On the Matter of Unimatricies - The term Unimatrix has been thrown around as a unit or division within the collective. Each unimatrix is a miniature collective, much as I have described above. We know that the Unicomplex is called Unimatrix 001. Beyond that, I am not certain if the term has been used consistently enough to be precisely defined. Is each Borg ship a Unimatrix, or does a Unimatrix encompass multiple ships? In other words, where does a Unimatrix fit in the layers of collectives? Any thoughts or observations on this would be appreciated.Recently I saw "Dark Frontier" (VOY) again and drew a significant conclusion: I don't think the writers had any clue what a Unimatrix is.
The episode manages to use the term in at least two different and seemingly contradictory ways. In the opening sequence the Borg "coffin" ship says, "A vessel has been detected at Unimatrix 422, Grid 03." Later the Borg sphere sounds the alert, "A vessel has been detected at Unimatrix 422, Grid 116."
So it's first use makes a Unimatrix seem to be some kind of coordinate system used to identify the location of objects in space, analogous to the Starfleet use of the term sector. Just as Earth is located at sector 001, the Borg Unicomplex is located at Unimatrix 001. Each Unimatrix appears to be subdived into more than 100 'grids' of some kind.
So far so good.
Then we see a flashback where the Hansens examine a sleeping drone they have transported over to their ship. Studying the drone's "proximity tranciever" they learn that its previous designation was "3 of 5, tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 1" - and firmly believe this means he once served very close to the fabled Borg Queen. So here, the term Unimatrix appears to refer to a division within the collective.
I've tried to reconcile these two conflicting uses of the term. Perhaps there is a relationship between the "geographic" use of Unimatrix, and the organizational use of Unimatrix. So all the Borg in a particular spatial Unimatrix are given a matching Unimatrix designation. This works well for the Unicomplex itself - it's location is Unimatix 001, and the group of drones living there are all part of Unimatrix 001. But the picture gets far more complicated when you start adding in all the Borg ships that are constantly moving around.
As a ship traveled through different spatial Unimatricies, the drones would constantly change their Unimatrix designation. This begins to explain why the Hansens spoke of the drone's previous designation - implying that it has changed over time. But how was it that of all the drones they studied on that cube just one, had ever been located near the Unicomplex? It's possible, but seems strange.
Then we have to contend with the fact that Seven of Nine's designation at the time she was freed from the collective was "tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 01" even though she was geographically no where near the Unicomplex at the time. (Maybe the Borg hadn't gotten around to changing her designation. So much for Borg efficiency . . . )
The more I've tried to explain away the inconsistencies, the more my head hurts. So either the writers were just throwing the term around because it sounded cool, or as Borg adapted their use of the term changed so that back in the days of the Hansen's it meant one thing, but "now" it means something else.
Again, any thoughts, theories, or relevant information is welcome.
3 comments:
Option A
Perhaps the unimatrix title IS used as both a co-ordinate system and Borg drone designation where the "origin point" is the Queen. Being a hive mind this would be a reasonably easy system to follow for any single Borg unit. Being so interconnected would mean that both the social and spatial positions of the Queen would always be equally obvious and important to all. If so used, the unimatrix designation of drones and units could change..... and the description of any given point in actual space would be in constant flux as the Queen moved around herself. The point being not so much to locate things in space as to pin-point them relative to the Queen.
OR more likely, as noted, option B
It could be that once again sci-fi script writers are too lazy to run a "score card" system to keep track of their imaginary universe and not clever enought to do it in their heads. So they just make shit up for scripts that sounds cool..... and are arrogant enough to think that any resultant logical inconsistancy isn't immediently obvious to the nerds who like sci-fi. Sometimes it's enough to make me believe that fans are just viewed as coughed socks that like cool sounding space stuff and live in fantasy.
Chook - Pt Pirie.
Option A is intriguing - using the queen's location as 001 rather than the Unicomplex itself. Even normal star charts would have to be updated as stars move relative to each other, albeit very slowly. The Borg could certainly keep up with moment to moment changes in their own collective.
It says A vessel has been detected at Unimatrix 424, Grid 116, and It's Likly that the Unimatrix is Used as Both co-ordinate system and for a Dornes designation, and the Queen said that Earth was in Grid 325, Maybe It's The Other way around Grids are used to Tell Locations And Unimatrices are Located Within Multiple Grids, Like How a Contry has More Then one Longitude and Latatude
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