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In the first two episodes of Star Trek Discovery, T'Kuvma speaks of the Federation as the enemy. His main argument against the Federation was

they would rob the Klingons of the individuality.

This struck me as very similar to the Federation's hatred of the Borg; the reason the Federation resists the Borg is their violation of individuality, for example (emphasis mine):

LAFORGE: All right, think of it this way. Every time you talk about yourself, you use the word we. We want this, we want that. You don't even know how to think of yourself as a single individual. You don't say, I want this, or I am Hugh. We are all separate individuals. I am Geordi. I choose what I want to do with my life. I make decisions for myself. For somebody like me, losing that sense of individuality is almost worse than dying. 'I, Borg' TNG

So, I am curious about whether any comments have been made by writers etc. whether, out of universe, the audience is expected to view the Klingon's hatred of the Federation as comparable to the Federation's hatred of the Borg?

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    I've removed the word "Spoiler" in your title according to a meta consensus here
    – Edlothiad
    Sep 27, 2017 at 6:12
  • I don't know about writers, etc. but T'Kuvma's sentiment is echoed in the future by other Klingons. I can't recall exactly where, but I seem to remember it coming up in ST VI: Undiscovered Country, and perhaps also in TNG and DS9 but don't quote me on it...
    – Lord Praxis
    Sep 27, 2017 at 15:11
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    They're just showing us what it was like before the Klingons joined the Federation.
    – Z. Cochrane
    Sep 27, 2017 at 17:05
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    Long time no see! (For the record, that's some other Praxis above.) There may be a definitive answer to this at some point, but there needs to be more commentary from the creative staff first.
    – Praxis
    Sep 28, 2017 at 6:03
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    not likely imo - the Federation's problem with the Borg wasn't their lack of individuality per se, it was that the Borg relentlessly, by violent force, dictated their will upon unwilling civilizations. Federation membership, on the other hand, is entirely voluntary and predicated on meeting many requirements. Even if the Klingon's didn't like the Federation's values, the Federation wasn't in any way attempting to impose themselves forcefully upon the Klingons. The Klingons so far are being shown to be xenophobic and racist which is not how the Federation viewed the Borg.
    – NKCampbell
    Sep 28, 2017 at 16:56

2 Answers 2

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The Klingons in Discovery are more worried with losing their national identity than their individual identities. Furthermore while the Borg are viewed as nigh-unstoppable, the Federation is for the most part viewed as weak.

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    Welcome to SFF:SE. I recommend a look at our guide to writing quality answers.
    – Politank-Z
    Dec 31, 2017 at 18:14
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The sentiment of people viewing the Federation as Borg-like was expressed before in Star Trek series (especially DS9). Garak and Quark had an entire conversation about it.

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    Could you cite said conversation?
    – Edlothiad
    Sep 28, 2017 at 16:50
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    It was Michael Eddington who told Sisko in DS9 that the Federation were as bad as, or maybe worse than, the Borg.
    – Praxis
    Sep 30, 2017 at 4:13
  • The conversation between Garak and Quark did not specifically mention the Borg, but I'm linking to it just so that folks can judge for themselves by what was actually said. youtube.com/watch?v=6VhSm6G7cVk
    – Emsley Wyatt
    Sep 30, 2017 at 17:20
  • The Garak/Quark conversation is very funny and compares the Federation to root beer, of all things! Hilarious.
    – RobJarvis
    Aug 16, 2021 at 19:34

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