I disagree with this logic, because 8472 was such a superior power to the Borg that their mere existence in the Delta Quadrant as a hostile force made their defeat inevitable. For example let's say a hostile alien force came to Earth today, and all they did was wipe out a small strategically insignificant US army base. We'd be literally days (possibly even hours) away from total defeat from just that one incident, but if some other alien force came and took those aliens out for us, then our army would be still just as powerful as it was before the hostiles came, and Iraq (to use an example) wouldn't suddenly be able to defeat us due to any sort of weakened state.
But that analogy doesn't work, because we're not talking about a single incident. According to dialogue, the conflict began
five months before "Scorpion" -- and according to later dialogue, the Borg were mere weeks away from total defeat. Even assuming the conflict started out slow and gradually escalated, it's hard not to conclude from those numbers that the Borg must have suffered substantial losses by this stage.
The analogy also fails because the US is just one country, while the Borg are spread out across a wide swath of the galaxy. Any such widespread civilization is not going to be jeopardized by a single attack; at worst, it can sacrifice its core and have outlying populations carry on independently. Even the fall of Rome didn't destroy the whole Roman Empire, just the western half; the eastern half carried on, ruled from Byzantium/Constantinople, for a millennium more. So if the Borg were that close to defeat, then they must've been invaded systematically across their whole territory, or else they must've committed all their forces everywhere to the fight; either way, they must've suffered serious losses to their entire military force -- and therefore their entire population and technological base -- galaxywide.
The opinions RE the Borg and their changes are very interesting. But my preference is to the original Borg in BofBW, which were far more alien and threatening by dint of their lack of character. They were humanity become machines, pure and simple, and they just kept coming.
Maybe. But the only way I can see to do multiple stories about such an impersonal force of nature would be not to focus on the Borg themselves, but on the peoples fighting them and the effects the conflict has on their lives. "Hope and Fear" is a good example of this kind of story, as is "Child's Play." Of course, those both had ex-drone characters playing major roles, but aside from that, they're the sort of thing I'm taking about -- stories in which the Borg threat is a McGuffin, a backdrop motivating the actions of the characters that are featured. That could've worked, but it would've meant that the Borg themselves would never really have been the focus from a dramatic standpoint, because they wouldn't have been all that
interesting in themselves. You can probably generate a number of good stories about people and cultures coping with a ravaging virus, but you couldn't really tell stories about the virus itself.
But since they cast human performers as drones instead of using creature effects, that sort of guaranteed that the writers would begin looking at the Borg as characters, and all the rest came from that.
And pardon me, but I did not feel titillated at the "sexual tension" between Queen, Seven and Janeway. That wasn't supposed to be sexy, was it?
I only noticed that with the Queen and Data in FC. But then, I tend to be blind to homoerotic subtext a lot of the time.
It would have been interesting to see just how unfeeling they as individuals had become. Removed from their technology, and unable to function or feel empathy towards living things.
But once you've established that inability, where do you go next? It's great for a single story, the horror of the total loss of humanity -- see Reannon Bonaventure in
Vendetta -- but you can only tell that story once. The only way you can tell more than one story about Borg drones is if they can develop personalities.
So for me the "adapting" Borg of Before Dishonor felt like, well--I didn't get why there were any Borg left after Endgame's total dissolution. Or First Contact for that matter. Either they are defeated or they aren't, which is it?? The Collective is the Collective, it's not divided. If Janeway's bug destroyed one cube, it should have destroyed them all. That's what we were led to believe, wasn't it?
I don't think that follows. How could a "neurolytic pathogen," a drug or microbe, possibly transmit itself across a subspace communications link? The pathogen destroyed the Queen and deprived the Borg of guidance, and the collapse of the transwarp hub deprived them of near-instant travel, so the attack fragmented the Collective. But it didn't destroy it. We've seen the Collective replace its Queens before.
