Borg Assimilation Techniques (Prior To FC)

[Mr Silver]

Dunno if this a common topic for debate here...

I'm under the impression that post Descent, The Borg assimilated the nanoprobe method from another species (perhaps one that used nanotechnology as a medical procedure?)

From a production point of view, I can understand that from First Contact we're supposed to just imagine that the Borg always had that appearance and technology (obviously in the late 80's and early 90's, SFX, and Costumes were not as advanced as they were in 1996 (when FC was produced) nor did the production team have the budget during TNG to pull stuff like the Borg off effectively)

However, I like the idea that the Borg within the 4 or so years that followed TNG's Seventh Season, advanced their technology, perhaps mastering the programming of nanotechnology

So how did they assimilate before?

From my POV, I'm under the impression that the Borg used a combination of reverse engineering and the hive mind to assimilate and adapt to technology, but how about Assimilating Drones?

Well i'd imagine what we saw in BOBW, where they carried out microsurgery on Picard throughout the span of a few hours,

Stage 1: Connect to the hive mind, outfit body with devices common to "Drone Occupation"

Stage 2: Outfit with Borg Body Armour adding equipment such as Prosphetics and Utility Cybernetic Arms

Stage 3: Inject Drone with some kind of grayish compound (I'm thinking in these days this compound was self replicating in conjunction with the implants, perhaps it was some kind of fluid to maintain technological functions)

Whereas with later Assimilation its as follow,

Stage 1: Inject Nanoprobes into bloodstream, this causes rapid asssimilation, various core technological devices are formed and neural transmitter (connection to the hive mind) isestablished

Stage 2: Surgery, removing various reduntant biological parts, based on Drones "Occupation" such as removing one arm in favour of a prosphetic and removing an eye and replacing it with a technological eyepiece

Stage 3: Outfit with Borg Body Armour, Spinal Clamps applied to "optimise" movement, sub vocal processors added in the cases of some Drones

Anyone else got anything to add?

 

[Unicron]

Personally I'd like to think the Borg were using nano-assimilation technology prior to FC, but that they're also looking for ways to upgrade. Some of the dialogue in BOBW describes a process at the cellular level that sounds similar to how the nanoprobe method works, albeit slower. Whether that represents a less advanced form of the technology compared to the FC+ tubules or Picard's assimilation was slowed for some reason is open to interpretation.

The PC game Borg, which takes place before the battle at W359 and uses TNG-era Borg effects, seems to imply that the assimilation effect is similar to that of the nanoprobes.

 

[Timo]

I'm a bit averse to the idea of "pre-BoBW" assimilation methods because

a) we never saw a "pre-BoBW" assimilation in the real-universe chronological sense, and
b) we did see plenty of "pre-BoBW" assimilations in the in-universe chronological sense, retroactively shown by spinoff episodes, and following the post-"BoBW" pattern to the hilt.

It's not like having to explain away early Klingon makeup or early phaser effects, because this time we have no competing early material to explain away. We only have Picard, who indeed was eventually injected with something that turned him grey, and we have every reason to think that Picard was considered a special case.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SpyOne]

Fast assimilation was one of the biggest things that went wrong with the Borg: what happened to Picard is so much scarier.

Sort of like zombies: while zombies that move fast are novel, and can make for an interesting twist to a story, zombies are supposed to symbolize our fear of death, and thus really should be slow, creeping, and inevitable.
Really the Borg are zombies for Star Trek: slow, steady, and utterly implacable. The best you can hope for is delay.

 

[Unicron]

I suppose I'm the opposite way, Timo. I do think there is a measure of writer's intent with regards to whether the Borg assimilated in their first appearances, since they were never intended to be more than the AOTW when "Q Who?" was written. But going by the visual consistency throughout their appearances and comments made by Q and Guinan that could be considered to represent assimilation, I think it was already an essential part of the collective structure by then.

 

[Timo]

Reading through my previous post, I think I managed to muddle up my position rather thoroughly...

