Imagine that its the fourth or fifth season of ST:TNG, you are one of the executive producers of ST:TNG. The Borg have been featured twice in the series so far, "Q-Who", and "The Best of Both Worlds I & II". The Best of Both Worlds episodes made such an impact with both critics and fans that there is lots of interest in a followup appearence by the Borg. But you face three problems: 1) How do you feature the Borg again and have the Enterprise crew defeat them with any kind of realism? 2) How do you afford what would be a very expensive single or double episode? 3) Is it really worth it to try? Because whatever you do will be compared to The Best of Both Worlds. Michael Piller of course decided on the episode "I,Borg" which was cheap and had a warm fuzzy message that Piller loved........but which launched the Borg on the way to total pussification (and didn't do much for ST:TNG either). What would you do? I would've taken another shot during the fifth season at another two parter featuring the Borg as mortal enemies. Used as much stock footage as possible to deal with costs with as little location work as possible to reduce costs. I would've had the Borg return with more than one ship. Three at least. With the Enterprise getting some serious help in fighting them. From the Romulans perhaps (at this point you have huge amounts of footage featuring Warbirds streaking in and firing). Perhaps have the Enterprise (and some more Starfleet ships) respond to a Romulan call for assistance. And it would've had that good Trek feeling regarding enemies uniting to face a common foe. That is the thing I would've done.
I dunno, but I am tired of the whining of Borg pussifiaction from the fanbase in general. Realisticly, there wasn't really any way else ot go with them. Be it pussification, or a magic superweapon (Voyager did both), either they had to be beaten, or they kill the Federation, and no more Trek. And trying to keep them as mysterious and scary as in Q Who just would have gotten boring, and would have been a futile effort. At least the way TNG ever would've handled 'em. Now me, given I presumedly would suddenly magically be God Of Trek for the scenario, I woulda kept them scary by slowly revealing their gory meaty side, and have them be connected to the things from "conspiracy". Have them not just put machines in people, but guts in their machinery, and have them be like the Vidiians. Then, for a season arc, have them play out Guinan's description of the possible fall of mankind, and literally have them wipe out humanity, leaving little pockets of survivors to "keep the spirit alive". BUT, then reveal we've been watching an alternaverse all along, and they quantum gate to the "real", TNG, and then, season after that, they're prepared, and beat the Borg Voyager style. Almost like what Stargate did with advance warning of the Goald destroyed Earth, but I woulda done it first. Oh, and no Queen.
I would have used Hugh and fucked them up the proverbial ass. Total systemwide failure throughout the collective in six months. Adios, muchachos. Even better than nuking them from orbit. A little 20th Century ruthlessness would have gone a long way with regards to teh Borg.
I think I would have had the ship in BOBW be the one and only massive cube of its type. I think I would have had the surviving Borg be relatively scattered, but still deadly in guerrilla style attacks, if I would have had them at all. Either that or encounter them through time warps. It would have been cool to see the origin of the Borg. Mostly I would have explored the side of things only lightly touched on in "Family" and DS9's "Emissary" a lot more: that there should be huge repercussions for Picard, both personally and professionally. He should have been haunted that the Borg used him to destroy so many Federation lives, that his will was too weak, that maybe he should have looked at things differently. Instead of being the perfect diplomat, doubt, fear and anger should have crept into a lot more of his situations. I would have had at least one "Court Martial" type episode where the Federation puts him on trial for Wolf 459, and at least one episode that revolved around him getting shunned by the many Siskos of the world who blame him for the Borg's success. I might have also introduced an episode or an ongoing plot device like "BSG's" Chip Six or "Farscape's" Harvey where Picard had flashbacks and/or dialogues with a virtual Locutus.
