posted
A friend of mine thinks the Doomsday machines were invented to fight the Borg.
What a cool pic THAT would make - a blast from the Doomsday Machine tearing a cube apart - kind of like the way we see houses get torn apart by the shockwave from a nuclear blast...
quote:A friend of mine thinks the Doomsday machines were invented to fight the Borg.
Maybe he has read Peter David's novel "Vendetta".
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Just a thought, but why would the Borg have to assimilate an entire race to add their biological distinctiveness to their own? Shouldn't a few thousand or so be enough of a cross section to represent the race? Heh. I guess cloning and genetic expermentation aren't allowed in the Collective, either.
And another thing: I don't remember ever seeing a Borg drone that had a bumpy (re: alien) head. They were all human looking--excepting the goth makeup and robot puke all over their bodies. Where are all the alien drones?
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I love that too, and would love to see the ole' half-smoked joint square off against a cube with that massive weapon.
For Mojo: "Vendetta" is one of Peter David's better early works in Trek novellia. The plot revolves around the "big sister" to the Doomsday Machine, both built by a race of aliens just outside the galaxy to fight the Borg. The idea was for the DM to be released in Borg space, feeding on Borg-infested worlds in an ironic way to destroy the entire collective. The DM we all know and love was a prototype for the main monster, but for some reason the aliens couldn't finish it before they were destroyed, and released the prototype early. In the novel, someone makes note that the straight line through Federation space the DM would have taken would have also continued straight through to Borg space (at that time in TNG, they hadn't yet established the Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Delta quadrant concept).
Anyway, the Big Sister DM floated unfinished just outside the galaxy, until a member of Guinan's race (still not established as El-Aurians) found it. She was really pissed that the Borg had destroyed her world, saw the opportunity, and finished the machine before taking it on a joyride through Federation territory towards Borg space, munching up cubes along the way. It was a pretty cool novel, with a really cool climactic battle between the Enterprise-D, The Excelsior-class Repulse and Chekhov, the BSDM, and three cubes. Fun stuff.
capped
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posted
I have neither the time nor the inclination to begin the 'new-build Excelsior argument' anew.
The Chekov was destroyed at Wolf 359. A new Chekov was in commission several months later. The new Chekov was Excelsior-class. The new Excelsior-class Chekov did not exist as of Wolf 359.
Make what you will of that.
Mojo, if you ever want to model this confrontation, there are 3 TNG era style Borg cubes involved, a doomsday machine (which, according to the text of the novel, had additional crystalline 'spires' that were left off the prototype seen in TOS; the Galaxy-class Enterprise 1701-D the Excelsior-class Repulse NCC-2544 (as seen in 'The Child' its nacelles were of the non-blue-glow variety) the Excelsior-class Chekov. It might be a E-B wariant Excelsior to make it easier to make out in the picture. Its registry should probably be in the 4xxxx range since it is a recent Excelsior (unless it could be put in the 6xxxx to make it a sister ship to the Melbourne )
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quote:Originally posted by CaptainMike: The new Excelsior-class Chekov did not exist as of Wolf 359.
I'm not sure about that. IIRC Korsmo said that he didn't arrive in time with the Chekov at Wolf 359.
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capped
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i thought the same thing Spike, and although i don't have the book handy, i thought it only said that Korsmo's ship was too late for the battle.
Meaning he could have been in command of another vessel at the time.
Of course, since i dont have the book here i cant verify that.
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In any case, we're debating a novel, folks. I think that if the idea were to be carried-through with, it would be better for Unseen Frontier to envision its own meeting between the DM and the Borg rather than adopting Mr. David's take.
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quote:Originally posted by Mojo: A friend of mine thinks the Doomsday machines were invented to fight the Borg.
What a cool pic THAT would make - a blast from the Doomsday Machine tearing a cube apart - kind of like the way we see houses get torn apart by the shockwave from a nuclear blast...
COOL!
Wayyyyy back in 1989 a friend of mine, who read heavy physics books for entertainment, found a mathematical formula for neutronium (hypothetically matter you would find in a neutron star). The mass figures were astronomical for even a teaspoon of the stuff. So, that go us wondering how massive a pure neutronium cone as seen on the show would be. So, we figured it's size relative to the Enterprise, thickness, etc. A little math and the number ended up having so many zeroes it was frightening. In fact, the thing wouldn't need a tractor beam...it's gravitational pull alone would suck stuff towards it!
The funny thing was, we realized that any power source capable of moving something so super-masssive would never be able to be disabled by a mere 97.835 megaton blast, and THAT suggested a story. I wrote it, pitched it, but it was too hard SF for TNG I guess. (Oh my God, REAL science? On Star Trek?!)
Hey Mojo, if you're curious, I'll dig up the math we did and fire it your way.
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Registered: Feb 2001
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Well, at least the DM is the right size to make a battle with a cube interesting Ex astris "huge chart" but it would have to be a fair way away to get a blast wide enough to encompass the whole cube. The DM is more likely to punch a large hole clean through the middle of the cube...now that I'd like to see!
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Digging the novel out though, we see that David has indeed named the ship Chekov. ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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