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The BORG! (Score:2)
You KNOW there's only ONE universal enemy that strikes fear into the hearts of all civilizations, and that's the BORG!
The Cenobites! (Score:5, Insightful)
...but solve the Lament Configuration and even the Borg will know fear.
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the borg only "exist" so that the star trek universe could remain happily socialist whilst still giving american viewers an evil communist menace to fear.
(also, the zombie obsession is ultimately a reflection of american paranoia about fifth-column infiltration by communists....any contact - or a bite, in the case of the zombie commies - with them and their insidious ways will doom you to become one of the enslaved communist hordes)
Re:The BORG! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The BORG! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Humorously enough, the joke capitalist enemy (really, all of STTNG season 1 was garbage, not just that episode) became perhaps the best character in DS9, and the only one who really seemed to have his act together.
Re: The BORG! (Score:2)
Re: The BORG! (Score:3)
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Re:The BORG! (Score:4, Insightful)
DS9 in general wins. While the Ferengi in general were always a bit over the top in terms being obviously ridiculous the show was excellent.
The serial rather than episode format was a brave choice for a hour long prime time show at the time, but let them tell much richer stories.
The show tackled much less tired subjects with much larger grey areas. Rather than just beat us over the head about racism and xenophobia as its two predecessors did. DS9 actually tackled much more complex issues like, who is a terrorist and who isn't and from whose perspective. Is there a difference between a 'war criminal' and terrorist, the role of religions extremism, propaganda, if the good guys are doing is it bad? Plus so much more!
DS9 is far and away the most relevant Star Trek for the 21st century.
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Re: The BORG! (Score:2)
I wish this resonated with other people. So true.
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The serial rather than episode format was a brave choice for a hour long prime time show at the time
You mean it was brave of them to say 'this format is working well for Babylon 5, I wonder if it will work if we do it with a series with a lot more brand recognition and a much bigger budget?'
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The Borg is authoritarian. Starfleet is, ostensibly, Democractic. Both are communist. It works well because there are unlimited, cheap resources, so everyone gets everything. Of course it's science fiction :)
Re:The BORG! (Score:5, Insightful)
The Borg were more of a force of nature than a villain. The point was that there was only one true mind in the Collective, so there was no dissent to be authoritarian against, and the individual Borg units were just appendages of the Collective. There was no free-will to quash, no counter-force to defeat. It was Borg, or it was not-Borg and subject to being made Borg.
When the Borg created Locutus, the point wasn't that Locutus was an individual in the Collective, it was that he was an appendage to assist in the assimilation of a culture that was proving difficult. Locutus did not give orders in the Collective at all, he was simply a mouthpiece for when the Collective wanted to speak to Humanity. Even his name is a Latin term for just that.
Starfleet is Authoritarian. It's a uniformed service with rank and all of the trappings that go along with that. Discipline seems to follow a more business-casual approach, but officers and crew are professional and restrained. The Federation might be Democratic and Socialist or Communist, but the military organization is not.
I'm disappointed by what they did to the Borg, and unfortunately it was in a TNG-based script (in the form of First Contact) where the original damage started, only to get eviscerated in Voyager. There is NO WAY that a tiny, battered scouting and exploratory vessel designed specifically for long-term deployment should be able to defeat the Borg Collective or to even do significant damage to an entity that has shown was intended to be nearly infinite adaptability, especially after all of the events that the Voyager suffered before getting to that point. They should have remained with the planet discovered in, "The 37s" and basically acted to build-out that society's spacefaring potential, similar to the beginning of Nevil Shute's On The Beach, the USS Scorpion attaches itself to the Australian Navy as there's no American port left to go to.
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if one looks in-universe, the Borg have to assimilate because if they do not assimilate, they will go into decline and eventually cease to exist
Why? In the first episode showing the Borg, they found a creche with Borg children, so they were still able to reproduce their biological components. Given how quickly they adapted without assimilating their enemies (and repaired damage), they also seemed more than capable of improving their technological abilities. You could argue that they couldn't survive without external stimulus, but that's pretty common for most lifeforms.
