Regeneration

DVD, Enterprise S2 (Regeneration)

Doing the Borg is as essential a component of any Trek series as the Klingons, Vulcans and Romulans, but I doubt many people thought 'Enterprise' would bother. For a start the fearsome cybernetic race never appeared in Kirk's time, and for good reason - they hadn't been invented then. It's possible to forget they were an early creation of 'TNG' thanks to their ubiquity in subsequent Trek lore. Another thing against the likelihood was the series tended to be more concerned with creating its own races such as the Suliban or any minor aliens of the week and they'd only dipped into the vast well of Trek potential that, for a prequel series might be surprising. Still, they'd shown they were serious about dealing with familiar races when they wanted to, with the Klingons and Vulcans getting plenty of attention and even the hard-to-justify Romulans making an entrance this season so perhaps the Borg weren't as farfetched a topic to be explored as on first appearances.

Many people, myself included, felt the Borg were defanged through their multiple defeats at the hands of Voyager and the redoubtable Captain Janeway, but unlike some I always wanted them to return, if only a way could be made to return them to their rightful place as an unstoppable force. It seemed we'd never see the Borg again after their ignominious exit at the end of 'Voyager,' but falling ratings influenced 'Enterprise' to bring them out of the bag almost in a last resort kind of way. That could have been a recipe for disaster as claims were thrown around that they'd run out of ideas and were wheeling out the Borg as they did with 'Voyager' to stir up some interest. That was true, but regardless of what side people took, it certainly stirred up interest, and for someone like me who was already avidly following the series, I became very excited at the prospect of Archer and his crew facing arguably the deadliest enemy of all Trek.

Anyone that felt it was wrong to use the Borg is missing the point. It doesn't matter what elements you choose as long as you do it well - another case for 'Star Trek XI.' As much as I hated some of what they did in that it was still an enjoyable experience and kind of legitimised itself because of that. 'Regeneration' did the same thing, creating the tense mood that was often lacking from the series, particularly in Season 2. It works on every level, whether that be to please lovers of continuity, those who just want an exciting 'Enterprise' story, or those that love the Borg.

It begins with the title. By choosing one that spoke of the Borg, but was also a deft nod to the original title of the film 'Star Trek: First Contact,' the film which is the single biggest influence on the series, they showed they were taking what they were doing seriously. They weren't just going to chuck the Borg in flippantly, they meant business. And what business! This is my favourite episode of the season, it's a standout and one of the few 'Enterprise' episodes I can truly call a classic. I love the teaser in the Arctic Circle, and that it's quite a few minutes into the episode before we even see the NX-01 and the main characters, it's all played out by research scientists that don't know what they've discovered. The audience is shouting "watch out behind you" and it has that tension of a horror film where you know something is going to happen, it's the inevitability of it. And the way these Borg build up their forces from a single reactivated drone, to the scientists, to a ship of innocent Tarkaleans and then on with a threat to the Enterprise, shows expertly that these are the Borg as they once were: an implacable foe that cannot be stopped.

The defanging happened as early as 'TNG' when they introduced Hugh and the idea Borg could be rescued and returned to individuality. And later when Lore had his group of Borg. It wasn't until 'Voyager' first brought them back in Season 3 that we saw them as a deadly threat again and then they became over-used. In this, the 24th Century Borg were facing 22nd Century minds and weapons, and rather than saying this is ridiculous and questioning how Archer and his inferior ship could beat something that 24th Century technology barely coped with, it justifies their success: they use different methods, they don't rely on the age-old rotating phaser frequencies, they're using inferior weapons that the Borg have to learn to adapt to again, or hand to hand combat when Archer and Reed go two against one in a fight with a drone. Obviously this wouldn't have worked if there had been more than one, but it shows they were doing different things to what the Borg were used to from humanity. It also helped that there was a severe shortage of Borg - this wasn't a cube with thousands aboard, the most they had were twenty-nine, I think.

Captain Archer seemed to instinctively realise that he couldn't deal with these beings the same as others, which is why he reluctantly blows the hatch to get rid of the Tarkalean two as they try to sabotage the ship from inside. Even then he hopes to rescue the humans and Tarkaleans still aboard the enemy vessel, but his adventure with Reed soon changes his mind. The people are gone, and the paranoia about the point at which they are no longer human is well played out through Dr. Phlox who gets infected by nano-probes. There's time for a nice little scene when Hoshi visits him to try and cheer his spirits that reminds us of their friendship, but most of the episode is a steady heartbeat that increases the closer danger comes. There's a unique situation in that the Borg are attempting to return home and possibly resume their mission from 'First Contact' by alerting the Borg of the 22nd Century about Earth, retreating rather than attacking. It may seem odd that they don't simply try to assimilate Earth instead of heading home, but you have to remember that they've just lost their Queen from their perspective and aren't connected to the hive mind so it's likely their programming reverts to returning home or to get back in touch with the others.

