Borg Cubes coming in multiple sizes?

Discussion in 'Trek Tech' started by KamenRiderBlade, Sep 3, 2019.

  1. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    According to many PodCasts / Videos that I've seen of Captain Foley from TrekYards and he and commander cockings have said in the past that the Borg Cube's in Voyager was scaled down to 1,000 meters per side while the original Borg Cube in TNG was 3,000 meters per side.

    This was to make it so that Voyager wasn't completely tiny in comparison to the Borg Cube.

    Could it be that there are multiple sizes of Borg Cubes that can be combined together like Combiner Robots in Transformers?

    Normal Borg Cubes are only 1,000 meters in size and large assimilation cubes are 27x 1,000 meter sided cubes combined into one massive unit?
    3x3x3 = 27 cubes?

    Could the real default cube be ~ 1,000 meters in size and the ones that we encountered in TNG were specialized combined assimilation models?
     
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  2. NewHeavensNewEarth

    NewHeavensNewEarth Commodore Commodore

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    If so, I wanna see 100 of 'em combine until it's simply a bloated mess. :lol:

    A smaller cube is one of the only ways I can see justifying how the Kazon did more damage to Voyager than the Borg. And that's still a biiiiiiiiiig stretch.
     
  3. Mark_Nguyen

    Mark_Nguyen Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, the Unicomplex, really...

    As for the Borg being less powerful than the Kazon, I’d say that Voyager usually did a consistent job in AVOIDING a straight up fight with the Borg at all times. They’ve gone in plenty of times with surgical strikes and in varied situations when the Borg would simply ignore them, but by and large they wouldn’t ever ng toe to toe with any Borg ship with the expectation of winning.

    Versus the Kazon, I usually got the impression that it wants a matter of defeating the, that was the issue as being able to stay in fighting condition afterwards to take on the next opponent.

    Mark
     
  4. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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  5. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  6. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Sending in one combined cube of 27x 1,000 meter sided cube could explain why the Borg only send in 1x big cube to assimilate Earth the two times they did it.
     
  7. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, the heroes initially thought that the exact same dimensions of the "Q Who?" and "Best of Both Worlds" Cubes necessarily meant the two were one and the same specific vessel. And of course they were, down to fine detail.

    But the TNG heroes were wrong about pretty much everything regarding the Borg, as VOY later revealed. The next Cube to hit Earth in ST:FC was of a different configuration, with different surface detail, and nobody suggested its dimensions would have been identical to those of the earlier big Cube, either. "I, Borg" showed there were small Cubes; "Regeneration" showed the Borg could grow their ships out of "seeds", heavily suggesting that a "Cube in progress" would be of arbitrary size before it reached the putative Standard Size (if there exists such a thing).

    VOY then showed multi-Cube action, and those Cubes indeed looked identical in size and detail (because they of course were). VOY showed diversity of designs, too, though. And the solution to the size discrepancy was ultimately found, too, by pitting the hero ship against a diminutive "Tactical" Cube instead of the big ("Strategic"?) ones.

    I don't much like the idea of combining smaller Cubes into a bigger one. For one thing, a cube is a horrid shape for that: you always need exactly seven fellow cubes to double the side dimensions, and exactly 26 to triple those, with all other combinations coming off as incomplete and bizarre. For another, if we do want to believe in Cubes that grow gradually out of seeds, then finding seven let alone 26 that are of the desired size is basically impossible, except perhaps at dedicated shipyards - but on those, you could skip the part where the component Cubes initially are separate.

    OTOH, a cube is a silly shape for gradually expanding in size, too. You have to expand three facets simultaneously and evenly to preserve the size, adjusting the expansion rate constantly as well. A tetrahedron would be much better: by expanding only a single face, you would get constant growth at constant shape.

    Ultimately, then, I don't think that the geometry of these things actually matters to the Borg. There is no advantage or disadvantage worth considering in any shape, so the Borg usually pick the very simplest one compatible with the idea of parallel decks, that is, the Cube, and leave it at that. But they also standardize for mass production, again because there's no advantage or disadvantage either way, and coming up with design differences would be way too much hassle.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  8. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    Seems like they could be modular.

    2x2-4x4-5x5-rubiks-cube.JPG
     
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  9. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    Filth.
     
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  10. USS Firefly

    USS Firefly Commodore Commodore

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    Wow from what episode are those cubes? ;)
     
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  11. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    To the contrary, it's just about as straight and square as you can get.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  12. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    They're clearly from Harry Potter and the Cubes of Rubik.
     
  13. matthunter

    matthunter Admiral Admiral

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    There's piping on the outside.

    Piping.

    Like on those dirty, tempting cakes.
     
  14. NewHeavensNewEarth

    NewHeavensNewEarth Commodore Commodore

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    If the Borg really do care about efficiency, they'd better be modular!!! :lol:
     
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  15. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    Well, it wasn't so much that they were wrong; it was that the premise changed. The original idea seemed to be that there was only one (or two) cubes, but when they appeared, they were pretty unstoppable. The original premise also seemed to be that the Borg were just one humanoid race of beings who reproduced biologically but had implants added over time. But then after Locutus, apparently the idea that the Borg procreated by assimilating other races became a retcon. And then by the time of FC and VOY, the Borg were pretty much neutered as far as their deadliness went.
     
  16. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    There's no reason why the Borg couldn't both assimilate individuals and grow their own, as it were.

    One Borg cube pretty much is unstoppable for most of the races we've seen. Voyager got lucky.
     
  17. Unicron

    Unicron Boss Monster Mod Moderator

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    I'm not entirely sure the idea of assimilation is a retcon, although it is true that in "Q Who?" the Borg were not seen as a recurring villain. It could be that was the writer's intent at the time the script was written, more or less, but I personally think it was just an aspect that wasn't focused on until the next Borg appearance. Q and Guinan both have dialogue that seems to indirectly refer to assimilation.
     
  18. KamenRiderBlade

    KamenRiderBlade Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Imagine if the Borg had Jem Hadar/Vorta (Cloning/Growing) technology along with Founder level gene editing.
    They would never need to assimilate ever again.
     
  19. DonIago

    DonIago Vice Admiral Admiral

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    But they assimilate to learn about other cultures.
     
  20. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Q Who: No males, no females...
    VOY: Seven of Nine.