What is the Mars Perimeter? From BoBW

[T'Girl]

...Except, of course, at Wolf 359, where they are encountered at standstill in front of a fleet that hasn't fired a single shot at them as far as we can tell.

Or, the Borg cube was happily motoring along at warp, the fleet attacked and knocked the cube out of warp, the fleet formed up for a sublight battle, the Borg made their cliché opening remarks (as seen in DS9 pilot), and the battle began.

The cube didn't so much drop out to engage in battle willingly as it really had no choice.

 

[Timo]

The two problems with that scenario:

1) Nothing Starfleet did managed to stop the Borg from moving at warp in any other episode or movie. ST:FC showed what happens if the Borg do not wish to drop out of warp: they don't.
2) The Saratoga did not have torpedo bays loaded or phasers readied. Did the Vulcan CO decide to obey the Borg commands to disarm (offscreen) as a gesture of goodwill, then (onscreen) reverse that decision? What else could explain that situation except the concept that Starfleet had yet to fire a single shot?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Anwar]

Maybe the Borg figured that stopping and trashing them all wouldn't take very long, or they could convince some of them to stand down without a fight and get some new assimilates to help out the assimilation of Earth.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Whatever the Borg passed up at Wolf 359 would only be stuff that they'd soon be facing anyway, given that they were going to a known location only a few light-years away. They weren't running scared, and it was conveniently being handed to them on a silver platter, so why not go ahead and efficiently dispatch it? It would make their final approach to Earth only that much easier.

I think the bigger mystery is why the Borg ship stuck around after dispatching the fleet to engage the Ent-D instead of proceeding on directly to Earth. It's actually that that seems awfully contrived.

 

[Timo]

With Picard in command of the Borg, or at least giving advice, I guess anything is possible...

But the E-D was faster than the Cube, and able to catch up with it once before already. Dialogue establishes the Borg had already left; subsequent VFX doesn't show the Borg dropping out of warp to kowtow with the E-D (even though the Chrissie transcripts suggest this) but simply being at impulse (that is, sans starstreaks) when Riker hails them, but it's clear the E-D caught up with them. They didn't stay back and wait, they got caught.

What took them so long? Well, we don't know how long it really took. "Emissary" would have us believe the battle was over in a jiffy, with very little time elapsing beyond what was seen onscreen there. After the battle, Riker deals out new jobs for his officers, then goes to brood in his Ready Room, where Guinan talks with him, and during that short talk he is told that they are arriving at Wolf 359. The interval between "deals out jobs" and "talks with Guinan" could be all of twenty-five seconds, meaning the Borg really left posthaste after winning the fight. Or it could be five hours, meaning the Borg had time to build new ships, discover religion, abandon it as inefficient, retune their eyepieces, and then proceed towards Earth.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Dialogue establishes the Borg had already left; subsequent VFX doesn't show the Borg dropping out of warp to kowtow with the E-D (even though the Chrissie transcripts suggest this) but simply being at impulse (that is, sans starstreaks) when Riker hails them, but it's clear the E-D caught up with them. They didn't stay back and wait, they got caught.

Sorry, but, no. You can see that the Borg cube returned to warp after it fought at Wolf 359 and before Riker captured Locutus. See this screencap on this page, which shows the Borg cube back at warp; you can see the star streaks there. Here is the corresponding image in the HD screencaps.

 

[Timo]

Ah, all the better, then. So the Borg didn't drag their feet.

One wonders why they moved more slowly than the E-D in this episode when they outpaced her in "Q Who?". Is that the difference between individual Cubes (the two in these episodes probably weren't the same, despite the speculation by our heroes)? Or the difference between Cubes performing different onboard functions that might slow them down?

Or did the Borg deliberately move slowly as a tactic? Because Locutus fought them? Because the E-D had hurt them previously? Their failure to simply jump to Earth via a transwarp conduit might stem from the properties and limitations of conduit tech, but they probably shouldn't be inferior in conventional FTL propulsion, except by choice.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ithekro]

Or the 40 or more starship fleet did manage to cause some damage that slowed the cube down.

 

[Dukhat]

None of which has anything to do with my original point: Wolf 359 was directly in the Borg's path to Sector 001.

Why is that a point?

Because you originally said that Wolf 359 was just one random place of several that the Borg stopped at during their trek toward Earth, and I stated that Wolf 359 wasn't some random place, but was in the line of their flightpath toward Earth, and that the Borg didn't stop at random places to engage enemy forces until they entered Sector 001, that's why.

 

[Anwar]

If we're discussing BOBW plotholes, we may as well bring up the big one:

Why didn't the Borg just destroy the Ent-D then and there when the Deflector Weapon failed?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

If we're discussing BOBW plotholes, we may as well bring up the big one:

Why didn't the Borg just destroy the Ent-D then and there when the Deflector Weapon failed?

Well, unlike the ships at Wolf 359, the Ent-D has a magical aura around it, see.

 

[Dukhat]

If we're discussing BOBW plotholes, we may as well bring up the big one:

Why didn't the Borg just destroy the Ent-D then and there when the Deflector Weapon failed?

Perhaps Picard had some miniscule control over the situation and made sure the Enterprise wasn't destroyed, or the Borg thought the Enterprise was no longer a threat and simply ignored it to continue on to their primary objective.

 

[kirkfan]

If we're discussing BOBW plotholes, we may as well bring up the big one:

Why didn't the Borg just destroy the Ent-D then and there when the Deflector Weapon failed?

Perhaps Picard had some miniscule control over the situation and made sure the Enterprise wasn't destroyed, or the Borg thought the Enterprise was no longer a threat and simply ignored it to continue on to their primary objective.

It's hard to argue logic about the borg. Who besides them would tolerate intruders aboard their ship and do nothing?