Star Trek: How Crippling Was The Battle of Wolf 359 For The Federation?

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The Star Trek universe, ever since its creation in the late 1960s, was always intended to be a utopian vision for what humanity might one day achieve. They were always shown to be the very best, a near unstoppable force. While a foe might be able to take on and defeat individual Federation starships and crews, the Federation and Starfleet itself was never in too much danger, often the most powerful people in any given room. It came as a shock then when the battle of Wolf 359 took place, a battle so catastrophic that it seemingly crippled the Federation. But how vulnerable were they really?

The Federation often faced conflict, both physical and philosophical, but humanity at this point was so advanced that nothing posed too much of a threat to them. The Next Generation appeared to follow the same mindset. The iconic Enterprise D was at the forefront of what was possible, both technologically but also in terms of intelligence wise, being home to the minds of thousands of the Federation's best and brightest in their mission to explore new lands and new civilizations. It became a major plot point right from the start, where Picard and the crew are transported thousands of light years away by the nefarious Q entity, forcing them face to face with a single Borg cube. The results were catastrophic, and made Picard realize how ignorant and arrogant they were, that they could think they were ready to blindly (but boldly) venture out from safe federation space.

Star Trek: What Would Happen If The Borg Could Assimilate A Q?

The Borg remained a real threat, often lingering ominously at the sidelines for the first three seasons, like a shadow slowly but surely creeping across the room. During the last few episodes of Season Three,