Yeah, geez. I was getting too hot under the collar there. (I seem to do that every time I rejoin the discussions :\ .) I've been under a fair amount of stress as of late, but who isn't? That's no excuse to use the BBS as a release valve. Apologies.
Now, about the bioship in "Prey" ...
I do find it completely incredible that the ship Paris said was destroyed in "Scorpion Pt. II" could be the same one the VGR [almost] encounters six months later.
A. When the cube rammed the bioship, it sure looked like it went up in flames to me. I'll pull out my DVD copy and take a closer look, but I'm confident the cube took the bioship with it, just as Tommy Boy reported.
B. When I say it's an uncanny coincidence that this bioship first encounters the VGR deep in Borg space, then the pilot from the same hapless ship makes his way aboard the VGR six months later, keep in mind I'm taking into account several things, most notably distance and course.
Let me explain.
As you may recall, Kes sent Janeway and company ~10,000 ly "closer to home" and "safely beyond Borg territory" in "The Gift," the episode that aired right after "Scorpion." On a similar note, they probably covered another 500 ly or so before encountering the Hirogen. (That is a rough guess. I figure each season = 1 year and 1,000 ly closer to the Alpha Quadrant on average, so 6 months = maybe half that.)
In other words, if we entertained the idea that the bioship was damaged by that collision, as I said, that occured deep inside Borg territory. In order to board the VGR many months later, then, the bioship had to cover ~10,500 ly ... and in a direction that just happens to match our venerable little Intrepid-class ship's course?
I think that's too far out there. A more elegant explanation's that the Borg wounded another ship altogether, and that we shouldn't regard Tuvok's "psychic impressions" as literally as they're depicted. After all, the creature could relate things to Tuvok, then his mind converted that into images to which he could relate and understand. Like if I say, "Darth Tanner, think: mom, home, hurt." Your mind would conjure up a different face, place and memory of pain than my mine would, but we're still thinking about similar things.
In fact, for once, I'd say this is a knock against adhering to the so-called "suspension of disbelief" method too rigidly. From my perspective, it actually violates SOD to say this bioship/pilot are one in the same because:
*as noted, it sure looked like the bioship was destroyed in that crash. At least, to me. We saw that "live," so it's documentary footage (unlike subjective psychic impressions)
*if it wasn't destroyed, Paris is mistaken. I tire of the "characters are idiots" meme so I object to that on principle
But if one preferred to disregard all that and limit me to a couple of talking points, I'd beat the absurd coincidence drum for reasons noted, and I'd stand fast on the "cube crashed bioship to destruction" count as well. I've never seen that contested before, though, so I'll take vidcaps from my DVD given the opportunity. I might be able to capture something that many of the big vidgrab sites missed.
