Plot Holes in 'First Contact'

[Farscape One]

They could assimilate minds and discard bodies, placing the minds (the memories, not the actual brains) into bodies they felt were superior. Which would change as they found newer, better "models".

Honestly, that description of the Borg is even more horrific and terrifying than what they already do. As a horror fan, I applaud you.

Similar to the Cybermen of DOCTOR WHO. (For my money, the scariest villains of that franchise because of what gets done to you.)

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Hey, if they want to revive the horror of the Borg, this oughta do it. Combine Vulcan katra transfer with the body swap technology Janice Lester used and perfect it into a truly gruesome future of assimilation.

 

[CoveTom]

Hey, if they want to revive the horror of the Borg, this oughta do it. Combine Vulcan katra transfer with the body swap technology Janice Lester used and perfect it into a truly gruesome future of assimilation.

Well, again, First Contact de-balled the Borg, which was part of the problem. Seeing the Borg babies in cold drawer chambers with their implants having been added and no one caring for them... seeing Picard being transformed piece by piece and a single tear rolling down his cheek... those images were horrifying. And then suddenly it became "they stick you with their Borg tubes and, poof, you're a Borg."

First Contact was definitely a fun movie on its own, but it totally ruined the Borg, IMHO.

 

[Oddish]

The Borg were not ruined all at once, and there were multiple culprits: later TNG, FC, and VOY all played a part.

 

[Zilla731]

Joining this forum and partaking in this discusion has made me want to watch FC again and look for all the plot holes/inconsistancies mentioned.
Well done fellow Trekies!

 

[MrShinzoff]

I haven't seen this film in years but it's possible the Borg had motives in FC that were not explicitly explained in the film and I think that has to be accounted for when attempting to identify plot holes in respect of their actions. There may have been a reason why they sent one cube, or went back in time, or manifested the Queen avatar etc that is different from the way it was all presented in the film.

 

[Dee1891]

The Borg don't do that because a clone is a copy... same experiences, talents, etc. They want to get as wide a variety as possible to increase their knowledge and experience.

Like Janeway said in "SCORPION", the Borg get their knowledge through assimilation instead of investigation, which in that case gave them an edge regarding Species 8472.

Gave who an edge? The Voyager crew or the Borg?

Why did the Borg believe that by assimilating Earth, it would easily defeat the Federation? Surely, the Federation could have regrouped at another location? And without the Humans dominating the Federation?

 

[DonIago]

If the Borg wanted to 'defeat' the Federation they wouldn't send a single cube at a time.

 

[DonIago]

I haven't seen this film in years but it's possible the Borg had motives in FC that were not explicitly explained in the film and I think that has to be accounted for when attempting to identify plot holes in respect of their actions. There may have been a reason why they sent one cube, or went back in time, or manifested the Queen avatar etc that is different from the way it was all presented in the film.

It's not a very good film if one needs to do a substantial amount of handwaving to rationalize the actions of the characters.

 

[at Quark's]

For one

I haven't seen this film in years but it's possible the Borg had motives in FC that were not explicitly explained in the film and I think that has to be accounted for when attempting to identify plot holes in respect of their actions. There may have been a reason why they sent one cube, or went back in time, or manifested the Queen avatar etc that is different from the way it was all presented in the film.

For one, I still think they should have time travelled before entering Federation space. No one to stop them, no one to really fight them, except possibly the Vulcans, but they, too, would have been a lot more primitive in 2063. But I guess the time travel was only their backup contingency plan.

 

[Snowdrop82]

If the Borg wanted to Assimilate Earth they should have gone back in time before humanity even had any space technology, or ability to resist them.

The Borg arriving in the 1800s would have been neat.

 

[DonIago]

It doesn't make any sense though. The Borg were perfectly capable of assimilating Earth in the present if they really wanted to (i.e. send more than one cube), and if their goal is to assimilate technology as well as people, then going back in time to a more primitive Earth is counterintuitive. That Starfleet blew up one cube should be essentially meaningless to the Collective.

IIRC, the only novel that even attempted to make sense of the Borg's motivations here did so with a somewhat strained explanation of how the cube had become an unwitting agent of the actors involved in the Temporal Cold War. Which, I guess, makes as much sense as any other explanation for this generally inexplicable and AFAWK unique change in their SOP.

 

[David cgc]

If the Borg wanted to Assimilate Earth they should have gone back in time before humanity even had any space technology, or ability to resist them.

