The BORG, and the Lost potential

Not according to Doctor Crusher:

(from I, Borg, TNG S05E23)

 

Looks like the Borg have a built-in replicator.

 

It might be something a little more basic than a full replicator that is able to produce various organic molecules a typical humanoid needs to survive, but it would almost make sense if they did have a replicator - would enable them to adapt much more quickly and easily, repair damage, produce extra nanoprobes, and so on.

 

Did Dr. Crusher mentioned the Borg in the episode "I, Borg" had nanoprobes in their bodies or that was something re-invented on Voyager?

 

I don't think the term nanoprobes was brought up until VOY, but I could be mistaken.

 

I think "assimilation" was initially a mechanical thing. They would use tools to put pieces of machines inside of you... The assimilation via nanoprobes is something they thought of later.

Note that the nanoprobes make the scene where you see them drilling into Picard's skull completely pointless. I mean why do anything, if the nanoprobes are going to do the job for you?

 

Perhaps it was because of Picard's assimilation that the Borg ended up developing the nanoprobes?

That probably doesn't hold up in some random flashback sequence, but...

 

^ the Locutus makeup was also different in FC and the series. Please, canon explain that, why don’t you?

 

The flashbacks we see in First Contact are Picard's own memories. Human memories are very fragile things. Picard didn't remember the Borg Queen at all, or her original intent for Locutus until he met her in Engineering. I think we can let him off for forgetting a few details about his implants and prosthesis.

 

Details that match exactly the makeup before and after TNG, but not during the series, the only time he knew them? Uh-huh.

The Queen bit I like to think of as either a clone of her or, better yet, her “song” infiltrating his hive-connected consciousness.

 

Perhaps the 'song' was influencing him from the very start of the film where he senses the Borg are coming. He's still connected in some sense - possibly at a weak telepathic level which we saw the Borg will occasionally use (such as on Seven of Nine's 'friends' who could not separate themselves from each other).

His flashbacks could have been more like reminders.

 

The Queen, that's where it went wrong.

Alice Krige was great as the Queen but the whole idea of a Borg Queen is just wrong.

That's why my "personal Borg storyline" has only few episodes:
- Q Who
- The Best of Both Worlds 1
- The Best of Both Worlds 2
- I Borg

 

I'm fine with the Borg Queen in First Contact, if you view her as a personification of an aspect of the collective, a meat puppet that speaks with its will.

What Voyager did with the character, turning her in to the Empress of the Borg, a run of the mill hapless super-villain, now that's what ruined it.

In First Contact it was simple - "I am the Borg". I take her at her word on that.

 

Yeah, as an avatar of the Collective I'm kind of okay with her, though I wish we'd seen Borg Kings too at that point (and one wonders what it means that the Borg would try to appeal to Janeway via a Queen rather than a King...).

But the way VOY spun the concept was...mishandled.

And now I'm imagining if Seven had been male instead and he and Janeway had ended up getting involved...

 

It was impossible to remove all of Seven's implants, I figure something similar with Picard. Bev did the best she could, but Picard still has pieces of Borg tech in him.

He always will.

 

Yeah...

Picard was only assimilated for six days, so you'd imagine his system wouldn't have had time to become dependent on the implants in the same way as Seven was, but I can well believe something was left. In Unimatrix Zero, Janeway/Tuvok/Torres were assimilated for a few days too, and the Doctor claimed he'd removed "most" of the implants, but not all. Perhaps some deep brain alterations are still beyond 24th century technology to reverse safely.

I often wonder what the Borg made of Picard's artificial heart. I would bet they left it at first, but it may have ended up replaced by a Borg-tech version in time, or perhaps altered by nanoprobes to be more Borg-like and integrated with his other Borg systems if he'd stayed as Locutus.

 

I might add "Scorpion" and "Drone" to it as I liked those episodes but for the rest I agree that the Borg are at their best here.

I think the Borg Queen should not have returned after First Contact.

Heh interesting idea. Could perhaps have worked.

I don't think there should have been Queens or Kings, just spokespersons like Locutus and Seven of Nine when the Collective absolutely has to address beings on an individual level.

I am a not a big Voyager hater as I still find it easier to get into than DSN (personal taste) but sadly Voyager really messed up the concept of the Borg on the long run.
For some people it was right at the moment they were introduced but for me it started with Dark Frontier; the Borg Queen suddenly having this interest for Seven of Nine and "individual perspective" and Janeway and several crewmembers actually going into the very heart of the Collective with just the Delta Flyer. Probably also the idea of the Voyager crew actually trying to steal from the Borg. (plus a transwarp coil is a small device? That is dumb)
This story was just to convoluted and bad.

It would perhaps have been more interesting if Seven of Nine had been reassimilated.

 

I agree. I have no problem with the Queen's portrayal in First Contact. I like her "I am the Borg" response; it showed that she was different from the other Borg in appearance and action, but still a representative of the collective.

I wish they would have kept it to this in Voyager. They fundamentally changed an aspect of the Borg in that show.

 

I think the queen was a very very bad idea. It totally ruined the ominousness of the borg.

 

Pretty much this.

Earlier the Borg was a faceless enemy and you couldn't negotiate with it.
Then here comes the Queen. She gave the Borg a personality and has nice chats with a hero crew.