this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Risa
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I think the writers screwed up the Borg when they added the queen.
They would be a much better antagonist if they they remained just a collective as they would be a dark mirror of the federation, by having unity and collectivism without diversity and freedom, and could complement the Ferengi, which could have been the federation's dark mirror with superficial level freedom marred by hyper-indivualism.
Originally I took it as being imperfect, as they weren't as perfect as they thought. They showed their hand, as it were.
The original Borg, to me back then when first introduced, felt like an organic version of the Doomsday Machine. Something designed for a purpose that either got out of control or morphed into a paperclip-making machine, with the goal of assimilation and no set boundaries. That's pure horror. Then they got a bit downgraded and became the latest enemy to fight.
It would be even better if in addition the borg only offered assimilation to individuals by choice, defending their right to join with overwhelming force and leaving everyone else alone. There would be a whole moral to-do about prisoners choosing the collective and the borg showing up to get them and then the Starfleet people who are lonely decide to go and then someone thinks they need to save one of those people so they go in with a plan to destroy the collective from within but realize that everyone is there by choice and they have the option to leave but don't.
If the Borg behaved like the hive-mind from Pluribus - friendly but compelled to assimilate ("Everyone is happy here, we promise") - I think that would have been a lot more interesting in the same way it makes Pluribus so interesting
One of the best things about DS9 is that they touched on the idea that those outside the Federation see the Federation as exactly how you just described.
For me that kind of ethics play and such is part of what is missing from new trek.
One man utopia is another man's dystopia