Jeri Ryan and Good or Bad SF

[roseembolism]

Over on io9, there was a discussion about bad science leading to good stories...which for some reason had a picture of Jeri Ryan involved. this lead of course to comments about her being biologically impossible, or a silicone-based cyborg.



But really, the article should have been about bad science leading to bad stories...because never mind the cheesecake factor of Jeri ryan, what's always ticked me off about the Borg is that they are so utterly STUPID. Yeah, this race of beings tht absorbes the cultures and technologies of a thousand civilizations has the strategic sense of a three-year old.

The ironic thing is, if the Borg were written with any sense, if they weren't so artificially stupid, Jeri Ryan would probably be the model for most of them, not the walking tin men. Smart Borg wouldn't come on like B-grade communists in their clunky, evil-looking cubes. They'd have sleek, cool-looking ships, and they'd have advance PR involving Jeri and equally hunked out guys, smiling and welcoming. They'd be cooperative, helpful, and have a message.

"Hi, we're the Borg. How would you like to expand your capabilities a thousandfold? How would you like to have the knowledge of a thousand civilizations? How would you like to never be lonely again? Try us: we're the future, and we're here for you." And of course anyone who voluntarily joins the Collective would also be smiling, and so happy they'd never want to go back.  really. 

Or more simply, "Hi, I'm Seven of Nine. Fly me."

But that's the difference between stupid SF and smart SF; the latter actually requires thinking about the concept a little bit. Stupid SF is fast and easy, and it's not hard for it to touch on a concept in a shallow manner. SF that actually gets you to think about something requires more effort than most scriptwriters are willing to give.
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Comments

[mithriltabby]

The trick is getting a good story out of that. Entities like that are like Mars in A Miracle of Science: they’re something to be wondered at rather than a primary protagonist or antagonist. There could be good dramatic tension when a loved one joins the collective while a main character doesn’t, and interesting exposition when you have a Borg on your bridge crew (providing an alien contrast to highlight the human condition), but Federation vs. Borg is just silly: the Borg have no need of already-habitable planets and very little reason for major conflict with the Federation. Now, there could be some really interesting stories if you were to have the Borg defending the Federation from the immature nittishness of the Q Continuum and Federation heroes being able to make the difference in a standoff between an up-and-coming collective intelligence and a decadent ascended civilization...

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I think one of the big stories to deal with in a "Nice Borg" scenario is dealing with one of two problems: trying to deal with the Borg's slow assimilation plan (because they still plan on assimilation, only using advanced psychological and PR techniques) without causing a shooting war, trying to keep a "Britishin New Guinea" situation from happening, and at the same time keeping the hot heads who want a shooting war from causing one.

It would be more complex than your average TV plotline, but based on some struff I've seen recently, I think it could be done.