Theorizing on Idendity of Sphere bulders / Temporal cold war villain. SPOILERS.
This site is where I go to in order to see discussion on Star Trek stuff, and I'm suprised the latest Enterprise episode hasn't formulated a lot of discussion on the identities of both the sphere builders and the mysterious temporal cold war villain. I don't know, maybe this stuff is clear to everyone, but with your permission I'd like to bounce the theory I had while watching the episode off of you all:
The Temporal Cold War Villain and the Sphere Builders are the same. They are the Borg.
Once I thought of this, everything in the episode, even small details, seemed to support this. Albeit in clear but non-blatant ways. Let's see if I can remember all the details that leapt out at me: The Xindi weapon plot is very like the Borg's plot in "First Contact", just better planned and with more lead time, not the last-moment backup plan it was in FC. In short, given that the Borg have time travel technology as shown in FC, why the heck didn't they use it when Picard's Enterprise isn't right in their Temporal Wake? They did, and Archer is now experiencing the result.
Note this makes PERFECT SENSE out of a confusing, non-sensical throw-away line in FC: Picard is confused why the Borg Queen hadn't perished back when his Enterprise destroyed the Borg Cube she was on back in BEst of Both Worlds. She answers to the effect of, "you're thinking too 3-dimensionally." Now, here in this Enterprise episode we see the Sphere builder talking to herself, a trivial feat if you have time travel. Clearly, that conference was between the various "hers" from different points in time. Thus, with enough jumping about the time continioum, you can have one Borg Queen perish in Best of Both Worlds and the same one still be hopping around to be seen "later" (from our reference frame) to be encountered in FC and Voyager.
All sorts of other hints and details supported this. First, the Sphere Builder's garb is very reminiscent of the Borg Queen's, particularly at the interface of her skin and the suit. In fact, it looked to me like a less advanced version of the Borg Queen's interface from First Contact. Second, the Xindi space-warping Spheres certainly fit the Borg design aethetic. Finally, not carefully the speech she gives to the Reptilian Xindi: "You are destined to become a great race, unifying and concouring all" etc etc.... yeah, become a great race, by becoming Borg! Note I'm not suggesting the Xindi are the Borg predecessors, we know that's not their origin, but rather that her words will become true when they are assimilated. Finally, of all the threats we know about, the Borg are the most likely to be causing the sort of time travel shennageans which would make the future Timefleet and Daniel be Archer's secret patron....
I think you should call Paramount, so they can reshoot the last episode of season 3 according to your theory, so the whole thing might make at least some sense again.
Anyway, I think I will rather wait 2 weeks until the last two season 3 episodes have aired, than leaning so far out of the window by thinking of a theory that is probably just as unlikely as the one the producers have selected.
If, however, the extra-dimensional the Xindi have been dealing with is the borg queen, I doubt that the Temporal Cold War has anything to do with the borg.
I've been saying for a while that the woman the Xindi have been dealing with was the Borg Queen, so I definitely agree with you, it is a distinct possibility IMO.
I like your idea. Do I think it's right? No. You are basing your theory on the fact things look like something else (ie costume, transwarp corridors, etc) if it looks like a horse, it probably is one. In this case I think you might be hopeing for zebras.
I wondered about it myself, Diamond. But how many fans would welcome another appearance of the Borg. I myself don't mind but there were fans that groaned at the Borg appearance in "Regeneration".
Thanks, all! Upon further reflection I want to hege my bets. But on one aspect, let me go further out on a limb: I'm confident that not only are the Sphere Builders the Borg, but I believe the writer fully intends that and we will see that eventually confirmed. There were just too many clues, not just in costume, FX but more importantly in dialog.
HOWEVER, I do not think that my guess that Sphere Builder/Borg Queen == Season one Temporal Cold War Villain is as well supported. After all, a *war* by definition has more than one side. Clearly, the Sphere Builders/Borg are time-travelling *participants* in the temporal cold war, but there is not enough evidence to say they're also the same as Season One Villain. In fact, given the relative ease of time travel in the Star Trek universe, there could be a lot more than two factions participating in the Temporal Cold War, all with different goals and schemes in place in the past going on at once. Note that this actually makes things much more interesting. It's not just Borg manipulating the past being opposed by Timefleet, it's probably a much more dangerous mix, allowing for uncomfortable allies of the moment, etc.
Upon even further reflection, the genetic engineering and biological upgrades offered the minions of Season one's Mysterious Temporal Cold War Villain are a lot different in style than the Borg's style. The high-energy large-scale engineering feats of the Xindi weapon and the Spheres fit the Borg's tecnological capabilities and psycology much more clearly, although of course I'm sure the Borg have assimilated genetic-engineering-tinkering races in their long history.
So, who in the future 1) wants humans to be less powerful 2) will be very skilled in genetic engineering/biomods?
First of all, I don't agree with your theory, as your "evidence" isn't very convincing (IMO):
> You draw conclusions based by comparin a costume style seen in the 22nd century to one from the 24th century, which I wouldn't consider too much of a "hard evidence".
> As far as the speach to the Reptilian Xindi goes, that would be what anyone would tell them who wanted to push them into a certain direction, based on the (rather cheesy) way the Reptilians are shown on Enterprise.
> Don't assume what has been said in any previous incarnation of Star Trek will play a role in Enterprise. Doing that will only give you an even bigger headache than trying to understand the various time-travel scenarios Trek has shown us to day.
That aside, "Future Guy" would of course be from Species 8472. They have the ability to manipulate their own genes to emulate humans (as shown on VOY), so they must have a good grasp of biotechnology and/or genetics and they would be interested in weakening humanity so much that Voyager would never show up in the Gamma Quadrant, so it could never interfere in the 8472 vs. Borg war.
IMO this makes so much sense, that it's certainly /not/ what B&B will come up with
One thing to note: the three Sphere Builder characters we've seen are played by different actresses, and are given different names in credits (e.g. TVTome and IMDb). I therefore consider it unlikely that this is a one character committee made up of fugue copies from different timelines or timepoints.
So, while watching the series finale I naturally was looking for data to confirm or refute my little theory. Unfortunately, while I don't think of it as quite yet refuted, I have to admit the theory took a hit or two.
First of all, the Sphere Builder/Xindi patrons just weren't acting like Borg. I still think they were acting consistently with that before, but the way they moved while fighting the Enterprise crew in engineering seemed slightly un-borg like.
And in addition to Fesarious's point, you don't send temporal fuge copies of yourself into shooting combat, that's just asking to be erased form the timeline. Of course, complete confidence/arrogance/dismissing of the Enterprise crew's abilities as a threat could account for that, which would fit Borg Psychology.
On the other hand, there was one point in support of this theory: Doctor Phlox suggests using rotating frequencies to overcome the Sphere Builder's "interdimensional defence". While this certainly seems similar to the way of overcoming the Borg's energy shield, it's also a not-infequent piece of technobabble that comes up a lot. Still, perhaps this interdimensional defence is what the Borg graduate to in the future.
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