www.ditl.org

In this ep, a single Borg cube destroys an entire fleet of Starships; yet the E-D survives extended contact with it. Granted that the E-D survived the first battle because the Borg wanted to capture Picard, but in the next battle when RIker was in command, there was no notable damage inflicted on the Enterprise by the cube (it was said to be the very firing of the deflector beam that caused the internal damage that temporarily grounded the ship). Surely the Borg would have no reason to 'go easy' on this ship once they no longer had any interest in a crewman? However much more powerful the GCS was compared to its fellow starships in its day, this difference is meaningless compared to a Borg cube!

Once Riker did capture Picard/Locutus, of course, it was a clear bit of idiotic oversight by the Borg not to see the security risk to them (but then this is Trek we're speaking of...)

I think part of it is look when the Ent-D is engaging it, solo. Unlike the fleet at Wolf 359 its always engaging singly. To the Borg an individual is not a threat.

Tyyr wrote:I think part of it is look when the Ent-D is engaging it, solo. Unlike the fleet at Wolf 359 its always engaging singly. To the Borg an individual is not a threat.

ya but the GCS's thousands of people wouldn't be viewed as an individual to the Borg, it would be viewed as more like a metropolitan center.

A thousand people would still be pretty miniscule compared to the Cube's possible crew compliment.

Tyyr wrote:I think part of it is look when the Ent-D is engaging it, solo. Unlike the fleet at Wolf 359 its always engaging singly. To the Borg an individual is not a threat.

Another possibility is that the Borg were being economical. The only times they engaged the E-D were when they wanted to capture Picard, after they were knocked out of warp by Shelby's team, and when the E-D blocked their path to rescue Picard. On all the occasions after Picard had been captured they broke off the action as soon as possible and resumed course for Earth. Why should they waste energy destroying starships when that wasn't their primary goal? At Wolf 359 not only were they faced with a serious threat to the cube, but forty ships would be far more effective at blocking their course than the E-D alone.

The E-D's engagements mostly consisted of pecking at the cube for a few minutes and then running away. They often used distraction tactics, tricks like the antimatter spread, etc.

The Wolf fleet went toe to toe and tried to stop the cube. Very different situation, very different outcome.

The only part that bugged me was at the very end, while Data was trying to sabatoge the cube through Picard's link, the Borg seemed to finally have had enough of the Ent. They grabbed them, drained their shields, and employed the cutting beam...which seemed to do almost nothing. The first time they used that thing, they cut several decks out of the saucer in 2 or 3 seconds, yet they have that thing blasting away into the engineering section for at least half a minute. They should have cut the Ent in half before Data put them all to sleep.

Aye, that always seemed a bit off to me.

Looked to me like they were trying to cut there way to the warp core. Maybe the "reinforcing" of the area bought them some time. But why didn't Riker evacuate those sections when the hull breached?

I've got this ep on dvd, I'll look at it again and see what I can find out.

Mark wrote:Looked to me like they were trying to cut there way to the warp core. Maybe the "reinforcing" of the area bought them some time. But why didn't Riker evacuate those sections when the hull breached?

You might be on to something there, Mark.

Staplic, could you let us know where the beam hit?

Okay three things I've learned.

1. The reason they didn't go after Picard when they took him back, was b/c they didn't think the Enterprise had the means to use him like they did. Data came up with that plan after studying Locutus. As soon as Data made contact, the Borg came back around to face off against the Enterprise.

2. The cutting beam was only in effect for 10-20 seconds before Data shut them off, so it's not like they could have completely shredded the Enterprise.

3. As mark though it was in the Engineering section, starting in about the middle of the actual drive section and cut up along the base of the neck of the ship.

EDIT: It was cut along the yellow line here.

Lt. Staplic wrote:2. The cutting beam was only in effect for 10-20 seconds before Data shut them off, so it's not like they could have completely shredded the Enterprise.

That's a pretty long ass time to have any sort of energy weapon hitting, especially as IIRC, the Ent didn't have shields at the time. Whatever the Borg were trying to do with that beam, they should have been able to accomplish in the first five seconds at most.

Lighthawk wrote:

Lt. Staplic wrote:2. The cutting beam was only in effect for 10-20 seconds before Data shut them off, so it's not like they could have completely shredded the Enterprise.

That's a pretty long ass time to have any sort of energy weapon hitting, especially as IIRC, the Ent didn't have shields at the time. Whatever the Borg were trying to do with that beam, they should have been able to accomplish in the first five seconds at most.

ya, but IIRC someone was saying something about them having it on for a minute or two, so I wanted to clarify that.

As opposed to when they sliced out a piece of the saucer in the first encounter, that was pretty damned quick.