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With the Borg being the biggest threat the Federation ever faced, it's no surprise they're a part of so many characters' personal trauma. What is surprising is how often the Borg backstory is specifically Wolf 359.
Jean-Luc Picard: Locutus, 'nuff said
Ben Sisko: Wife (and shipmates) killed at Wolf 359
Star Trek: Borg: Player's dad died at Wolf 359
Riley (VOY "Unity"): Assimilated at Wolf 359
Laura (VOY "Unimatrix Zero"): Also assimilated at Wolf 359
Worried Mother (VOY "Infinite Regress") Son assimilated at Wolf 359
Bigot who attacks Icheb in one of the books: "My aunt was assimilated at Wolf 359 you bastard!"
Captain Shaw (PIC): Survivor of Wolf 359
For comparison, how many people affected by terrorism are specifically September 11 survivors/victims' relatives? How many WWII veterans specifically have their trauma from being stationed at Pearl Harbor?
Wolf 359 is getting overused. There must have been some other attacks from the Federation's greatest enemy.
There's only been like, one other massive fleet battle between Starfleet and the Borg, in First Contact. And while we saw ships being destroyed, the number of ships and trauma from the aftermath of the Battle of Sector 001 never seemed to be on the scale of the battle that happened six years prior.
There, Starfleet was absolutely thrashed, and by one of their own no less. And I feel that's the biggest takeaway. I can't speak for all the characters you mentioned, but the Battle of Wolf 359 with Locutus creates a personal connection when characters like Sisko and Shaw have to actually see Picard in person, reliving part of their trauma.
I think the events of FC only work in conjunction with the Dominion War. In other words, its PTSD from combat in general. And depending on the veteran, the PTSD can be linked to the Cardassian Wars or the Tzenkethi War or the Galen border conflict.
I think the war with 8472 should be traumatic for the Borg.
There was a vison that Chakotay had in “Unity”, that depicted the Klingons in battle with the Borg. It would be interesting to see trauma from the Klingon perspective.
Similarly, with the Romulan in the ep “The Neutral Zone” concerned out their outposts, it would be interesting to see trauma from their perspective.
Also overlooked is the trauma that El-Aurians felt when their world was assimilated by the Borg. We also don’t go into the trauma enough, even though such trauma was what led to Soran seeking out the Nexus.
There are also the recovering XBs from the Artifact. And those that dealt with Lore's rogue Borg.
Some of the Starfleet ships may have been assimilated and sent back to the Delta Quadrant rather than totally destroyed, or the cube might've launched a sphere to go back for some reason.
I would think most human or Federation race Borg would have come from colonies, not starships. Usually when a starship engages the Borg, it seems to get blown up.
TBOBW is one of TNG's most popular episodes so it makes sense to reference it for the sake of more casual fans in the audience, who upon hearing Wolf 359 can say "That's from TBOBW!"
To be fair, Wolf 359 is one of those turning points in Starfleet history that alters their perceptions. After that, they started a more military stance on their starship development. ("I thought Starfleet didn't believe in warships", says Kira. "Desperate times breed measures, Major," says Sisko.)
If this were DOCTOR WHO, Wolf 359 would be a fixed point in time.
I'd wish they'd just say one of those little spheres popped out the back, like in First Contact, nobody noticed it escaping with some Alpha Quadrant "samples" and it made it to transwarp and got away.
Some of the Starfleet ships may have been assimilated and sent back to the Delta Quadrant rather than totally destroyed, or the cube might've launched a sphere to go back for some reason.
That could explain it. Problem is, I can think of no sensible reason why the Borg would dispatch transwarp spheres back to the DQ - all the valuable components (the knowledge gained by assimiliation) could be sent by data. As for ships being assimilated and sent back, that's possible but I doubt the Borg would have had sufficient time to do that before the Ent-D arrived, and if they they were still working on it, one would need to assume that the Enterprise scans did not detect activity on those ships and also, we never got a comment that some ships were missing entirely from the debris of the fight, then or later.
Sounds like the Trek variation on what I've heard believers say 'yes, this bible verse perhaps doesn't make sense (to you) but that's because God's beyond our understanding' (not meant at you personally, BTW)
With the Borg being the biggest threat the Federation ever faced, it's no surprise they're a part of so many characters' personal trauma. What is surprising is how often the Borg backstory is specifically Wolf 359.
Jean-Luc Picard: Locutus, 'nuff said
Ben Sisko: Wife (and shipmates) killed at Wolf 359
Star Trek: Borg: Player's dad died at Wolf 359
Riley (VOY "Unity"): Assimilated at Wolf 359
Laura (VOY "Unimatrix Zero"): Also assimilated at Wolf 359
Worried Mother (VOY "Infinite Regress") Son assimilated at Wolf 359
Bigot who attacks Icheb in one of the books: "My aunt was assimilated at Wolf 359 you bastard!"
With the Borg being the biggest threat the Federation ever faced, it's no surprise they're a part of so many characters' personal trauma. What is surprising is how often the Borg backstory is specifically Wolf 359.
Jean-Luc Picard: Locutus, 'nuff said
Ben Sisko: Wife (and shipmates) killed at Wolf 359
Star Trek: Borg: Player's dad died at Wolf 359
Riley (VOY "Unity"): Assimilated at Wolf 359
Laura (VOY "Unimatrix Zero"): Also assimilated at Wolf 359
Worried Mother (VOY "Infinite Regress") Son assimilated at Wolf 359
Bigot who attacks Icheb in one of the books: "My aunt was assimilated at Wolf 359 you bastard!"
