I heard recently from a friend of mine that the idea of the Borg was a total ripoff of an old Space Ghost episode. He said he'd heard that someone who created the Borg admit that they couldn't think of what to do with the story so they were watching TV and a Space Ghost episode called "The Spacecube" was on and that gave them all the ideas. Has anyone else heard something like this?
Are the Borg just a ripoff?!?
- Thread starter Ulvirfaust
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Baloney. This is the episode in question. You may need to to turn off your ad blocker to see it.
The resemblance is beyond superficial.
The resemblance is beyond superficial.
"Total ripoff". Umm - sure.
The Borg were originally conceived as insectoids, and only became white-faced cyborgs in wetsuits when the makeup was estimated to be too expensive for the day.
So the Borg were originally conceived as being similar to Species 8472? I never heard that.
For another possible "inspiration" for the Borg look - or maybe just another coincidental parallel between J Michael Straczinski's work and a Trek series - see Lord Dread in the JMS kiddy show "Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future":
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1480437248/tt0092329?ref_=tt_pv_md_3
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1480437248/tt0092329?ref_=tt_pv_md_3
There's so much stuff out there at this point it's hard to come up with anything that isn't at least a little similar to something somebody did at some point in all of history.
Ah, but have any of those ever demonstrated the ability to assimilate others?
Apart from Alex, the T-5000 from Terminator Genisys of course. But that came much later than the Borg, so if there's any ripoff there, it's Alex!
After seeing the responses I decided to do some actual research. I found the episode in question and it's actually called "Spacecube Of Doom" from 1981. One of the replies above links to the episode. While there's no direct resemblance of the aliens to the Borg, the cubist nature of ships and the taking over of minds to make more slaves for the aliens seems, at least to me, a slight correlation. It's just a rumor a friend of mine heard and he goes to a lot of ST conventions and stuff, I generally think he's pretty knowledgeable. I suppose, if it were true, others would have heard this before.
Huh? Species 8472 weren't insects.
I found this info a few months ago when I was researching the origin of the phrase "resistance is futile." It's such a common saying now that I was wondering if its first use was in Star Trek or something else.
Not sure about Space Ghost, but I wouldn't doubt that Doctor Who had some influence on the depiction of the Borg. At the same time, the Borg are not that similar to the Cybermen or the Daleks. The Daleks just want to kill because of some genocidal rage, and the Cybermen do assimilate people like the Borg but not in the same manner. The Cybermen don't seem to care much for assimilating technology. On top of that, it's not like the concept of assimilation in sci-fi was that original to begin with. Early Americans certainly did their fare share of assimilating other cultures into their way of life (and they were definitely not the first), so we can't really assume the Borg are a rip-off of the Cybermen on that basis alone.
Maybe the Borg are a combination of various sci-fi ideas that have been promulgated throughout the years. I wouldn't call them a "rip-off" though considering they are still very different from these other characters/species from what we've seen. A lot of fiction builds on ideas that other people have had - this is relatively common when it comes to artistic expression.
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Not sure about Space Ghost, but I wouldn't doubt that Doctor Who had some influence on the depiction of the Borg. At the same time, the Borg are not that similar to the Cybermen or the Daleks. The Daleks just want to kill because of some genocidal rage, and the Cybermen do assimilate people like the Borg but not in the same manner. The Cybermen don't seem to care much for assimilating technology. On top of that, it's not like the concept of assimilation in sci-fi was that original to begin with. Early Americans certainly did their fare share of assimilating other cultures into their way of life (and they were definitely not the first), so we can't really assume the Borg are a rip-off of the Cybermen on that basis alone.
Maybe the Borg are a combination of various sci-fi ideas that have been promulgated throughout the years. I wouldn't call them a "rip-off" though considering they are still very different from these other characters/species from what we've seen. A lot of fiction builds on ideas that other people have had - this is relatively common when it comes to artistic expression.
The Borg are space zombies. They're mindless, drone-like, creatures with no real expression or emotion, they resemble dead bodies and coming into significant contact with one causes you to become one of them.
Those damned Vegans and their tyrannical dietary restrictions.
The Cybermen force captured humans into conversion chambers to increase their numbers throughout many of their stories in the series!
JB
I heard that the main enemy for the second season of TNG after The Ferengi failed to impress were to have been an insect race of creatures! Doubt they would have been called The Borg though! But their appearance and costs put an end to that idea! Not sure if I'm a hundred per cent right or not but I have seen in a dictionary that the Ferengi is a name that the native Indians in the US used to give to the white man settlers! Although it's spelt more Ferenghi I think...
JB
JB
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