So: I like to think that the Borg have been assimilating people by using nanoprobe tubules on their wrists for the past 100,000 years. I don't like to think that some drastic change took place in their assimilation methods, let alone assimilation policies, around the time of "Q Who?", or that any of the guesses made by our heroes in that episode and its sequel (Borg babies born in cozy drawers, the Borg only wanting technology, the same Cube coming from J-25 to attack Earth, and so forth) carry any validity.

I'm sorry for any confusion that may have ensued.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Unicron]

Eh, that's okay. I work nights and my brain is usually tired by the time I get home, so I have to be careful what I post if I want to make any degree of sense. But I have a better picture of what you mean.

 

[T'Girl]

Borg babies born in cozy drawers

I've never thought thet that's the way Borg reproduce. The babies we saw most likely were either from women who were carrying children at the time they were assimilated (babies born with nanotechnology), or it was a case of the Borg, for whatever reason, deliberately assimilating newborns.

I kind of like the idea that assimilation tubes are only on special assimilation drones, just as all drones do not have mechanical arms or special eye-pieces, the assimilation tubes are not "standard equipment."

 

[SpyOne]

Indeed, I thought the Borg reproduce through assimilation: the babies in drawers are just recently assimilated babies.

Which leads me to one of those "I wish they'd done it this way" things: there is very little reason for the Borg to just let those babies grow up at the normal rate. We already have the means, through technology, to force an animal to maturity faster. Sure, it has some nasty side effects, but if we were as advanced as the Borg (or the Federation) we could probably fix those. One of the biggest reasons to let a sentient being develop at the normal pace would be learning, but the Borg can just dump all necessary information into the adult brain, so ... I don't see a good reason for the Borg to let that Baby keep being a drain on resources for a decade or two when it could be force-grown into an adult.
Which could fix the whole "Seven was assimilated as a child"/"Nobody had ever heard of the Borg that long ago" issue: Annika Hansen was force-grown to adulthood; Seven of Nine is about 10 years old.
That could add a layer to Harry's conflicted emotions around her: his head tells him that he's almost old enough to be her father, and that she has only about 10 years of life experience, 2 of those in the Collective, but .... Little Harry thinks she looks just fine.
It also makes Seven a bit more interesting as a character: in very many ways she's a little girl trapped in a grown-up body. This was sort of the case with her anyway, as living in the Collective is very different from living as an individual, but ....

Well, they didn't do that. But when I am granted god-like powers by Q, that's one of the things I am changing.

 

[Timo]

I don't see a good reason for the Borg to let that Baby keep being a drain on resources for a decade or two when it could be force-grown into an adult.

To be sure, just seeing a few babies in "Q Who?" or "Collective" doesn't mean they'd stay babies for long. They might simply have been in the early stages of rapid maturation, which indeed was quoted as a Borg technique once or twice...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Chicagoan]

That could add a layer to Harry's conflicted emotions

Have you seen any of sfdebris’s Voyager reviews on youtube? Trust me, he doesn’t need another layer.

To play devil’s advocate, why shouldn’t the Borg reproduce? I’m not suggesting through sex and pregnancy, but mixing organic material and nanoprobes in a vat might be a good way to make new drones (after all, the raw materials necessary for life—and high technology— are everywhere). Engineer an embryo, put it in a maturation chamber and in a few months there you go. It’s a pretty risk-free way to make lots of new drones—although there’s a definite benefit to assimilating an advanced civilization (its technology), there’s also a risk (it’s technology being turned against you), so even if the advanced civilization is ultimately assimilated it often comes with at least some cost in damage. In contrast, when growing new drones you may not get the benefit of new tech, but you still get the benefit more manpower (if that’s the right word).

(Of course, this raises the question of why bother with humanoids at all, but that’s one of my hard-SF reader gripes that I have to put away when thinking about Trek.)

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^Like the way the future Borg 'One' was created in Voyager.

