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]

My take on that was Borg Makeover.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I'm now reminded of a cute RPG.net post of several years back, where the idea was that what the Federation was best at was time travel. When they first saw the borg, the borg looked much like you described, and to prevent them from taking over, the Federation black ops time travelers went back and altered the borg to be far less attractive.

In any case, I'm right there with you. The borg should honestly look far more like Alastair Reynolds Conjoiners. In any case, I'm reminded of a similar idea I came up with after I saw The Matrix, a civilization of people in comfortable pods living in VR, with a small number of eccentrics being in charge of keeping track of their (largely automated) physical world by remote controlling robot drones, because even the most eccentric member of that society would never leave their pod. I'd someday love to play a character from such a society in an SF game - they'd keep their pod in their cabin on the ship and "go" everywhere in one of several robot bodies.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

The original Borg were much more interesting than the ones of Voyager. You might be interested to know that they've been eliminated form the Trekverse in the tie-in novels.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I may have read that, and had it influence my thinking- but I've always thought the Borg were rather stupid.

I'd still have the Borg be aggressively expansionistic, but I'd make it a friendly expansionism. Turn the Federation's own philosophies against them, and insist that people and planets be free to choose the Borg.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

That's just sad. What a waste of potential.

Mind you, I thought the Borg from the very beginning were rather stupid, just very powerful. Mind you, their stupidity was easily matched by Picard's stupidity in the first episode they showed up. "Oh, we've damaged that ship that attacked us? Well, let's go beam aboard for a leisurely stroll." Even then I was screaming "STUPID! YOU"RE SO STUPID!"

The fact that Picard's response wasn't "Keep firing ensign. When it's in pieces, then we'll beam aboard some parts to have a look at", was pretty much responsible for all the damage of the Borg wars.

[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...

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

That's just sad. What a waste of potential.

Potential as to what the Borg could have been, perhaps, but in regards to the Borg as they were established as existing IMHO the sendoff they got was as good as they could have plausibly expected to get. They were painted as blind blundering masses of power to be outwitted or--alternatively--shot to bits using soon-to-be-defeated technologies. There's only so many places you can go with that.

I wouldn't blame Picard. Earth's fate as an eventual Borg target was arguably inevitable as soon as that Borged Earth transport escaped Sol system and sent that subspace message into the Delta Quadrant.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

The Borg were Star Trek's answer to zombies. They were slow but relentless, and they absorbed the good guys and turned them into themselves - with the added bonus of being harder to shoot than your average zombie. Having them be beautiful and personable would make them...I don't know, pod people? The cookbook aliens from the Twilight Zone? Anyway, a very different creature. Still, it's an interesting thought.

[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.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

They could be even worse. They could be cultural imperialists.You'd have people (possibly even whole planets) who would join up with the Borg, others who would gladly take Borg technologies and cultural elements and adapt them to their own ends, and finally, groups who would promote a backlash or even try to start a war to purge Borg elements from their society.

It could be a fascinating look at cultural imperialism where our oh-so-superior stars are stand-ins for natives who end up wearing logo T-shirts and making sandals out of tires.