Do borgs take over planets?

[Timo]

in TBOBW we learn the cube atmosphere is perfectly fine for a normal human.

That is, it's fine for Picard. Was that the reason, perhaps?

It's only in VOY that we get a sampling of Cubes or other Borg ships that are not bending over backwards to accommodate human guests. But even there, only ships that have been badly hurt are successfully boarded by our heroes, and only for a short time. Perhaps the air inside indeed is horribly stale to the human tastes?

And in theory earth did not have a very large population after WW3 ended

We only heard of 0.6 billion people dying (and earlier in "Bread and Circuses", Spock had claimed it was only 0.037 billion). That wouldn't be much of a dent in today's population - some wars have done much worse than decimate (in the sense of killing off one in ten) the nations involved.

One wonders what Earth's population in the Trek 2050s was. Lower than ours today or at that date, due to success in birth control or a series of previous calamities? Higher than ours today or at that date, due to such improvements in food production, sanitation and medicine that our reality will not achieve?

As for ships, when the Borg assimilate one, they gradually transform it into a cube. We see this happening with the Earth transport in "Regeneration" (ENT). It's halfway to being a cube by the time it's destroyed.

This also explains how Wolf 359 victims ended up in the Delta Quadrant, and why the Borg spent so much time on that site after the battle that the E-D was able to catch up...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Richard Baker]

Excellent point! - Assimilated ships returning with technology and new drones as the Cube resumes it's approach to Earth...

 

[Timo]

This sort of begs the question of whether the Borg did more of that sort.

They defeated in detail the defenses at Jupiter and Mars (and probably Saturn as well, or else there would have been no point in visiting that planet), and only then were defeated themselves. While Riker's team basked in the glow of the exploding Cube, were Borg Drones busy converting the fortifications at Saturn, Jupiter and Mars into Borg installations? Did these have to be mopped up afterwards? Or did Data's "Sleep!" command and subsequent scuttling extend to all the Borg in the Sol system?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[NOVE9]

That was the idea behind the transport in regeneration but it was never actually stated on screen.

 

[BillJ]

That is, it's fine for Picard. Was that the reason, perhaps?

It was also perfectly fine for the Away Team that beamed over to the first human encountered Borg cube in "Q, Who".

 

[Timo]

True enough. But by that time, the Borg had already sampled the ship they were about to digest. Matching the atmospheres might have been something they do as a matter of routine: veteran Drones need no air, but fresh assimilees are best processed in an atmosphere they were used to in their former lives...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

True enough. But by that time, the Borg had already sampled the ship they were about to digest. Matching the atmospheres might have been something they do as a matter of routine: veteran Drones need no air, but fresh assimilees are best processed in an atmosphere they were used to in their former lives...

Timo Saloniemi

I would tend to think that First Contact got it wrong, they were trying to make the Borg sound menacing with the talk of a methane atmosphere. But it really makes no sense as seemingly all of their drones are oxygen breathing species. Hugh seemed to do fine in an oxygen atmosphere. Plus, why would the Borg still be in human environmental conditions when Data and Worf beamed aboard to abduct Picard during "The Best of Both Worlds"? Same with Shelby and her Away Team?

Sometimes it is easier to dismiss an error than try to cram it into continuity.

 

[Jedi_Master]

The Borg do whatever is needed to fit the story.

 

[JoeZhang]

in TBOBW we learn the cube atmosphere is perfectly fine for a normal human. In voyager every episode with borgs, they use the same safe atmosphere as in that episode.

Unless I am missing something - didn't we first learn that in Q who?

 

[Timo]

But it really makes no sense as seemingly all of their drones are oxygen breathing species.

All of the Drones may have been born as oxygen-breathing species, but after assimilation, they don't appear to need to breathe any more. Or at least we see them quite at home in stark vacuum in ST:FC. I doubt they would mind a bit of extra fluorine, either.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[BillJ]

All of the Drones may have been born as oxygen-breathing species, but after assimilation, they don't appear to need to breathe any more. Or at least we see them quite at home in stark vacuum in ST:FC. I doubt they would mind a bit of extra fluorine, either.

Timo Saloniemi

Or they have something in their suits that generates oxygen when needed...

 

[Kemaiku]

I don't know, when Worf cut into them the blood was red but at a low pressure. They might just oxygenate the blood on a cellular level, their lungs turned into something totally new. They aren't harmed (eyes and all...) by being in a vaccum. The low blood pressure/temperature would really help with that.

 

[BillJ]

I don't know, when Worf cut into them the blood was red but at a low pressure. They might just oxygenate the blood on a cellular level, their lungs turned into something totally new. They aren't harmed (eyes and all...) by being in a vaccum. The low blood pressure/temperature would really help with that.

Which is another possible explanation. But I never bought that they breathe methane.

 

[Kemaiku]

They don't breath, at all. They can be sprayed with a compound to prevent hydrocarbon adhesion without the toxic effects it would have on a human.

 

[BillJ]

They don't breath, at all.

Still not sure that I buy that. Why would the entire ship be pressurized with oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere while they were asleep at the end of "The Best of Both Worlds"? Seems like it would be an incredible waste of resources to have the ship have life support at all and a strategic weakness.

 

[Jedi_Master]

Were the Borg ever given any consistency? The drones looked different, they grew differently, they had different objectives, they were a collective that needed a human spokesman, then they were a collective that had a queen, they had babies, and then they didn't, they ignored people on their ships until they were a threat, then they didn't... on and on.

 

[Kemaiku]

Still not sure that I buy that. Why would the entire ship be pressurized with oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere while they were asleep at the end of "The Best of Both Worlds"? Seems like it would be an incredible waste of resources to have the ship have life support at all and a strategic weakness.

They also allowed people to beam aboard. In later episodes it's stated they only make pockets like that work at a time. It could be for some function of the machinary that operates better in an air filled/warmer environment and not well in a vaccum all the time.

Or purely as bait to assimilate dozens of idiots at a time who beam into those areas.

 

[BillJ]

They also allowed people to beam aboard.

But if they were asleep, they wouldn't know anyone was beaming aboard.

And we saw it as a tactical weakness when the Away Team beamed aboard and started firing at their energy nodes. If the drones didn't require oxygen, they could have simply pumped the oxygen out of the area.

 

[Kemaiku]

The Borg don't "Sleep" and the ships themselves are aware of what happens inside them. The Vinculum monitors all threats in and around it, and acts when necessary.

 

[BillJ]

The Vinculum monitors all threats in and around it...

Then why didn't it monitor and correct the overload in the power regeneration routine?