@@NealX_Gaming I have to say, the Borg voice they used to have at 3:03 was pretty poor. They only had two people's voices working together to be the Borg. They picked it up much better in Best of Both Worlds and beyond to convey the idea of hundreds of thousands of voices speaking at once, as one.
Best in all of Trek when they started, but a joke by the time their greater arc across multiple franchises ended...a shame Christopher Pine never was given a shot at them
First Contact Borg are utterly terrifying. Prior to that their fear inducing nature was limited by tv budgets. Once they got the movie treatment, that cybernetic zombie aspect they got was enough to give you nightmares, especially since something like these Borg are far more likely to happen in real life than zombies.
@@sethwinslow I thought the same but then I thought, maybe a Borg would look to gauge their reactions, that's important information about the species they plan to assimilate. How do they think? Would they resist further, or would they submit?
@@missilemassacreonline in this situation the borg are investigating a completely new technology to them. They aren't too much interested in the biological beings
I like how the Borg beam back the live crewman but only want specific components from the dead one. They could have beamed back both and done a more thorough recycle job of the dead one.
Most spend their whole lives trying to speak to or otherwise relate to a Q like entity. Picard wants nothing more than to swat his with a fly swatter, no wonder they hugged at the end of their journey.
@@thehantavirus They're accurate, But this is there first time encountering the Borg and don't have their ship schematics on file. Most ships, in ST follow a certain deign philosophy but the Borg has a completely alien design. Most likely, they tried targeting power sources until they finally just hit the emitter array.
I like to think that they were aiming for the power source or mechanism of the tractor beam rather than the emitter. That would explain why they didn't shoot at the source of the green light.
I always got a kick when the Borg drone intensified his disruptive scanning of the Enterprises systems after he turned to face the crowd, like he was saying, "you dare interfere?! This is your penance!"
I mean, the Borg were, for the first time ever, threatened with total annihilation by a determined aggressor (8472). Even a hivemind will make an exception when the alternative is extinction.
Joke's on the Borg. They may have acquired tactical data, but they also downloaded Riker's holodeck logs. Since they share a hive mind, they've all seen it! 🤣
I remember watching this episode for the first time, so good, the Borg were so cold and callous, calculating and seemingly unstoppable. Gave me the shivers.
Originally they were awesome, more like a bacteria or a virus. Emotionless and systematic. Got progressively ruined as new writers decided to mess with it. Remember First Contact? That was just bizarre.
Man, anyone else remember the time before Voyager when the Borg were legitimately terrifying? The Borg shown in TNG (not counting the movies) were almost like some cosmic horror straight out of HP Lovecraft. They would show up in the skies over worlds, excise whatever people or technologies drew them there, and move on. They could not be bargained with, or persuaded, or intimidated. Just like with the drone shown in this episode, even if you somehow stopped them, it would only be a temporary reprieve because they would send more ships that had counters for whatever you used to stop the previous attempt. Moreover though, they were something that was a rarity in Star Trek as a whole: a species that was truly _alien_ . All the rubber forehead aliens in show were essentially just humans with different cultures and maybe certain behavioral traits amplified. We, as an audience, could still relate to them though. But the Borg were something different. They were a hive mind: vast, unknowable, and with motivations so inscrutable that we could only guess at them. That was, until the writer's decided to create the character of the Borg Queen. Giving the Borg a 'face' with the Borg Queen was completely asinine. With that one move, everything I just described vanished. The Borg just became yet another rubber forehead alien race that happened to be powerful. The Queen had emotions, could hold grudges, acted arbitrarily, and had all the foibles a single person would have. Any sense of an 'unknowably vast consciousness' was destroyed. The Borg just became a bunch of cybernetic robots obeying the dictates of some petty tyrant of a woman.
I thought the very same but with an origin story of a science project gone wrong and took over the original race and tech and kept taking over the surrounding planets and systems and so on
I think the Borg queen was initially cool but she keeps getting watered down. Let's face it, the Borg are cool but they're essentially cybernetic bees.
When the Borg were first introduced in Voyager, the were also quite terrifying. The reason that they lost that feeling was due to Species 8472 and, the lead up to Voyager's pact with the Borg. Besides, we tend to get less and less afraid of things as time goes on.
@@phillippi2 We tend to get less and less afraid of things as time goes on.... if the writer fails to maintain the dangerous fear. If it's a good writer then the writer would be able to make something more terrifying as time goes on.
My goodness. Even watching this back years on from when I first saw it and acknowledging the depiction of the Borg evolves through this and other Trek series, its spine chilling. A triumph of storytelling.
I always thought it was funny that the second Borg pulled out what I'm assuming were critical components from the dead one, and then they just transport them both out anyway.
