this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Risa

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Star Trek memes and shitposts

Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.

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[–] marcos 100 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This is one of my greatest disappointments on all of Star Trek. Why did they have to make a leader for the Borg? And turn them into a cult that hunts down non-believers?

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I agree completely. A collective run by everyone’s brain being cybernetically networked was an interesting, unique idea. A culture run by an amoral dictator is boring and painfully unoriginal.

[–] Windex007 62 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is what actually made the Borg terrifying.

There was nobody to talk to or negotiate with. There was no mind to change. There wasn't even a leader to assassinate in hopes to alter policy.

They were less of an enemy and more of an immutable force, like gravity or magnetism.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

YES. They were truly alien, not just another culture with unusual traditions and weird noses. Communication was easy, but simply didn’t matter.

Giving them a leader with understandable emotions and motivations took that away.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

They’re as close as Trek ever got to a Grey Goo event.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think that's why they got changed though. As cool as they were without a leader, having a major enemy that can't be negotiated with at all, doesn't really work for a show where humanity's diplomacy is supposed to be their most important trait

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

I don't think that's too big of a concern, to be honest. You can't negotiate with a spacial rift and the show handles that kind of thing fine. I think they were having problems with First Contact's script and decided to solve it with a named antagonist rather than just hordes of Borg.

[–] howsetheraven 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah, it's just shit writers who can't do anything besides low-hanging fruit that has been done before time and again. You could make a very compelling story with the Borg ad a constant threat and they have to convince other factions to help. That's just one example and Star Trek show writers already did it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The wolves in the Revelation Space series are a great example of a compelling enemy that can't be negotiated with.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

That’s one of the things that made them interesting, though. They were the exception that proved the rule.

They could have told virtually the same story (I’m thinking of First Contact) by having the queen lead a breakaway faction of Borg. She would still have all the memories from The Best Of Both Worlds. In fact, those events could have been what inspired her to lead her own group and pursue Picard.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

She wasn't too bad in First Contact. The movie implied that she was simply an avatar for the Collective, not too different from Locutus. Later writers didn't get that and VOY turned her into an individual within the Collective who controlled all of it, somehow. Then her depiction just kept getting further and further from her depiction in First Contact, mostly keeping superficial things.

Section 31 went through a very similar shift, where DS9 implies that Sloan and S31 are rogue agents and Sloan is talking out of his ass in regards to any real authority and taking an, at best, extremely liberal interpretation of the Starfleet Charter, then later works making them an official part of Starfleet.

[–] setsneedtofeed 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Section 31. I’m one of those few people who actually wants more S31 stuff, but only if it’s done correctly.

Way too many followups treat it like Starfleet’s CIA (Starfleet Intelligence already exists…) instead of a conspiracy that consists of individuals acting out of various degrees of ideological resolve, and to varying amounts. I imagine most people who are “in” S31 are more like Bashir. They are called upon to look the other way, or do something without being told much about it. Otherwise they have day jobs. I’m sure various Starfleet command level officers are in on some aspect of S31, but that doesn’t make their ships full time S31 ships. Only a very few people further the S31 cause full time, and they are totally off the books. S31 is supposed to be a shady group that parasitically uses Starfleet assets.

I idea of Section 31 black badges is so preposterously mind blowing.

[–] marcos 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The movie implied that she was simply an avatar for the Collective

She says that. And then she dies and the Borg are defeated.

On the other hand, on VOY, she says the same, and then proceeds to create a Fascist organization clearly against the goals of the drones. But at least when she dies, the Collective creates a new queen.

About Section 31, my understanding is that it was once official. And then it was disbanded with prejudice, but the high powers don't really want it gone, so S31 has authority even on DS9 and LWD times.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Been a while since I watched First Contact, but I thought they did more than just kill the Queen. Could be wrong, though.

On Section 31, that's the current story, but DS9 had their existence so secret that it's implausible in combination with how open they are in DSC. It'd be like the US disbanding the marine corps and then trying to pretend they never had one. ENT's bit where they quoted the charter also has them pretty clearly deliberately misinterpreting what Article 14, Section 31 actually says.

