Hi there!
I suddenly noticed that it's been over a month since I posted the original
"Borg Thoughts", and the messages prompted by it have been going ever since.
I thought I'd post a compilation for the benefit of those who haven't seen
all of them.
Original Question #2:
Why are there no non-humanoid Borg?
Again, apologies to those caught by my lack of precision. What I meant was
"Why have we never seen any non-humanoid Borg?"
Rupert Woolger suggested that it was part and parcel of the question "Why do
we so rarely see *any* non-humanoid species?"
Victoria Mackey fell back on the unimaginative invoking of real life
explanation: "too expensive to do on-screen".
Luke Fischer suggested that the non-humanoid Borg were elsewhere in Borg
space, or on a planet somewhere.
He pointed out that the Borg ships we've seen are designed to best
accommodate humanoids, and larger life-forms would have trouble fitting into
some of the corridors.
Robin Arnaud suggested that, since humanoid races on Star Trek, by
definition, have a common ancestry, non-humanoids may lack whatever it is
that makes a life form suitable for assimilation.
This is a perfect cue to mention that many of the posts inspired by the
question were on the subject of what "non-humanoid" actually means.
A number of posts, including one from Brian Dickens, pointed out that there
are Borg of Romulan, Klingon, etc origin in various stories, notably the Voy
ep "Unity".
However, if I'd meant "non-human", I'd have said so. Most of the Borg we've
seen have to be from non-human (if human-looking) races anyway, because the
Borg haven't spent that much time in human space.
Greg Reid pointed out the use of "Vulcanoid" in "Who Watches the Watchers?"
and "near-humanoid" in "Code of Honour", and attempted to promote the
restriction of "humanoid" to
GR> species which are (1) indistinguishable from Earth-humands by physical
GR> observation, AND (2) with enough genetic similarity that they can breed
GR> with Earth-humans freely (ie: without using advanced genetic engineering
GR> technologies).
However, the "near-humanoids" in "Code of Honour" were, in his own words,
"indistinguishable from humands", so it would appear that his definition is
not the one used by Trek writers.
His classification of all races-that-can-be-represented-by-an-actor-with-
makeup as "bipeds" also raises questions: what do we call the larger group
that also includes apes, birds, and monkeys?
In addition, his examples both come, IIRC, from before the establishment of
the "common ancestor" definition of humanoid life, and so the usages spring
from an incomplete understanding of what a humanoid is.
The idea of Borg Tribbles seemed to catch many imaginations. Many were the
posts about Bibbles, Boibbles, Tribborg, Borbles, and Bribbles. Nobody seemed
to mind that Tribbles, being non-sentient, wouldn't be good candidates for
assimilation.
Brian Davis suggested that, since the Borg use the best features of species
they assimilate, Tribbles could give them the ability to reproduce rapidly
and overrun the universe in a much shorter time.
Jack Ruttan conjured up an image of "Little fluffy things with laser-beam
eyepieces. And they're everywhere."
As Jim Buntjer said, it Borgles the mind.
Horta were also fairly popular, with most of the discussion revolving around
the difficulties associated with assimilating one.
As Victoria Mackey pointed out, what would you call it? A Borta, said Jack
Ruttan. Or a Horg, he added later.
Janet Cone also raised the question of diet. (Hortas eat metal, for those
who didn't know.) Can you assimilate a being by implanting bits of food into
various parts of its body?
A more unusual offshoot of the discussion was a brief diversion, triggered
by Jack Ruttan, into the question of whether the Borg stole "Resistance is
futile!" from their Doctor Who predecessors, the Cybermen.
For the record, the Cybermen never used the phrase. It was, however, used by
a Dalek in the 1964 story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".
And to end with an interesting coincidence that leads back to where we
egan:
The Cybermen could only recreate other Cybermen by kidnapping humanoids and
replacing their parts with Cyberparts. A number of their early stories
revolved around their attempts to keep their population going...
... Daleks of Borg: "ASSIMILATE! ASSI-MIL-ATE!!!!!"
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.30 [NR]
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