them to update their look.

"Gurl, go green! Makes you look slimmer!"

That was a very very objective break down of the episodes

 

[zar]

Note: the beam wasn't a tractor beam it served the purpose of draining the shields. Later they muffed this up in Emissary because the Beam is clearly blue that does the same task.

Well it also had them trapped so if it isn't a tractor beam, what is it? It's uh... it's green.

The point is they didn't spontaneously decide to make everything green in FC, they were just beefing up the original style.

 

[Anwar]

The shields were being drained by the blue tractor beam in BOBW as well.

 

[zar]

Makes sense, since that scene in Emissary took place during BOBW and featured the same cube.

 

[G2309]

I think it would have been interesting if there were two types of visually distinct Borg:

We know from "Q Who?" that the Borg were meant to be a species that willingly chose to become a cybernertic hivemind and that they weren't all assimilated people.

I think they should have kept some Borg that we saw as the way they were in Q Who? and BOBW, just white skin. These would be the "pure" Borg who were always Borg from birth.

The others that look like zombies from "First Contact" onwards would represent the ones who were forcefully assimilated.

So we'd have scenes were the less gross looking Borg would be standing side by side with the mutilated zombie ones.

Interesting idea.
How about non humanoid borg as well? Not that we saw many aliens who weren't human shape. Bt if they had assimilated species 8472 or assimilated the Tholians what would that look like?