3

I understand why they kidnapped Picard, but why did the Borg ignore the rest of the Enterprise-D in the Star Trek TNG episode "The Best of Both Worlds"? Why not assimilate all on the ship? They only assimilate Picard.

2
  • If Picard is the ambassador then the Enterprise is the embassy. Neither is wanting to destroy the other ship at that point. Riker's job doesn't change; he's still subordinate to Picard (because humans are trite, so... this is better than perfect). They want all of humanity, not just this crew, whom follow them home to 001 anyway, presumably to await their turn to be assimilated in an orderly fashion because a guy with a British accent says to queue up.
    – Mazura
    Dec 10, 2022 at 1:21
  • "Why not [transport eleven hundred people all at the same time?]" - The whole reason we're doing this is so that we don't have to screw around doing it piecemeal.
    – Mazura
    Dec 10, 2022 at 1:25

1 Answer 1

5

There isn't a specific trope for something like this besides maybe "The Show must go on", So I will call it,

The Plot Must go on!

If the Borg just blew up/killed/assimilated everyone on board, there wouldn't be a show.

The reasoning for the Borg to take Picard was to use him as a spokesperson when dealing with humanity and the Federation and getting valuable data from him. The rest of the crew was irrelevant.

They had a specific goal and ignored the rest. Which is typical Borg.

1
  • 3
    I would say Picard was a 'spokesborg' rather than a spokesperson. After all, his identity was borgified.
    – IconDaemon
    Aug 24, 2022 at 21:02

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .