Last Voyager...Shit for an ending?

[prophetsteve]

I just could never get used to the idea of the Borg Queen.

The Borg were much cooler when they had no leader you could reach out and strangle...just those representitives (like Locutus).

Still I do understand the rationale, both in Canon and for Movie-making. Somehow though I view this as the beginning of the Borg's
"downsizing" as a threat. Too bad.

[Robert Lai]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by prophetsteve:
I just could never get used to the idea of the Borg Queen.

The Borg were much cooler when they had no leader you could reach out and strangle...just those representitives (like Locutus).

Still I do understand the rationale, both in Canon and for Movie-making. Somehow though I view this as the beginning of the Borg's
"downsizing" as a threat. Too bad.</font>

Agreed. There was something ominous and incredibly creepy about the collective 'voice'.

The Queen would seem to be an adaptation -- though we are shown she existed as early as 'Best of Both Worlds,' -- her presence seems to be somewhat of a contradiction for an enemy that considers self-determination and freedom 'irrelevant'.

Some of that may involve viewing the 'hive-mind' as implying there must be a queen, as with bees and ants. And yet, the insects service their queens, but I don't believe there is any indication that the queen directs the hive activity in either case. She just is.

Perhaps - and we break with the insect model here - the Queen is something else entirely. She could be an outmoded component from an earlier incarnation of the Borg, but the specific adaptation that would remove her either has not evolved, or would be detrimental to the Collective in a broader sense - therefore, the queen is maintained and tolerated, though she serves no practical purpose.

Alternately, she could enjoy primacy of place in the sense of a creator -- the closest thing the Borg have to a single point of origin, the person who initiated the neural link. The Borg explain that individuality and distinctiveness would merge with their own ... so that if the 'queen' was the first, all drones are somehow connected to her, even if the original body no longer exists.

Bob