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The Borg

The Borg were Voyager's marketing ploy to piggyback on the smash success of Star Trek: First Contact, albeit several months later (TV seems to take a while to catch up to movies, in general).

Just kidding, it makes sense that Voyager would encounter them at some point, since it was previously established that the Borg had a presence in the Delta Quadrant. Though I think it was just shown on an Okudagram, not actually stated in spoken dialog.

Kor
 
The Borg were Voyager's marketing ploy to piggyback on the smash success of Star Trek: First Contact, albeit several months later (TV seems to take a while to catch up to movies, in general).

Just kidding, it makes sense that Voyager would encounter them at some point, since it was previously established that the Borg had a presence in the Delta Quadrant. Though I think it was just shown on an Okudagram, not actually stated in spoken dialog.

Kor
The issue I had, I was expecting the Borg to have A PRESENCE in the Delta Quadrant but there was only a fraction; I think Voyager didn't even have a season in their space, they blew passed it very quickly which was a disappointment. I would've like to see GOAT Janeway tackle the dilemma and mysteries from that space besides making deals with the Borg.
 
I think they (mostly) blew past it because TPTB figured (reasonably IMO) that Voyager would last all of about ten minutes if they were travelling through Borg territory proper.
 
The Borg invaded fluidic space and got their asses kicked. Then, with Voyager’s help, they developed a weapon that’s effective against 8472, 8472 retreated back into fluidic space… and, we later find out (“In the Flesh”) that that was the end of the conflict. Why didn’t the Borg press their advantage and reinvade fluidic space?
 
Because they didn't get the weapon in question. Voyager had it. Seven intended to take possession of it once she assimilated the ship, but we know how well that went.
 
Because they didn't get the weapon in question. Voyager had it. Seven intended to take possession of it once she assimilated the ship, but we know how well that went.
Then that raises the question of why 8472 didn’t proceed with the galactic purge. They got enough info from Voyager to make a detailed recreation of Starfleet Academy, but didn’t realize Voyager was the only ship with the weapon?
 
In Universe: After their initial defeat, they were proceeding cautiously.
Out of Universe: Sloppy writing, a hallmark of the series.
 
I think they (mostly) blew past it because TPTB figured (reasonably IMO) that Voyager would last all of about ten minutes if they were travelling through Borg territory proper.
The series had zero intentions of exploration, I believe with some thought and making a plan - the Goat could've found some interesting things in Borg space; its all about having a sense of imagination than blowing things up every damn week on UPN. Could the Borg be more than what Trek fans or the general viewer know of them? Something which was developed briefly on TNG "I, Borg" and "Descent". Obviously, with the as mentioned sloppy writing and IMO horrible showrunning of the series the answer was, "No".

Bringing the Borg for the occasional "Sweeps Weeks" gimmick for a struggling series is one things but I thought bringing such an iconic villain should be treated in better taste than what was done. I had similar sentiments about bringing along Q for their crappy episodes.
 
To be fair about the Q episodes, their first one, "DEATH WISH", was not only an excellent episode but also an interesting look inside the Q Continnum. The 2 episodes after, though, were terrible.

The Borg... also to be fair, their first few appearances were really good. "UNITY" and the "SCORPION" two-parter in particular were great.

The point where the show made the Borg look they lost their teeth... "DARK FRONTIER".

A single Borg cube cut through 39 Starfleet ships at Wolf 359 like it was a hot knife on a stick of butter, but a single Starfleet ship was able to not only get aboard a Borg ship and steal its transwarp drive, but also go into the heart of the Borg city in space, grab Seven, cause one of the weird shaped Borg ships to blow up, and knock 20 years off their journey?

I'm sorry, I don't care if having Seven's knowledge greatly improved their chances, it just completely suspended disbelief. Besides that, they didn't have Seven when they were going after her at the unicomplex. It made the Borg just look like a regular villain instead of the terrifying force of nature they were supposed to be.

And "UNIMATRIX ZERO"... that completely defanged the Borg in even more ways. A Borg TACTICAL cube wasn't able to destroy a single Intrepid class ship? Three officers get assimilated, but it was just part of the plan to get in the cube? THAT completely annihilated the terror of being assimilated in the first place. It made what Seven and Picard went through seem like something to just be shrugged off. (Picard especially, since he wasn't taken as a child.)