It makes for a thrilling series of meetings that the Borg generally get the upper hand in and really shows how terrifying they can be. They are assisted in this by some excellent direction from David Livingston and the music which is more pacy and menacing than usual. According to the commentary by the episode writers it was scored by Brian Tyler who apparently didn't do many score that season. If this was anything to go by I'd get him in every other week! The shots where the camera rolls down a corridor at approaching Borg suggests their nature is intent on one purpose, they cannot be halted. The claustrophobic nature of many of the shots when they're tracking the Tarkaleans also heightens the feeling of danger, especially in the Jefferies tubes (are they called that yet, I'm not sure?), although it's a bit easier to run away when you only have to bend double instead of crawling on hands and knees! There's noticeably less gore than their other recent appearances - in 'Voyager' I always think of heads on spikes which the Queen has in chamber. I don't know if they meant to scale back, but it could be to do with suggestion being more powerful than seeing something. During the episode I thought it might have been better if one or two Enterprise crewmen were assimilated horribly before our eyes, but looking back I realise having Phlox be the only 'infected' person worked perfectly (adding danger hovering in sickbay that he could succumb at any moment), and gave him the chance to reveal the chilling fact that the cybernetic creatures were able to get off a message of the coordinates of Earth. It will take about two hundred years to get there, the 24th Century…

Did Q know about this? Is that why he threw the Enterprise-D into the path of the Borg? Not only to teach them a lesson, but to warn them of the inevitable? It's absolutely superb the way they tidy up a lot of continuity with this story and exactly the kind of thing the series should have done much more of. To recap: there were records or rumours about the Borg even before Picard and his crew first met them leading Annika Hansen (Seven of Nine)'s parents to go off and research them. Now we know what information they might have been inspired by. But even Archer has some heads up about the race thanks to a speech given by Zefram Cochrane telling about the real events of first contact with the Vulcans, though as T'Pol neatly points out, he was frequently accused of telling tall tales and being a drinker so why should people take what he said seriously?

Amid the adventure, excitement and danger there's still a little room for references to other things. Phlox mentions meeting the Bynars who have similar cybernetic implants, a clever, but true observation that I don't believe had ever been pointed out onscreen until this point. It's also the first time we ever see the Tarkaleans, famous for their Tarkalean tea on 'DS9,' a regular beverage on the series. They aren't incredibly memorable, but they're better than the Idanians of that series, another race that had been known for their food or drink and popped up in an episode. I like that they did that, as it adds to the universe instead of simply making up another alien of the week and is another example of the care they took.

I think the episode stands out as working so well because it uses every cast member. Although Travis is still underused he does share a look with Hoshi and everyone else has essential parts to play. Actually he does too as he's flying the ship, but that tends to get taken for granted. The CG is generally very good with the arctic base looking nice, a strong contrast to space with its snowy whiteness, although if you look too closely the tiny people running towards the hut don't move naturally, though this is a small nitpick, as is the unreality of the snow - it really behaves more like cotton wool, but you can't have everything! The explosion of the Borg ship at the end also doesn't look quite solid enough, but it's fine and certainly isn't enough to detract from such a great episode.

There is added interest in the casting as we get the return of Admiral Forrest, Commander William returns from the pilot (who I think was originally named as a tribute for William Shatner), and John Billingsley's wife, Bonita Friedericy is one of the scientists, though sadly she doesn't share any scenes with Phlox! And finally, the Borg do pretty much everything we want them to, even down to saying their catchphrase 'properly' again. If you're wondering what I mean listen to the way the Borg said "Resistance is futile" in their later appearances. It becomes "Resistance is few-tal" which doesn't have the same menace as "Resistance is few-tyal," so I'm glad they brought that back! It was probably because Patrick Stewart got the ball rolling in his English accent, and maybe they didn't mind a more American style later on. The point is that not only does this do the little things correctly, it does the big things too and everything went so right. For the naysayers out there the antidote is to watch the episode and bask in its Borg blockbusting. The best episode in a long time.

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