SFDebris: Dark Frontier

[Captain Seafort]

Part 1
Part 2

Last part will be up on Wednesday.

[Tsukiyumi]

"This is more than a decade before 'Q Who?', so the Borg were limited to rumors, reports from the El-Aurian refugees Scotty saved, and the notes of Dr. Phlox, which were incomplete since he was gunned down by Breen assassins..."

[Tyyr]

There really is no excuse for Enterprise's handling of the Borg.

In other news I liked this episode(s). It wasn't that clear cut and it let the Borg really be alien but still made them able to appeal to certain impulses. Seven got to shine front and center which is always a good thing.

[Tyyr]

Dark Frontier reminded me of something. We see Seven's father and the implication of the chase afterwards is that most likely he was killed when the Queen's yacht got blown up. Now back when BoBW came out I assumed that Picard could be brought back because he'd been recently assimilated and allowed to retain a measure of individuality by the collective. That otherwise the process of assimilation was a one way mind shattering process. This was sort of corroborated with Hugh when he was freed from the collective but remained more or less a drone, a blank slate. Wasting Borg was still A-OK because once someone was assimilated they were gone, kaput.

Then comes Seven. After about twenty years as a full on drone she returns to being a human. While she's changed by the experience she's still Anika Hansen and as such she's more or less rescued from the collective. This sort of puts the whole Borg thing in a new light. All those Borg on those ships? They could be saved. No one even mentions Seven's father and how he could have been freed from the Collective.

[Tsukiyumi]

Part 3.

[Graham Kennedy]

It's a good point, that. One of the truly sad things about the Borg is that there's no reason in theory that you couldn't save all of them. If you could incapacitate a whole cube you could go through and recover every single drone and return them to humanity (or whatever other species). But in practice, it's just not possible because the resources required are far beyond the Federation. Killing Borg is killing innocent people, but it's the only thing you can really do.

[Mikey]

It's an excellent point, and makes one wonder why amidst the Federation - with all its vaunted moral superiority - we never once heard anyone say, "Boy, it's a shame we have to kill all those people" or something similar.

[McAvoy]

It is a good point, but an obvious one.

Honestly you can't save them all and not all of them would come back that easily. A Borg Cube is definitely within the power of the Federation, but not a single starship's.

[Mikey]

It is a good point, but an obvious one.

Honestly you can't save them all and not all of them would come back that easily. A Borg Cube is definitely within the power of the Federation, but not a single starship's.

Obviously it's not. I'm not expecting anyone in the UFP to say, "We can't use force against the Borg because those are potentially salvageable people;" but I can reasonably expect someone to say, "It's a shame we have to kill them" or "It's a shame we can't save them." Especially since Picard, and later Seven, were recovered.

[Graham Kennedy]

It is a good point, but an obvious one.

The best points always are obvious.... once somebody else points them out.

[McAvoy]

While that is true. But that point occured to me while watching VOY borg episodes. However like I said, Voyager is small ship with limited resources.

The fact that no one has said anything about that is I think moot point at best when it comes to the writing in Voyager.

Picard didn't even trust Hugh until late in the episode. The two Borg attacks in Fed space doesn't really give a chance or time for anyone to capture and de-Borgify ex-Borg.

[Mikey]

Yes, yes, resurces a/o time didn't allow. But nobody ever said, "Hey, remember how we got the skipper back? Too bad we don't have the time/resources/whatever to do that with Hugh and his buddies."

[Tyyr]

I'm not suggesting that the default response to a cube should be trying to save them all. Save-able or not they're trying to kill you. However there never seems to be any consideration in anyone's mind of the possibility.

[Mikey]

Exactly. Never once did we hear, "Too bad we have to kill them all. These drone were once all sentient individuals, and had the potential to be again."

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Well, maybe IU the Federation thought the same way you did, Tyyr. That Picard was a special case due to circumstances and rapid recovery.

It is a damned shame, there.