Do you agree/disagree with Picard’s decision?

To quote Spock, “the needs of the many, outweighs the needs of the few”.

Personally I think Picard made a terrible choice; especially knowing what the Borg were and how capable they were.

I'm far more of a Sisko kind of guy and would be OK wiping out a cybernetic race that would never stop trying to enslave me. On the other hand, reintroducing a drone that had a taste of freedom back into the Collective might have had the same effect that their best computer virus would have done:

Drive one Cube insane and get cut off from the Collective.

I can't be the only person that's thought the Collective has to have a better anti-virus system than anything Starfleet could cook up. I also don't think they still have a copy of the Iconian virus from "Contagion" around. That would probably be a horrible inconvenience for them.

Spoiler alert. Hugh will return in many years in the future, it will turn out to be a wise decision

That was definitely one of the most controversial decisions Picard made. In the greater context of the show, it was a drop in the bucket as far as "bad" decisions go. The Enterprise flew from planet to planet constantly interfering with the people and societies in which they lived.

quote:

Originally posted by tennisman:
Spoiler alert. Hugh will return in many years in the future, it will turn out to be a wise decision

Assuming you really want to acknowledge the existence of Star Trek: Picard, which I’d rather toss it out with the rest of the Alex Kurtzman/Bad Reboot trash.

I disagree with Picard. Although the borgs may well have defeated the virus, at least they had a shot at stopping a far superior enemy.
Sadly, there is little room for humanity in war.

quote:

Originally posted by DanH:

quote:

Originally posted by tennisman:
Spoiler alert. Hugh will return in many years in the future, it will turn out to be a wise decision

Assuming you really want to acknowledge the existence of Star Trek: Picard, which I’d rather toss it out with the rest of the Alex Kurtzman/Bad Reboot trash.

The results were seen in the original show Next Generation, before the Picard show. The independent Borg were fighting the others, and causing problems with Lor

I know. He also returned many many years in the future in Star Trek: Picard. Less said about that, the better.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:

The results were seen in the original show Next Generation, before the Picard show. The independent Borg were fighting the others, and causing problems with Lor

Well, one could argue that if Picard had followed through with the plan, AND assuming it would have worked and killed all the Borg, the events of TNG: Descent I and Descent II never would have happened (where Hugh and his 'resistance cell' came out).

In the long term, Picard had a chance to eradicate an entire species. Now, 'genocide' is typically frowned upon, but at the same time, one could argue that the Borg were incapable of being reformed. There was never any chance at negotiation nor peace. They were more an invasive species than a sentient species. . . So, Picard's decision was seen as 'correct' (while Janeway's decision at the end of ST:VOY where older Janeway killed all the Borg was seen as 'correct,' as well).

It's classic Trek hypocrisy. Picard could not commit genocide, but Janeway and (especially) Cisco could have done so under the same circumstances. In the end, there may not be a 'correct' answer. Trek used to be a very complex show, and examined scenarios like this. The NuTrek shows are incapable of this level of sophistication.


That being said, I believe Picard was wrong to not kill the Borg. He had ONE single example of a 'humanized' Borg. How many thousands/millions of sentient lifeforms died or worse, were assimilated because Picard could not find it in his conscience to eradicate a threat to the entire galaxy?

Only slightly off topic, issues like this are why TNG and DS9 are so much better than any Trek since. Voyager touched on this kind of thing a little bit, but then it went downhill. There is no easy answer. Commit genocide or allow a threat to continue to exist?

This occurred *after* Picard had been temporarily assimilated, so it's not like he didn't fully know the intent and nature of the Borg. Maybe he was banking on figuring out a way to break the link creating the collective, but it seems hard to reconcile in-universe. It's a moment I think the writers come through the script too much.