Captain Shaw (PIC): Survivor of Wolf 359
For comparison, how many people affected by terrorism are specifically September 11 survivors/victims' relatives? How many WWII veterans specifically have their trauma from being stationed at Pearl Harbor?
Wolf 359 is getting overused. There must have been some other attacks from the Federation's greatest enemy.
In-universe Wolf 359 was not just an absolute massacre with unprecedented loss in ships and personnel - it was also an absolute unexpected surprise shock, with no one being mentally or physically prepared, and the fleet staffed full if families and explorers. Like the trauma of 9/11, Pearl Harbor and D-Day combined.
Realistically, there should be more "scarred survivors" from other events with more casualties and more survivors, like the "First Contact" battle or, oh, the entirety of the Dominion War (and Klingon War before)
and that absolute ridiculous, over-the-top massacre of every single senior officer and the scaring assimilation of EVERYONE else
.
But in real life, BOBW was a pop cultural mainstream event, with newspapers and talkshows talking about it & the future of Patrick Stewart on the show. Whereas these other examples got more and more obscure, and outside of a few nerds people won't even remember they even happened or how impactful they're supposed to be once the next superhero movie hits theaters.
In-universe Wolf 359 was not just an absolute massacre with unprecedented loss in ships and personnel - it was also an absolute unexpected surprise shock, with no one being mentally or physically prepared, and the fleet staffed full if families and explorers. Like the trauma of 9/11, Pearl Harbor and D-Day combined.
Realistically, there should be more "scarred survivors" from other events with more casualties and more survivors, like the "First Contact" battle or, oh, the entirety of the Dominion War (and Klingon War before)
and that absolute ridiculous, over-the-top massacre of every single senior officer and the scaring assimilation of EVERYONE else
.
But in real life, BOBW was a pop cultural mainstream event, with newspapers and talkshows talking about it & the future of Patrick Stewart on the show. Whereas these other examples got more and more obscure, and outside of a few nerds people won't even remember they even happened or how impactful they're supposed to be once the next superhero movie hits theaters.
Minuet wasn't a mainstream moment, but they brought her - along with a lot of other esoteric tiddlybits from, the most consciously-forgettable of seasons at the time by said fandom (season one), to build lots of neat little sequels on top of, until they found shiny new ideas to work with. There's a headscratcher, but there are at least four instances where we're glad they didn't return to the "well of potential sequels" from, of which one was far more visible than the rest combined and then some - and from an episode that wasn't deemed one of the trashy clunker horrible ones, in yet another goofy real-world twist. Even more amusing but in an odd sort of way, the show already delved into the most infamous and notorious of season one's cringe-inducing lot as early as season two... (Nope, I'm not going to directly point out it's the one where Yar wants emotional compassion from a robot. Oh wait, I just did, but I digress... )
Seven of Nine had nothing to do with Wolf 359 (what with every drone on the cube got caught up in the big splodey at the end* and all...), so it's very possible to create new original characters from new events based on an established enemy and without piggybacking on the big one event. (Which is rather not bad for a show that was at the leading edge of "franchise burnout"...)
"Nerds". How will the football fans that remember the best re-used plays respond to that descriptor? They're not "nerds" but are reacting in a similar way... but people call them "jocks". That said, even "nerds" and "jocks" won't remember all minutiae all the time, and that's why most forgotten plotting isn't as off-putting compared to the big obvious ones and fundamental character traits that only those who didn't even watch the show at any superficial level would still have the potential to gloss over anyway, it's all good.
The PIC episode's "over the top" bit does have an explanation, surprisingly. It came directly from VOY and, IMHO, it was done fairly well. I want to say it came from "Dark Frontier", if not the wretched and cxlearly burnt-out "Unimatrix Zero". Again, for a show in the middle of franchise rot, VOY still had a couple tricks that could be latched onto - not as big as space crawdads that are not related to the ones Khan played with, but related to the Borg and only Borg can be used because nobody wants to try to close up other loose ends while cluing in casual audiences. Not even with a generic "last time on Star Trek The Next Generation" followed by a bunch of clips of skulky stop-motion day-glo 80s prawns invading bodies and saying how they want to live in peace but in the strangest of all ways possible. Indeed, why not invent a prequel? There's some low hanging fruit in that area that's just as ironically uncompelling too...
* save for the Borg Queen, who pukes out inane one-liner action shlock in the 1996 movie to ostensibly explain how she can be retconned in with nobody batting an eye out of disbelief at the plotting. (Yes, she's well-acted and that compensates for a lot...)
TBOBW is one of TNG's most popular episodes so it makes sense to reference it for the sake of more casual fans in the audience, who upon hearing Wolf 359 can say "That's from TBOBW!"
True, but to reference for how many times? The theory of diminishing returns still kicks in at some point and, with seven seasons of stories, they can dig up anything, build on it, and use clever referencing on top of a strong story. TNG is a large enough universe, if they can only rely on one big bad... that'll get bad in a big way.
Even casuals won't care, the more they reuse the same thing. They'll casually remember it's already been done. They also don't stick around either.
At least they had Seven for Shaw, which was handled okay, but Sisko's story was better. DS9 started with big bad Borg referencing, but didn't wallow in it. They, as a result, missed out on one potential storyline, which Shaw covered. But it started out a bit rough.
But at the same time, season 3 fixed a lot regarding the Borg, too...
TBOBW is one of TNG's most popular episodes so it makes sense to reference it for the sake of more casual fans in the audience, who upon hearing Wolf 359 can say "That's from TBOBW!"
(not meant at you personally, BTW)
)
