By Douglas V. Gibbs
In Star Trek the Motion Picture, Spock utters the phrase, "Any show of resistance would be futile, Captain," immediately alerting me to the similarity of the "Resistance is Futile" phrase used by the Borg in Next Generation, Voyager, Enterprise, and a couple of the movies. I wondered, when I heard Spock utter the phrase, and having seen the movie I understood the nature of V'ger, if that was the original seeds for the idea to create the Borg as an antagonist later on Next Generation.
Research led me to learn that my feelings were exactly correct. In the book, The Return, Shatner confirms my thoughts, and in the text commentary to the Collector's Edition of Star Trek: First Contact, Michael Okuda reveals that Star Trek: The Next Generation writers began to develop the idea of the Borg as early as the first season. Other commentaries, and The Return, shows that there could be a connection between the Borg and V'ger.
In Star Trek the Motion Picture, V'ger quickly shows the Enterprise that resistance is futile, and they must reach the intelligence within the center of the cloud to learn how to reach resolution. Resistance would have resulted in the destruction of the ship, and ultimately the destruction of Earth by a mind that is, as Spock put it, pure logic, and a living machine.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
The Borg were Gene Roddenberry's idea, believe it or not. Probably his last one before he died. He looked back on ST:TMP and back-filled the idea that Voyager 6 hadn't fallen into a wormhole, but the aperture of a Borg transwarp corridor, and emerged in the heart of Borg space. They assimilated it and converted it into a probe of their own that would return to its planet of origin and assimilate its creators.
ReplyDeleteNow you know why, in the Shatnerverse at least, Jim Kirk is the one who defeats the Borg.
Well, one of the reasons, anyway.