Somethings that's been bugging me about Star Trek: DS9.

[I.R Joey]

Spoilers...


Where were thr Borg?

During the course of the series I believe we only saw them once, and that was in a flashback during the very 1st episode. Then when the Dominion came on the scene we got the defiant which was designed to fight with the Borg. But other than that there was really nothing else.

Even during the massive interstellar war that encoumpased the last two seasons we never saw them. Even though that war pretty much ended up drawing every major Trek race into the fray, the Borg were still nowhere to be found.

Now my assumption is that the DS9 writers were forbbiden from using the Borg because the people at Paramount wanted the Next gen movies and Voyager to have exclusive access to them. But this is just an assumption.

[DarkAngel]

Where were thr Borg? In the Delta Quadrant. You have to keep in mind that most of what happened in DS9 took place in the AQ. So naturally, when it came to war, it was the races of the AQ that were involved.

The writers weren't forbidden from using the Borg. They could have, if they wanted to, but they weren't interested in doing so. Voyager was perfectly suited to featuring the Borg because they were in the DQ and that's where the Borg are located.

Also, we did get a Borg attack during the time frame that DS9 was set in even if it wasn't featured in the series. We got to see the Defiant go up against the Cube in STFC and had reference to the Borg attack in DS9.

[Harley_Quinn]

I really didn't miss the Borg in DS9, I liked the whole of idea of somewhat evenly matched races fighting a massive war.

[I.R Joey]

In the Delta Quadrant. You have to keep in mind that most of what happened in DS9 took place in the AQ. So naturally, when it came to war, it was the races of the AQ that were involved.

The writers weren't forbidden from using the Borg. They could have, if they wanted to, but they weren't interested in doing so. Voyager was perfectly suited to featuring the Borg because they were in the DQ and that's where the Borg are located.

Also, we did get a Borg attack during the time frame that DS9 was set in even if it wasn't featured in the series. We got to see the Defiant go up against the Cube in STFC and had reference to the Borg attack in DS9.
Right I understand that the Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant, but during the time period of Next Gen/DS9/ and Voyager I thought it was understood that they had made their way to the Alpha Quadrant. Thus their apperances in the later half of Next Gen and in the movie First Contact (with the Defiant cameo.) So that being the case I wonder why DS9 never had a single ep or string of eps dealing with the borg. I mean they had multiple episodes dealing with pretty much every other major Trek race (okay Q only had one). Why didn't the DS9 crew do an episode specifically focused on the Borg.

[Squall]

The DS9 station was almost literally on the opposite side of the galaxy of Borg Space. And Borg Space doesn't yet come anywhere near the borders of the Alpha-Beta Quadrant powers; the few Borg attacks that far away from their space have all proved failures, which has led to the Borg holding back.

The Borg aren't as invincible as they seem, or else they would have taken over the whole galaxy by the 24th Century (TNG/DS9/VOY) like a virus out of control. :)

Since TNG, DS9, and Voyager all happen at about the same time, it's best to consider them as one big show with many facets, rather than three completely seperate shows. So, given that, the last Borg attack of the Federation occured right before the Dominion invaded (in fact, that very Borg attack is what made the Dominion decide that the time was right to invade, as the Federation had been greatly weakened fighting off the Borg).

As to the question of why the Borg didn't become involved in the Dominion War -- why would they? If anything, their best strategy would be to sit back and watch all the Alpha-Beta Quadrant powers weaken each other, then as the war ends come in and assimilate everyone in their post-war rebuilding phase. (Who knows, they may have been planning that, and the U.S.S. Voyager prevented the Borg from carrying out that plan!)

Episodes I'm thinking of here:

TNG -- Star Trek: First Contact
DS9 -- "In Purgatory's Shadow"/"By Inferno's Light"
VOY -- "Dark Frontier" and "Endgame"

[EinBebop]

We're hovering back and forth between two perspectives:

Why, storyline-wise, did the Borg never have contact with DS9?
I'd like to quote Douglas Adams:
"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space."

It takes time to assimilate a whole quadrant. And during every war you still want to defend your strategic interests, and not throw every person you have into a single battle unless it's a critical, critical, battle, like the one in First Contact. And even then, it's not like they abandoned DS9.


Why did the DS9 writers not choose to write about the Borg?
I doubt we'll get more than speculation.

[DarkAngel]

Right I understand that the Borg originated in the Delta Quadrant, but during the time period of Next Gen/DS9/ and Voyager I thought it was understood that they had made their way to the Alpha Quadrant. Thus their apperances in the later half of Next Gen and in the movie First Contact (with the Defiant cameo.) Not exactly. They did get to the AQ, but with single Cubes each time. They never really gained a foothold in or near the AQ, at least not that we, the viewers, were made aware of. So Borg attacks against the Federation would still originate from the DQ.

And after "BOBW" and "I, Borg/Descent", I would imagine the Collective was wary about sending another Cube too soon, having already lost two in the vicinity of the AQ. So they waited another several years, tried again in STFC, and failed again. By that point, DS9 was already at about year 5. Another Borg attack wouldn't come that quickly after yet another failed attempt. And by that time, they had already encountered Voyager, so their focus likely shifted to that Starfleet vessel.

More than that, though, there just wasn't a need for the writers to bring in the Borg. They're not the type of enemy that's suited to repeated storytelling. They'd already been dealt with in TNG. Voyager was using them. There was nothing really new for DS9 to do with them. What could have been interesting would have been to use them in longterm storyline, but they were already using the Dominion in that way. So there was no reason to force in the Borg.

[I.R Joey]

Not exactly. They did get to the AQ, but with single Cubes each time. They never really gained a foothold in or near the AQ, at least not that we, the viewers, were made aware of. So Borg attacks against the Federation would still originate from the DQ.

And after "BOBW" and "I, Borg/Descent", I would imagine the Collective was wary about sending another Cube too soon, having already lost two in the vicinity of the AQ. So they waited another several years, tried again in STFC, and failed again. By that point, DS9 was already at about year 5. Another Borg attack wouldn't come that quickly after yet another failed attempt. And by that time, they had already encountered Voyager, so their focus likely shifted to that Starfleet vessel.

More than that, though, there just wasn't a need for the writers to bring in the Borg. They're not the type of enemy that's suited to repeated storytelling. They'd already been dealt with in TNG. Voyager was using them. There was nothing really new for DS9 to do with them. What could have been interesting would have been to use them in longterm storyline, but they were already using the Dominion in that way. So there was no reason to force in the Borg.
Thanks, Squall and you pretty much summed up what I wanted to know. Very good answers.