The point was that there was only one true mind in the Collective, so there was no dissent to be authoritarian against, and the individual Borg units were just appendages of the Collective
That's not entirely clear from the canon. Some of the dialog indicates that,
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I think the veiw of the collective a mearly running on a consensus is not quiet right i think of the overmind of the collective as more of a gestalt entity where it is once conscousness that is the sum of the componets. The relation ship of a drone is to collective is better looked is closer to that of the relation of a one neuron is to your consciousness.
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The Bord do not reproduce... No borg gives birth however
The first does not necessarily follow from the first. They've encountered lots of species with cloning technology. It's never stated on-screen that they don't make use of this. The Borg nursery scene could easily be interpreted as showing newly cloned Borg with their first cybernetic implants (disregarding the Voyager stuff, where they changed the premise of the Borg beyond all recognition). In particular, they claim that 'We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own' - given
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There is NO WAY that a tiny, battered scouting and exploratory vessel designed specifically for long-term deployment should be able to defeat the Borg Collective or to even do significant damage to an entity that has shown was intended to be nearly infinite adaptability
And a bunch of rebel fighters shouldn't be able to blow up the death star, right? Or one man in a blue box against the Daleks or four SG-1 members against the Goa'uld System Lords. Yes, it's ridiculously improbable like most sci-fi, we constantly run into beings vastly more powerful than ourselves and none of them simply blow the Enterprise out of the sky and it's always a redshirt taking the bullet.
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Part of the point of the Borg is that they don't really have conventional weaknesses
You mean other than being completely defenceless against kinetic and melee weaponry. This was true from the very start. Their shields might adapt to energy weapons, but they do nothing to stop bullets and swords.
which brings up a point why didn't Picard simple replicate a Tommy-gun rather than run though a holo-novel until he found one.
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I'd classify Starfleet as paramilitary. Military-like, but not an official military force. The best example of paramilitary is the fire service. They usually have ranks based on military ranks, with a command struc
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*Star Trek* is bigger than Roddenberry.
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Yes. That is true.
But it's also why ST is an internally inconsistent universe. Apologists not withstanding.
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Roddenberry created Star Trek so his word is law. Sorry if you have convinced yourself otherwise, but your opinion does not change official canon.
LOL, sucks for you.
And they made 3 more seires after he died that he had no input in. He did not continue to create after the grave just becuase he was the progenator of the idea does not make everything he said scripture.
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Remember, the United States Army and United States Navy, during the ages of expansion and exploration would do expeditionary work, heading into unknown frontiers or searching for unknown islands, with scientific expedit
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I'm in a military.
Starfleet - especially the Starfleet of ST2 - is *unquestionably* a military.
Gene said a lot of things, but trek grew well beyond his initial creation and took on a life of its own. You can't argue using dogma.
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You did not invent those words, so you have no authority to control their meaning. Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek which gave him the ultimate authority over it and he said Starfleet is definitely not military.
You look like an idiot trying to tell the creator that you know better than him what his universe is about. It is not up for interpretation or debate, it is already set in stone.
And then Roddenberry died and they kept making more and it didn't all have to fit under what he had previously said. Or do you think the shows writers had a seance every Monday when they wanted to write a new script.
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Hmmm what would you call an organization with a fleet of battleships capable of destroying planets ?
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Hmmm what would you call an organization with a fleet of battleships capable of destroying planets ?
Anything it wants.
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Re: The BORG! (Score:2)
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I think it would have been cool for Voyager to have passed through Borg space by visiting low-tech planets that the Borg had skipped o
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TV: A rare medium that's done well
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I would have thought it was to give the Federation an unbeatable enemy that they can't plow through with their highly weaponized "science vessel". It seems like the replicator makes Federation society nearly Utopian, not especially socialist, communist or capitalist. It was a little unclear exactly how their economy worked exactly, since clearly people needed to take on subservient roles on their "science" vessel, and some level of industry & resource extraction were certainly required.
