Spoilers The only _______ ever assimilated

[KerbalStarfleet]

In episode 3, Hugh says that as far as he knows, the XBs on the cube were the only Romulans ever assimilated...if so, what about the Romulans that were at the outposts that were scooped up in the TNG episode "The Neutral Zone?" Could these in fact be the same Romulans and the cube had been drifting since the early TNG days? How long was it cut off from the collective before the Romulans reclaimed it? I do think it is interesting that the assimilation of the Romulans caused problems within the collective, like they had some anti-Borg program in them. This supports the theory that they are something like BSG humanoid Cylons. Also I hate to bring Beta canon into this but it seems somewhat similar to the Caeliar/Borg situation from "Destiny."

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I took it to mean the only ones who had mental dysfunctions after being de-Borgified were the specific Romulans from that specific ship that was assimilated.

 

[Timo]

Sounded like that to me, too. The characters would be unable to tell how many Romulans have been assimilated in the course of galactic history. The only thing they could comment on would be as regards the assimilation roster of the Artifact here.

Of course, if the plot hinges on assimilation of Romulans always going in a particular way, then fine: the Romulan Star Empire was not assimilated before Season 1 of TNG because any attempt to do so would crash the Cube involved. And VOY "Unity" also involves a Cube crashing soon after assimilating a lone Romulan!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I took it to mean the only ones who had mental dysfunctions after being de-Borgified were Romulans.

The ones we saw on VOY, like Orum, didn't seem dysfunctional.

 

[rfmcdpei]

"As far as he knows" is key.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

The ones we saw on VOY, like Orum, didn't seem dysfunctional.

Right. I edited it to clarify, since I think there's a misunderstanding about what Hugh was talking about in the OP. Or maybe I misunderstood.

 

[KerbalStarfleet]

Yeah I probably misunderstood it, it was just worded a little weird. I assumed "as far as he knows" meant Hugh was drawing on his knowledge of the Collective, similar to how in Voyager, Seven knew things she could only learn from the Borg, i.e. Omega molecule knowledge from assimilated Starfleet captains, etc. but i could be mistaken.

 

[Tim Thomason]

The ones we saw on VOY, like Orum, didn't seem dysfunctional.

Don't forget that Orum was connected in a little mini-Collective via the Cooperative. The Ex-Borg Romulans on Picard have been completely severed from any hive mind, so they don't have the same stabilizing force that Orum had.