I like VOYAGER. I truly do. But it destroyed one of the best villains in the franchise.




"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." - Borg

"That's okay. We'll just cut out your assimilation tech from our bodies and get back to work in a couple days. No biggie." - everyone after part II aired
 
There must be a point where assimilation hinders progress. The Borg tried having a liaison first with Locutus, and that didn't work. I know, apparently, the Borg Queen was already there, just obviously not seen at the time (or thought about from the writer's perspective). But all this adapting to deal with humanity and other races seems to have made them more vulnerable to individuality. Plus, the occasional castoff drones and technology probably didn't help their "society" either, and fractures appeared and could be taken advantage of. Sidenote: I bet the current Borg came from an alternate timeline, hence their advanced assimilation technology, etc.
 
And "UNIMATRIX ZERO"... that completely defanged the Borg in even more ways. A Borg TACTICAL cube wasn't able to destroy a single Intrepid class ship? Three officers get assimilated, but it was just part of the plan to get in the cube? THAT completely annihilated the terror of being assimilated in the first place. It made what Seven and Picard went through seem like something to just be shrugged off. (Picard especially, since he wasn't taken as a child.)
Sad but true. A single solitary ship, unsupported, attacking a tactical cube and winning.

As SF Debris would put it "That's it. I'm getting too old for this."
 
It could have been explained away after "In the Flesh"... Voyager gives 8472 the Borg nano probes, and in return gets some of their knowledge. They certainly had no problems obliterating fleets of cubes.
 
Sad but true. A single solitary ship, unsupported, attacking a tactical cube and winning.

As SF Debris would put it "That's it. I'm getting too old for this."

But, VOY didn't win. In fact, the first time it went up against that tactical cube, it ended up with some damage... and this was a carefully planned mission (probably extra attentiveness went into making sure the Warp drive wasn't damaged) for the sole purpose of getting their away team with a virus onto the cube... and the mission resulted in the loss of the Delta Flyer too.

Second attempt went bad: VOY ended up with a hole in its saucer thanks to Tuvok being assimilated (though, Chakotay should have altered all the command codes the moment the away team left the ship) and both Chakotay and Paris rushing into trying to extract the away team.

Third attempt had the VOY being assisted and augmented by a friendly Sphere with disconnected drones from the Hive mind... and even in that battle, things were at a standstil (or should I say, some minor damage was done to the Tactical cube mainly because of the Sphere being able to deliver quite a few punches)... however, it was only after the queen ordered the self-destruct of the cube that VOY was able to beam back its away team... so, no, it wasn't really a victory per say.
The Queen wanted to kill Janeway, so she went to the extreme lengths of destroying a very powerful ship at her command in an attempt to do so.

We also need to bear in mind that by this point, VOY had numerous augmentations installed... aka, from One (the future Borg drone that was a product of Doctor's EMH, Mulcahey's DNA and Seven's nanoprobes).

Its possible this was one of the larger 'turning points' for VOY's tactical ability to resist Borg ships... or at least, offer 'some' resistance.

Yes, I know, its still one ship, and shouldn't have really been able to go up against the tactical cube in the first place.

I think a weaker showing was in 'Dark Frontier' when Janeway entered the Queen's chamber and the drones slowly approached her, but then progressively stopped when she threatened to destroy the chamber with high yield torpedoes.
When the Queen finally ordered her drones to assimilate both 7 and Janeway, 7 takes a good chunk of time to tell Janeway where to fire (at this point, the drone approaching JAneway should have been able to assimilate her several times). :D

That and the Flyer's ability to resist Borg torpeodes was quite impressive... though in fairness, that WAS in Transwarp, and its possible all kind of interference would have prevented a stable lock (what with 7 assisting - and it looks like the Queen's Diamond didn't want to destroy the Flyer because they were trying to use a tractor beam on it).

VOY destroying the TW aperture with torpedoes (which destabilized the conduit and subsequently destroyed the Diamond) on the other hand wasn't all that bad.

Its just the Flyer was able to escape the Borg stronghold much more easily than I thought was credible.
 
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