"

[Cadet49]

"We Fall Back" - I don't quite understand this very cool line?

In Star Trek: First Contact, Picard says a very memorable, cool line, but I'm not sure about the background details behind it. When Lily Sloane suggests they retreat, Picard angrily snaps at her:

"They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate whole worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here. This far - no further!"

Very dramatic, and definately, the Borg have destroyed many Starfleet crews in their assaults. However, Picard's words sound like the Borg have been repeatedly attacking and assimilating worlds, and that Starfleet is repeatedly being forced to retreat.

The thing that has never made sense to me about that line is, when, exactly, has Starfleet "fallen back" from encounters with the Borg in the TNG series? Picard's line makes it sound like the Borg have been repeatedly attacking and assimilating whole worlds, forcing Starfleet to retreat.

But, if I recall correctly, Picard says at the beginning of the movie that the Borg have been largely absent from Federation space for the six years since "Best of Both Worlds", with the exceptions of The Enterprise-Ds encounters with Hugh's scoutship ("I-Hugh"), and the renegade Borg, lid by Lore. Where has all the assimilating and "falling back" been happening?

 

[Timo]

I'd think it would make contextual sense here if Starfleet's encounters with the Borg included a lot of incidents where Picard (and thus the camera) did not take part. I mean, it's all good and well to have the Borg as Picard's personal nemesis, but they aren't much of a threat if they only bother Picard personally and leave the rest of the universe undisturbed.

Of the incidents we saw, "I, Borg" might describe one of those falling-back instances. The E-D had been surveying the Argolis Cluster for colonization in two episodes ("True Q" and "I, Borg"), but if the Borg had an interest in that region, the Feds probably had to give it up. The neighborhood was not UFP space during the Dominion War at least; it was one of the areas where the Dominion had the clear upper hand.

Apart from that, the Borg probably did a few more scooping missions like the "BoBW" one at Jouret, erasing UFP outlying assets and thus pushing the UFP back. It's not as if they ever conquered territory in the classical sense - we only ever heard of two planets actually inhabited by the Borg, Earth in ST:FC and the planet blown up by the 8472 in "Scorpion"... But their modus operandi did include removing the presence of humanoid empires from certain regions of space, hence making them "fall back".

Does Picard really say the Borg have been absent? I don't think there's anything as categorical as that in the movie.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Cyke101]

The Borg might have also engaged nations around the Federation, and Picard could be using "we" in that more inclusive sense. We know the Borg attacked Romulan colonies alongside Federation colonies. I also recall TNG dialogue about the Klingons coming across some Borg wreckage in the Beta Quadrant; a flashback from Voyager showed a Cube fighting a Klingon fleet, and that may very well be from the same battle.

 

[Timo]

Picard being inclusive could be a factor of him also happening to be Locutus...

...He'd be well aware of the fact that the Borg have assimilated at least hundreds of civilizations, some piecemeal, some in one big crunch.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's just a cool dramatic line which does not make sense.

 

[JohanKoch]

The line was good, if maybe a little overly dramatic.

However, I think it's perfectly likely that the Federation avoided deep-space exploration or colonization in the direction the Borg were known to be coming from. Between the events in "Best of Both Worlds" and "First Contact", it is reasonable that they were more cautious, and maybe even evacuated some colonies they thought were in danger.

We know a human outpost was destroyed in the episode Descent (though those were rogue Borg), and there could easily have been others.

 

[Finn]

Picard being inclusive could be a factor of him also happening to be Locutus...

...He'd be well aware of the fact that the Borg have assimilated at least hundreds of civilizations, some piecemeal, some in one big crunch.

Timo Saloniemi

THIS

I figured he wasn't talking about the Federation. His experiences as Locutus still affected him. As a drone, he would have experienced images and memories that showed worlds destroyed and races conquered and destruction of cultures.

 

[Orcus]

Yeah, it's a Locutus thing...