What about timelines where the Borg have managed to assimilate Tholians, Gorn, and Xindi Insectoids/Aquatics?
I always thought an “invasion of the body snatchers” type Borg episode or movie would have been good. A Borg that doesn’t look or act like a Borg until it’s assimilation time.
I think the Borg are done with being scary, sorry to say. Much like the Xenomorph, repetition and imitation has killed off any chance these guys can pull off a shock today. Don't get me wrong, it was great while it lasted and we can go back and enjoy it all over again whenever we want but the 'Borg threat' has been exhausted. One of the many things I enjoyed about Picard was that, uh oh, non-Borgs are now doing the scary, inhumane shit now. How could they possibly compete?
No queen. I think the queen was a mistake because it humanized the Borg and made them more talky and more like other alien species, with a leader. I would make the Borg truly a collective mind again, all speaking as one, and thinking as one. They never talk. They assimilate people and tech. There would be different types of Borg drones. We would see Borg with Trek version of a RPG attached to their arm, able to deliver damage at long range. We would see Borg with personal transporters able to "beam" in and out to different location for quick surgical strikes. We would see flying drones that can swarm a target to destroy or assimilate. The Borg would also be smarter, using different tactics, for example, able to beam nanites over to infect computers, to lower shields, or disable other systems prior to an invasion. When the Borg do attack, they attack en masse, with brutal speed and efficiently. They go "all in".
^I agree with the first part of this, but one of the things I liked about the Borg was that their tactics typically don't change because they haven't needed to. That is to say, the Borg are so terrifying because as relatively non-threatening as a single slow-moving humanoid drone is, it's never about just a single drone. The Federation may pat itself on the back when it destroys a single cube bound for Earth, but that's only because they haven't faced two cubes, or two dozen cubes, or two hundred cubes. It would be interesting and likely frightening to see Borg adapted for specific purposes, but the Collective has no reason to do any of that. Also, given the appearance of the drones, and given every other starship design we've ever seen, there's something frightening in just how bland the Borg are, and the knowledge that that's how they want to make everyone else. They take away everything that makes a person, a culture, a planet unique and special and precious. I always hated that some sources claimed there was a Borg 'logo', because why would the Borg even bother to have one? One of the reasons why I love the Destiny trilogy of novels is because it shows just how lucky the AQ has been ever since "Q Who".
Being half flippant, half serious for a moment, maybe go full blown "Clive Barker" with the body horror aspect, get truly visceral with the invasive nature of the hardware more or less stabbed into flesh and and welded onto bone. Obviously, the creative teams would not risk potentially losing a noticeable percentage of viewers repelled by the gore factor so it's a moot point, anyway.
Fair enough. And I do think we should keep the essence of that. But I think "adaptability" can be scary too. Having an enemy that is smart and quick thinking and can change tactics to circumvent your defenses, is scary too. So, when I talk about fast moving drones or flying drones, those would be special cases when the Borg's standard tactics don't work.
It would be interesting if there were different classes of drones assigned based upon priority of the mission. Each one with different implements, like releasing a cluster of remote controlled drones for recon, and stuff like that. Almost like the Zerg, but technological.
I've always assumed that there probably were different types of drones, just not in ways that were obvious to us as an audience or to Our Heroes. I just don't think it's realistic that one drone could be modified to be a catch-all...though drones could certainly be formidable even in their default configuration. So, for instance, in "Q Who" we have drones sent over to leisurely probe the E-D to determine whether it's of interest. In BoBW we have drones sent over expressly to capture Picard. In FC the drones are specialized to expedite the assimilation process.
Instead of Assimilation, they take a sentient beings brain, uploads the data, analyzes it, and keeps everything that they want and harvest the rest of the body as bio matter paste/raw material to be re-used in their own mass produced cloning / manufacturing of the perfect Biological Body to hybridize with Borg Implants. Base it on Jem Hadar cloning, minus the Ketra-cel White. Then they can mass produce Borg Drones at a similar rate to Jem Hadar soldiers and fill them with knowledge due to collective learning. Imagine how scary that would be, they don't want to turn you into a drone, they just want your knowledge, tech, and turn your body into bio matter paste / raw material stock to create their "Perfect Drones". So you have the Cyborg Drones that are mass produced, + Automated Automatons that we saw in Picard that help with maintenance and mass production. Up armor the Borg Drones like One and give them improvements. Get rid of that silly Monocole and move that extra sensor to their forehead for a 3rd Eye that can see on a different spectrum or do other visual/sensor functions.
Well, I think they should have non-humanoid Borg drones, some of which can be monsters, that would work. As with turning a body into bio-matter paste/raw material stock, that's what happened in the game "Mass Effect 2" to humans harvested by the collectors so they could create that human-reaper.
I think the Borg should be emphasized as alien rather than hostile. DESTINY made them try to destroy all life. I think it'd be scarier if they attacked a world, downloaded all its computer banks and digitized its best scientists then...left. I *LOVE* The Borg don't attack you if you don't screw with them. Make them less malevolent and more eldritch. The Borg could wipe out all life if they want to now, IMHO. They just don't because they don't want to.
Alien director Ridley Scott said this: "You don't show the monster too many times because you'll get used to him and you never want to get used to him — ever." The Borg have been shown way more than too many times and audiences around the world got used to them a long time ago. That's just how it is. Trek will have to invent another alien if they want horror or just write future Borg stories accepting that they can't necessarily rely on the horror factor anymore and will need other elements to keep such a story interesting.
I'd like to see Borg drones that are a repulsive mix and match of human and mechanical components... looking more like Sid's toys from Toy Story.