Who was the more dangerous enemy for the Federation, the Borg or the Dominion?
Who was the more dangerous enemy, the Borg or the Dominion?
- Thread starter The Overlord
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For me, it's the Borg. What they do to you is worse than death. And they can turn you back on your former friends and family.
That's true, but the Dominion was get points for determination, they seemed to want to conquer the Federation more then the Borg did. The Borg only sent one ship to assimilate Earth. The Dominion threw a ton of resources towards the objective of conquering the Federation. The Dominion engaged in total war against the Federation, the same cannot be said for the Borg.
The Borg, obviously. A single Borg cube has repeatedly proven itself capable of penetrating Federation border defenses, conducting running battles across Federation space, and reaching orbit of the Federation capital planet. Dominion ships aren't nearly that powerful.
However, the Dominion is the more consistent threat, so their less-powerful ships were able to do more damage. (At least, unless you accept Star Trek: Destiny into your personal continuity.)
However, the Dominion is the more consistent threat, so their less-powerful ships were able to do more damage. (At least, unless you accept Star Trek: Destiny into your personal continuity.)
I'd have to go with the Dominion. Yes, all they'd do is kill you rather than turn you into a cybernetic zombie, but as previously stated they set their sights on conquering the AQ and set about it, throwing massive amounts of resources into it.
They've got soldiers who are ready to fight in only a couple of days, sleazy middlemen who try to worm their way in, and then leaders who can be anyone of anything. They were not above lying to their allies, turning the Cardassians into second class citozens on their own world before settling on a path of genocide. The bulk of their ships are small, fast and strong, and not above suicide runs on larger targets, whilst their motherships have some serious firepower behind them.
I might have gone with the Borg if they'd learnt from their previous error. Their first attempt on Earth involved one Cube. Their second attempt on Earth involved one Cube. Then after the Queen abducted Seven, she proposed using an assimilation virus on humanity. Why not simply dispatch 1000 Cubes? There is no way in hell Starfleet could ever beat that, then one Cube could be dispatched to each 150+ member worlds and begin their assimilation, whilst the others expand into Klingon, Romulan, etc territories.
They've got soldiers who are ready to fight in only a couple of days, sleazy middlemen who try to worm their way in, and then leaders who can be anyone of anything. They were not above lying to their allies, turning the Cardassians into second class citozens on their own world before settling on a path of genocide. The bulk of their ships are small, fast and strong, and not above suicide runs on larger targets, whilst their motherships have some serious firepower behind them.
I might have gone with the Borg if they'd learnt from their previous error. Their first attempt on Earth involved one Cube. Their second attempt on Earth involved one Cube. Then after the Queen abducted Seven, she proposed using an assimilation virus on humanity. Why not simply dispatch 1000 Cubes? There is no way in hell Starfleet could ever beat that, then one Cube could be dispatched to each 150+ member worlds and begin their assimilation, whilst the others expand into Klingon, Romulan, etc territories.
Well the producers/writers wanted the show and movie franchise to continue after a Borg encounter.
The plot device is simply the Borg happened to make a miscalculation and sends in just the one cube, this gives our heroes a fighting chance to avert the threat.
The Borg stopped making sense as an enemy when we saw just how many cubes they actually had, not to mention their ability to time travel whenever they wanted like in First Contact.
I had never actually thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense.
The Borg are going to be very practical in their approach, if at first something doesn't succeed, adjust tactics and try again--resistance is futile after all. If in the case of humanity, it would make more sense for them to--starting in the DQ--send a ship back to lets say 2012, have them transwarp to Earth and then assimilate us all. We'd never stand a chance, and the Borg would have successfully assimilated humanity, thus saving themselves two cubes in the process.
I think I'll definately be sticking with the Dominion on this one.
Now all out war between the Dominion and the Borg, who would win?
Though I take it the good guys won in the end?
The Dominion. They're more flexible and they can think. 
Just taking one example, their policy towards Bajor. Their Cardie allies assumed that the Dominion's assurances of Bajoran neutrality were a fraud that would be rescinded as soon as they got control, but Weyoun laid that notion to rest.
The Dominion is smart enough to understand that the good example they set with Bajor is far more valuable than the greater efficiency of imposing oppressive rule. The Borg are completely incapable of clever, nuanced thinking like that.
Just taking one example, their policy towards Bajor. Their Cardie allies assumed that the Dominion's assurances of Bajoran neutrality were a fraud that would be rescinded as soon as they got control, but Weyoun laid that notion to rest.
The Dominion is smart enough to understand that the good example they set with Bajor is far more valuable than the greater efficiency of imposing oppressive rule. The Borg are completely incapable of clever, nuanced thinking like that.
If you get assimilated by the Borg, your problems are over as you are basically a zombie. The Dominion would subjugate entire civilizations.
Janeway managed to form a temporary alliance with them, granted they did turn on her once the Species 8472 threat was over, but it does show that under some circumstances the can be reasoned with.
It'll just come round and bite you in the backside though.
Agreed.
As an aside, I suspect the 'real Borg' (i.e. their first incarnations as unitemporal hive minds without the Queen) was simply too difficult to dramatise.
In real life, they'd be horribly threatening. In film, writers/studios want a nice, neat villain character, who is nasty enough to be a good antagonist but not so nasty that they do what's necessary to win (e.g. go back in time to right now and assimilate the bejesus out of Earth).
First Contact's original script more sense regarding the strength of one cube, as it opened with the Enterprise and a fleet destroying several borg cubes as new anti-borg technology had been developed.
Perhaps they did - but in doing so simply created alternate realities where the Borg appeared in the past and assimilated Earth, leaving this one unaffected.
The Deep Space Nine "Millenium" novel trilogy mentioned the Klingons trying something similar in the 23rd century - war fleets were built and slingshotted into the past, never to be seen nor heard from again. Some suspected something went wrong and they were destroyed en route, others believed they conquered Earth in alternate realities.
Yeah because that's how time travel has always worked in Star Trek. Jeez, you're a pain.
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