Themightytom wrote: ↑2019-07-05 03:48pm
Actually they probably just Turned On the camera that was still there from season 1 where Picard was peeping around that Klingon wreck through the VISOR.
Regarding the Borg, I think there's actually wiggle room in the time line. The FIRST Borg encounter was Q's fault, the best of both worlds was the same cube, I think seven commented that "It was why the Borg took interest in the federation to begin with" which could have... At a stretch, just meant the second attempt to assimilate Earth.
Was it ever explicitly stated to be the same cube, or just theorized?
In any case, its heavily implied that the Borg were poking around the Neutral Zone before then. The war was coming, whether Q acted as he did or not (its often theorized that Q was actually helping the Federation, in a twisted way, by giving them a heads-up about what was coming, and some of the Q Who dialogue seems to support that IIRC).
First encounter: Borg access the Enterprise and recognize the ship's general lineage, but not the specific ship that destroyed their friends in the past. Enterprise escapes through mysterious finger snapping and the Borg just meander along that route until they find Earth. Cube is defeated by Data's Hack, but ultimately the Borg conclude the federation isn't a big deal. There's not much there they don't have, one cube can take the down at any time, no biggie.
Enterprise E shows up, Borg realize there's a time loop in play and send the cube knowing that just the sphere has to go back, so asismilation is a bonus but no big deal.
Hmm, would the Borg have known that the E-E existed before they sent that cube? Was their any contact between the Federation and Borg that would have allowed them to know that between Generations and First Contact? I don't think so.
But in any case, the designs are similar enough that they ought to have been able to put it together on that alone.
Alternate (original time line):
Borg dont go back in time, Cochrane launches his ship, practically no changes to the timeline, Borg might not even bother the federation specifically after Best of Both world's, because there's nothing really worth the effort there. First contact might not happen without the Enterprise E, and if Enterprise D is even just missing in action, the E might not be commissioned for a much longer period of time.
Maybe the Borg would have made the Federation less of a priority, or come later, without the loop, yeah.
Still, First Contact would play out differently, and you'd expect the ripple effects of that to be massive.
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