The Borg arriving in the 1800s would have been neat.

Early concepts for the movie had the Borg going back in time to the 15th century and the crew teaming up with Leonardo da Vinci.

 

[Snowdrop82]

Early concepts for the movie had the Borg going back in time to the 15th century and the crew teaming up with Leonardo da Vinci.

I would have wanted to see that instead of what we got, that would have been a lot more interesting.

 

[Farscape One]

Gave who an edge? The Voyager crew or the Borg?

Why did the Borg believe that by assimilating Earth, it would easily defeat the Federation? Surely, the Federation could have regrouped at another location? And without the Humans dominating the Federation?

During the meeting at the end with the senior staff, Janeway said their investigating is what gave them the edge over the Borg just assimilating knowledge.

Earth is the location of Federation and Starfleet Headquarters. While they both can be remade somewhere else, it does take some time, so that gives the Borg a window of opportunity to do more damage.

And humans were key in the formation of the Federation, so that is a good reason for the Borg to stop them before they help create it.

 

[Riley]

The premise of the film is a massive plot hole. If the Borg can travel through time to the 20th century, one logically assumes they can travel to any era they wish. Instead of destroying the Federation by stopping first contact, they could have more easily gone back to the prehistoric eras of each of the founding worlds and annihilated microbial life. They also could have gone back to less technologically sophisticated eras and wiped out each species.

Some have said in response to this, "well, then you have no movie." Precisely, you don't have a movie. You have a time-travel idea so idiotic it would never have passed muster on TNG or any other series and then action scenes and comedy scenes that are largely out of character for all involved.

Don't even get me started on the Borg Queen. Using the Borg was a great idea, but the execution was truly awful.

 

[Riley]

Or perhaps the flight - and past history - always proceeded exactly the way we saw it, and it was a predestination paradox. Thus, ST:FC was always supposed to happen, and so there never was a version of the Phoenix's flight that didn't include Riker and Geordi.

The fact that the Enterprise and crew returned to the same future they left, would tend to support this theory.

Star Trek Enterprise is strong evidence that they changed the timeline. Cochrane saw the silhouette of a 24th century starship and was inspired by that silhouette and the ship's name when working with Henry Archer to design the NX-01. Those are just a few of the ways the timeline was altered because of Picard and his crew.

 

[mithril]

For one


For one, I still think they should have time travelled before entering Federation space. No one to stop them, no one to really fight them, except possibly the Vulcans, but they, too, would have been a lot more primitive in 2063. But I guess the time travel was only their backup contingency plan.

this assumes the time travel method they were using actually could make the trip from anywhere. it is possible that it needed very specific conditions, which the borg knew would be present at earth (say, the site being a place that had already been subjected to a number of other time travels, or it had to interact with the gravity field of the target place, or something)

plus we know that at the time of chochran, there was a pretty potent power in the region in the form of the spherebuilders.. it could be that if they had time time travelled anywhere else and tried to traverse the exanse (remember, no transwarp corridors in the 21nd century) that they couldn't be sure the sphere would survive the trip. likewise it is possible that even with the weaker tech they had at the time, that the vulcan,s andorians, and telalrites could have massed enough of a fleet to destroy a borg sphere, or damage it so much it couldn't complete the mission. time travelling close to earth would avoid that.. but the battle kept them from being able to make the attempt until at earth.

it is also possible that the borg knew there was a potential predestination paradox at play.. that the signal the thawed out drones in ENT "assimilation" sent to the delta quadrant included information about the events of FC, and the borg thus decided to set things up such that should their effort fail, it would at least ensure the predestination paradox still happened.

 

[Mytran]

it is also possible that the borg knew there was a potential predestination paradox at play.. that the signal the thawed out drones in ENT "assimilation" sent to the delta quadrant included information about the events of FC, and the borg thus decided to set things up such that should their effort fail, it would at least ensure the predestination paradox still happened.

I've seen this theory floated elsewhere and it's certainly got some legs IMO.

If the Borg have a decent knowledge of time travel then they can view timelines from a more "big picture" perspective, including where time loops play a part in established history. The Borg definitely love to assimilate advanced technology and it's possible that without the assistance of Picard's crew then Cochrane's warp ship wouldn't have worked, which means no juicy technological federation society for them to absorb.
Therefore, the Ent-E needed to travel back in time in order to play their part in motivating circular events - all that's required is a convenient Borg sphere for Picard to chase back into the past and "foil" their evil plans