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.

[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.