In late season 4 I would have had rumors circulating Starfleet that there was something big going on in the Romulan Empire. I wouldn't be dedicating entire episodes, but I would use a line or 2 in a few different episodes in just casual conversation. In Season 5 I would have the Romulan Empire being literally split in half by the Borg. Many Romulan refugees would flee to the Federation and the Enterprise would have at least 5 episodes in that season with brief encounters with a Borg cube while helping to rescue the Romulans who have put out distress calls. Season 6 would be the beginning of the Borg penetration into Federation space. With some improvements in shields and phaser frequency shifting technology Federation battle groups would stand a fighting chance against single Borg cubes. We would see the Federation lose several planets but the Borg invasion would still be slow and take a long time. The Klingons would step up as our allies after the Federation convinces them that the best chance at beating the Borg is to fight side by side. The Romulans would join the fight again late in Season 6. The end of 6 would be a 4 parter in which the Allied forces lose some major ground to the Borg in the First 2 and a half parts and then find some way to introduce some kind of a virus or nanovirus into the Borg. Of course the moral dilema of wiping out an entire species would somehow fall on Picard's shoulders and ultimately he would choose to do it. By the end of the 4th part the Fed's will have turned the fight and be driving the Borg back out of the Alpha Quadrant. Then at some point in Season 7 there would be a Borg sighting proving that Picard's final solution virus didn't completely eliminate the Borg after all so they are left open for future movies.
Sounds like the Strogg. If you want to see that kind of stuff go play Quake 4. I wouldn't have the Borg reappear at all for a couple of years at least, TNG wasn't a war show and considering it was at it's peak at the time I don't think messing with the concept too much would be a good idea. I would however have murmurings in the background. Drop hints throughout episodes that a great many people in the Federation were starting to think that going out exploring the galaxy wasn't such a great idea after all. Edited to add more: When the Borg finally do reappear, the twist is that they don't come and attack us at all, having calculated that the potential benefits of overrunning the Federation don't justify their potential losses given that we evidently can defend against them (presume that the Borg don't know the trick by which the original single cube was destroyed). They do however have a great interest in the worlds just beyond the Federations borders, and start assimiliating them, all the time being careful to stay outside Federation space. Knowing that innocent worlds are falling to the Borg, some of which might have been candidates for Federation membership themselves in a few years time, does the Federation stay away and avoid provoking the Borg into retalitory action, or do we sit back and watch them, trading our security for our souls.
the borg should've been treated like a natural disaster - they appear, wreck the joint, and disappear. the borg should rarely have been handled head-on, just in situations where a subsets cut off from the rest of the collective like in 'first contact', but as something unstoppable and you just clear up the mess afterwards. having them hoover up races was a mistake, they should only have displayed an interest in improvements, biological and technical, with everything else to be ignored until it made a nusciance of itself, at which point it got swatted. also, don't give them a home space - they're just around. you never know when you might encounter them, or if you have something they want. you can't run from them, you can't hide, your only hope is remain off their radar.
Everybody loves "The Best of Both Worlds" yet the episode only continues to contradict the Borg storyline. The Borg need Picard to conquer the human race? That's nothing like the Borg in "Q Who." They had no trouble with the flagship of the Federation, they made short work of the Enterprise. I like Ecky's idea of considering the Borg as a force of nature. Like they were in "Q Who" and should've been in "The Best of Both Worlds."
Some great ideas in here. You lot should have been writing for the show, or at least in charge of overall script direction
I really like Tex's ideas, but the problem with having the Borg as the main villian for all of seasons 5-7 would definitly be cost. TNG wasn't a war show, and even if it wanted to be, the cost would not be feasable. You can use stock footage, but it would get a bit silly if they ended up using it as much as the Spiderman cartoon used theirs. Personally, I would have played it out with the complete militarification of Starfleet. I mean, half their fleet just got wiped out by the Borg! There would be a lot of reprecussions to BOBW, especially with some Federation planets wanting to turn Starfleet into a military and others calling on trying to find a way to contact the Borg and start peace talks. We would see this played out with the crew, and their opinions on how to handle the Borg would be divided right down the middle. As Starfleet scrambles to replace the ships lost at Wolf 359, I'd have the season 5 cliffhanger with the Romulans finally piecing together enough intel on what happened with the Borg, and making their bold move to take the Federation. The Romulans ALWAYS deal from a position of strength, and one of the things that bothered me about the period after BOBW was none of the major powers made any moves to deal the Federation a significant blow when they are down.
As Stallion says, we should not have heard from the Borg again until First Contact. After watching those episodes with Hugh and Lore, the Borg kinda lost their scary factor, it would have been better had the Borg not shown up again during the series. Voyager should not have had so much contact with the Borg. Janeway had more trouble dealing with the Kazon than she did with the Borg! Voyager ruined the Borg for me, B&B should be ashamed for allowing such a great species to be demeaned like this.
One capable of making typos at 1 a.m. Another story idea would be to revisit that system and have the E care for the survivors and collateral damage from that huge battle and/or go there for a memorial being established.
It seems like First Contact was done jsut to show that scene where the Queen introduces herself to Data just so they could do that "OMG Contradiction" line by Data.
The most believable method of beating the Borg was Voyager's 8472 idea. But that too was pussified by In The Flesh, the 8472 answer to I, Borg.
There should at least have been a few more "single vessel attacks and is defeated by a desperate plan by the crew" stories to at least make the idea that humanity is the Borgs' sticking point really work. Have the crew forced to lure the Borg ship into a nebula and blow it up, causing widespread damage to nearby planets. Moral dilemma but also the Borg Queen doesn't sound stupid when she tells Seven that humanity is a "highly resistant species" right after reeling off a long list of reasons why we shouldn't be a threat.
In my mind, the only way that attack on Earth made sense is if they simultaneously hit the central world of every major Alpha quadrant power at the same time. No way Earth and the Federation would be a special obsession with such a purely pragmatic race as the Borg. So, to me, the season that started out with BOBW #2 should have played out a protracted arc detailing the outcome of the battle over Romulus/Remus, Quo'nos, Cardassia Prime, etc. The Borg would know where to find each from what they assimilated from the Hansens on the Raven, the neutral zone outposts, and the Enterprise-D databanks "Q Who". Now that I think about it, this applies to First Contact, too.
If there's one thing I learned from Babylon 5, it's the concept of, "No matter how big and bad you are, in space there's always somebody bigger". Realistically, the Federation should have contacted someone bigger and badder, like the Talosians, or the Organians, or the Metrons (to name just three) to help out, much the same way as Sheridan got help from the First Ones to deal with the Vorlons and Shadows. (personally, I think it would be fun to see the Talosians finally earn their place in the Federation by fucking up the Borg, and perhaps even telepathically disrupting the Collective). And that's not even mentioning the Q. Might sound like a deaux ex machina, but logically that would have been the path for the Federation to follow.
We don't know that. It was a lot more powerful than the original Enterprise, but that may have just put it on a par with the Enterprise-D. I never figured the First Federation was that much more powerful than the 24th Century Federation - they just got there quicker.
Yes, but by the time of the 24th century, it follows that the First Federation would be the equal to a 25th or 26th century Federation, technologically speaking - and certainly capable of messing up a Borg Cube (even Starfleet was able to put a dent in one, as witnessed by the damage done to one in First Contact even before the Enterprise got there).
In one of Diane Carey's Trek novels, it was stated that the Fesarius wasn't really that powerful. It was just a giant tugboat with a powerful tractor beam meant for towing asteroids. According to the novel, the Enterprise it turned out could have "worked around Balocks interference with their engines and blown the Fesarius apart with a few shots". Balock was apparently running a colossal bluff against Kirk. Just as Kirk was running the Corbomite bluff against Balock.
Taking the entire Trek franchise into account, I was fine with most of the Borg appearance up until season 6 of Voyager when they adopted some Borg children. TNG handled it well, IMO. I, Borg and Descent were fine, even though the episodes really didn't have to do with the Borg Collective. I also though First Contact handled the Borg well, and made a great movie. It all went downhill when Voyager adopted those Borg children. The Borg started appearing every other week in seasons 6 and 7, even though Voyager had supposedly been hurled across the entirety of Borg space by Kes near the start of season 4. After the The Gift, we should have seen the Borg very few times, or not at all. The last good Borg episode was either Scorpion or Dark Frontier. Unimatrix Zero was interesting and sort of good, but after some thought, the entire concept seemed really stupid. Same with Endgame. Ideally, I would have loved to see a Dominion War type arc taking up the last two or three seasons of TNG.
I never assumed the First Federation was that much farther along than the UFP. I figured by TNG they had joined the UFP.
