Star Trek: Picard Has a Very Different Borg Story From The Next Generation
- Thread starter Danja
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And people were complaining Deep Space Nine was dark.
Or some combination of the above?
It's not completely new territory, in Ensign Ro Picard went to a Bajoran refugee camp to find about a terrorist attack on a Federation colony and in Unification, the Enterprise Crew had to hang out in a sleazy bar to find out info about the Romulans were up to. Heck, there were a lot of noir-inspired stories in DS9, with Quark often playing the information dealing character you see in detective stories.
Really the characters having to use their smarts and skills to find the villains is interesting sometimes, sometimes villains show up and announce their intentions and are very direct works too, but that has been the go-to Borg story for decades.
Well borrowing good ideas explored in other non-canon media is a good idea, Control was originally a novel villain before appearing in season 2 of Discovery. I think this idea shows up in comics and video games, because it is a good idea.
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Or some combination of the above?
I like a combination of the above. Here's my fan theory: In the cataclysm Janeway brought upon The Borg in Endgame, the Collective fractured. Some were left adrift and catatonic; some were completely severed from any form of group consciousness, while the rest formed into the aforementioned splinter groups. *However* - half The Collective survived as we know it. Some of these independent collectives launched a major offensive against the surviving Collective. In effect - civil war. While other mini-collectives or individual drones sort refuge elsewhere in the galaxy, with some ending up in Federation territory.
Perhaps by the time of Picard, no one has heard from or seen The Borg in years, with the latest intel coming from Borg refugees. The Federation - now the unquestioned superpower of the AQ, has stripped down Borg tech and feels it's sitting pretty against any potential threat.
Perhaps that's where Picard and Seven have a difference of opinion with Starfleet; neither of them believe The Borg have been defeated. They may have gone quiet, but in a distant corner of the DQ, they have consolidated their forces and are rebuilding. Perhaps The Collective itself evolved into something different - something more twisted and insidious - and they haven't forgotten The Federation nearly destroyed them.
I do too.
I don't know if I'd be able to handle "military, military, military" every single week (every week, another attack or another camp to be liberated).
It would bore me to tears.
Seven would know more than Picard (she was in the Collective for twenty years -- FAR longer than Picard).
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Well, if Picard does it its ok.And people were complaining Deep Space Nine was dark.
TNG had the crew do detective work, like going to that bar to find a smuggler in Unification and visiting a Bajoran refugee camp in Ensign Ro to get information, I do not see how Picard and allies doing detective work here is any different, it shows the characters's skill and wits.
The more I'm thinking about the idea of a fractured Borg Collective, the more I like it. It doesn't even have to be completely gone, just thrown into a disarray after Endgame, with constant fraying at the edges and lots of drones getting disconnected all over the place who are then forced to roam about the galaxy because there aren't many people willing to take them in. All sorts of sinister scenarios are possible, maybe many of the drones are ailing without the Collective to maintain/repair them, possibly even dying, and the Romulans who are experimenting on them might have even enticed them originally with promises of a cure.
If the Romulans are indeed going to be used as a refugee crisis allegory, then it could even provide some dramatic contrast when the Romulan leaders who protest the Federation's treatment of their refugees turn out to be involved in something much worse with runaway drones. But then again, if we're talking allegories, the idea of runaway Borg drones practically demands that there is an underground railroad. I don't know why, but I've suddenly become quite intrigued by the idea of some Tal Shiar remnants posing as a bona fide underground railroad for some really shady goal.
If the Romulans are indeed going to be used as a refugee crisis allegory, then it could even provide some dramatic contrast when the Romulan leaders who protest the Federation's treatment of their refugees turn out to be involved in something much worse with runaway drones. But then again, if we're talking allegories, the idea of runaway Borg drones practically demands that there is an underground railroad. I don't know why, but I've suddenly become quite intrigued by the idea of some Tal Shiar remnants posing as a bona fide underground railroad for some really shady goal.
That misses the point of my post, but that's OK.
You'll get no argument from me regarding crews utilizing their skills.
Isn't that how it went in one of the novel series? The fractured Borg regroup and invade the Alpha Quadrant with the goal to annihilate all life rather than assimilate?
I've been wondering - we talk of whether Romulan factions are experimenting with Borg tech, perhaps exploiting refugees - what if the Federation is involved? After all, Picard has quit Starfleet for a reason - he feels the Federation doesn't stand for what it once did. What if the Federation is directly or indirectly taking advantage of ex-Borg refugees for one reason or another?
If the Romulans happen to create their own hive mind to take full advantage of Borg tech, I wonder if they would say, "We are the Romulan..." 
RESISTANCE IS JOLAN-TRU ?If the Romulans happen to create their own hive mind to take full advantage of Borg tech, I wonder if they would say, "We are the Romulan..."
Tru 'dat.
The Destiny novels, isn't it? Paramount did trademark the word "Star Trek: Destiny" a few years back although they finally decided to use "Star Trek: Picard" instead due to the fan demand. But I always suspect some elements of the Destiny novels can be incorporated into the new series.
During TNG the Borg were featured as invaders who killed their victims rather than assimilating them. Hugh and his band of freed Borg were also focused on killing rather than assimilation (under Lore's command). I think it was only in 'First Contact' that they were retconned as interested in assimilating their victims rather than annihilating them.
So I won't be surprised that after Janeway almost wiped them out when she returned to the Alpha Quadrant that the surviving Collectives would've changed their strategies from assimilation to annihilation again.
I smell Federation involvement too in whichever Romulan experiment hinted in the promo. At the very least Section 31 is likely involved in it, although I won't be surprised if the current bunch of Admirals running Starfleet Command now is at least complacent, if not fully involved in it as well.
Q-Who
"They're unlike any threat your Federation has ever faced. They're not interested in political conquest, wealth or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, its technology. They've identified it as something they can consume."
BOBW
We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service ours.
You will surrender yourself or we will destroy your ship. Your defensive capabilities are unable to withstand us.
Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service us.
You will become one with the Borg. You will all become one with the Borg
Preparation is irrelevant. Your people will be assimilated as easily as Picard has been
I Borg
We are Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
Assimilation of people and culture in some form was in BOBW. Assimilation of technology in Q-Who.
In Q-Who and indeed The Neutral Zone, the "scooping up" of cities implied more than simple destruction
CBS, not Paramount.
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