James R KirkHow I imagine those crying "i tHouGHT StAr Trek WAs suPPosEd tO bE a UtOPia"
ViatorOmniumI think the writers screwed up the Borg when they added the queen.
They would be a much better antagonist if they they remained just a collective as they would be a dark mirror of the federation, by having unity and collectivism without diversity and freedom, and could complement the Ferengi, which could have been the federation’s dark mirror with superficial level freedom marred by hyper-indivualism.
It would be even better if in addition the borg only offered assimilation to individuals by choice, defending their right to join with overwhelming force and leaving everyone else alone. There would be a whole moral to-do about prisoners choosing the collective and the borg showing up to get them and then the Starfleet people who are lonely decide to go and then someone thinks they need to save one of those people so they go in with a plan to destroy the collective from within but realize that everyone is there by choice and they have the option to leave but don’t.
If the Borg behaved like the hive-mind from Pluribus - friendly but compelled to assimilate (“Everyone is happy here, we promise”) - I think that would have been a lot more interesting in the same way it makes Pluribus so interesting
One of the best things about DS9 is that they touched on the idea that those outside the Federation see the Federation as exactly how you just described.
For me that kind of ethics play and such is what is part of what is missing from new trek.