This is sort of why I disagree that the Borg don't have feelings in "TNG." People forgot they're not cyborgs but humanoids with prosthetics. The Collective itself is an allegory for "Friends"-watching Allied Nordicist Yankee "Seinfeld"-haters. They dispose the individual and its about the bigger whole but it's more in an arrogant and sinister way. Mind you Denmark, Sweden are Nordic but Russia, also Nordic, is a darker mirror of what those countries could have been (not that they arent bigoted "Friends"-loving Allied Nordicist Yankees to begin with but they're aren't totalitarian like Russia; culturally Russia is like Sweden, Denmark, Spain, all Nordic, they're just not Western). The USSR and even Russia today disposes the individual without remorse, all for the larger state.
It's odd because sometimes they suggest the Borg in some episodes just disintegrate their dead, and other times they suggest they recover them to try to put them back together or salvage.
"Mr. Worf! Use whatever means to neutralize the intruder." "A simple "Kill Him", would have sufficed Captain. Grandstander..." "Oh, screw you Michael! You just won't let it go, will you?!"
@Logicphile The "sufficed" line is referencing dialogue between Picard and Riker from the TNG episode Contagion. The "screw you Michael" is from the Family Guy episode Not All Dogs Go To Heaven, where Stewie builds a transporter and beams the TNG cast from a convention.
Unpopular opinion: This episode is the only time when the borg seemed like a legitimately horrifying enemy. Cold, calculating, completely alien. The moment that they gave them a voice and special avatars (i.e. The Queen, Locutus) they were kinda ruined.
I don't know, Patrick Stewart was pretty menacing as a Borg. I think it was when the Borg started losing for stupid reasons like not bringing enough ships to conquer a species that they stopped being a threat and we stopped taking them seriously.
@@ILikeMyPrivacytbtI think the temptation to use the Borg was just too high with their popularity for the executives to ignore. But they didn’t realize that every time they used them, obviously the main characters would have to beat them because otherwise *poof* no more show. Let’s be real, had the Borg ever sent more than 1 ship to any of their earth assimilation attempts, they would easily win. My only idea is that Q silently manipulated the Collective to give the federation a fighting chance. It’s the only thing that makes sense in my mind.
@@chuckford6910 I didn't mind them sending 1 ship the first time, it was clearly more than enough except for deus ex plot armour, and maybe it was one that had been traveling/scouting for some time. But once we saw in Voyager that they have hundreds of thousands of cubes, and can cross the galaxy at will, it indeed becomes silly that they'd keep sending one.
@@hansolo631 I can agree with that, at least the FIRST time. I really sorta wish there had been a more permanent solution to the Borg threat after BoBW, some kind of justification for *why* they don’t return again until First Contact with a wacky convoluted time travel plan when all they need to do is just up the number of cubes they send by 1 every time until they succeed 😂
"They don't do things piecemeal. When they come, they'll come in force." And yet, twice they invade Federation space with a single ship. Writers needed to pay more attention.
Yeah I wondered about that two and also why does the borg need to travel back in time to beat startfleet,lol.I think the problem with the borg was the writers made them powerful but gave them a small weakness to give starfleet a chance to make the story Interesting.The borg should of been more on the level of above the minor races to be bothered or strong enough to be a tough fight and still keep the assimilation and limited adaptive capability.Say to where it took multiple phasers from 2 to 4 people to take them down.
@@robertstevenson5145 Good point on the last. It would have made more sense if the borg had a weakness whereby they couldn't adapt to phaser frequencies quickly enough. Starfleet personnel could get a few shots off before they adapted, but sometimes changing the phaser frequency gave them additional shots. So, two phasers being fired at different frequencies might give them more shots. Once they adapted to that, add a third at a different frequency. Eventually, the Borg wouldn't be able to switch frequency adaptation quickly enough so phaser fire would get through. Unfortunately, writers tend to get stuck with an idea and don't completely follow through. I'd be great at CinemaSins.
@@daviddavies3637 Well, multiple sources indicate they can't adapt to melee or projectile attacks, yet Starfleet never capitalizes on this, except for Picard in First Contact.
the argument here is incorrect, the Borg see a civilisation as being worth assimilation they're going to send a Cube to both assess and try and assimilate, but if they fail they've gained the knowledge they need to try again, and again, and again if they so choose. They don't need to send a thousand cubes, eventually they'll overwhelm you and they'll assimilate you, and you'll become a launching platform for your region of the Galaxy to send out more Cubes elsewhere. When Guinen says they won't do it piecemeal she's not talking thousands of cubes, she's saying if they want you, they'll send a few hundred Drones at once and you're done as the Borg are relentless.
Wow, the first time they dropped they're misson statement they simply said the Enterprise couldn't resist and that resistence, despite the warning, would be met with punishment. Later, it turned into the mission statement we all recognize.
