Odd Behavior by the Borg ship at Wolf-359?

[Samuel]

In "The Emissary" we see an early portion of the Battle of Wolf-359.
The U.S.S. Melbourne approaches the Borg cube and is effectively destroyed in a single shot by what looks like a combination of the Borg tractor beam and cutting beam.
Then it turns it attention on the U.S.S. Saratoga. It locks a tractor beam on Saratoga and starts training its shields. Once the shields fail it fires its cutting beam and mortally wounds the ship, causing it to begin progressing to a warp core breach.

This takes several minutes allowing the surviving crew to evacuate. The Borg cube has plenty of power for its weapons as while Sisko is trying to free Jennifer we see the Borg dispatch an Oberth class ship with a single shot.
Then once the crew is evacuated, with the Saratoga about to explode ANYWAY, the Borg cube finishes it off with a single shot?

Why does the Borg ship behave like this? Don't say for dramatic reasons (i.e. to allow Sisko and Jake to escape) because if the Borg had simply severely damaged the Saratoga with a single shot causing its warp core to progress toward breach then we would've gotten the exact same race against time.

 

[pst]

is it possible the ships the cube held in its tractor beams contained personnel and equipment the borg found valuable? perhaps they stripped these ships before destroying them outright.

or are the borg getting lucky when they destroy the melbourne and oberth-class ships in single shots?

 

[Samuel]

is it possible the ships the cube held in its tractor beams contained personnel and equipment the borg found valuable? perhaps they stripped these ships before destroying them outright.

or are the borg getting lucky when they destroy the melbourne and oberth-class ships in single shots?

The Excelsior class Melbourne was one can reasonably figure considerably more advanced than the Miranda class Saratoga.

 

[pst]

The Excelsior class Melbourne was one can reasonably figure considerably more advanced than the Miranda class Saratoga.

true, perhaps the borg destroyed it deliberately because it was the biggest threat. and that oberth-class... well who knows, the borg are supposed to be inscrutable.

 

[Samuel]

Another point. When the Saratoga is snagged by the tractor beam, it cuts to a shot of a Nebula class ship (Bellerophon) and an Ambassador class ship (Yamaguchi) turning around and coming to the aid of the Saratoga.
Where the hell were those two ships going in the first place.? I assume they were there to attack the Borg ship as well. So why were they flying in the other direction?
​

 

[Farscape One]

Maybe they were originally going to flank them and attack from a different angle, but decided to try to aid the Saratoga instead.

 

[Maurice]

I had to deal with this in the Sega Genesis DS9 game I did design work for. It made no sense, so I had Borg beam about the helpless ship to take "samples" and tap computers, which was the only rationalization I could come up with. (That section starts at 4:50)

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[Samuel]

Maybe they were originally going to flank them and attack from a different angle, but decided to try to aid the Saratoga instead.

Considered that. Any reasonable flanking maneuver would have them flying between 60 and 90 degrees to the Borg ships heading. Yet both ships turned at least 150 degrees (nearly all the way around). So rather than trying to attack the Borg ships flank they had to have been heading nearly directly away from it.

A foolish choice as its well established that Borg ships are faster than Starfleet vessels.

 

[Samuel]

Reminds me of a fan fiction short story I saw once called "I Am Jennifer" where the Borg beamed Jennifer Siskos not quite dead body off the Saratoga before they finished it off and dispatched her restored, assimilated body back to the Delta Quadrant like those Wolf-359 survivors that Voyager discovered.

Jennifer Sisko is then aboard the Borg ship that attacks in First Contact. The sight of Earth and presence of Picard causes her to briefly break free of Borg control and mentally send information about the Borg cubes weak point to Picard

 

[Farscape One]

You know, I thought of a different idea from the title of this thread...

"BORG BEHAVING BADLY"

(Of course, this title can be a potential naughty film starring Seven of Nine.)

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

The Melbourne was Admiral Hanson's ship so would be designated the fleet flagship, so dispatching it quickly and efficiently would throw the rest of the ships into momentary disarray. Oberth's are known for their poor defenses so it being taken out by a single shot isn't a surprise. The Saratoga was crippled and no longer posed a threat, but as the core breach built maybe Locutus was reminded of an old tactic from Starfleet's past where a ship about to explode was flown into an enemy and caused massive damage, so decided that it would need to be destroyed after all to keep the Cube safe.

