Unity: Borg-Drones with dead organic bodies

[Reeborg]

do apprently still work fine, according to the episode UNITY. After the cube was deactivated (no energy signatures) for 5 years and all drones were physically dead, surprisingly, they simply worked fine after the reactivitation of the cube (systems) without a functioning organic body. Although it was always stated and should be clear that the borg cannot work without the organic body that was assimilated.
Just crap (py part) in this story line?

 

[Dac]

Well, the borg cube was deactivated, not blown to pieces, nor were the corpses of the drones physically damaged.

Before that we saw drones exposed to the vacuum of space with no damage to their organic components, so i'd say its safe to assume the nanoprobes in their body, even while dormant kept their physical bodies intact.

I think your getting confused with the dead borg skeleton at the end of Blood Fever with the drones we saw moving in Unity.

 

[Reeborg]

In the same episode (Unity) the doctor stated himself that they are not (physically) alive anymore. That the organic tissue could survive the 5 years space exposure without any hive energy activity was not explained anywhere and is not plausible to me.
Nanoprobes? Where not yet existing there I think, however, the big energy burst should have put them out of operations as well as all the other artificial components. Otherwise they could have got themselves (auto)repaired in space.
For me an error on the writing part.

 

[The_Baroness]

In the same episode (Unity) the doctor stated himself that they are not (physically) alive anymore. That the organic tissue could survive the 5 years space exposure without any hive energy activity was not explained anywhere and is not plausible to me.
Nanoprobes? Where not yet existing there I think, however, the big energy burst should have put them out of operations as well as all the other artificial components. Otherwise they could have got themselves (auto)repaired in space.
For me an error on the writing part.

The bodies would have been preserved by the vacuum of space.

Still being intact, meant that they could be reanimated by the nanoprobes (which did exist, they were introduced in first contact) but there was no awareness, it was literally a reanimated corpse, like a robo-zombie.

 

[Timo]

"Mortal Coil" expanded upon the resurrection capabilities of the nanoprobes. Probably there's very little necrosis on a body that's saturated with the nanogoo, or very little for necrosis to do even if it does take place.

As for the Drones needing organic components... Why'd they need those? Other episodes expand upon the spiritual immortality aspect of being Borg: the consciousness of an assimilee lives on after the body is gone, and bits and pieces of it can be found even in the memory of a Drone that has been severed from the Collective. The original brain might cease to function even during the lifetime of the Drone body, its functions taken over by more efficient computing devices.

We know Annika Hansen retained (much of) her biological brain, and J-L Picard appeared to retain all of it, so apparently necrosis of the brain doesn't usually take place within the first few years. But the Drone/Collective structure might cater for that occurring, too. A Drone might live basically forever even as the flesh rots away.

Timo Saloniemi