I'd hardly call destroying a single cube by the skin of your teeth twice a victory, let alone a deus ex machina.
As for VOY? Most of their encounters with the Borg ended with a small Borg vessel being temporarily disabled just long enough for Voyager to escape. Again, not exactly a victory. The only time the USS Voyager went up against a cube prior to the series finale, it got its ass kicked ("Unimatrix Zero").
As for Destiny...
The Federation had developed sufficiently advanced technology to be able to destroy a reasonably large number of Borg cubes, but even then, they were still losing far more ships, and far more planets, to the Borg. And when the Collective launched its armada of over 7,000 cubes in their full-scale invasion of the Alpha Quadrant, that was it; Starfleet absolutely lost.
Only the intervention of the Caeliar saved the Federation -- and only because the Caeliar were persuaded to save the Federation through an appeal to the values of the UFP. You could call this a deus ex machina, but even that would be a misapplication of the term. The Caeliar are no more a deus ex machina than a gun is when it kills a villain. They're Chekov's gun -- introduced in Act I so as to resolve the conflict in Act III. Nor do they do so arbitrarily, without regard to the efforts of the primary characters, as a formal deus ex machina (such as the gods who intervene in the ancient play "Medea" do); in fact, the Caeliar ARE some of the primary characters, and their intervention brings thematic unity to the entire series -- and to the Borg themselves.
In any event, the Borg invasion ended with at least 63 billion people dead, 40% of Starfleet lost, terrible devastation on planets such as Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, Rigel, Qo'noS, and the extermination of all life on numerous planets, including Ramatis, Acamar, Deneva, Barolia, Khitomer, Beta Thoridor, Adelphous, Devnar, T'Khut, Sherman's Planet, Regulus, Rhaandarel, Coridan, Risa, Korvat, Yridia, Xarantine, Pandril, and numerous others.
Only the intervention of the Caeliar saved the Federation -- and only because the Caeliar were persuaded to save the Federation through an appeal to the values of the UFP. You could call this a deus ex machina, but even that would be a misapplication of the term. The Caeliar are no more a deus ex machina than a gun is when it kills a villain. They're Chekov's gun -- introduced in Act I so as to resolve the conflict in Act III. Nor do they do so arbitrarily, without regard to the efforts of the primary characters, as a formal deus ex machina (such as the gods who intervene in the ancient play "Medea" do); in fact, the Caeliar ARE some of the primary characters, and their intervention brings thematic unity to the entire series -- and to the Borg themselves.
In any event, the Borg invasion ended with at least 63 billion people dead, 40% of Starfleet lost, terrible devastation on planets such as Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, Rigel, Qo'noS, and the extermination of all life on numerous planets, including Ramatis, Acamar, Deneva, Barolia, Khitomer, Beta Thoridor, Adelphous, Devnar, T'Khut, Sherman's Planet, Regulus, Rhaandarel, Coridan, Risa, Korvat, Yridia, Xarantine, Pandril, and numerous others.
I have to read this book series.
