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Best Borg stories ever!!

They had encounters with the Borg before, they just didn't know who or what the Borg were and didn't get enough information from those encounters.

It's just like the Ferengi in TNG: The Ferengi had encountered the Feds before but it wasn't until later that they had enough contact to identify them.

"The Battle", remember?


ok, I could sort of accept that
 
that's not even close to the same thing. We were explicitly TOLD there WAS a Dominion War, so it's assumed there were parts of it we didn't see.

And we are expressly told that the Federation had encounters and information about the Borg before Q Who as well.

As evidence, I present Regeneration, the El-Aurian refugees rescued by the Enterprise B and the line in Voyager when they mention the USS Tombaugh.

Well, I gave you your evidence just above.

And since we know for a fact that the Federation knew about the Borg, and since we know for a fact that Picard didn't know about the Borg until Q Who, doesn't that indicate something there?

adding on from stuff we're told is totally different from making up explanations yourself.
In both cases, aren't we looking at what we are told on screen and extending that information in the most logical direction?


but your "evidence" basically comes down to the continuity violations themselves.

your argument is basically:

1.we have stories that contradict "Q Who," showing the UFP had knowledge of the Borg
2. Since Picard and company didn't know about the Borg before "Q Who," there must be a cover-up

it's an argument in reverse: "Q Who" came first, but was later contradicted, so you're using the later contradictions as evidence for a cover-up

Circular logic. You are claiming they are continuity violations in order to show that they are continuity violations.
 
I think you're totally overstating it.
The Hansens were following rumors and "sensor echoes", there's no reason to suggests that Starfleet/UFP had a file on "The Borg" or really knew anything about it.

Anyway, onto my favorite Borg episodes and it seems I'm in the minority here but Dark Frontier is actually my favorite and my 5th favorite episode ever (as seen in my top 20 episodes youtube video)

What elevates Dark Frontier above other Borg episodes for me was the pathos and tragedy of the Hansen story that we got to see unfold in flashbacks.
Many people think the only Borg episodes that are good are the ones that show the Borg as a scary/ominous force and dismiss "Dark Frontier" as an action fest, but I think the Borg are at their MOST ominous here. We see the Hansens recklessly pursure the Borg with their daughter in tow and we know that they will end up meeting a grisly fate. The dramatic irony of these scenes are just some of the darkest in all of Trek. It helped that they found probably the cutest child actress ever to play Seven and it gives me a lump in my throat watching this innocent child in a situation more dangerous than she or her parents understand.

Furthermore what Dark Frontier gives us is really fascinating scenes INSIDE the Borg machine. The attack on Voyager from the view of the Borg, a firsthand view of a Borg attack ON an Alien world and the grisly scenes of people actually being assimilated all give added texture to the Borg.

And the third thing that elevates the episode is simply the presence of Seven, this was an episode that showed off Voyager's greatest achievement and a fantastic actress. The swirl of emotions going through Seven's head in this episode is hard to comprehend. She is angry at her parents but can also barely face thinking about the terrible experience that befell them all, concerned about the fate of Voyager and conflicted over the choice given to her by the Borg Queen.

"Dark Frontier" is the definitive Borg episode for me ahead of "Best of Both Worlds" because we have the "ominous/threatening" side of the Borg in the Hansen diaries, added information on the Borg in those diaries and in the scenes with Seven.

Some people like to claim that Voyager ruined the Borg but I'd say First Contact was the real blow in the creation of the Queen figure and continuing the whole "The Borg won't attack you if you're not a threat" rubbish. I was actually pleased that in "Dark Frontier" they kind of found a way around that by giving the crew a 3 minute timeline within the cube between sensor sweeps.

So yeah, overall an episode definitely worth revisiting. Heck, even sfdebris gives DF a 10/10! Some flaws but overall big screen ambitions and story.
 
And we are expressly told that the Federation had encounters and information about the Borg before Q Who as well.

As evidence, I present Regeneration, the El-Aurian refugees rescued by the Enterprise B and the line in Voyager when they mention the USS Tombaugh.

Well, I gave you your evidence just above.

And since we know for a fact that the Federation knew about the Borg, and since we know for a fact that Picard didn't know about the Borg until Q Who, doesn't that indicate something there?

In both cases, aren't we looking at what we are told on screen and extending that information in the most logical direction?


but your "evidence" basically comes down to the continuity violations themselves.

your argument is basically:

1.we have stories that contradict "Q Who," showing the UFP had knowledge of the Borg
2. Since Picard and company didn't know about the Borg before "Q Who," there must be a cover-up

it's an argument in reverse: "Q Who" came first, but was later contradicted, so you're using the later contradictions as evidence for a cover-up

Circular logic. You are claiming they are continuity violations in order to show that they are continuity violations.


no, I'm claiming they're continuity violations because "Q Who" and "BOBW" came first, and it was pretty much expressly pointed out during those episodes that the UFP was unfamiliar with the Borg.
 
but your "evidence" basically comes down to the continuity violations themselves.

your argument is basically:

1.we have stories that contradict "Q Who," showing the UFP had knowledge of the Borg
2. Since Picard and company didn't know about the Borg before "Q Who," there must be a cover-up

it's an argument in reverse: "Q Who" came first, but was later contradicted, so you're using the later contradictions as evidence for a cover-up

Circular logic. You are claiming they are continuity violations in order to show that they are continuity violations.


no, I'm claiming they're continuity violations because "Q Who" and "BOBW" came first, and it was pretty much expressly pointed out during those episodes that the UFP was unfamiliar with the Borg.

