![]() |
#21
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() Regarding sex, perhaps Borg find the direct joining of minds a pleasurable experience that transcends primal urges. Or maybe they don't, and live in eternal frustration - well, that's one heck of a motive for hating the universe, don'tcha think ? ![]() Concerning the prevalence of humanoid drones, one might argue that they would require a different user interface (Thank you, Enterprise, for actually acknowledging that!). On the other hand, Borg are linked to their ships, so that might be a moot point. However, merely going by how many non-humanoid sentient species we have seen, it seems a roughly humanoid configuration is a very important factor in archieving spaceflight in the Trek universe. A species that can not, for example, create and use tools, will not archieve any sort of meaningful technology - this leaves a loophole for psychokinetic adepts (Who said you need hands when you can shape metal with your mind?), but generally limits the criteria to a species with complex digits and an opposable thumb. Also, the requirements of a large cranial capacity, a highly effective central nervous system and the ability to communicate in a complex language are quite hard to meet. For example, Species 8472 - very alien by Trek standards - does bear a striking resemblance to the normal humanoid scheme, even if 8472s are tripods. (The same goes for Arex from TAS.) There are just certain requirements that seem to call for a roughly humanoid solution. Does it have to be mammals? No, probably not. Cardassians, after all, have a very reptilian flair; and Gorn are giant space lizards. Still, an insectoid has multiple problems to overcome; trachea and exoskeletons don't scale up well. An insect with a pseudo-blood circulatory system, a partial endoskeleton and an exoskeleton built on the foundation of a *very* hard alien material, plus some method of insulating their nervous system for greater performance (whether humanoid style or octopus style) *could* work. (And that's probably what Xindi insectoids are.) On the other hand, a horror ant (a scaled up normal insect) can't work; see scaling problem. You may debate to what degree my super-insect can be considered being an insect at all; but these are the requirements. Concerning assimilating a tiger - for what reason? The animal is not sentient, and does not possess a 'mind' to link with, at least as far as we know. You may gain a remote-controlled tiger, but that's it. I suppose a drone in this situation would rather set it's nanobots to *kill* - attack cells, release a fast-acting poison, whatever. True, we haven't seen them do that, but it would be nonsensical to do to a sentient being - why kill what you can assimilate and get a use out of? On the other hand, a remote-control tiger isn't of much use in most situations; kill him and be done with it. So, what is my verdict? I don't think we can get much more exotic than 8472 and the insectoid Xindi; as nasty as it sounds, but spaceflight (or failing that, culture) requires a complex array of attributes from a species that only humanoid or closely-related species seem to be able to fulfill. On the other hand, assimilating any of the sentient species shown on Trek? Sure, knock yourselves out. Unless the being is not corporeal or has any inherent nanoprobe-defeating qualities, assimilation should be possible - though perhaps not until a few members of the respective species have been brought in and examined to determine the most effective usage of implants. So, that's my two slips of Latinum. Gatac[/color ![]()
__________________
Katy: Can I have the skill 'drive car off bridge and have parachute handy'? Justin: It's kind of a limited skill. Greg: Depends on how often you drive off bridges. - d02 Quotes |
#22
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[quote
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [color=#000000 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
__________________
An updated list of all my online writing can be found here. Check it out. |
#23
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() ![]() Or it's just simpler to hire a human actor, cover him in white paint and plastic prosthetics and stick him in front of the camera. A lot of Trek weirdness is a result of the limitations of 20/21st century film making and dramatic necessity. For example, it's probably bad tactics for two ships to sit statically nose-to-nose and hammer away at each other, but it's easier to film with models and allows both ships to be seen on screen at the same time.[/color ![]()
__________________
The first run through of any experimental procedure is to identify any potential errors by making them. |
#24
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() The third season finale of Enterprise, the crew finds the Xindi homeworld, Archer beams down and... Chakotay wakes up, comes to the window, and sees the moon. Â Voyager continues airing every Wednesday on UPN, ![]() ![]() [quote ![]() ![]() Indeed. I recently found out the reason behind the Klingon-Romulan alliance in TOS era. It was too expensive to create a new ship model for the Romulans, because the one from Balance of Terror was lost, and they just used the model for the Klingon Bird of Prey... and voila, Klingon-Romulan alliance, that gave Romulans a fleet of ships and a cloaking device to the Klingons, ![]() ![]()
__________________
\"Lord Eddard Stark is a proud, honourable, honest man, and his lady wife is worse.\" ~A Game of Thrones, book one of Song of Ice and Fire |
#25
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() Gatac[/color ![]()
__________________
Katy: Can I have the skill 'drive car off bridge and have parachute handy'? Justin: It's kind of a limited skill. Greg: Depends on how often you drive off bridges. - d02 Quotes |
#26
