First Contact and the Borg attack

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies I-X' started by JesterFace, Jun 27, 2014.

  1. wulfio

    wulfio Captain Captain

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    My thought process is that the traveling back in time was a last ditch effort once the invasion failed.
     
  2. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    The question itself is wrong.
    :cardie:

    Same here.
     
  3. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    By which I meant they don't assimilate you *just* because you're useful. In other words: they were going to assimilate you anyway - the fact that you're useful is just a bonus.

    Trek has been somewhat inconsistent over the years about the exact motives of the borg, but the drive to create perfection for all species always seemed to me to be the most consistent portrayal (the one we were shown most often). And the other portrayals are not always automatically inconsistant with it. In Q Who, the borg are portrayed as scouting the enterprise - they haven't yet made the decision if they should stop what they were already doing to immediately assimilate this new ship. Also - the extremely unusual appearance of the ship in the system (by the highly advanced Q drive ;) ) most likely significantly piqued their interest in the technological side of the enterprise over the biological.

    The only character who outright says that the borg aren't interested in the crew at all is Q - and he's all about playing games with people.

    The sphere is clearly much smaller and much more fragile than a cube. The Enterprise destroys it utterly with a single torpedo spread. The Human race is relatively primitive, but still capable of building orbital warships. Not to mention the fact that humans have already proven themselves unbelieveably resourceful in their efforts to thwart assimilation in the 24th cen. If the Borg where to lose the sphere, they would be forced to create an entirely new fabrication center using exclusively 21st cen. materials and technologies which may not be anywhere near as effective as what can be accomplished using a cube as a base, and it would make them earthbound and thus vulnerable to nuclear strikes.
     
  4. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    My reply would be something like this:

    Bob ;)
     
  5. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    But then why do they bother assimilating anyone who doesn't have such special knowledge? (Like, for instance, Seven of Nine and her family...)
     
  6. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Maybe there was a drone shortage on the Cube that week? Even if tech is the primary goal, the Collective will still need workers.
     
  7. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    I think the Borg also use assimilation as a means of exploring new things they come across (such as the ill-fated Raven), with the side benefit of expanding their numbers.

    The Borg may only be hesitant to assimilate those from a very primitive (pre-warp or even pre-industrial) civilization. But we've also seen instances in which Starfleet personnel have been able to move among Borg drones and be totally ignored unless they start becoming a nuisance.
     
  8. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    Personally, I take most post-TNG depictions with grains of salt, especially once they become increasingly difficult to rationalize.

    Essentially, Seven of Nine's family was spying on the Borg and gathering intelligence. I believe there was a point in time where the Borg perceived the family as a threat and felt the urge to assimilate.

    On the other hand, through assimilation the Borg learned how fast humans can gather and proccess information, such knowledge may have been a helpful tactical information for their next encounters with humans. :shrug:

    Bob
     
  9. Mytran

    Mytran Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The "assimilate everyone" policy only really takes off with the advent of nanoprobes though, which simplify the whole process (for the Borg) enormously. Since they don't need to spend hours performing surgery on each new drone any more, why not grab a few more volunteers if the opportunity arises?
     
  10. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    If the Bussard Ramscoops of the Enterprise-D take space matter / energy in to save onboard fuels, then the Borg would probably do the same and also assimilate compatible lifeforms to serve the collective to save onboard "supplies".

    Bob
     
  11. Grendelsbayne

    Grendelsbayne Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Personally, I've always believed that the Borg couldn't possibly have become as big a threat as they are without assimilating as many people as possible. They're too willing to throw away the lives of drones for even the smallest imaginable gain - they clearly consider drones not just replaceable but immediately replaceable, like replacing a battery. Even cloning probably wouldn't produce drones that fast in that large numbers, so the logical explanation is they expect to replace every drone lost and more as soon as the resistance is overcome and assimilation begins.
     
  12. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Me too.

    As for why the Borg didn't go back in time when they were still in the Delta Quadrant (and thus unreachable by Starfleet)? Hubris, probably. The Borg believe that they can afford to wait until whenever they want. They're so confident in their ability to overcome any threat that they don't take a lot of steps to get around it. So they felt no need to time travel until it was absolutely necessary.
     
  13. austen_pierce

    austen_pierce Captain Captain

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    This is purely subjective, but I could never reconcile the Borg's pursuit of perfection with those ugly rubber implants. Assimilated 24th Century tech should have been so much more efficient and subtle.
     
  14. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Agreed. Though beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the Borg Queen was into S&M before she became queen? :lol:
     
  15. Ithekro

    Ithekro Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Perhaps the Borg decided at the last moment that they needed to nuetralize the threat of the Federation in the past, but instead of assimilation, they go with time travel and assassination because they simply want to open the door for their future 24th century assimilation mission, when the larger cubes can take over worlds like Vulcan and Andor. I half imagine that the Vulcans could have destroyed the Borg attempts to assimllate Earth shortly after the arrived. And even if they did not, it wouldn't have been as much of a gain for the Borg in the 21st century, but would have been viable by the 24th century.

    But that isn't really about the battle is it? How many ships did Starfleet send against that cube and how long was that running fight from contact all the way back to Sol? It should take a while to get from the Romulan border all the way back to Earth even with one of the fastest starships in the fleet. One would speculate days rather than hours, but travel across Federation space has never been very consistant. Nor has the Romulan border always been extremely far away given that it still had to be within fighting range of at best Warp 5 equipped starships for the Romulan war that was over two hundred years prior to this attack by the Borg.
     
  16. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Safe words are irrelevant. Resistance is futile.:evil:
     
  17. austen_pierce

    austen_pierce Captain Captain

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    Right... the Alice Kridge + Data scenes weren't remotely sexual. :guffaw: