Dominion v. Borg

[Tribble]

if they could grow their own drone material, why bother assimilating new species to start with other than for variety

Well actually that's how they used to be. When they were first introduced, they cloned drones as infants and grew them in maturation chambers. They only really assimilated technology. What they did to Picard was supposed to have been a once-in-awhile thing when they need extra tactical information.

Once First Contact came around, the Borg had changed into the bio-zombies we know today.

And then Voyager finished the knockout by adding the line "what the Borg can't assimilate they can't understand". Which would explain why Voyager was never assimilated, mind you. Who'd want to understand them?

[Havok]

To be fair to First Contact, the Borg were in as much of a precarious situation as the crew. The more people they actually assimilated the less were opposing them and they needed to get the signal to that timeline's Borg.

[Tribble]

I agree that the Borg needed to assimilate due to the circumstances, but I find it odd that their primary goal was to contact the Delta Quadrant (After Picard and Co. destroy the beacon the Queen tells Data that they need to change their plans). If the Borg assimilated the Enterprise, why would they need the Delta Quadrant Borg to assimilate Earth? The Borg were curb stomping the crew until they decided to stop at Deck 11 to work on the beacon. Shouldn't they have just kept pressing on? Or were they trying to hedge their bets?

On a related note, what would you say was the dumbest thing the Borg Queen did? There are quite a few options to choose from.

I would ask about the female Changling as well, but IMO apart from her dealings with Odo she seemed pretty competent. A hell of a lot more competent than the Queen at any rate.

[biostem]

I agree that the Borg needed to assimilate due to the circumstances, but I find it odd that their primary goal was to contact the Delta Quadrant (After Picard and Co. destroy the beacon the Queen tells Data that they need to change their plans). If the Borg assimilated the Enterprise, why would they need the Delta Quadrant Borg to assimilate Earth? The Borg were curb stomping the crew until they decided to stop at Deck 11 to work on the beacon. Shouldn't they have just kept pressing on? Or were they trying to hedge their bets?

On a related note, what would you say was the dumbest thing the Borg Queen did? There are quite a few options to choose from.

I would ask about the female Changling as well, but IMO apart from her dealings with Odo she seemed pretty competent. A hell of a lot more competent than the Queen at any rate.

I wonder if the Queen stopped the Borg from trying to take the entire ship because she knew that if Picard felt he had a good chance of taking it back, he wouldn't just order a self destruct.

IMO, the dumbest thing the Queen did was to not just disconnect Data's head and leave some nerve connections to the patch of skin, to try and tempt him that way. I also can't imagine that the Borg don't have the hacking capability to try and overtake Data - it sems they didn't even try that option.

[Tribble]

Well, after the Borg's beacon was destroyed they promptly took over up to Decks 5 and 6. It seems like they could have taken over the ship pretty quickly. I guess it could be that they were worried that Picard would self destruct the ship. And I was going to complain that the Borg never used the shuttlecraft, but I remember an episode where the Enterprise's computer is able to remotely control them. I'll be generous and assume that when Data locked out the Enterprise's computer it locked out the computers on the Shuttlecraft.

If I remember correctly, they drilled into Data's head and tried to hack him, but it didn't work. More importantly, if Data really thought he was compromised he could have simply deleted the codes. So their only real option was to try and convert him.

IMO the dumbest thing the Borg Queen did was self-destruct her ships just because a couple of drones on board some ships went rogue. As Chuck points out, she was just doing Janeway's work for her.

[biostem]

IMO the dumbest thing the Borg Queen did was self-destruct her ships just because a couple of drones on board some ships went rogue. As Chuck points out, she was just doing Janeway's work for her.

I thought it was more about trying to manipulate Janeway, as by the time those events were occurring, they had discovered the whole Unimatrix 001 or w/e it's called, and that many of the drones on board had an alternate life in it, where they were still "themselves" - basically the Queen was trying to show how sacrificing 100's or 1000's of drones meant nothing to her, but that to Janeway they were still lives that could have potentially been saved...

[Tribble]

I guess, but I don't see why the Borg Queen thought the Unimatrix was a problem in the first place. Wow, a whole 3 drones on a cube of 100,000 just went rogue? Just kill them! It ought to take her seconds! And why didn't she self-destruct the Klingon sphere? You know, the one ship that for some strange reason had enough rogue Borg that they could take over? Out of all the ships, shouldn't she have blown that one up the moment it looked like they were going to win? Argh!

[FaxModem1]

Also, what was so bad about Unimatrix 0? Aside from having it's residents have a nice place while they're sleeping, the drones in it were no different than the others, and only started to fight back when the Queen decided to take them out.

[Tribble]

IMO when the Borg "go to sleep" they are supposed to be using their brain power for the collective such as regenerating the ship. I suppose the Borg Queen wants total efficiency from her drones and having their brainwaves being used for a fantasy detracts from that.

Or maybe deep down she's a bit jealous at not being able to escape and be an individual herself? Or she felt that if she did try to join the program, they would reject her on sight? For all her talk about how great the collective is she seems to be a bit lonely. Why else would she go after Picard, Data and Seven and try to raise them as her "counterparts"?

Or she's just being a total bitch for the Evilz. Take your pick.