posted
In response to a recent interesting post regarding if the Q may have introduced the Feds to the Borg in order to inspire them to prepare for the coming dominion war. An interesting point and probably true, he scoffs at Picards insistance that they are prepared for whatever is out there, stating the Universe contains horrors to 'freeze your soul' (The Dominion?) At the end of all good things he leans over to whisper something in Picards ear, possably that the Human race is destined for greatness, if so this is probably why he saved them, or rather that he gave them the chance to save themselves.
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posted
Universe and Galaxy aren't the same thing. While we've not seen many of the "first ones" like depicted on Babylon 5, the Milky Way Galaxy in Trek has had its share of highly advanced beings. (Metrons, Melkots, Cytherians, Nagilum, etc...)
I always took Q's comment to refer to one of these types of beings somewhere in the universe. While the Dominion were doulbe-tough, they weren't vastly superior to the Alpha Quadrant races.
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
It is unclear how anything Q has done would have been helpful for the Federation.
There is no observable difference in military preparedness between the pre-"Q Who?" and post-"Q Who?" Starfleet. We know of a few special weapon programs that were initiated as a direct response to the J-25 encounter, but all of those that we know of were aborted and played no role in Borg management, and ended up serving a truly minimal role in the Dominion conflict as well.
Also, we now know that Q's "introduction" was rather one-sided, with the Borg well aware of mankind even before the J-25 encounter, and with high odds that humans would have learned of them in some less than armageddonish manner soon enough. The "The Neutral Zone" events were a pretty close encounter already.
As TNG unfolded after "Q Who?", we got more and more evidence that Starfleet had actually been at war practically nonstop for the 24th century. Any "complacency" Q hints at would be of the kind where Starfleet thinks it is militarily invulnerable *because it keeps winning again and again*. And apparently the style of fighting that carried the Feds to victory in those wars was also the factor that led them to victory in the Dominion conflict. That, a little help from the Prophets, a ruthless application of bioweapons, and an inside agent in the Great Link. No evidence of Q affecting the events...
posted
Sound enough points, but the development of those special weapons probably included quantum torpedoes, ablative armour, and new shield technology. The Borg Cube in first contact seems unable to lock on to the federation ships with its tractor beam probably because of advances in shield technology, and instead seems to be using conventional weapons,(The deffiant only falling victim when its shields fail) likewise the cube suffers damage which it seems unable to regenerate from, possably quantum torpedo impacts. The development of the Akira's and the other new ship classes are probably a direct result of the J25 encounter. While the Feds have been at war, they were usually only border wars, Tallarians, Cardassians. Picard doesn't even like the idea of a war game with the Hathaway and only relents because of the Borg threat. So the initial Borg encounter seems to have produced a large shift in military thinking in Starfleet.
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posted
I imagine that when that episode was written, it was intended that the Federation had enjoyed a long peace (what with the Romulan withdrawal and peace accords with the Klingons). Probably the same intention that made the loss of 40 starships a big deal a year or two later. Then the future writers beefed up the Starfleet and galactic history quite a bit. Of course, the real world isn't as entertaining as Star Trek.
I agree with Timo that we didn't really see anything really beneficial come of Q's introducing the Federation to the Borg early. Quantum torpedoes may have been developed in response to the Borg threat, but we've only ever seen two ships use them: Defiant and Enterprise. The Sovereign-class was probably already on the drawing boards at the time; I suppose we could say some modifications could have been made in the aftermath of the J-25 incident to produce a more powerful vessel. I'd like to say that the Defiant was a direct result of J-25, but I can't remember if the Defiant was designed in response to that or to Wolf 359.
Obviously I'm ignoring the technology that makes a run of the mill Intrepid into a capable opponent for Borg ships here.
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posted
I think the military mindset was not present in Starfleet until the encounter with the borg, wargames etc. Likewise Hansons comment that 'every admirals uncle had a take on this borg business' until a leutenant-commander (shelby) put them back on track. This could be taken as proof that Starfleet was so far removed from the military organisation it began to represent (deffiant, promethius, red squad) that the senior commanders themselves probably had no experiance of planning military operations. Surely their experience of this must have helped during the Dominion war.
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posted
The Lakota also had quantum torpedos on board.
The Thunderchild had a registry of NCC-63549 meaning the Akira Class predated the Galaxy Class and was not an outgrowth of military upsizing after J-25.
Q states pretty clearly that without the Q, the Federation would've been assimilated by the Borg, and he was offering that as evidence in a hearing.
quote:Originally posted by Aban Rune: The Thunderchild had a registry of NCC-63549 meaning the Akira Class predated the Galaxy Class and was not an outgrowth of military upsizing after J-25.
Not to get into this again, but
"The Thunderchild had a registry of NCC-63549" True.
"...meaning the Akira Class predated the Galaxy Class" Suposition masquarading as fact. Yes, registry numbers do seem to be fairly chronological, but there are a million and one reasons as to why the FC ships might have low registries but be newer than the Galaxy. Good arguments can be made both ways.
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posted
Right. And no, I'm not trying to start that argument again. All I'm saying is that simply because we saw these ships for the first time in FC, doesn't mean they're all brand spanking new. And to me, the fact that the creators of the ship gave it a lower registry indicates they didn't mean for them to all be as new as the Sovereign either.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
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posted
I hate to have to do this, but seeing as how ENT really is canon, we can't really ignore it. So here's my retro-rationalization for the events of "Q-Who?" and just how Q saved the Federation:
Thanks to the events of ENT's "Regeneration", the Borg received the transmission from the past, containing nothing but a set of coordinates, and decided to send a cube to go see what was there. (Note that this could've happened even years before the Hansens started their stupid little survey.)
So, the Borg were already on their way to invade the Federation when Q plopped the Enterprise-D into the cube's path in "Q-Who?". Therefore, Q saved the Federation by giving them advance warning of the inevitable attack.
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Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
i believe the encyclopedia or something indicates that the Borg were in fact on a course for federation space at that point.
Problem is... after q flung the Ent D way out there, didn't they find a planet that showed signs of assimilation? indicating the Borg had already been there as well as along the Romulan Neutral Zone. The Borg are apparently in no hurry, though, so they may have been goign kind of back and forth. Assimilating along the way.
posted
The Neutral Zone mentioned colonies along both sides of the Zone scooped off their planets. In Q-Who they encountered a planet which also had chunks of it scooped up. It was commented that it was "Just like those along the neutral zone" or some such. Best of Both Worlds also had the scooped up colony at the begining.
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Yeah I remeber that in TNG, the Borg had a habit of scooping up pieces of planets to assimilate, which is funny since we didn't see any of that on Voyager. Personally, I think it weird the Borg would do that since it would be easier just to send down a sh*t load of drones to assimilate the whole thing.
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