Star Trek gaat al decennia mee, en heeft nog altijd een extreem grote fanbase over de hele wereld. Deze leven overigens in een soort van nerdwar met de Star Wars fans, alleen komt het (zo ver ik weet) zelden tot een gewelddadig treffen tussen beide groepen. Maar goed, de website Topless Robot heeft nu deze top vijftien gemaakt met indrukwekkende en groteske voertuigen. De lijst is een must read voor de fans, maar mijn keus was snel gemaakt:

b[3) Borg Cube, Star Trek: The Next Generation

It's pretty obvious when the Enterprise-D first encounters the Borg that she is extremely outmatched. And for good reason: that first perspective shot of both the Enterprise and the Cube in the same picture shows the Cube being easily 20 times larger than the Federation Flagship. After the Borg send a drone to the Enterprise, Picard and crew decide to run for cover, and attempt to escape the Cube. The Cube is able to secure a tractor beam around the ship, drains her shields, and proceeds to cut a section of the Enterprise away for study in seconds like she was a piece of fruit. It's only by a stroke of luck and the interference of Q that the Enterprise manages to escape. But the true power of the Borg wasn't revealed until the Battle of Wolf 359.

With Picard captured and Borg-ified, there is nothing standing in the way of the Borg reaching Earth except for 40 pesky Federation Starships forcing a conflict at Wolf 359. It's here that a single Borg Cube obliterated the Federation fleet, leaving only one surviving vessel, and killing over 11,000 Starfleet personnel and families, including one Jennifer Sisko. The mostly intact Borg Cube had a straight, unimpeded shot to Earth until the Enterprise showed up and was able to get Robo-Picard to set the Cube to self-destruct.

As Borg encounters became more common, they seemed less and less frightening. A Starfleet flotilla was able to destroy a Borg Cube in Star Trek: First Contact, and Voyager encountered them a ton of times in the Delta Quadrant without receiving a whole lot of unnecessary surgery. Hell, even the Enterprise cast was able to survive encountering some Borg drones! Over time, the Borg seemed to become slightly emasculated, and certainly less frightening, but there still is nothing that gets a nerd's mivonks in a twist like seeing the aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359.