This is, of course, a fairly hypothetical question: exploring what different paths the Federation and the heroes of the shows would have taken if the Borg were dealt with before they became a threat to all life in the Galaxy. The writers aren’t afraid to explore the concept of time travel, with episodes such as “Year of Hell” and “The City on the Edge of Forever.” But as these episodes show, there are always consequences for messing with the timeline, and they are nearly always bad. Without going too deep into the temporal accords and the regulations that govern time travel, it’s safe to say that the whole thing is controlled to stop people from tampering with things they should not, and they have deemed that the Borg’s presence within the universe is apparently needed. Besides, as nobody truly knows what the origins of the Borg are, a mission to destroy them in the early stages of development would have been something of a lost cause.

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The reason is a fairly double-edged sword. If the Borg never existed, then there would never have been the battle of Wolf 359, in which a single Borg cube destroyed 39 Starfleet capital ships with relative ease. This was the biggest penny drop for the Federation, who had, for a long time at this point, been living in relative peace within the comfort of the Alpha quadrant. They had grown complacent and somewhat arrogant in their abilities. They thought they were the most powerful and advanced people out there, and were focusing on creating ships like the iconic USS Enterprise D to not only explore new and exciting parts of the universe, but allowing them to take their families along too, so assured were they that they could not be harmed. Q, of course, changed all this right at the start of the program by introducing them to the Borg, and showing them how pitifully powerless they really were.

This changed Picard’s perspective and made him realize that they were not ready, and they needed to be if they were planning on exploring. The Federation heard his fears, but ultimately they never took the threat seriously until the battle of Wolf 359. Taking the Borg out of the equation might have seemed great at this point, bringing back the 11,000 officers who perished, but without this moment, the Federation would have continued to slumber. The battle forced them to take things seriously and focus of bettering themselves and creating new technology to help ensure this would never happen again. Most importantly, they would not have been ready at all for a little event that took place only a few years later: The Dominion War.

This is one of the biggest losses the Federation ever faced, with the loss of millions of lives at the bequest of the Dominion and the Founders. Whether the Borg existed or not, this event would still have happened. But without the Borg, this time the war would have been the Federations wake-up call that they were not as powerful as they thought — and by this point it would be too late. They barely survived the conflict as it was, and that was with years of rushed technological advancement and combat mindsets.

Other than not being ready, there is another factor that is directly related to the Borg that cannot be overlooked. The morally complex Captain Sisko commanded the Deep Space 9 space station during DS9, being the main protagonist and key player in the war, but without the Borg his life would have looked very different. Sisko’s wife, Jennifer, was killed by the Borg (specifically the powerful Locutus). Eliminating the Borg from the equation would have made for a much happier family, but not for the man taking up position at the station. After all, Starfleet assigned him this post because they didn’t quite know what to do with the grieving man. Without Sisko’s presence, a lot of things would have happened differently. There would have been no USS Defiant prototype, a key ship used during the war. The Federation would also have lost their pivotal diplomatic kingpin for the whole operation.

While the idea of a Borgless galaxy might seem like a great idea, the consequences are far greater than expected. Instead of the Borg stalking the Federation’s outer borders, hiding in the shadows and being a constant ominous threat, the whole quadrant would have instead been taken over and ruled by the Dominion and their iron fist. The Borg are never going to be appreciated for simply existing, and there is never a justifiable reason that the trauma they cause could be seen as a good thing. However, without them, the Federation would never have been able to buckle down and protect themselves from the treat of the Dominion — showing again that messing with the timeline is never worth it.

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