Harris: "Re-read the charter: Article 14, Section 31. There are a few lines that make allowances for bending the rules during times of extraordinary threat."

Archer: "What threat?"

Harris: "Take your pick. Earth's got a lot of enemies."

That sounds like it's intended to be meant to cover the wacky reality destroying shenanigans that Starfleet crews tend to get mixed up in. Breaking time travel laws to retrieve whales from the past so that Earth doesn't get wiped off the map, for instance would be covered under art. XIV, §31. Or interfering with the internal politics of the Q Continuum because they're blowing up random stars. Or landing a strike team on a pre-warp planet because they're messing around with Omega Particles. Messing with Romulan internal politics because they hate us doesn't qualify because the Romulans aren't about to wipe anyone out. Romulans are an ordinary threat, not an extraordinary one. That's just Tuesday in the Federation. Harris' quote also doesn't imply that the charter actually calls for the creation of an entire branch of Starfleet to handle such threats.

Before DSC gave them badges, the logical conclusion was that S31 in the prime timeline was an illegal conspiracy among Starfleet officers, not an official organization in any way. Even Into Darkness' portrayal could potentially be interpreted as a S31 conspirator in that timeline getting high enough ranked to move lots of resources on the sly, though I'll admit that's stretching things.

[–] marcos 6 points 1 year ago

Oh, it has been a while since I watched it too. I could easily be wrong.

On S31, there is more than a century between those. It's like the US disbanding some intelligence agency by the time of their civil war, and people today not knowing about it. It's not the worst case of document loses on those series.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I thought she was supposed to be like 10Base2 terminator, unplug her and the network crashes.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If they don't have a queen then how is the captain going to have a romantic interest?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Sorry, I don't speak Italian.

[–] BradleyUffner 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The beast with a billion backs!

[–] marcos 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hum... Are you talking about Janeway here? Because in TNG her crush is on Data.

[–] RojoSanIchiban 19 points 1 year ago

They had her showing a very charged interest in Picard as Locutus. Data was just the new fling.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Isn't it canon that reintegrating Hugh caused individuality to spread through the Collective, which could only be solved by creating one individual to control them?

[–] RojoSanIchiban 33 points 1 year ago

Nope, but that would have been a much better take.

In First Contact, Picard has flashbacks and mentions that the Queen was there the entire time while he was Locutus. Gross retcon.

Hugh and the individual Borg led by Lore were just a small subset, maybe a single cube. I can't remember if that was stated directly in Descent or not, but it was implied to be a relatively small group affected.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I like this theory until Picard says he remembers the Queen in First Contact.

[–] ummthatguy 44 points 1 year ago
[–] MrPoopyButthole 40 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The borg queen was a weak spineless idea!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Ironically, the Borg Queen is mostly spine.

[–] hydrospanner 8 points 1 year ago

The idea wasn't spineless, it just was an idea that lacked any legs. Couldn't really gain any traction with viewers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Not sure if great joke or legit criticism. Por que no los dos.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You’re fooling yourself! We’re living in a dictatorship! A self perpetuating autocracy in which the working class Borg-

[–] FlyingSquid 30 points 1 year ago

There you go, bringing Galaxy class into it again...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh, what a giveaway! Did'j'hear that, did'j'hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about! Did you see 'er repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

COME.SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERIT IN THE SYSTEM! HELP HELP IM BEING REPRESSED!!

[–] EdibleFriend 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Apparently originally it was supposed to be a computer? I think the studio said that was just stupid and it needed to be a person?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even that turns it into a beehive instead of an autonomous collective.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

A Macintosh Quadra some designer brought from home.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Wow… a Quadra. I remember wanting one of those!

[–] FlyingSquid 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't know which I hated more. Hugh or the Borg Queen. Probably the Borg Queen because they kept going with that stupid idea.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

hugh is at least not offensive to the whole idea of the borg

[–] Etterra 2 points 1 year ago

I do like the fan theory, although the official canon disproves it but still, that the Borg Queen (or perhaps just her more individualistic nature) was actually a reaction to humanity being such a pain in the ass.