In "Regeneration" the borg had no ships of their own. They had no choice but to assimilate one. I am guessing that eventually, they would have used these assimilated vessels for parts or more likely for material, to build their vessels of choice. The borg seem to build everything in assembly lines. When something no longer works they discard it and replace it with a new device instead of trying to repair it. That's pretty much what Seven said.
How come the Enterprise still looks like the Enterprise on the outside? In Voyager, the Borg assimilate a deck or two and there's Borg shit all over the hull. In First Contact, they assimilated "more than half the ship" - Worf, and there's nothing even hinting of a Borg takeover on the hull (except the interplexing beacon on the deflector dish, but Worf blows the shit out of that).
In Scorpion, the Borg and Janeway have an alliance (albeit a short-lived one). The survival of the Voyager vessel is of prime concern to the Borg (they even sacrifice their own cube just to make sure Voyager survives), so it might stand to reason the Borg got permission to enhance some of Voyager with their own technology- after all, Borg technology is more advanced, whether you like it on your ship or not. In contrast, in First contact, the Borg were busy actively taking over the ship. Perhaps it's part of their standard protocol that they don't begin non-vital modifications and enhancements before the ship is secured and until then they just concentrate on taking over the ship. (That interplexing beacon would have been vital to reach their DQ 21st century 'colleagues' and perhaps they felt that needed to be done ASAP.)
Because with all available ships scrambled to mount a defense it leaves the Romulan border weakened, so show the Empire that they mean business by putting their most advanced ship there, to fly the flag if nothing else. Picard has never been able to hear the Borg again until now, so something might still be lingering inside him that Beverly missed that has him tapped into the Collective, as such as the Cube takes damage from the rest of the fleet weaknesses open up that Starfleet scans can't identify. Focused intense fire in one unshielded location will see results. Every starship is essentially an enormous photon torpedo, with the same matter/antimatter explosives the torpedoes utilise, so with a ship having no weapons available going up against a vastly superior foe that threatens the lives of billions on Earth and every other planet in the AQ, sacrificing 50 lives is without question a logical decision to make, regardless of how old the tactic might be--it's always been a last ditched option when facing off against the Borg. Borg arrogance? Resistance is futile, cultures will adapt to serve them, they've bought their own PR campaign, which is why they just sent a single Cube (again). When that plan failed they made alternate arrangements. They are bombing from orbit, but they've just escaped from a devastating battle that destroyed a Cube and not had time to make full repairs, so perhaps their targeting sensors or weapons array aren't at optimal. Quantum torpedoes are still new with only the Sovereign- and Defiant-Class shown to have them as standard and other ships need to be extensively upgraded and refitted to do so (such as the Lakota). Only Cochran and Sloane were involved in the construction of the Phoenix. It took them years to pull together supplies and materials to build the ship. A century ago the idea of tablet computers and orbital spacecraft would have been inconceivable. Technology develops in leaps and bounds, what we can't even think of now might be as common place as a mobile phone by 2063. From what's said and seen on screen and with knowledge of the universe it's fairly straight forward to extrapolate explanations for a lot of what happens. The novelisation also fills in some of the gaps, though this isn't necessarily needed. Some people love this film, others don't, same can be said about every aspect of Trek and that difference is why the likes of TrekBBS exists, life would be dull if we all thought the same, its IDIC in action.
just nitpicking: they had at least a couple more scientists helping them that got killed during the Borg attack. But your reasoning totally stands.
I disagree with most of the above. Progress requires more and more resources. Sending a probe to Mars for example demands the resources of either consortiums or rich countries. The research is even more expensive. The time for one man finding new things has passed a long time ago (with the likes of Edison for example and even then we know that Edison has stolen most of his "discoveries" from people who weren't protected by patents). Now it takes teams of thousands of skilled researchers to make tiny progress. If we ever go to the stars it will take the budget of the entire planet and a big chunk of it at that, however to each their own.