When I saw the Bo
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Anyone who didn't vote for them because they've not read the Revelation Space series should go away and read it now.
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You KNOW there's only ONE universal enemy that strikes fear into the hearts of all civilizations, and that's the Time Cube
FTFY
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The weighted companion cube (Score:3)
The weighted companion cube is the best cube, because the weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you, and in fact, cannot speak. In the event the weighted companion cube does speak, the enrichment center urges you to disregard its advice.
Time Cube (Score:5, Insightful)
Obviously!
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Ooooh, obscure web reference for the win :)
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I could not BELIEVE Nature's Harmonious Timecube wouldn't be on this poll. Clearly bestcube, and Gene Ray is bestkook.
The Ubiquitous D6. (Score:5, Interesting)
The six-sided die has been around longer than any other cube, has played a more intimate role in human affairs and culture, and will out-last all other cubes.
There are more of them in existence than any other cube. Every household in the West probably has at least a couple of them. (Well, maybe not the Quakers).
But there were probably some D6s to be found in the dust of Ozymandias's fallen mighty works, just as serviceable as the day they were formed.
You learned how to roll a D6 when you were a child, and you will teach your grandkids how to roll them when you sit down for a round of holiday Monopoly.
When humanity is long gone and alien archaeologists come to sift through our ashes, they'll find a pair of dice and know *exactly* what they're for.
And they'll pocket them, carry them off to the stars, but not before gazing across the crumbled wilderness of our remains and sigh, "Poor humanity, long gone. I guess they finally rolled snake eyes."
Re:The Ubiquitous D6. (Score:5, Funny)
Sure about that [imgur.com]?
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Because we're here
Roll the bones
Why does it happen?
Because it happens
Roll the bones
The Autobot Matrix of Leadership (Score:2)
hypercube (Score:5, Insightful)
Hypercube FTW!
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Agree, the hypercube is the missing option!! :)
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Missing (D&D) option (Score:5, Interesting)
PowerMac G4 Cube (Score:3)
What about the G4 Cube?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]
Tesseract (Score:2)
The 4 dimensional one or the movie one.
you forgot gamecube... (Score:5, Insightful)
you insensitive clod.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Everybody is trying to forget about the Gamecube.
didn't vote (Score:3)
pedant point: there is no movie called "The Cube" - there is a TV quiz show with the name and it's utter pants. There's one with Nicole DeBoer, Maurice Dean Wint and David Hewlett called "Cube". Its sequel (Hypercube) was better, though, and Cube Zero was just stunning.
If I had to vote, I would vote "Other" and comment with Harper's Tesseract Machine from Gene Roddenberry's "Andromeda".
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U-cubed (Score:2)
I don't understand why University of Washington students prefer to refer to themselves as "yoo-dub" as short for U-Double-U when they could simply be U^3.
On the other hand, prospective Washington University candidates like to say they want to go Wash-U, which just sounds dirty.
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that depends on whether she's a: hot and b: potentially willing?
(and c: willing to sign a dual waiver saying she's over 18 and she won't press charges)
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Better work on your reading comprehension, people.
IT WAS CALLED "CUBE"!
NO "The" in it. At all.
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holy crap, estimated budget of five hundred dollars??
Anyone know what the opening weekend take was?
Missing option: The Hypno-Cube (Score:2)
This is an AWESOME 3-D transparent cube with a matrix of 64 RGB LED's in it, and they have about 50 pseudo-random modes it displays in, fades, spinning colors, it keeps changing endlessly and is the coolest bit of geek gear I have picked up in a while. They run about $99 so they are not cheap, but they are truly mesmerizing and hypnotic.
Check it out: http://www.thinkgeek.com/produ... [thinkgeek.com]
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Protip: Go shopping when they have discounts and coupon codes active; I paid $75 for it thanks to a 25% off and free shipping to boot!