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() In "Dark Frontier" (if I remember correctly), the Borg Queen says she needs Seven's help to figure out the mystery of how the human race keeps foiling the Borg's plans to assimilate them. Â The answer should be obvious: when they attack Earth, the Borg's tactics make no military sense. In both "The Best of Both Worlds" and in "First Contact," the Borg send a [i ![]() ![]() Both of these tactics ignore Borg capabilities that we've seen in other episodes. Â We've seen that the Borg will sometimes attack a planet [i ![]() ![]() As for this habit of cruising towards Earth in a leisurely way that lets Starfleet know they are coming, why wouldn't the Borg instead use the subspace conduits we've seen them employ elsewhere? Â If they had appeared out of nowhere, without warning, right on Earth's doorstep, the element of surprise could easily have let them carry the day. Furthermore, why did the Borg wait so long after "The Best of Both Worlds" to take another crack at Earth, rather than hitting it again right away before Starfleet had had a chance to rebuild? Â Why did they likewise seemingly give up after "First Contact"? For a species that quickly adapts to the weapons used against them, the Borg have shown an unbelievable obtuseness when it comes to learning from their own mistakes. Â The real-world answer, of course, is that if they had done so, the Borg would have won and the history of the Federation would now be over. Â Star Trek's own writers have recognized that, when you create an enemy that powerful, re-using them becomes a problem. Â One way to do so is to "domesticate" them so that they are no longer quite so menacing. Â The relentless, unstoppable quality of the Borg was at its strongest and most terrifying in "Q Who" and "The Best of Both Worlds"; afterwards, it became greatly diluted and the Borg were basically reduced to the status of a "manageable" threat.[/color ![]()
__________________
Marc 5MNG Section Head |
#27
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() By the second time around, the Borg (as evidenced by the existence of the Queen) had assimilated bureaucracy. And so they're going to adapt on the large scale much, much, much slower now. :smile: [quote ![]() ![]() [i ![]() ![]() Or that's what I think the "problem" is, anyway. ![]() [quote ![]() ![]() [i ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
__________________
My 5MV webpages My novel fivers list Yup “There must have been a point in early human history when it was actually advantageous to, when confronted with a difficult task, drop it altogether and go do something more fun, because I do that way too often for it to be anything but instinct.” -- Isto Combs |
#28
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() ![]() In "First Contact" they had thought of a different tactic. The sphere that came out of the cube had time travel capabilities, and the Enterprise could hitch-hike, but maybe a cube would have been too big. Now you could ask why they hadn't built the time travel technology in a cube. Well... [quote ![]() ![]() Didn't they just get finished on Voyager? And then they got destroyed.[/color ![]()
__________________
~Bachelor of Science Marijke I'm not the devil, I just work for her. What spoon? There is no spoon. According to Zeke, it's a cat. ~NeoMatrix "Apparently we're on the wrong side. Or the right side if you like winning." ~Spike Sa'ar Chasm: Too far south you hit Belgium. catalina marina: Not in Limburg you don't. ![]() Sa'ar Chasm: You do if you go south in the right way. |
#29
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() Seriously though, Marc's right. Since the Borg Queen shows that the Borg retain knowledge of past events despite detruction of their kamikaze cubes, why don't they try something different, anyway? I hate to keep bringing up "Doctor Who," but they faced a similar problem when the Doctor incurred the enmity of a immensely powerful godlike being called the Black Guardian. The BG was clearly capable of squashing the Doctor like a bug, which quickly painted the writers into a corner. So on the BG's next appearance, he bribes an alien kid (who's posing as a British schoolboy) to become the Doctor's companion and try to kill him. When the kid asks him why he doesn't just kill the Doctor himself, the BG says, "I must not be seen to be involved in this." Oh, really? You know, I know that there were the Nitpicker's Guides, but they focused on individual episodes. It would be fun to have a Discontuity Guide, which details all the ways that phenomena like the Borg changed, or, in this case, failed to change, as they recurred over the years.[/color ![]()
__________________
An updated list of all my online writing can be found here. Check it out. |
#30
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[quote
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Didn't they just get finished on Voyager? And then they got destroyed.[/color ![]() ![]() [color=#000000 ![]() Transwarp--a name forever linked in my mind with the moustachioed face of James B. Sikking. Alas.[/color ![]()
__________________
An updated list of all my online writing can be found here. Check it out. |
#31
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]()
__________________
~Bachelor of Science Marijke I'm not the devil, I just work for her. What spoon? There is no spoon. According to Zeke, it's a cat. ~NeoMatrix "Apparently we're on the wrong side. Or the right side if you like winning." ~Spike Sa'ar Chasm: Too far south you hit Belgium. catalina marina: Not in Limburg you don't. ![]() Sa'ar Chasm: You do if you go south in the right way. |
#32
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[quote
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [color=#000000 ![]() [quote ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
__________________
Methinks Ted Sturgeon was too kind. 'Yes, but I think some people should be offended.' -- John Cleese (on whether he thought some might be offended by Monty Python) |
#33
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[quote
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() [color=#000000 ![]() ![]()
__________________
An updated list of all my online writing can be found here. Check it out. |
#34
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
__________________
Mason: Luckily we at the Agency use use a high-tech piece of software that will let us spot him instantly via high-res satellite images. Sergeant: You can? That's amazing! Mason: Yes. We call it 'Google Earth'. - Five Minute 24 S1 (it lives, honest!) "Everybody loves pie!" - Spongebob Squarepants |
#35
|
||||
|
||||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Collective has spoken! ![]() ![]() ![]() (hilarious, NAH) ![]() ![]()
__________________
\"Lord Eddard Stark is a proud, honourable, honest man, and his lady wife is worse.\" ~A Game of Thrones, book one of Song of Ice and Fire |
#36
|
|||
|
|||
![]()
[color=#000000
![]() Whatever they said. ::is so out of the Trek fandom loop. GAH!::[/color ![]() |
![]() |
|
|