ONGEG Video: The Neutral Zone

[The Romulan Republic]

Are we 100% certain it was the Borg that attacked the Federation and Romulan colonies, or is it just assumed? It could have been a third party doing it.

This has already been covered, but, while their's no 100% proof, the methodology is basically identical.

And really, what is the Borg's fascination with the Federation anyway? At first, they boarded the E-D and scanned its computer and decided they were worth assimilating. Then they send a cube to attack Earth and assimilate it, rather than the intelligent strategy of assimilating colonies and lesser member worlds like Vulcan. If it's Federation technology they want (which is stated in the first episode they appear in), then they'd achieve their goal by doing that. It only makes sense for them to be so obsessed with assimilating Earth (to the point of using time travel to assimilate it before there even WAS a Federation, meaning Federation technology is largely lost to them.) if their real interest is in humans and not the Federation itself.

Maybe humans are particularily compatible with the assimalation process? And the Borg don't just take blueprints and then leave. They absorb resources.

Secondly, the Borg might be attempting a quick decapitating strike by taking out the Federation's political and military centre. Or hell, maybe they didn't think it would take more than one cube, and didn't want to waste resources? After all, the one cube should have been enough.

Third, from the Borg's position it might be a bad idea to piss off the Federation by wasting some boarder colonies and then leaving them alone until they had the means to get payback. From the Borg's perspective, it might be a better idea to just finish the job.

And don't forget that their's also that whole temporal loop thing in First Contact and Enterprise. As in, the remnants of the Borg's botched attack on 21st century Earth managed to get a signal off. One which is implied to have reached the Borg eventually. That might have gotten the Borg's attention.

Of course, I'd rather dismiss Enterprise as non-canon for the most part. But if we take that episode at face value, that could help explain the Borg's inordinate interest in Earth.

But why would they be so obsessed with humanity? Is it more of that "humans are special" brainbug bullshit?

Maybe partly, but their could be more to it than that. Aside from the above strategic reasons, I'm intrigued by Bounty's idea. And if the Borg knew or suspected that humans had defeated them at a 21st or 22nd century tech level, that would only increase their interest in figuring out how the fuck humans kept getting the best of them.

[PREDATOR490]

If it was the Borg that nailed the Neutral Zone colonies then clearly they knew of the Federation and Romulans before Q,Who. The ship that did the encounter in Neutral Zone may have been called away or returned back to Borg HQ so they could tear apart the samples and decide if it was worth assimilating. They decide the Federation makes an ideal candidate and dispatch the cube, it makes Q,Who more understandable. He didnt just hurl the E-D into a random cube to be an asshole, he hurled them in front of the cube that was being sent to assimilate the Federation after the Borg discovered those colonies. He also confirms this in Voyager 'Death Wish' by stating if he had not thrown the E-D there the Federation would have been assimilated.

As for why the Borg are interested in the Federation, it is clearly a combination of pride, curiosity and the amount of encounters the Federation gets into. After the drones get all that information in Q,Who they should have had enough logs to realise that the E-D alone had been through a sizeable amount of encounters with various forms of technology and races. Including the almighty Q which I imagine the Borg would be interested in assimilating.
Thus, that makes the Federation a priority target for the Borg as far as BOBW was concerned then they get beaten repeatedly by the Federation which makes it a case of trying to pick up the remains of their pride after being defeated by 'inferior' races.
After that, S8472 hand the Borg their ass and are saved by a Federation ship of all things which I am sure only serves to irritate the Borg's intelligence. They are the 'perfect' beings and yet the imperfect Federation is somehow able to survive and adapt to encounters beyond anything the Borg can achieve so naturally, that is going to make the Borg excessively annoyed and curious about what gives the Federation this ability.

[Samuel]

Dunno, who was dumb enough to go live in the Far West in the 19th century? It's not like this stuff doesn't happen on Earth, either.

Except that the West didn't have so many people die from Indian attacks. They were actually an extremely low cause of death. In addition, California and Oregon were relatively safe. And you could get rich out there- or at least do better than home.

None of those apply to the Federation. The voyages can be dangerous, the new planets are dangerous and the rewards are... what?

[Tribble]

If it was the Borg that nailed the Neutral Zone colonies then clearly they knew of the Federation and Romulans before Q,Who. The ship that did the encounter in Neutral Zone may have been called away or returned back to Borg HQ so they could tear apart the samples and decide if it was worth assimilating. They decide the Federation makes an ideal candidate and dispatch the cube, it makes Q,Who more understandable. He didnt just hurl the E-D into a random cube to be an asshole, he hurled them in front of the cube that was being sent to assimilate the Federation after the Borg discovered those colonies. He also confirms this in Voyager 'Death Wish' by stating if he had not thrown the E-D there the Federation would have been assimilated.

That would help to explain things, though the Borg should not have to send the ship back if they were in constant contact with eachother.

Also in Q,Who Guinan suggests that Q had altered the timeline by shoving the E-D to J25 by stating that the federation were not supposed to have made offical contact with the Borg for awhile yet.

Maybe the outposts from the neutral zone just didn't have technology advanced enough to convince the Borg that an invasion would be profitable, so it left. However, after seeing the Federation's "flagship" they decided to assimilate the federation after all. That could also explain how Q altered the timeline by speeding up events.

[PREDATOR490]

I dont think it is a stretch to conclude the Borg got extremely curious about the Federation when one of their ships magically appeared out of nowhere. Once they realise it is the Q's doing, the Borg either decide to assimilate the Federation because they see a Q messing with humans and decide there is something worth the effort and want to find out what.
Or
The Borg dont know Q did it and thus think the E-D got there under her own power. Thus Borg instantly assume Federation technology is behind it and decide to checkout Federation space. I can only fathom the Borg not knowing about the Q is a result of the Q themselves. The drone in Q,Who didnt react to Q and given how much Q fucks around with races, I imagine the Borg would be pretty pissed off with him and his antics.
The same goes for Voyager when Q freaked out at his son for provoking the Borg. It is probably over-reading it but Q being worred about his son fucking with the Borg seems pointless unless the Borg are a potential threat to them. Since Voyager managed to access their realm and the Borg's exploration into different realms like S8472 I would suspect the Borg would attempt to access Q territory without direct intervention from the Q.
Since the same episode has Voyager's crew threatening Q's with their own weapons, if the Borg got in then they may do the same and assimilate Q would pretty much fuck the galaxy.