The whole ship's senior staff disagreed with that. So you're basically calling Picard and his team incompetent. Since it goes both ways as said previously, that makes Picard a liability but for some reason, the god of movie plot convenience wasn't on the borg's side at that time... I wholeheartedly disagree. The formidable release of energy by exploding antimatter dwarfs to a ridiculous level the tiny energy of a ship's collision. It would be like a fireman spitting on the fire while throwing water on it with his equipment. A course collision with a starship is nothing compared to throwing all your torpedoes and even your warp core at it if you want while it would spare the lives of the crew idiotically sacrificed. It's well shown in "Nemesis" where Picard is willing to blow up his ship yet later when Shinzon's ship explodes (it was much bigger than Enterprise at that) It doesn't do much to the enterprise itself. I mean it goes both ways!!! As far as I know, the borg don't have egos, they don't even have selves. They do everything from a logical standpoint (with what data they have) Torpedoes don't become weak because the ship that's firing them is damaged. These are still a handful of people in rags. Don't tell me that they live in poverty by choice. They're as likely to build a warp drive as a bunch of vagrants today to make a nuclear device, that is, not very.
IIRC, the earlier drafts of the script mentioned the ship becoming visibly assimilated on the outside. Maybe they didn't want to damage the model (Voyager's Borg tumors were all done in CG), or suggest the ship was irreparable?
Given that FC is the high-mark of the TNG films, I’m willing to give it a pass because it’s fun and entertaining and that’s all I care about. That said, I agree that if you really think about it, it’s preposterous to think that a drunken scientist living in a post-apocalyptic shanty town with less infrastructure than Aunty Entity’s Bartertown would have the resources to engineer, construct, and power Earth’s firs warp-capable vessel. But then again, we’re talking about the same franchise that has... ...magic torpedoes that terraform dead worlds and bring the dead back to life ...ships flying around the sun which are therefore capable of going backward and forward through time ...mysterious barriers at the galactic center that supposedly have God living behind them ...forensics technology which has regressed so far that they can’t identify assassins who hacked the ships computer and trailed blood all over the fucking ship (there’s seriously no security cameras?) ...time phenomenon that destroy massive starships with intense gravimetric sheer if they get too close, but allow completely unprotected people to slip in peacefully and unharmed, not even a hair out of place So, it’s all good.
No, they're officers in the quasi-military that is Starfleet and follow their orders even if they don't agree with it. Also, there's the *drama* of it all, with then defying said orders and saving the day. That would've been an interesting plot element, if the Borg were shown to be aware of this connection and using it against Picard and the crew, though with plenty else going on in the film then it's something that was best left a bit more undefined. Does raise the question of if the Queen allowed him to hear Data in order to lure him down to engineering, as it definitely seemed as though he were expected. The Defiant had no weapons available so firing torpedoes was unavailable, though her magazines could still be holding a few warheads, jettisoning the warp core would only detonate the matter/antimatter inside the core and not the vast tanks still on the ship. Once the ship crashes into them all that would rupture and detonate, so you'd have the physical impact of the ship (which would pass through the Borg's shields) any torpedoes still left onboard, the warp core, and deuterium tanks and antimatter pods, add to that the self-destruct command and that is one big bomb (the Defiant-Class was after all outfitted with the forward "warhead" module to do just that as a last ditched tactic). Some of the crew might be able to escape with the lifeboats, but as they're all officers and crew of the quasi-military that is Starfleet they all know that they may be called upon to give their lives to safeguard others. It's not something they'd be thrilled about (except maybe Worf for the honour of it all), but it is a price they'd all be willing to pay as the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The E-E was already heavily damaged and may not have been able to get enough speed behind her in the very short distance between both ships, and it was only the front of the saucer that ploughed into the Scimitar, her main ordnance, reactor core and fuel tanks were nowhere near the point of impact. Some misogynists might throw out a comment about Troi driving the ship once again, but I won't touch that with a barge pole. Where is the logic in only sending one ship to target Earth when that plan previously failed? When the Collective have thousands of Cubes and billions of drones at their disposal why send just one ship? The belief in Borg Perfection is their core principle and operating system, they are driven by that self-inflated sense of ego, that no one can best them. They would've been wiped out by Species 8472 because they underestimated their opponent and couldn't assimilate it to understand it and develop countermeasures, whilst they've assimilated who knows how many Starfleet ships and personnel that leads them to believe they can handle whatever is thrown at them. Borg ships have only ever been shown using energy weapons, Cubes do seem to be equipped with magnetometric guided charges/missiles, though this may not be included on Spheres which instead rely on beam- or