Mass assimilation in "Unimatrix Zero"

[F. King Daniel]

The "let ourselves be assimilated" plan has to be the most insane one in all of Star Trek. Do Janeway, Seven, Tuvok and B'Elanna all have cortical nodes where pieces of brain once was? Do they hear the whispers of the Borg as Picard did in "Star Trek: First Contact"? Do they have bits of machinery in place of a few puny humanoid organs?

Who would agree to go on a mission like this?? They could have had arms severed, eyes removed, lived out their days as a mutilated zombie.... it's insane.

And they're all fine again in time for the next episode!

 

[Shatinator]

It's...voyager.

And in it's finale season, on the press-a-pus of becoming 'bon voyager' (he-he)

The (ever-lovin')

S H A T I N A T O R

 

[startrekkin58]

In Voyager's defense, in The Best of Both Worlds, after Picard gets assimilated, Crusher states that it's only a case of microsurgery and that she could do it. Picard's limbs weren't severed, he only had the arm extension claw thing. Only in First Contact do we see the 'new' assimilation process were eyes are sewn shut and arms amputated. Voyager brought about the cortical node issue with Seven of Nine, but I don't think it takes the place of her brain, otherwise it wouldn't be so easily removed.

 

[Deks]

It's possible the cortical node is integrated into the brain, but doesn't remove any of the said tissue, merely makes room for it by pushing it aside.
Or, even if it does eliminate a portion of the brain, then the Doctor would likely be able to regrow it via stem cells or other forms of therapy that were developed.

Keep in mind that they are centuries ahead of us in terms of medical capabilities.
It wasn't until the Vidiians showed up that they started to dumb things down for them.
Plus, with the arrival of 7 of 9, a lot of the problems were treated using her nanoprobes (even in cases when Fed tech was more than capable of doing the same thing).

Plus, were any of the away teams body parts amputated?
I don't think so.
regrowing new eyes or body parts would be simple for the Doctor.
Plus, 7 of 9 was a special case.
She was a Borg for 18 years, thus her body became too reliant on some of the Borg technology which couldn't have been removed (such as the Cortical node - which doesn't mean they wouldn't be able to find a way to do it later on).

A person can be assimilated for a certain amount of time before their body becomes too reliant on Borg technology... if this time frame is not exceeded, then removing said technology and making the person 'as new' would likely be simple.

I was surprised though in Ds9 that Nog had an artificial leg.
Seriously... for their level of technology, Nog should have had a completely new organic leg.
But again, Ds9 tried to make things look 'realistic' so they dumbed down technical capabilities.
What idiots.
Voyager was at least 'realistic to the Trek universe' most of the time.

 

[F. King Daniel]

IIRC, Seven had an artificial eye, not a cloned one. We saw it in "The Gift" and "Timeless"

 

[Timo]

I was surprised though in Ds9 that Nog had an artificial leg.
Seriously... for their level of technology, Nog should have had a completely new organic leg.

Hmh? Where was it suggested that Nog's leg was artificial?

It's called a "new" leg. And that's all it is ever called. There are no "machine" parts in it, that we'd know of. Instead, it has pain receptors, which sound like things one'd expect to find in an organic leg.

Picard got a machine heart, either because technology a few decades earlier wasn't up to the task of giving him a biological one, or because technology back then was considered so superior to biological hearts that it would have been unethical to give Picard a pound of flesh. ("Samaritan Snare" seems to show shortcomings in Picard's machine heart, but a biological one might have more.)

Picard may have "new" arms or legs as the result of his "BoBW" ordeal. We couldn't tell, because a new leg will look exactly the same as an old one - Nog stands proof of that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tiberius]

I was surprised though in Ds9 that Nog had an artificial leg.
Seriously... for their level of technology, Nog should have had a completely new organic leg.

Hmh? Where was it suggested that Nog's leg was artificial?

It's called a "new" leg. And that's all it is ever called. There are no "machine" parts in it, that we'd know of. Instead, it has pain receptors, which sound like things one'd expect to find in an organic leg.

5:20 into "It's only a paper moon, Nog refers to it as a "biosynthetic leg." That seems to be different to a cloned, fully organic leg.

Picard may have "new" arms or legs as the result of his "BoBW" ordeal. We couldn't tell, because a new leg will look exactly the same as an old one - Nog stands proof of that.

I think it would have been much better if the Borg had actually removed his arm and Picard had to get a new one.

 

[Timo]

5:20 into "It's only a paper moon, Nog refers to it as a "biosynthetic leg." That seems to be different to a cloned, fully organic leg.

Ah, perhaps. To me, it sounds like yer normal cloning process, though. Biosynthesis is this process where something biological is synthesized...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tiberius]

Well, it's made of biological components and synthetic components, at least to my mind. it's not often that the process by which something is made is used as a description of the product.

Maybe some sort of artificial bone and muscle fiber, but still has organic blood and nerves?

 

[Timo]

it's not often that the process by which something is made is used as a description of the product.

Well, biodynamic food is based on that very concept - that the process of making it somehow results in it being different.

And the point about Nog's leg seemed to be that the only thing setting it apart from his other leg was the process by which it had ended up decorating his butt. That is, there was no functional or structural difference, but the historical difference was driving Nog crazy.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tiberius]

it's not often that the process by which something is made is used as a description of the product.

Well, biodynamic food is based on that very concept - that the process of making it somehow results in it being different.

True, but that's because of an ethical decision based on the effects caused by the different procedures.

In a world where they can replicate whatever they need, I doubt that will be an issue.

And the point about Nog's leg seemed to be that the only thing setting it apart from his other leg was the process by which it had ended up decorating his butt. That is, there was no functional or structural difference, but the historical difference was driving Nog crazy.

It always seemed to me that they were saying that his new leg worked fine and the problems were in his mind, rather than his new leg was an exact copy of his old one and the problems were in his mind.