What would happen if the borg queen died?

[CorporalCaptain]

Why must the Borg have no single voice controlling their actions? Isn't that the idea behind a hive mind, that they all speak with a single voice, following a singular course of action? What's so bad about the storytelling device of giving that voice to a single actor to give it menace for the audience to identify with?

Right. Hearing the Collective speak through the Queen is no different from hearing it speak through the chorus of voices introduced in "Q Who." It's the same consciousness speaking in both cases; only the manner in which we hear it differs.

If there was no difference, the Queen wouldn't have been introduced by the aforementioned corporate bean counters. The fact is that most people don't intellectualize this far. They DO see the Queen as a personalization of the impersonal Borg, and as an individual. I agree with a great deal of your explanation of what we should be thinking is actually happening in front of our eyes (although, as stated by another poster, the Queen could be an emergent interloper or an alien interloper); but most moviegoers and tv watchers won't keep the concept of the Queen as focal node front and center in their minds as they watch. They will react to the Queen as an individual, however erroneous this perception and reception might be.

Short version: the vocal chorus is super-creepy and frightening in its multiplicity and in how it dramatizes the terrifying subjugation of individualism that is the core of Borgdom. The Queen, with her normal voice and single humanoid shape, comes across as another ho-hum villain (to me, anyway) compared to the vocal-chorus-as-Borg, no matter how I think of her.

Yes, this pretty much describes my position.

What people find scary is an individual deal. There is no right or wrong. As a general remark, it makes no sense to argue about which is scarier among several scary alternatives.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

A new unit would be designated 'Queen'.

 

[vulcan redshirt]

and given the appropriate upgrades in implants shortly after, since the Queen does seem to have to have different upgrades than normal drones.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

the vocal chorus is super-creepy and frightening in its multiplicity and in how it dramatizes the terrifying subjugation of individualism that is the core of Borgdom. The Queen, with her normal voice and single humanoid shape, comes across as another ho-hum villain (to me, anyway) compared to the vocal-chorus-as-Borg, no matter how I think of her.

But in the strictest sense, the Borg shouldn't ever speak AT ALL, let alone decide whether to do it via the Queen or the chorus. Think about it: What need, logically speaking, would the Borg ever have for speech? Talking to people they are about to assimilate would be useless.

 

[Nerys Myk]

the vocal chorus is super-creepy and frightening in its multiplicity and in how it dramatizes the terrifying subjugation of individualism that is the core of Borgdom. The Queen, with her normal voice and single humanoid shape, comes across as another ho-hum villain (to me, anyway) compared to the vocal-chorus-as-Borg, no matter how I think of her.

But in the strictest sense, the Borg shouldn't ever speak AT ALL, let alone decide whether to do it via the Queen or the chorus. Think about it: What need, logically speaking, would the Borg ever have for speech? Talking to people they are about to assimilate would be useless.

Because they are villains on a TV show.

 

[Tiberius]

The Queen can't die, because the Queen is the Collective. The body we see as "the Borg Queen" is not an individual, it's just a central processing node for the collective consciousness of the Borg, a consciousness which is the sum total of the mental activity of every single drone, just as the consciousness of a human brain is the sum total of the activity of its neurons.

We've seen more than one Queen die -- in First Contact (and reportedly in "The Best of Both Worlds" before that), in "Dark Frontier," in "Endgame" -- but those are just specialized drones hosting the Queen programming (which the novels have nicknamed the Royal Protocol). If one Queen body is destroyed, the program is simply downloaded into the next suitable drone.

And yes, I think it's possible that Seven of Nine was such an "heir apparent" drone, which would explain why she was stored in a special compartment deep at the center of her cube in "Scorpion, Part II," and why she was more high-functioning than most drones even before her severing from the Collective.

I have the same sort of idea. To me, the Borg Queen is a mind, and we occasionally see that mind controlling a physical body like a puppet. But killing the Queens body doesn't destroy the Queen herself, just like burning a puppet doesn't hurt the puppeteer.

 

[Christopher]

Or rather, the Borg Queen is a key component of the mind that is the Borg Collective. The entire Collective at once does the thinking, but the Queen is the part of it that gives it focus and initiative.

 

[mswood]

Why do people assume "A Borg Queen" was killed at Best of Both Worlds?

I don't recall dialogue stating that occurred, at best I recall that Picard remembered her when he became Locutus. But that doesn't mean she was still on that cube when it was destroyed.

After all Voyager showed that some races where assimilated at Wolf 359. I would assume at some point a sphere (or other ship must have transported some crew off of the cube, this would have accused after Picard say the Queen, so why couldn't she have departed from the cube before it was destroyed.

 

[Christopher]

Why do people assume "A Borg Queen" was killed at Best of Both Worlds?

I don't recall dialogue stating that occurred, at best I recall that Picard remembered her when he became Locutus. But that doesn't mean she was still on that cube when it was destroyed.

After all Voyager showed that some races where assimilated at Wolf 359. I would assume at some point a sphere (or other ship must have transported some crew off of the cube, this would have accused after Picard say the Queen, so why couldn't she have departed from the cube before it was destroyed.

Remember, even if Picard/Locutus wasn't physically aboard the cube, he was still in full mental contact with the Collective right up until the cube was destroyed -- indeed, that's how it was destroyed -- so he definitely would've known if the Queen had left before that destruction. There are no secrets in a hive mind.

Besides, her line about three-dimensional thinking implies that her survival was due to some more complex reason than just going off in a sphere.

 

[Christopher]

Why do people assume "A Borg Queen" was killed at Best of Both Worlds?

I don't recall dialogue stating that occurred, at best I recall that Picard remembered her when he became Locutus. But that doesn't mean she was still on that cube when it was destroyed.

After all Voyager showed that some races where assimilated at Wolf 359. I would assume at some point a sphere (or other ship must have transported some crew off of the cube, this would have accused after Picard say the Queen, so why couldn't she have departed from the cube before it was destroyed.

Remember, even if Picard/Locutus wasn't physically aboard the cube, he was still in full mental contact with the Collective right up until the cube was destroyed -- indeed, that's how it was destroyed -- so he definitely would've known if the Queen had left before that destruction. There are no secrets in a hive mind. But he explicitly said, "You were there all the time. But that ship and all the Borg on it were destroyed." (Emphasis added.)

Besides, her line about three-dimensional thinking implies that her survival was due to some more complex reason than just going off in a sphere.

 

[Timo]

I wouldn't trust Picard/Locutus on this at all. He failed to remember the Queen's existence altogether for several years! He was then apparently allowed to remember it, this manipulation making it quite possible it never actually happened, or happened differently.

Then again, I wouldn't believe anything stated by the Queen, either...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Borg collective picking a new Borg queen is probably a lot like Mongo shards electing a new primary. Each other unit casts a 'vote' for which existing unit is most suitable for the task.

Speaking of the collective, it's shown many times in Voyager that the Borg are aware of all other Borg ships instantaneously all across the galaxy. This implies they have a communication method faster than subspace. How come Voyager never tried to replicate this communication technology?

 

[Christopher]

The Borg collective picking a new Borg queen is probably a lot like Mongo shards electing a new primary.

Like what now?