The Perfect Villain: An Analysis of the Borg

[Oddish]

I've gotta say...I've been on this board for nearly 20 years. Some of them as the VOY Moderator.

In all that time, I've heard some jokes about it, but I have never run across a poster who cared this much about Harry Kim and his lack of promotion. Not even close.

You might consider that while you may feel "insulted" you're probably not speaking for the rest of us.

I would bet 90%-95% fit in the "who [cares]?" category.

I have my opinions, and I respect your right not to share them. Still, given that we have an active topic for the subject, I will make an effort to confine my observations there.

 

[The Wormhole]

Harry didn't get promoted and it was annoying in-universe and for Garrett Wang's sake but it didn't insult me. I'm used to bridge officers in Trek not getting promoted during the runs of their respective series. Nobody in the main cast of ENT gets a promotion between 2151 and 2161 except for T'Pol and her promotion is to an Earth Starfleet rank.

Hell, Data somehow went fifteen years without a promotion despite being damned good at his job and there was a war going on creating plenty of promotion opportunities. And he wasn't even offered promotions he could turn down like Riker was.

 

[Oddish]

Deep Space 9 was impeccable in that regard. Every main officer character (except Worf, who was only on four years and had just made LCDR) ranked up at some point. Sometimes quietly, like Bashir. Sometimes offscreen, like Kira. And sometimes with a ceremony, like Sisko.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

As i already mentioned many times before, i have the strong conviction that reducing the Borg to assimilation zombies for the higher goal of reaching "perfection" was the big mistake that ruined the Borg.

When they were introduced during the second season of TNG, there was this big mystery of why the Borg did what they did and why they were after all this tech and why they apparently didn't try to trade instead of destroying or "punishing" everyone who has stuff the Borg might want.

They were lovecrafian horrors with the potential for many interesting storylines instead of the one trick pony they became later on.

 

[Oddish]

That one trick would have been fine, if they had stayed as apparently unstoppable as they were in Q Who and the BoBW two-parter.

 

[Deks]

That one trick would have been fine, if they had stayed as apparently unstoppable as they were in Q Who and the BoBW two-parter.

The introduction of a Queen basically made them 'stoppable'.

When the D first encountered the Borg, Deanna made a good observation about the Borg:
"TROI: We're not dealing with an individual mind. They don't have a single leader. It's the collective minds of all of them.
PICARD: That would have definite advantages.
TROI: Yes, A single leader can make mistakes. It's far less likely in the combined whole."

Introduce a single leader (aka as the Queen was in First Contact), and the Borg are suddenly prone to losing much more effectively.

Also, Picard having flashbacks of the Queen dating back to his assimilation could have been implanted by the Borg. He was able to 'sense' them... whatever mechanism allows for that, would likely give the Borg ability to transmit images to his brain.

The Borg should go back to existing without a Queen (which could be described as an 'experiment' the Borg Collective decided to abandon when Voyager destroyed the TransWarp hub).
And 7's and Picard's knowledge of the Queen would have been implanted by the Collective of sorts to make them think she always existed (well actually, even 7 did ask the Queen a question as to who was she in Dark Frontier - when 7 should technically know that).

To me, this points to the premise the Queen could have been a temporary (but intentional) existence on the part of the Collective.

At the very least, the writers can easily write the Queen's existence using this premise.

 

[fireproof78]

That one trick would have been fine, if they had stayed as apparently unstoppable as they were in Q Who and the BoBW two-parter.

Yes, making them stoppable was part of the issue. The other part being the intense efforts to humanize what was essentially a force of nature. The Borg lack any sort of punch after that. Bringing them back won't fix that, new tricks or old.

 

[Oddish]

It also seems funny that they can apparently time travel at will, but they've never used the trick to "undo" all the times Janeway has put the smackdown on them.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Yes, making them stoppable was part of the issue. The other part being the intense efforts to humanize what was essentially a force of nature. The Borg lack any sort of punch after that. Bringing them back won't fix that, new tricks or old.

Yep. It pains me to say this, but now i guess there's no way to make the Borg as interesting and scary again as they were when they were introduced.

The best thing would be to introduce a new species, based on the original concept from "Q, Who", flesh it out and do something interesting with it.

 

[cooleddie74]

The Borg were scary just once after "Scorpion(VOY)" or "Dark Frontier(VOY)." That was in ENT, an episode decried for its lack of originality yet giving us the most eerie and effective Borg story in close to a decade.

Or since.

 

[1001001]

The Borg were scary just once after "Scorpion(VOY)" or "Dark Frontier(VOY)." That was in ENT, an episode decried for its lack of originality yet giving us the most eerie and effective Borg story in close to a decade.

The female scientist who got assimilated is John Billingsley's wife, Bonnie.

She says on the day of her assimilation scene, John was cheering on the Borg from the sidelines. Giving it instructions on what to do.

 

[cooleddie74]

"But the drones didn't say 'We are the Borg'! This episode is stupid!"

Look, it's Star Trek trying to make a 24th century concept work in the 22nd. Just eat your Froot Loops and worry about women being in command of the ships.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Honestly, while assimilation was a cool concept in "Best of Both Worlds" keeping it around and make it a standard procedure for the Borg ultimately made the Borg boring.

Wish the writers kept the thing about the Borg having changed their priorities in mind and treated the assimilation attempt in BOBW as an exception, they later reconsidered and not the rule.

 

[fireproof78]

Star Trek doesn't do exceptions with alien species. Uniformity is key.

 

[Oddish]

The notion of assimilation, executed right, is terrifying and could continue to have been so. Not just to be absorbed into this massive, faceless hive mind but being used to serve it, and destroy your own... Picard is no weakling, but his experience with the Borg truly devastated him. Years later, he admitted to Seven that he had never quite gotten all of his humanity back.

 

[dupersuper]

They were great up to I, Borg, still serviceable in Decent and First Contact, then Voyager...well, at least we got 7.

 

[fireproof78]

Serviceable is the best term I can use to describe the Borg.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

The notion of assimilation, executed right, is terrifying and could continue to have been so. Not just to be absorbed into this massive, faceless hive mind but being used to serve it, and destroy your own... Picard is no weakling, but his experience with the Borg truly devastated him. Years later, he admitted to Seven that he had never quite gotten all of his humanity back.

Yeah, but that brings up another point (or mistake of the writers imho): Making the entire collective just consisting of enslaved species instead of a truly alien humanoid species, who simply like and "enjoy" (or whatever alien emotions they feel) living this way and who aren't coerced by it in any way but simply are in another mode of being.

This way assimilation, if it happens, would be even more horrible and frightening, because the victims would be trapped in something they could possibly never understand or cope with.