Tuesday 5 September 2023

Borg ideas for Star Trek that made me go Yikes

I just revived an RPGnet thread about reimagining the Borg with the two ideas I had today that made me go “yikes” as I considered them.

Instead of the progression from taking things to abducting and assimilating Picard specifically to trying to assimilate everybody, they stay at the second point. They move on a ship or a colony and abduct a small number of people for strategic purposes, genetic traits or seemingly at random for some reason that investigations can maybe determine later. These people might reappear as Borg, or never be seen again, leaving crews with vital gaps and families bereft.

Or part of the follow-on “yikes” idea:

When they’re done with some people they send them back. Where they were taken from, or some remote corner of the same or another galactic culture that they happen to be passing, or just straight out into space. With no memories of the months or years that passed, locked-off input plugs in their spines, and leftover abilities like speaking a dozen more languages.

(That last one sprang from a never-run Doctor Who adventure idea about how space-based humanity deals with former Cybermen after they collapse, but just letting people go when they're no longer useful fits the Borg better.)

(And it was still yikes after I ruled out returning people missing bits that had been removed for replacements.)

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