pulse-firing energy weapons, which could be affected by damage. Even if they did have torpedoes, loss of targeting might not be able to pinpoint the exact area and so just blanketed the area from space (though looking at the effects on the ground it would seem that they were using energy and not projectile weapons). No one lives in poverty by choice. Earth has just experienced a devastating nuclear world war which has gone on for 27 years, seen 600 million dead, the destruction of almost all major cities and population centres, and left civilisation in ruins for a decade. Look at how badly the world has been hit by a global pandemic, the ramifications of which will linger for a very long time to come once we're all vaccinated and can finally breath a sigh of relief without having to wear masks. Devastation from war isn't just gone overnight, it takes organisation and money and time to build was was torn down, but after witnessing cities destroyed many people would fear grouping together in large groups lest they make themselves a target, or out of fear of diseases spreading as a pandemic after a nuclear holocaust would probably be more devastating than the war itself (just like the Spanish Flu in 1918/19), whilst nuclear fallout and winter would also make life miserable for the survivors, with conditions being next to impossible to grow crops and cases of cancer going through the ramshackle tin roof. But in the midst of all that was a physicist with a dream, a dream of retiring to a tropical island somewhere with naked women. He managed to find a few other scientists and engineers, and over the span of a decade managed to develop Earth's first warp drive and change history. Is if far-fetched? Yes, but so is the idea of warp drive or magic mushrooms that make a starship spin. Are huge technological breakthroughs made during/due to wartime advancements? Yes, life would be very different without the work of the likes of Alan Turing.
Alan Turing was a theoretician, he never built anything that wasn't abstract in nature. He wrote programs for the first computers and determined the limitations of computer languages (that are still true today). He developed a theory that allowed him to decipher extremely sophisticated types of crypting... But all of this is in the realm of thoughts. Building a space ship on the other hand demands money, huge amounts of it, and has nothing to do with "a dream". It is far fetched, everything we see in that movie is. especially if we are to believe that these people just suffered a war. What kind of fuel was he using? Antimatter? That's laughable. We can't produce more than a few atoms of antimatter today with means that are a million times more important than what a post-world war vagrant could have. Even a genius cant turn crap into gold. The way you speak, you sound like you'd be ready to believe that he could turn himself into a bird if it suited his purpose. Can't we be a little closer to reality?
Every practical application of science is based on theory. In a nuclear holocaust Earth I'm really not sure what the value of money would be, clearly it still holds some as that was what Cochrane was building the Phoenix for, though with most cities destroyed and the planet so decimated then a barter system would be the most likely economic system in place, but that starts to go down the rabbit hole of Trek economics and there are plenty of discussions already on that. Many things that people strive for or that now exist were once the fevered dreams/ideas of people with vision, from civil rights to iPhones, all it takes is the notion of something better and the will to see it through. Cochrane had an idea of how to break the warp barrier, which he saw would make him rich. With the world in shambles and no universities still standing to hire him as a professor he dedicated all his time and energy to it. Maybe he had investors financing his work, all eager to buy it as soon as he proved his theory was a success, the film doesn't provide enough information but to afford everything he'd need then it is highly likely. Look at the numerous Covid vaccines under development, with all focus and effort given to a common goal without having to wait on funding and administration they're developing several possibilities in record time, so with that model in mind Cochrane having backers looks more likely (whether its whatever state the US government is in, or some sort of eccentric billionaire character wanting to have their name on the next big development). The Phoenix was built from a nuclear missile, the writers in development of the script discussed the matter of what would power the reactor, and Memory Alpha includes the following: At one point during the writing of First Contact, the writers of the film considered what might power the matter-antimatter reaction chamber aboard the Phoenix, in lieu of dilithium crystals. Co-writer Ronald D. Moore later recalled, "We had talked about it being from something modified from the thermonuclear warhead – that somehow setting off the fission reaction was what kicked it off." (Star Trek Monthly issue 45, p. 46) So whilst the writers of the film weren't entirely sure, they were thinking of some form of technobabble that might sound plausible in the physics of the Trekverse. We don't know the ratio needed to achieve warp speed, but looking at ship MSD displays the deuterium tanks always look much larger than the antimatter pods, so it would be safe to assume that very little antimatter is needed in the process so a few atoms might be all they need for the few seconds they are at FTL speed. Trek has always played fast an loose with the technology behind everything, but rarely is it every the focus and even when it is it is more about the characters reaction and relationship to it