Why would the Borg stop?

[PKS8304]

So I was posting on another board about another thread and the topic brought up something in Next Generation history that never made sense to me.

We are to beleive that after the events of season 2 Q Who, Starfleet connected the dots with the destruction of Federation/Romulan outposts in Season 1 The Neutral Zone and concluded that it was the Borg.

If the Borg swept through and wiped out the outposts on the Federation/Romulan borders, they would be aware of the Federation and Romulan, so why would they stop at the outposts?

Has this topic been covered and answered already, just something Ive always thought about....

 

[Alrik]

I have always figured that what was sent was nothing more than a long range 'recon ship'. It gathered it's information and returned with that information to the collective for processing. If what they had collected was deemed worthy of assimilation, a Cube would be dispatched.

Perhaps the Borg had processed the information and was on schedule to move forward with sending a cube when the encounter with Enterprise occurred. Due to this encounter the Borg elect to re-evaluate the best way to assimilate earth, therefore delaying their mission and how it is to be carried out until BOBW.

 

[MikeS]

^Or that same cube was the one that arrived in BOBW. The Enterprise was thrown some distance by Q in Q Who.

 

[Marten]

Is there anything to support that the borg are actually in a hurry to assimilate species? For all we know, several years of processing might be standard.

 

[Timo]

I'd rather argue several millennia.

The Borg don't destroy cultures outright if they can avoid it. They appear to wait until a culture has something to offer, and then they come - and perhaps leave again, only to return when the culture has something new to offer. This was shown on a smaller scale in VOY "Child's Play".

Quite probably, nothing about Earth would warrant assimilating. But when Q gave Picard's ship the ability to escape the Borg in "Q Who?", the Borg may have mistaken that for an Earth ability, and decided to proceed from the idle surveying of "Neutral Zone" to the more aggressive assimilation run of "Best of Both Worlds". There's nothing to prove that even the latter would have been aimed at terminating the human civilization, though; the intent all along may have been to do another "prodding" strike that would make Earth develop better defenses. In which case the mission was a splendid success!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Dr. Crusher]

Reading these fabulous answers makes mine so uninteresting in comparison--I was thinking that this just was a consequence of an "after the fact" interpretation. It seems to me that perhaps the writers thought about this after the episode had aired. I could very well be wrong about that.

 

[Broccoli]

I think it is obvious that they stopped in order to cruise for chicks. Or to get some Taco Bell. Either way, win-win!

 

[Alrik]

Reading these fabulous answers makes mine so uninteresting in comparison--I was thinking that this just was a consequence of an "after the fact" interpretation. It seems to me that perhaps the writers thought about this after the episode had aired. I could very well be wrong about that.

The Borg were never realized on screen until Q Who, however they were hinted at in Season One's The Neutral Zone. In addition, many sources suggest that the idea of the Borg was born from the alien slugs seen in Conspiracy, a mini arc introduced by Coming of Age. It was said that making the Borg an insectoid collective, be it desirable, was unrealistic fx wise at the time. So they simply changed things. However, for those who consider TNG strictly episodic, this (outside of the TOS movies) was Trek's first try at an ongoing story arc.

 

[Tiberius]

I think it is obvious that they stopped in order to cruise for chicks. Or to get some Taco Bell. Either way, win-win!

Can you imagine a Borg Cube going through the drive through at Macca's?

"Uh yeah, can we get five hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and ninety one big macs, six hundred and twelve thousand, one hundred and forty two large fries and seven hundred thousand large cokes. Aw, the Cube's too big to fit under the roof!!!"

 

[Flake]

I assume the destruction in the neutral zone was by a recon probe that the borg send out around the galaxy to scout for potential targets and this probe signalled the closest Borg cube to come to the AQ and start assimilating it. I also think the Q Who cube and the BOBW cube is the same one.

That cube was despatched to the AQ at the end of season 1 based upon the findings of the probe that destroyed bases in the neutral zone

 

[Eckauskas]

I'd rather argue several millennia.

The Borg don't destroy cultures outright if they can avoid it. They appear to wait until a culture has something to offer, and then they come - and perhaps leave again, only to return when the culture has something new to offer. This was shown on a smaller scale in VOY "Child's Play".

Quite probably, nothing about Earth would warrant assimilating. But when Q gave Picard's ship the ability to escape the Borg in "Q Who?", the Borg may have mistaken that for an Earth ability, and decided to proceed from the idle surveying of "Neutral Zone" to the more aggressive assimilation run of "Best of Both Worlds". There's nothing to prove that even the latter would have been aimed at terminating the human civilization, though; the intent all along may have been to do another "prodding" strike that would make Earth develop better defenses. In which case the mission was a splendid success!

