# Hypothetical Star Trek question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 29, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770 "2004-02-29T18:03:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reyemile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/1 "2004-02-29T18:03:40Z")
What happens when the Borg assimilate a Tribble? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/2 "2004-02-29T18:29:26Z")
Cute, fuzzy, soothing Borg! ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/3 "2004-02-29T18:36:21Z")
[http://www.oogby.com/image2.html](http://www.oogby.com/image2.html) ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/4 "2004-02-29T19:22:27Z")
To be incredibly obnoxiously pedantic about it, they can’t. Worf said in the DS9 Tribble episode that the Klingons hunted the Tribbles down and exterminated them all. Of course, at the end of that episode, the “modern” DS9 was infested with them, and they never explained what happened to those, so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/5 "2004-02-29T19:26:44Z")
They wouldn’t. I’m not entirely sure if it was in a Trek book or in one of the shows but I remember Seven or the Borg Queen or someone with knowledge of the Borg saying that they did not bother assimilating species that did not improve their biological and technological distinctiveness. While assimilating a fuzzy ball would definitely make them more distinct, I can’t believe it would improve the Collective. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/6 "2004-02-29T19:42:31Z")
Do the Borg even assimilate non-sentient beings? ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/7 "2004-02-29T19:47:34Z")
Doubtful. For one, there’s no reason to and for another, all the drones that I’ve ever seen have all been human except for maybe half a dozen exceptions. Even the Queen in the Delta Quadrant looked human. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/8 "2004-02-29T20:01:22Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > [http://www.oogby.com/image2.html](http://www.oogby.com/image2.html) Cuddliness is futile! ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/9 "2004-02-29T20:07:36Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Even the Queen in the Delta Quadrant looked human. :rolleyes: So do the Klingons, the Vulcans, the Telaxians, the Ocampa, the Bajorans, the Cardassians, the Andorians, the Kazon, the Hirojen, the Ferengi, the Trill host species, and nearly every other sentient species that has ever appeared in a _Star Trek_ episode or movie. It’s that whole 4-billion-year-old genetic program thingy. So maybe the Borg Queen wasn’t human, she was merely a member of one of the bazillions of humanoid alien species that inhabit the _Trek_ universe. Remember: Bumps on the forehead = alien!) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/10 "2004-02-29T20:12:05Z")
No. I meant human in the Trek sense, not the real world one. No bumpy foreheads, no weird discoloration, and no big ears. If it wasn’t for the pale skin and cybernetic implants, which are natural side-effects of assimilation, the Queen would have been indistinguishable from any Trek human. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/11 "2004-03-01T06:23:04Z")
If that Borg Tribble were for sale, I’d have to buy two. I already got my geeky brother a Tribble two-video set with, of course, a Tribble. It’s a squeaky one, though, not the purring kind. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/12 "2004-03-01T12:40:09Z")
You get a Tribble that’s hooked up to the Borg collective and so has access to an awesomely-large hive mind… but is still a helpless ball of fluff with no manipulative members and no way to influence its environment. Unless it gets some _seriously_ neat prosthetics. Even with Star Trek’s famously rigorous science, I don’t see much hope for the alternative we were all secretly thinking about: that the Borg suddenly become absurdly fecund. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/13 "2004-03-01T20:23:59Z")
Hey, Threadspotting! Not bad for **Reyemile** ’s seventh post. What if assimilating a Tribble gave the rest of the hive the knowledge of how to make that trilling sound? It could make assimilation of sentient individuals much less of a hassle, by relaxing them first: “Resistance is futile. B-rrrrrrr. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. B-rrrrr-rrrrrr.” “Daahh, OK.” :drops phaser: ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/14 "2004-03-01T20:46:55Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > I already got my geeky brother a Tribble two-video set with, of course, a Tribble. It’s a squeaky one, though, not the purring kind. That’s odd, Tribbles have only been known to squeak at … At … Oh my God! :eek: **Your brother is a Klingon!!** ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/15 "2004-03-01T22:41:55Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > If it wasn’t for the pale skin and cybernetic implants, …and the fact that she’s _missing half her torso…_ For all we know, she may come from a species with four arms, or tentacles instead of legs, or what-have-you. Unlikely, given that it’s the Trek universe, but still possible. ---
**Author:** ![gonzoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a6a055/32.png) [@gonzoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzoron)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/16 "2004-03-01T23:05:53Z")
Maybe we’ve seen them already? Maybe every borg-tribble is outfitted with enough cybernetics to pass for a normal humanoid borg. Although I would love to see a borg tribble like the one in that picture used for infiltration missions. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/17 "2004-03-01T23:07:34Z")
And why would she have a human body, even down to the five fingers on each hand if she were a four armed and tentacle-legged alien? I’m not buying it. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/18 "2004-03-01T23:23:52Z")
Looked to me like her head, shoulders, and spine were the only original parts of her. Her body was an obvious construct. For that matter, wasn’t her spine metallic? Also, remember the skin they were able to graft to Data. She could’ve been completely changed from her original form if the Borg had that level of flesh/machine capabilities. Still, she was hot. And, I was under the assumption that she was on the order of mellenia old. Any takers? ---
**Author:** ![Armilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e19b73/32.png) [@Armilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Armilla)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/19 "2004-03-02T02:58:32Z")
Tactically speaking, I’m not sure assimilating a tribble would really be worth it. Still, even the Borg aren’t [perfect](http://www.plif.com/archive/wc036.gif). ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770/20 "2004-03-02T05:29:52Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > They wouldn’t. > > I’m not entirely sure if it was in a Trek book or in one of the shows but I remember Seven or the Borg Queen or someone with knowledge of the Borg saying that they did not bother assimilating species that did not improve their biological and technological distinctiveness. While assimilating a fuzzy ball would definitely make them more distinct, I can’t believe it would improve the Collective. It would improve their reproductive powers greatly, then they could flood the universe with drones. I’d like to see a Borg Horta. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-star-trek-question/231770.md?page=2)