Really? Sounds like a retcon after the Borg Queen, which is when I thought the Borg stopped being interesting.
"We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own ..."
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Really? Sounds like a retcon after the Borg Queen, which is when I thought the Borg stopped being interesting.
Think back to what Q says in "Q Who":
Q: The Borg are the ultimate user [...] They're not interested in political conquest, wealth, or power as you know it. They're simply interested in your ship, its technology. They've identified it as something they can consume.
They're not individuals. They had no leader as we think such a thing. You kill a bunch of them and they don't care. The consume anything they want. Sounds pretty ant-like to me.
It's more the idea of anything being behind the army ants that I didn't like. I still prefer to think of them more as a virus, but I see what you mean!
Perhaps the Borg is patient.
If they are unable to assimilate a culture they move on for the next one, gain their strenghts and try again later.
The Borg lost to the Federation in TNG's 'The Best of Both Worlds'. They tried again later.
Perhaps the Borg just won't stop trying, they'll be back sooner or later, assimilate cultures or be destroyed trying to do so.
Even at their first appearance, weren't the Borg described as a hive mind?
I even think their original concept was insect.
Army ants... Or locusts A swarm of locusts consumes everything in its path.
The borg were originally supposed to be an insectoid species, the parasytes from season one's Conspiracy were supposed to be part of the borg, it's not a coincidence that a mysterious enemy started destroying federation and romulan outposts one episode after the parasyte send its message.
Season 2 was supposed to start with a more serialized story about the federation and romulans working together investigating before the borg were fully revealed but the writers strike between seasons 1 and 2 scuttled those plans. When the borg finally showed up they had become cyborgs because those were easier (and cheaper) to realize but their insect origins are why they are a hive and travel In what's basically an ant colony in space.
Every Hive has a Queen.
Yeah, but it’s not like they actually make decisions for the hive. If you get an ant infestation, that didn’t happen because the queen ant decided to attack your home. It just happened because that’s how ants are programmed to act. There wasn’t ever a decision in the way we think of decisions.
That’s why I dislike the Borg Queen. The major thing that set the Borg apart, way before assimilation, as how impersonal and implacable they were. Couldn’t be reasoned with, they just spread dispassionately through the universe. Didn’t even have any sense of personal gain - it’s just how the Borg seemed to be programmed. After they got a leader, the Borg made the move from unique concept to cool monster of the week. This is when the whole assimilation thing became way more important.
If only they thought of a bottle to capture that lightning in...
Actually, they would probably say they offer nothing except cheap illumination.
I don't know about ants, but Queen bees do in fact control their colonies through the scents she puts out, keeping all the little worker bees united and orderly. They all live to serve her every whim, cater to her every need, and when she needs something done, that is communicated to them through mysterious chemicals that she produces, and they smell.
Maybe Q wanted Our Heroes to be surprised?
But seriously, I always assumed "biological distinctiveness" simply meant that if the Borg found something useful about a race's physiology after having assimilated them, then they would take steps to propagate that trait throughout the collective. In this regard I think the drones should have had traits from a multitude of species with the intention being that the Borg really were, in their way, trying to make everyone more perfect.
The Borg show limited adaptability when it’s not similar to another technology they’ve assimilated. When 8472 attacked the Doctor was able to come up with not only a quick solution, one that used Borg nanites, that the Borg could not.
They can quickly block beam weapons because they know that technology. Totally unique technology they can’t handle.
They can quickly block beam weapons because they know that technology. Totally unique technology they can’t handle.
About the Borg Queen, I've said something like this before but I'll say it again.
After the introduction of the Queen the Borg got a lot less scarier.
Before the Queen the Borg was a faceless enemy. You couldn't negotiate with it, not even have a conversation. The Borg told you what they want and you couldn't negotiate with it.
Later in 'First Contact, here comes the Queen. She has chats with the crew, tries to seduce Data, shows emotion, eventually gets angry with Data. And to top it all off, the classic "destroy the biggest baddie" thing. When she is destroyed, all the Borg drones in the engine room start to jerk around and sparks fly.
No, just no.
TNG Borg could be compared to an animal or maybe programming.
The Borg seemed to act on instinct like an animal does in the wild. The Borg just didn't care what you said to it, did it even understand everything?
After the introduction of the Queen the Borg got a lot less scarier.
Before the Queen the Borg was a faceless enemy. You couldn't negotiate with it, not even have a conversation. The Borg told you what they want and you couldn't negotiate with it.
Later in 'First Contact, here comes the Queen. She has chats with the crew, tries to seduce Data, shows emotion, eventually gets angry with Data. And to top it all off, the classic "destroy the biggest baddie" thing. When she is destroyed, all the Borg drones in the engine room start to jerk around and sparks fly.
No, just no.
TNG Borg could be compared to an animal or maybe programming.
The Borg seemed to act on instinct like an animal does in the wild. The Borg just didn't care what you said to it, did it even understand everything?
But it's not like the queen bee makes conscious decisions, at least not nearly in the same way we do. She might have a different purpose, but she essentially just goes on fulfilling biological imperatives in the same way other bees do. If you follow that logic, the Borg Queen would have been more important than other Borg, but she wouldn't have been trading remarks with Picard or flirting with Data.
It's the sense of individual agency that I dislike. With an individual leader who could be reasoned with, the main thing that differentiated them from any other enemy was removed. The main difference was simply 'assimilation', so you saw the focus of stories shift from revolving around what the Borg were to what kind of weapon they used.
Personally just felt having any kind of 'leader' made them less interesting, but I know other people prefer these Borg.
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That's my assumption as well. Seeing as 'static' equipment failed during the crossing of the nebula, it would stem to reason that the nano's were protecting her, up until a certain extent.Maybe that's how Seven survived that radioactive gas cloud in "One".
Hey, when Q said “Don’t provoke the Borg” how did the writers miss the chance for some kind of “Oh, I’m just following in your footsteps” joke?
I always thought it was bizarre that the Borg Queen dies in First Contact then returns in Voyager (and dies again in the last episode).
When one Queen dies, there's another one ready to take her place.
The only way I've been able to make peace with the Borg Queen concept was by rationalizing it as an avatar of the Collective. That said, TPTB certainly made that harder to do over time as the Queen seemed to increasingly exhibit standalone behavior.
And I still think they should have had a Borg King at some point.
And I still think they should have had a Borg King at some point.