and how the changes it might bring will impact and change them. The way I talk is someone who enjoyed a movie. Many did. Many, yourself included, didn't. It doesn't make either side right, but rather it shows IDIC in action. As I liked it, I can use my knowledge of Trekdom canon and real word examples to plug up the gaps in plot that I need to and let go of the things that don't bother me in order to enjoy a good sci-fi romp into the future/past with characters I enjoy facing off against cybernetic zombies and the harsh realities of meeting your heroes. If you're wanting hard sci-fi then Trek is always going to disappoint, as you have to suspend your disbelief and have faith that we'll rise up from our petty, narrowminded and ultimately destructive manner that we're currently in the midst of in order to do better and be more than we are. First Contact is 43 years in our future and what they have in relation to what we do seems preposterous, especially with a twenty year war in the middle of it all, but since 1977 the world has see the invention/development of the internet, portable GPS, cloning, mobile phones, email and texting, drones, hybrid cars, flat screens, the International Space Station, sequencing of DNA and the mapping of the human genome, non-invasive laser and robotic surgery, photovoltaic solar energy, stents used in coronary bypass surgery, 3D printing, to name a few (search engines are another invention that we use daily and come in very handy). Human beings are incredible things, if given the chance to pursue their ideas/dreams/theories and make something from them then amazing things can happen. Does this mean that the tech of Trek will come to pass in my lifetime (if I make it to 2063 I'll be 81)? Highly doubtful. Does it mean some great breakthrough won't be made that will revolutionise life as we know it? Who knows, the future might hold many wonders, or it could be a slow and agonising death for us all thanks to climate change. Does the technological improbabilities mean I'll stop enjoying First Contact? No, it's one of my favourite Trek films (IMHO the last good one that was made). We'll just need to agree to disagree.
It's the only line of your post that I don't disagree with the rest is long and detailed yet does nothing to disprove what I said, that is, Cochrane et al. have about as much luck developing warp drive as a bunch of drifters would today making well.. anything actually. Do you have any idea how much research and means are put into making a smartphone? billions of dollars! Billions!! Does the guy we've seen in that movie look like he could invest or raise that much money? Seriously? Fortunately, you can enjoy some of Star Trek while still keeping your lucidity about how realistic it is, otherwise, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Take Voyager for example, how many times is it pure nonsense from stem to stern? Too many!! The macro-viruses, the people who "de-age", the people who sleep all the time... none of this makes sense. Is it enjoyable? You bet. For some reason, the fact that it's not believable doesn't interfere with it. It's like a fairytale only with different rules. So is that movie.
I saw it in the theater 1.5 times. That .5 time was to make sure I interpreted the events sufficiently. It's all numbed down candy and the proverbial diabetes that comes from it. ^^ that's the "TLDR version" Yup. It's amazing how quick the entire fleet jumps at his beckoned call too, even though the fleet would be told why the shiny new battle flagship with quantum torpedoes* that can turn any cube into confetti in seconds isn't there. That's when I walked out the second time. Starfleet has Picard picking berries at the bush by the neutral zone-- ugh, just... ugh. * each having a picture of Sam Beckett and Al Calavicci painted on. And as with anything sci-fi, it's the one with Sam shirtless. It's the same movie that destroys the very deflector dish they needed to get home with at the end with the time travel maguffin. Or get anywhere without particles damaging or destroying the hull... oops... ^^this, times 1000. Heck, to the power of 10000. Only because Worf got tired of spouting how noble and honorable it is to die with one's ship. And maybe if they had Sisko and Dax and the rest of the usual crew instead of the standbys (like what they could have done with Picard like what you'd mentioned earlier...) Nobody in the Collective thought of doing it? Seems improbable... but the Borg like to go around stealing others' technology - like what Pakleds do, only announce it more brazenly and with bigger ego: "We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own." in one of sci-fi's lamest reused catchphrases ever . Yet the Borg were so far advanced since day zero-zero-one that why would they need to fiddle-de-diddle with Federation technology, which is clearly vastly inferior on every level? Oh wait, Enterprise had shiny glowy lavender and gold-hued membrane touch pads and the Borg ship didn't have those. And still didn't seven years later, so scratch that notion that the Borg wanted the shiny things... There would be zero point in assimilating Cochrane (whose warp ship of odd appearance would take him to the Metamorphosis planet (TOS) where he would turn into a younger hunky football player build...) Only when the plot needed it. Which is true for any story but the movie felt even more hurriedly written than "Generations". Pretty much. And as Cochrane was doing it for the fame and all, what else was going on? Apart from a pee joke to inspire countless episodes of "Family Guy" with? By the 22nd century, we'll get there. At warp speed. Same here. If nothing else, they took the camera angle first used in Blake's 7 of people looking up at moving dots in the sky that represent ships flying around.