 

[Timo]

The Borg would have uses for defeated starships, it seems - the scene was littered with wrecks afterwards, not with dust clouds, indicating the Borg pulled nearly all their punches.

Assimilating Starfleet hardware and personnel while ships are being held in a tractor beam would be one plausible goal unto itself. Another would be to assimilate or kill the crew so that the ship could be captured more or less intact and turned into a further Borg vessel, "Regeneration" style (explaining how Wolf 359 assimilees end up in the Delta Quadrant). Quite possibly the Saratoga was to become raw material, until its core breach turned out to be uncontrollable and the Borg abandoned the prospect.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Samuel]

The Melbourne was Admiral Hanson's ship so would be designated the fleet flagship, so dispatching it quickly and efficiently would throw the rest of the ships into momentary disarray. Oberth's are known for their poor defenses so it being taken out by a single shot isn't a surprise. The Saratoga was crippled and no longer posed a threat, but as the core breach built maybe Locutus was reminded of an old tactic from Starfleet's past where a ship about to explode was flown into an enemy and caused massive damage, so decided that it would need to be destroyed after all to keep the Cube safe.

the Melbourne was never indicated as being Admiral Hanson's flagship. In fact it couldn't be as it was effectively destroyed in the first shot of the battle while Hanson was communicating with the Enterprise after the battle had raged for a number of minutes before his transmission was cut off.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ I'm sure I read something somewhere about Hanson commanding the Melbourne, thought it made sense since the ship was without a Captain at the time. My mistake.

 

[Timo]

It's just that we know Hanson liked to travel aboard an Excelsior class ship as seen in "Best of Both Worlds I", so the Melbourne certainly is a viable candidate for the flagship of that task force for that reason. But her early demise makes her a less likely one.

"Without a captain" probably isn't literally true - it's just that Riker could become the next one if he wanted to. For all we know, the Melbourne might have been the very Excelsior that we saw in "BoBW I", although this was never established.

OTOH, we know a Melbourne was undergoing maintenance back in "11001001", and we never learned how extensive that would be; perhaps the former captain was shooed away until the maintenance schedule could be established, and there indeed was a gap there. Although "maintenance" doesn't sound as time-consuming or unpredictable as "repairs" or "refitting" or the other common terms.

(Then there's the question of "which Melbourne?". But we never saw the name of the other one on screen, so there's no pressing need for an answer.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Samuel]

^ I'm sure I read something somewhere about Hanson commanding the Melbourne, thought it made sense since the ship was without a Captain at the time. My mistake.

There was nothing about the Melbourne being without a captain. Just that the captaincy was going to be available for Riker if he wanted it. In all likelihood the captain of the Melbourne was being promoted, retiring, or stepping aside for a different assignment.

 

[Leviathan]

Don't say for dramatic reasons

For dramatic reasons.

 

[DonIago]

^ I'm sure I read something somewhere about Hanson commanding the Melbourne, thought it made sense since the ship was without a Captain at the time. My mistake.

Maybe Hanson survived the initial attack on the Melbourne and was either communicating from Auxiliary Control or such, or was now on another ship?

 

[Jono]

Maybe the Borg were using the Saratoga as bait to draw Federation ships to try and save it, which the Ambassador and Nebula possibly were doing. Maybe something they pulled from Picard in how Starfleet would respond to the situation. It plays its role and then the Borg destroy it a couple of second earlier because its more efficient that way.

Or still on Picard's influence, maybe his buried humanity surfaces for a moment and he keeps the cube from outright destroying the Saratoga. That fades and the Borg quickly get rid of the Saratoga to again turn its attentions each where.

 

[Samuel]

Maybe the Borg were using the Saratoga as bait to draw Federation ships to try and save it, which the Ambassador and Nebula possibly were doing. Maybe something they pulled from Picard in how Starfleet would respond to the situation. It plays its role and then the Borg destroy it a couple of second earlier because its more efficient that way.

Or still on Picard's influence, maybe his buried humanity surfaces for a moment and he keeps the cube from outright destroying the Saratoga. That fades and the Borg quickly get rid of the Saratoga to again turn its attentions each where.

Now those are well thought out common sense suggestions!