"You must do the Borg..."

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Teaos
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"You must do the Borg..."

Post by Teaos »

Okay, so image you have been put in charge of VOY just before the first appearance of the Borg, B&B are fired and you are in control.

You still have to work with the previously established frame work up to this point. And the TV executives say you MUST do at least 1 borg episode this season to help ratings, preferably a 2 parter or small arc. You are also left with the impression that they will want one or two more episodes after this point in the following seasons.

Can you think of a way to do this, VOY vs the Borg, with out ruining the Borg? You wanna make a great show and save Voy and make it everything it could have been, but you have the executives saying you must do this?

What plot arc is there to handle the Borg with out making them little bitches?
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by shran »

At least one characters/crewmembers should be assimilated, but in a slow drawn out process due to reason X, to get more insight into the Borg story-wise. Rather than getting in 7 of 9, keep Kes around. Perhaps by having Neelix slowly being assimilated, but having no link to the Collective. Voyager would have to spend several episodes hiding from the Borg, running low on supplies, joining a few refugee fleets, catching some flak for harbouring a partially assimilated Neelix (Sounds lovely, doesn't it), seeing Neelix slowly getting assimilated, eventually having to abandon him in order to actually get away. He would already have out-travelled his usefulness beyond the Necrit Expanse.
Also, there is the aspect of more and more Borg stuff being introduced due to the assimilation of Neelix, meaning there could be more nifty stuff coming from it, or it could at least be gleamed, but halted at the same time by a lack of resources, as they are away from anything like Starfleet.
Also, there must be some coalitions of species trying to destroy everything even remotely reeking of Borg, meaning Voyager would be between two dangers, both the Borg and the Borg-hunters.
Somewhere at the end of the season the Transwarp hub could come in and it could be destroyed/crippled, but only with great sacrifices from Voyager, meaning they'd have to choose between survival, discovery, ensuring the safety of the Federation and perhaps using the Hub, but being crippled themselves, such as by having their Warp Core crippled so they could only do warp 6 in emergencies at best. And still being only halfway home. Which is when the edge of the Krenim Space can be discerned.

Just a few ideas from the top of my head.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by McAvoy »

Sounds like plan shran.

The big question is that can we do grander arcs in the series like sh ran. Even go darker and not a TNG ripoff.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by Teaos »

Dark Star Trek... we had DS9 for that. I think VOY should have been more of "Yeah we're in a shitty situation, and sometimes we have to do bad things, but we are human, and we are Star Fleet"

I think there should only be a few dark episodes, to show how bad it can be and so we can appreciate the light.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by shran »

Teaos wrote:Dark Star Trek... we had DS9 for that. I think VOY should have been more of "Yeah we're in a shitty situation, and sometimes we have to do bad things, but we are human, and we are Star Fleet"

I think there should only be a few dark episodes, to show how bad it can be and so we can appreciate the light.
The borg arcs could give ample oppurtunity for some moral episodes, like how to treat captured drones, liberating them or not (I personally think Mara Wilson would be an interesting actress in the days to have her as an orphaned Borg drone assimilated as a foetus or something similar. Should you liberate someone from a collective even if individuality never has been part of its world?
Another interesting one would be once again playing up the technology aspect, saving a refugee fleet with your technology and presence from Borg, or stand by in the name of non-interference, even if your own survival is at stake?
As for the lighter side, I suppose there could be some lulls in the story arc where you could put in some lighter moments in the series. Kes/someone else taking on a parenting role for the liberated drone, something like that.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by Coalition »

The Borg would be a force of nature, rather than a threat. I.e. you'd see the Borg attack a planet not for resources or drone fodder, but because its current orbit is affecting the star that the Borg need as a gravity anchor for a local stargate.

Cue Voyager trying to help the planet build up its technology so everyone can escape, while the Borg just go about their business gathering materials, building engines on the planet to move it either farther in or out for the right balance.