 

[Tom]

Did we see the Hanson's actual assimilation in "The Raven"? i forgot. Since the flashbacks in that episode predate Q-who, that would give us our answer.

 

[Timo]

No, we didn't. Their ship was exposed, they started a desperate flight, they hid in a nebula, and the last scene we got was that Magnus Hansen tried to soothe his daughter, she wondered whether assimilation hurts, and then a Cube filled the viewscreen. Jump to present day where Magnus Hansen is seen already assimilated, in "modern" Borg guise.

It’s a pretty risk-free way to make lots of new drones

But would the Borg want to make new Drones?

Supposedly, the Borg have two goals: to improve the quality of life of us unfortunate non-Collectivized humans, and to aim for perfection. Creating new Drones would actually hinder the Borg mission of assimilating us and improving our lives. Why crowd the Collective with "synthetic" Borg when there are so many "natural" souls to be salvaged out there?

Drone creation might be limited to specific experiments in support of the latter goal. Quality rather than quantity would be the key.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Unicron]

That's a good point, but there might also be instances where there are no significant targets for assimilation within a certain radius or a certain timeframe. We've seen that the Borg are known to target or ignore some species based on their level of technology and whether they'd be considered valid addition to the Collective. It also seems like given the amount of territory they've claimed in the DQ, you'd need millions of drones to manage all of that. Even with the sophisticated form of interface the Collective provides, automation can't handle everything efficiently.

 

[USS Jack Riley]

But would the Borg want to make new Drones?

Sure. If a Cube takes major damage, the ship isn't the only thing that gets destroyed. Borg drones in the area are lost directly as a result of the explosion or indirectly by being sucked out into space. Having extras on hand (dispersed throughout the ship, as seems to be the modus operandi of the Borg), even as babies which the Borg can, presumably, artificially mature to a useful age can replace the ranks of those drones lost.

This assumes, of course, that the attacking ship gets away or, in the case of the Enterprise's first encounter with the Borg, inflicts damage to the Cube, but is unable to get away or wants to study the Borg.

YMMV

 

[David cgc]

I suppose I'm the opposite way, Timo. I do think there is a measure of writer's intent with regards to whether the Borg assimilated in their first appearances, since they were never intended to be more than the AOTW when "Q Who?" was written.

Oh, sure they were. The "Conspiracy" bugs, the "Neutral Zone" missing outposts... they'd been planning a big plot arc for what became the Borg.

 

[SpyOne]

No, we didn't. Their ship was exposed, they started a desperate flight, they hid in a nebula, and the last scene we got was that Magnus Hansen tried to soothe his daughter, she wondered whether assimilation hurts, and then a Cube filled the viewscreen. Jump to present day where Magnus Hansen is seen already assimilated, in "modern" Borg guise.

Actually, that sounds like a later episode. In "Raven" we only see glimpses of the Hansens yelling for Anikka to hide, and Borg Drones grabbing them and reaching for her. And we see the ship crashed on a planet (or rather a moon).
Point holds though: we do not see their assimilation.

The fact that we don't see the Hansens assimilated might be evidence that not was not the fast assimilation we see later. On the other hand, Seven describes her memory of being captured, being beamed out, and being assimilated as "Poppa said we were going to crash, and then the big man picked me up (pause) and then suddenly we weren't on the ship anymore, we were somewhere else. (longer pause) And then I became Borg." That makes it sound quick and not very traumatic. So it's basicly a wash: not really any evidence either way, circumstancial evidence to support either notion.

 

[T'Girl]

we were somewhere else. (longer pause) And then I became Borg

Psychological amnesia or post-traumatic stress disorder, in one episode Seven experiences false memories.

Seven doesn't remember being assimilated because she doesn't want to.

 

[Timo]

Actually, that sounds like a later episode. In "Raven" we only see glimpses

Shit, should have read the question... Yes, that's all from "Dark Frontier". Sorry.

Timo Saloniemi