No, it was established in Q Who that Picard had no knowedge of the Borg. Picard doesn't know everything that the Federation and Starfleet knows, so I don't see the problem.

And BoBW has Shelby working on a weapon, which means only that they don't know how to damage the Borg.
 
Circular logic. You are claiming they are continuity violations in order to show that they are continuity violations.


no, I'm claiming they're continuity violations because "Q Who" and "BOBW" came first, and it was pretty much expressly pointed out during those episodes that the UFP was unfamiliar with the Borg.

No, it was established in Q Who that Picard had no knowedge of the Borg. Picard doesn't know everything that the Federation and Starfleet knows, so I don't see the problem.

And BoBW has Shelby working on a weapon, which means only that they don't know how to damage the Borg.


so... the UFP knew about the Borg for years, but only started preparing for them defensively by COINCIDENCE when Picard encountered them?




you know what, you can come up with all kinds of contrived rationalizations if you want, I don't see the point
 
No, they knew that 200 years ago a starship captain fought this group of alien cyborgs with no name. They didn't know anything else until the J-25 incident.
 
No, they knew that 200 years ago a starship captain fought this group of alien cyborgs with no name. They didn't know anything else until the J-25 incident.


I'm responding to Tiberius' argument about a cover-up, not about the specific events in "regeneration."
 
Are we talking about Dark Frontier or Regeneration here?
Because if you're talking about "Dark Frontier" messing with continuity then I really don't agree. Picard and Starfleet are hardly gonna be keeping a big open file on "that mysterious/rumored race which the Hansens went to investigate and never came back".
 
no, I'm claiming they're continuity violations because "Q Who" and "BOBW" came first, and it was pretty much expressly pointed out during those episodes that the UFP was unfamiliar with the Borg.

No, it was established in Q Who that Picard had no knowedge of the Borg. Picard doesn't know everything that the Federation and Starfleet knows, so I don't see the problem.

And BoBW has Shelby working on a weapon, which means only that they don't know how to damage the Borg.


so... the UFP knew about the Borg for years, but only started preparing for them defensively by COINCIDENCE when Picard encountered them?

When did I say that?

Until Q Who, the Feds knew very little about the Borg. it was only after the Enterprise managed to gather information about the in Q WHo that they were able to start work and actually get somewhere.

They pretty much say this in BoBW.
 
so... the UFP knew about the Borg for years, but only started preparing for them defensively by COINCIDENCE when Picard encountered them?




you know what, you can come up with all kinds of contrived rationalizations if you want, I don't see the point
You rarely see the point or touch the shift key.

Earth Starfleet had some visuals, a report from Archer plus some speculations that these are actually the guys from Cochrane's stories which nobody believed at the time.
Does this land at the top of the priority list of Earth Starfleet to preserve as an invasion warning for 200 years? Doubtful.

But even if they took the speculation seriously and put some VERY IMPORTANT marker on the files they probably did not inform the population. Why bother them with an invasion that might occur in two centuries. So there is no public pressure to keep an eye on these important files and to be the grailkeeper of a warning about a 24th century invasion.

Then there came some real, non-speculative problems in the present, the war with the Romulans. Add the reorganization of five space agencies into one, several wars in the following decades and it is not surprising that the warning got lost somewhere in the databanks, that Picard is not briefed about an obscure warning from two centuries ago about cyborg aliens that might invade somewhen, somewhere (yeah, that's helpful and precise information).

Perhaps someone dug out the files after the events from "Q Who?", who knows. But that a warning based on speculation and a Cochrane story survived and that every captain is briefed about it in the 24th century seems unlikely.
 
The only story they had was that the ran into a group of alien cyborgs. That's all. It gets sorted into the Starfleet X-Files for 200 years when there's little to no progress on those aliens until "Q Who?".
 
I guess we could assume they were nameless automatons with most or all details buried within the Starfleet secret archive or lost, then came...J-25!
 
I much preferred it when we didn't know there was a Borg queen. The idea of a single minded collective with no emotion roaming the galaxy, fucking shit up when they pleased was a very chilling one.

Then the idea that they were all under the control of a couple of queens who told them what to do and where to go kinda spoiled it a tad. Then Voyager just made them shit.
 
The only way to keep using the Borg was to give them representatives, unless you just made them some background threat while the main plot was something else.

The writers themselves were unsure about using the Borg again after "Q Who?" because they had no personality.

That's where they got the idea for assimilation from, so they could turn one of the characters into a Borg "Queen Bee" (that's the exact term they used for Locutus).

They should've saved themselves the trouble and just given the Borg Queens/Kings right from the start.
 
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