The Borg don' expand fast, but they are 'inevitable'. You may fight then for a month, year, five years, or even a century. But the Borg will slowly develop the counters needed, they will build the necessary vessels, and you will be defeated.

Write it from the perspective of an ant hive or a bird in a city, but intelligent enough to recognize the survey stakes that are being set up.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by McAvoy »

Teaos wrote:Dark Star Trek... we had DS9 for that. I think VOY should have been more of "Yeah we're in a shitty situation, and sometimes we have to do bad things, but we are human, and we are Star Fleet"

I think there should only be a few dark episodes, to show how bad it can be and so we can appreciate the light.
DS9 isn't as dark as people think. Its just dark compared to TNG. Enterprise is as dark as DS9.

Honestly it should have always been about the crew of Voyager struggling to stay the Starfleet way.

The Borg among other threats should have tested and maybe even broke that struggle.

In fact, expanding on the slow assimilation of Neelix who in the end have Janeway have a similar dilemma like Picard did with Hugh. She chooses to DL what Picard refused to do because she needed that advantage to get home.

Not cripple the Borg but disable them for a time before they adapt.

No Borg Queen. Or at least no Borg Queen vs. Janeway crap. Make the Borg like TNG Borg but updated makeup.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by Tsukiyumi »

Based on the title, I had a completely different idea of what this thread would be. :lol:

"You will adapt to service us."

"Well, if you insist..."

Anyways, I like sticking with the "force of Nature" premise; why would the Queen care about a lone Starfleet ship at all? At least not before they started mucking up Borg goals, anyways. Which I wouldn't have them do very much of. Maybe they run across a damaged Sphere, or even introduce the Probe (but no "just beam a torpedo onboard" bullshit) as an adversarial vessel. Voyager takes damage, and as shran said, perhaps a main crew member gets partially assimilated. The remaining crew gain some insight into areas of high Borg activity, and they spend a lot of series either avoiding those areas, or occasionally running from Borg vessels. No "Voyager can engage a Class 50 Uber-armored Tactical Cube and get away" crap. 8472 were a cool concept, at least the idea of a species powerful enough to give the Borg a real fight; I'd have that species be a major part of the rest of the show. Make it ambiguous as to whether Voy should help them, fight them, or stay out of the way (What the show did in about 5 minutes of dialog). In the end, have this massive Borg war be the reason the Borg end up crippled, with Voyager managing to take advantage of the chaos to get home through a transwarp hub, and leave the true nature (friend or foe) of the other race up in the air at the end.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by RK_Striker_JK_5 »

Tsukiyumi wrote:Based on the title, I had a completely different idea of what this thread would be. :lol:

"You will adapt to service us."

"Well, if you insist..."
*Slowly raises hand* Same, here...
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by Reliant121 »

The Borg Should be presented as almost omnipotent. Far far FAR too many times did Voyager go dicing with a cube or a tactical cube and come out barely scratched when even the E-D ended up being carved up like Camembert (plus the FC cube obliterated an entire fleet). I don't really mind what the storyline follows it should just be an overarching plot that the Borg are a constant threat throughout the later series, and a threat that Voyager had almost no chance of going toe to toe with.
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Re: "You must do the Borg..."

Post by Tholian_Avenger »

Let's say that someone got really upset after watching Macrophage and canned B&B then. I don't know how the contracts are done but I argue for a hiatus of a few weeks. Let Fair Trade, Alter Ego, and Blood Fever go through. Unity gets expanded into a two parter to show how people deal with a life after Borg. The event might be a great time to introduce the 7of9 character and then have her play a tortured role in Scoprion. Some of the weaker episodes of Season 3 would be sacrificed for this all to work.

I am not sure that I would have brought Scorpion on so soon, and if the mid season break was accepted I would have let Scorpion bracket the middle of Season 4. Further down the line I can't say right now. If I had control of Voyager from Day-1 I would have done this even more differently. C'est la vie.
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