Only technology of interest. What the heck made 1701-D palatable in "Q Who" when the Cube was superior, by every definable measure? The story only states the Borg have an interest in it but there's nothing that explains anything approaching "why". Again, maybe they were turned on by the pretty powder blue/canary LCARS panels they saw after slicing a biscuit container-shaped hole in the hull? (which was admittedly a cool scene...) Even post-BOBW there is zero sign of the Borg adapting anything they stole from the Federation. Unless they nicked medical information and developed those kinky Borg nanotubular things to start the assimilation process more conveniently? That was a bit hokey too, taking away a sense of threat after seeing what happened firsthand with Picard. They glossed over what made assimilating people a shiny new priority to them too in TBOBW. Actually, TNG didn't really explore the "assimilating other races" until STFC (and VOY) as the episodes treated the collective as their own race. But what made Picard the ideal locus of focus for a Borg invasion fleet that could pummel everything without blinking an eye? (Taking out a coordinating leader explains that, and maybe they did take beings and assimilate them if they didn't breed enough of their own fast enough.)
Perhaps what made the 1701-D interesting was that, from all outward appearances, it had a propulsion system that could get it from the Alpha Quadrant to the Delta Quadrant and back in seconds? Thanks, Q.
At last, someone who agrees with me! I was very unpleasantly surprised when I saw this movie for the first time during a TNG-movie marathon at a cinema a couple of years ago. I shared my thoughts on it on another site, but didn't get much positive response; as you will see, our thoughts are very similar: "I never liked episodes that features distorted timelines et.al., as they mostly use the element of time to create whatever scenario they want without having to bother with explanations. Therefore one can imagine my great disappointment when it in the beginning of First Contact turns out that the Borg has time travel technology. Come again? Time travel technology which they for some reason only use as a last resort to get away from Enterprise AND at the same time to assimilate Earth one day before humanity makes first contact with the Vulcans. This plot alone is not very intelligent, but it's the best we get in this mess; because the rest is basically the rest of the crew trying to convince this alcoholic dimwit that they have to fly his ship as planned(?). The scenery is nice, but why the film makers decided to depict Cochrane and Co. as some hillbillies in a Mad Max-style commune - which, a part from the first space ship that can transcend light speed, only houses a giant jukebox and some bar stools - is beyond me. Meanwhile, Picard spends an eternity on a Borg infected Enterprise, going from the identical room to the next, either executing assimilated crewmen or tinkering with some circuits. The Borg queen starts out as an interesting villain, but rather quickly descends to something all too human. The interaction with her and Data is at first quite intriguing, but after a while it seems pointless. It doesn't seem plausible that Data can be converted to a human; and I fail to see the ultimate purpose behind it. As a long time fan of the series it's heartbreaking to see one of the most enigmatic and iconic villains in sci-fi history be portrayed as something which not correspond with earlier characterizations. Being able to destroy the Borg cube so easily, the Borg queens human like persona and their (new found) ability to travel in time are all things that frankly disrespects what the series established. It sure looks good, especially the animations in space and the interior of the Enterprise. They also really made an extraordinary effort with the make-up and costumes. The music and sound effects are also of high quality. However, it's neither convincing, captivating nor, in the end, very entertaining."