posted
See, I've got to disagree about that. Star Trek is all about humanizing villians, but that doesn't mean they're no longer villians. It means they aren't grinning cartoon madmen.
Of course, that isn't what has happened with the Borg.
------------------ "From where I'm sitting now, the plot is manacled to a monorail with a GPS system stapled to its buttocks." - Jim Wright, about 'Unimatrix Zero'
posted
I've always sort of thought of the different major alien races as extremes of human personality. For instance, Romulans are a society based (genrerally)on suspicion and fear. The Cardassians remind one of the movie 1984 and represent government control to the super-extreme. Klingons are a society based on agression and conquest.
What was unique, and scary, about the Borg were that they had no human qualities. They represented a complete lack of humanity. In fact, those characteristics had been ripped away from the members. We couldn't relate in any way to the Borg and becoming a part of their society was terrifying. You were lost.
This is no longer the case with the Borg. When Janeway has witty banter with the Borg Queen, it destroys the image. Having her seduce Data or Seven all alone in a dark room was alright, but noone else should really ever see her. She should never be seen in "public". Maybe heard or felt, but never seen.
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
posted
I agree with that. It was good to see that she was the one behind the Borg voice after all. 'Dark Frontier' had some fine Borg Queen stuff. But it went down the drain when the Queen made personal contact with Seven.
From another perspective: What if the Borg really works like an ant colony? That explains a lot. What brings me to this: The Borg were SUPPOSED to be bugs! But lack of money prevented that idea from becoming a fact. Anyone remember that 1st/2nd season episode with the spider like creatures that took over several of the best captains and admirals? Some type of queen was inside a persons body. At the end there was some type of transmission send to outer space. But we never got to see what happened after that...
------------------ "From where I'm sitting now, the plot is manacled to a monorail with a GPS system stapled to its buttocks." - Jim Wright, about 'Unimatrix Zero'
(-=\V/=-)
[This message has been edited by Altair (edited May 31, 2000).]
posted
I just read 1984, and something occured to me about the Borg: is it not possible that the original species that created the collective was not unlike the society in 1984? It just seemed so similar. The destruction of the individual. The idea that death is irrelevant, as you would continue to live on in the whole. The Party even practiced assimilation, of a sort.
Let's extrapolate from the world described in that book. Given time, they would eventually come up with technology to directly read someone's mind. They would then implant EVERYONE with this technology, and watch them like they did before with the telescreens, albeit far more effectively. A collective mind would seem to be the ultimate objective of the Party, as it would prevent ANY crimethink at all.
Whadda ya think?
------------------ "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" -- Adolph Hitler, 1933
posted
Heh.. crimethink, you obvisously got into Newspeak. But I agree, I also just read 1984 for English 4 and your analysis is pretty good. There was a movie made on the novel? I might have to go to Blockbuster and look for it.
------------------ "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving isn't for you." Federation Starship Datalink - On that annoying Tripod server.
posted
What's wrong w/ Newspeak? It's fun to say things are "double-plus-ungood"... :-)
And, yes, there is a movie. I seem to recall someone telling me it wasn't as good as the book. But maybe that was Fahrenheit 451... I don't remember. I think I heard one movie was good and the other wasn't. *shrug* Just read the books. They're both good. ;-)
------------------ "This is Major Tom to ground control. I'm stepping through the door, and I'm floating in a most peculiar way. And the stars look very different today..." -David Bowie, "Space Oddity"
posted
Don't watch the movie at night. Don't watch it alone. And don't watch it with anyone you don't trust. They might turn you over to Big Brother and attach the rats to your face...
------------------ "A gathering of Angels appeared above my head. They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said..." -Styx
posted
I saw the 1984 movie, or at least part of it...it was pretty good, IIRC.
------------------ Frank's Home Page June is National Accordion Awareness Month. "I usually feature the accordion on three or four songs every album, which is three or four more accordion-based songs than most Top 40 albums have." - Weird Al Yankovic
posted
I don't think the Borg as Big Brother analogy works too well. Oceania's focus is inward. Control the populace, etc. They pretend to fight wars, but not with any intention of winning. The Borg are focused almost entirely outward. I guess I don't see why one worldview would give birth to the other.
posted
Well, what do you think BB would do once it finally GOT complete control of the population?
------------------ "This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" -- Adolph Hitler, 1933
posted
Er...continue to play their power games, just like in the book? 1984 strongly implies that Oceania has already won. It doesn't have any grand scheme to remake the planet. It just wants to control you. It doesn't want to use you to do anything constructive. Totalitarian governments are usually far more concerned with controlling their own populations than expanding.
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