Dating back to 1966 (in our world, anyway) The Cybermen hailed from Earth’s twin planet, Mondas, which was knocked out of orbit and sent spinning through space. Replacing their bodies part by part with machinery, the Mondasian people slowly became an terrifying cyborg army traveling through space, so dangerous that they are the first menace to so thoroughly menace The Doctor as to trigger his regeneration.
Dating back to 1989, The Borg collective has a stated goal of perfection, assimilating planets and species and stealing that which makes each world and each people unique and making it part of their faceless phalanx of infectious warriors. Their threat is so great that they nearly made legendary Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard a permanent part of their cyborg army, and once took over the entire Earth retroactively.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) finds either group equally horrific, especially given their different-but-still-awful methods of transformation, asking: Which group makes for the more terrifying cyborg army: The Cybermen or The Borg?
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Borgs, based on looks. That human flesh with crude looking metal parts sticking out is nightmare fuel. Tetsuo The Iron Man is a prime example of this kinda creepy stuff.
Cybermen are definitely more evil and malicious, but The Borg are more powerful and all-consuming, Then again, if forced, based on the experience as relayed by Seven-of-Nine, I’d much rather be forced to become a Borg than a Cyberman. It’s a tough choice. I’d probably say the Cybermen are scarier because they act more hostile and cruel, whereas the Borg are more like a force of nature.
Cybermen. There are plenty of instances of Borg being freed or becoming individuals again after having their link to the collective severed (Picard, Seven, the Borg children of Voyager, the Borg Cooperative, Hugh, etc.), but there are very few instances of returning from full Cyber conversion, and even those that regain their minds post conversion don’t seem to be able to revert back to human (or whatever species they were). If you’re assimilated by the Borg, there is hope you can be rescued and returned or otherwise regain your individuality, but there is almost no hope after being Cyber converted.