Timo Saloniemi

I honestly try to avoid understanding the Borg by watching VOY. I can't stand what they turned them into during VOY.

 

[Tomalak]

I'd rather argue several millennia.

The Borg don't destroy cultures outright if they can avoid it. They appear to wait until a culture has something to offer, and then they come - and perhaps leave again, only to return when the culture has something new to offer. This was shown on a smaller scale in VOY "Child's Play".

Quite probably, nothing about Earth would warrant assimilating. But when Q gave Picard's ship the ability to escape the Borg in "Q Who?", the Borg may have mistaken that for an Earth ability, and decided to proceed from the idle surveying of "Neutral Zone" to the more aggressive assimilation run of "Best of Both Worlds". There's nothing to prove that even the latter would have been aimed at terminating the human civilization, though; the intent all along may have been to do another "prodding" strike that would make Earth develop better defenses. In which case the mission was a splendid success!

Timo Saloniemi

Doesn't really tally with First Contact though. Why do they want to go back in time and assimilate earth before humans have developed any interesting tech?

First Contact suggests there was something intrinsic to humans that the Borg wanted. Their technology wasn't of any great interest, but there was evidently some indefinable "distinctiveness" that they wanted from us, regardless of where in our development they took us.

 

[Alrik]

First Contact suggests there was something intrinsic to humans that the Borg wanted. Their technology wasn't of any great interest, but there was evidently some indefinable "distinctiveness" that they wanted from us, regardless of where in our development they took us.

Exactly. That is why I figure that the encounter with Enterprise in Q Who is what prompted the Borg to re-evaluate their approach toward Earth and humanity. Perhaps they realized that when it came to humans, resistance wasn't so futile after all, and they needed a new game plan.

 

[Anwar]

The Borg weren't impressed by what they found at the Neutral Zone, so they left and headed to J-25. Q sent the Enterprise out there, and the Borg were surprised that they could do that when what they sampled at the Neutral Zone said otherwise, and doubly surprised at how they teleported out of there.

So they moved back to investigate the Feds again.

Then when they assimilated Picard and found out it was the work of Q, they probably thought "Okay they didn't do any of that amazing stuff but they must have some importance for that Q thing to be interested in them."

 

[Silvercrest]

I think it is obvious that they stopped in order to cruise for chicks. Or to get some Taco Bell. Either way, win-win!

Can you imagine a Borg Cube going through the drive through at Macca's?

"Uh yeah, can we get five hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and ninety one big macs, six hundred and twelve thousand, one hundred and forty two large fries and seven hundred thousand large cokes. Aw, the Cube's too big to fit under the roof!!!"

The drive-through is irrelevant. The restaurant will be assimilated. "To go", please.

 

[gastrof]

Here's a thought-

With most if not all sentient species putting such great value in freedom and not WANTING to be assimilated, wouldn't the Borg collective, after a period of time (if not right from the start) be so filled with minds that said "Assimilating people is wrong" that they'd have stopped doing it and even broken up the collective, each member being given back their individuality and freedom?

If the Borg "overmind" is a composite of all the minds making it up, and those minds didn't WANT to be there...

 

[Judy Waxhorn]

I think it is obvious that they stopped in order to cruise for chicks. Or to get some Taco Bell. Either way, win-win!

Can you imagine a Borg Cube going through the drive through at Macca's?

"Uh yeah, can we get five hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and ninety one big macs, six hundred and twelve thousand, one hundred and forty two large fries and seven hundred thousand large cokes. Aw, the Cube's too big to fit under the roof!!!"

The drive-through is irrelevant. The restaurant will be assimilated. "To go", please.

YOU WILL ADAPT TO SERVE US. NOW.

 

[Silvercrest]

I'm sorry ... sirs ... I'll have to get my manager.

 

[Tomalak]

Then when they assimilated Picard and found out it was the work of Q, they probably thought "Okay they didn't do any of that amazing stuff but they must have some importance for that Q thing to be interested in them."

Works for me. They might have knowledge of Q, and are desperate to assimilate him. Picard and humanity are bait.

 

[BriGuy]

An element in this may be that the Borg's tactics, approach(es) and desire(s) changed as it had more contact with humans, Starfleet and others in the known parts of the Alpha Quadrant, in particular the assimilation of Picard.

To begin with they only wanted technology, then they wanted more.

So when the Borg came about and destroyed those outposts, they may have had a different approach about how they went about things than they did later in the series.

Although any "evolution" in that regard is probably just our attempt to provide "order" to TV show production "chaos."