I don't know why Picard is given so much props...He's told to head back he stays and hangs around.Was told hey these guys destroyed my people and he let's the borg make all the first moves.Then when he had a clear advantage to destroy the threat knowing how dangerous they was he decides to have a field trip.Picard in another encounter waits until his shields are drained dry before acting.Im sorry picard should be an ambassador planetside or only a starship captain on a science vessel.
@Moabman there was only 1 time I had an issue with kirk.If I was an admiral I would of punished him for this.I forget which episode but the ship was being pulled down to the planet.Scotty did everything he could and kirk wasn't able to do anything on his end yet moments before the ship would be destroyed and everyone on the ship would die....he fires Mr scott??..Wtf kind of jerk move is that to the guy that saved many a bacon.
@@robertstevenson5145 I originally thought Picard was only the introduction captain and Riker would soon become captain.... since Picard was so old and Riker would logically be able to do more movies and sequels. Picard was far too trusting and friendly... overall personality of Picard was never admired by men or women.
@@nishihundan1257 If Picard was in his 30s or 40s and not so overly friendly then Picard would have been good. Unfortunately Picard was the age of most great grandpas and he was way too friendly with dangerous encounters. Of course he's better than the woke feminists flying as captains today.
I've admired the BORG since this episode was first aired- the attachments, even with phasers at maximum setting it only neutralized the scout, when it shouldve vaporized it. And personal shield generators? even the shields- never saw shields that were geometric in shape.
Love when picard in later episodes uses a weapon that constantly jumps frequencies so the borg can't adapt yes definitely going to watch all episodes again when I'm finnished doing the same with red dwarf.
Worf, the most incompetent security chief in Starfleet. First, he allows captain to enter engineering without securing the area first. Second, after witnessing the intruder produce what could be a weapon, Worf doesn’t get the captain to a safe location.
That's because the Borg were not posing a direct threat to them yet. They were just examining and surveying the ship like the Swedes did to the lands in both North America and Sweden before hoards of those "Friends"-watching Allied Nordicist Yankee "Seinfeld"-haters came and conquered the native people
Remember what Guinan says, "They don't do that individually. That's not their way. When they decide to come, they're gonna come in force. They don't do anything piece meal." Geordi was far from incompetent. The situation was confusing to the crew. They never dealt with an enemy like the Borg before. Although they weren't dumb - Data instantly knew they were a collective species and that's why individual life was not found by the censors.
I am reminded of the comic book story of Superman vs Alien in which Superman attempted to talk and reason with the Xenomorphs. As you can imagine that did not go well......lol
If you have not read the book before you go saying the Xeno's would not stand a chance against Superman bear in mind you are correct with a yellow star but they were in, I believe, a green star system and Superman's power was very limited.
If this was happening on my ship.... and Picard, Worf and others allowed the enemy to do all these things.... I would have dumped them into space with the rest of the garbage.
You can't reason with them unless they WANT to reason with you. The Borg ended up invading another dimension and PISSED OFF an entire species which then did it's damn best to KILL every last single Borg in the Galaxy. As a result the Queen probably assessed they needed an expendable asset to fight the battle for them and sadly Captain Insaneway never once questioned the Borg let alone suspected Voyager was being used in a war that the Borg started.
Slug throwers are a terrible idea on a SPACE ship, there's concern about decompression and damage to vital systems, let alone shrapnel from missed rounds. Plasma weapons are just hot gas, I imagine the ship's internal structure is a little resilient to hot gas. Besides, I'm sure the Borg can adapt shields to fast moving projectiles. "Babylon 5" made this argument.
Capt. Picard: How do we reason with them, let them know that we're not a threat? Guinan: You don't. At least, I've never known anyone who did *Janeway has entered the chat*
Sounds almost Terminator like with John Carpenter's The Thing added to it. Most of the time the borg cannot be bargined with, nor reasoned with nor compromised with. They just advance on anything and everything and either assimilate or destroy whatever gets in their way. Makes one wonder if any of the Star Trek actors ever watched Carpenter's The Thing
Picard shoulda just been like "Mr. Worf, grab your battleth." They might have shields against phasers, but ain't no shield against gettin' your head chopped off by an angry Klingon.
The way they just stand next to each other and talk about an alien across the room who is damaging the ship. Makes me think the writers and director were smoking something.
Picard was always too trusting and too friendly.... it's like he had no balls. Guinan even warned them about how the Borg annihilated many of their cities.... yet Picard is treating the Borg like some lost puppy.
"the borg never do anything piecemeal" The borg then not only once, but twice, send a single cube to earth 😂 just a little funny bit in hindsight, when this was filmed the writers hadn't fleshed out the details of the both yet, that's why we see nothing about assimilating people etc, fun bit of trivia.
Picard ( Gaiden is here because she has had encounters with The Borg Gaiden what can you tell us ). Gaiden ( I was not there personally ). Picard (....Get out ). 😂😂.
Word basically just stands there. One thing he could have done is destroy the console the Borg was using to make it useless when weapons against the Borg was ineffective.