Wander Over Yonder ...cube (Score:2)
Congreve Cube (Score:2)
The congreve cube is the best cube, but only because Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium is a great movie to watch Natalie Portman while eating hot grits.
No Nissan? (Score:2)
Love my Cube!
Non-fictional vs. fictional cubes (Score:2)
The best cube I've actually seen would be a Rubik's Cube. They're super cool, clever, and pretty. The only other non-fictional cube is the ice cube. I have only once seen ice cubes that were actually cubes, and they were a huge pain to get out of the ice cube tray. So, cubic ice cubes fail for being crappy, and non-cubic ice cubes fail for not being cubes.
My choice for fictional cubes is the Borg Cube. It is an iconic departure from typical spaceship designs in science fiction, in the same way that the Dale
No SOMA cube? (Score:2)
I mean, how could a cube invented during a presentation by Heisenberg on his uncertainty principle [wikipedia.org]not be on the list?
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I too was going to post about it, since I built one while at the university. I found it some weeks ago hidden in a box where I packed some stuff of my young age, together with some pics and agendas, and now my son is playing with it! If I remeber correctly the SOMA cube was described in one of Marting Gardner's books.
Sorry Ice (Score:2)
But "Ghosts of Mars" killed it for you.
Sugar? (Score:2)
Also handy for any horses you care to meet.
Madison Cube Garden (Score:2)
For those who don't know, it was in Futurama.
NeXTCube (Score:2)
Other... (Score:2)
TimeCube! (Score:2)
Nuff sed.
The old Thinking Machine's "Connection Machine" (Score:2)
google images search for "thinking machine" "connection machine".
mark "always wanted one for an oversized coffee table...."
Robert Heinlein's Story (Score:2)
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Ah, yes, I remember that one. Good times. The game Portal gives me a feel for a tessaract house. H Bosch comes to mind, too.
Carver M-400t (Score:2)
The Carver M-400t with "Tube Transport Technology", conservatively rated at 201 Watts per Channel at 8 Ohms, was the best sounding of any of the Carver cubes.
Yes, I own one. Yes, I bought it back when it was new. No, I don't use $50 per foot gold plated speaker wire. 16AWG copper zip-cord is fine.
Exit=MyLawn
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That guy makes awesome audio equipment (if only I could afford it) without the audiophile Monster gimmick.
I am jealous to this day of my dad's digital tuner which is finally starting to flake out after 20+ years - too bad it's stereo :(
Lament for the Lament Configuration (Score:2)
Missing Option: Dolby's Cube (Score:2)
Totally missing the option of Dolby's Cube
May the cube be with you (and your father)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... [youtube.com]
The People's Cube (Score:2)
NeXT (Score:2)
Gleaming (Score:2)
Gleaming the Cube
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Gleeming the cube (Score:2)
I voted for Weighted Companion Cube... (Score:2)
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Obviously the rapper Ice Cube...
Nissan Cube (Score:2)
I didn't buy it, largely because the gas mileage was lame, but the last time I bought a car I thought seriously about buying a Nissan Cube to replace my nearly-dead van. It would have to be blue, not only because it really does appear to be "bigger on the inside", but because for many years there was a building in Silicon Valley called The Blue Cube [wikipedia.org] that was Spooky Satellite Control System Headquarters. It's gone now (looks like they've even cleaned up most of the rubble from dismantling it.)
If I'd actua
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The Toyota Rukus and Kia Soul are just poor, poor imitations.
Also Nissan have discontinued the Cube, another line in the line of good car lines they;ve killed, Silvias, R series skylines, so on and so forth.
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Yes because Islam is a horrible, monstrous religion. Or is it religion in general that's bad? Or maybe your just a bigot?
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My first thought too.
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except it's not, the War Doctor has one as well. And if you count crossing timestreams, the other 12 have TARDISs as well.
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So disappointing it did not make the list
Do you mean the Apple CUBE did not make the list because it was disappointing?
Or that you're disappointed that it is not on the list?
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