Enterprise 6-May-03

[myrdden]

Plot

It's the BORG episode.


Thoughts...

I'm not sure if I should say anything about this episode and just let people judge it on its own merits. I will say that I was fairly entertained for the hour (which is pretty high praise considering some of the episodes lately) and that the episode pretty much panned out the way I had expected. There were a lot of things that bugged me about the episode (plot wise and details) but I thought the atmosphere and direction during the show was good.

The one thing I can't complain about ENT is the production value. Again the show pulled through with interesting sets and great visuals.

I think people's reaction to this episode are going to be pretty split. I also think this will be a make or break episode for some people with regards to the show.

More comments to follow after people have seen it.

My rating: 6/10 - lots of action but it seemed gimmicky using the Borg.

Myrdden

 

[DerianCypher]

I love the borg so I have a feeling I'm going to love this episode

DC

 

[fba827]

The fact that you see this before us and then tease us like a farmer dangling carrots..

May your karma be revisited upon you!


(and since I am kidding about the teasing thing, you probably have good karma so it would all be a good thing )


But, err, I reserve comment on the episode in discussion until I can see it...

 

[uv23]

myrdden, I missed this one. Can you spoil me with a brief overview of the episode?

 

[Mark]

Here's the TV Guide online version -

Enterprise - Regeneration

Enterprise searches for a party of missing scientific researchers who vanished from the Arctic after discovering a crashed spacecraft and its dormant cybernetic crew.

 

[myrdden]

myrdden, I missed this one. Can you spoil me with a brief overview of the episode?

SPOILERS FOR UV23 (and others...)




The episode begins with an arctic expedition team finding the remains of a craft embedded in a glacier. Their excavation finds two Borg bodies and they set up a base camp. As they examine the bodies one of them revives and begins to assimilate the team. (I thought this part was well done.)

Starfleet (which apparently has jurisdiction over everything) sends a rescue team to find the expedition after they don't check in after a few days. The rescue team finds the camp empty and Starfleet monitors a craft leaving Earth at warp speed.

Enterprise is brought in to intercept the craft (which is believed to have the kidnapped expedition team) since it will be passing near their position. They have no idea where the ship is until they receive a distress call from a Tarkalian craft under attack. The Enterprise arrives to witness the modified earth vessel cutting up the Tarkalian ship. They disable the Borg craft, but do not pursue it as there are survivors on the Tarkalian craft.

The survivors are broght on board where it is discovered that nanoprobes are transforming them into cyborgs. Phlox tries to treat them but becomes infected. The Borg scramble away into the bowels of the ship.

Reed and a security team tries to take down the two Borg who are modifying the Enterprise for some unknown purpose. Their weaponry is useless against the Borg's shields. Archer tells them to fall back and opens an exterior hatch to the room and blows the two Borg into space. Reed is disturbed by their inability to pierce the shielding and researches a way to increase their firepower.

The Enterprise catches up to the now VERY modified Borg vessel. The Borg tell them resistance is futile and begin to fire upon the Enterprise. The Enterprise gears up to fight back, only to find that the Borg modifications interfere with their systems, essentially making them dead in space. The ship takes a pounding from the Borg. Meanwhile Phlox figures out that the nanoprobes are susceptible to Omnicron radiation and subjects himself to a large dose.

Reed and Archer beam over (yes they used the transporter) to the Borg vessel in hopes of disabling it. Simultaneously the Borg send their own boarding party (which actually does nothing but walk around). On the Borg ship, Reed and Archer battle through several Borg (their weapons were unusually effective) to reach the main power source of the ship. They plant a couple of charges, beam off and destroy the ship. Actually they disable it first and then destroy it using phase cannons and photon torpedoes (they looked like photon torpedoes).

The Enterprise warps away but they discover that the Borg sent a subspace message into the Delta quadrant detailing Earth’s position. T’Pol notes that it would take at least 200 years for the message to reach the Delta Quadrant. Archer notes that perhaps all they have done is delay the invasion until the 24th century.


I have more to say about the episode, but it’ll have to wait until I get back from a business trip.


Myrdden

 

[Datt]

Hey myrdden, I was just wondering what part of the world you live in where these shows come on a day early, for me? I mean Buffy shows here on Tuesday and Enterprise on Wednesday. I had thought they would be that way just like any other main prime time show. So the fact that you have watched these shows a day before they come on for me has intrigued me.

 

[Mark]

If Q messed up the timeline on TNG by pushing the Enterprise off to the Borg ("Not supposed to meet them for another ten years"?) then it looks like Enterprise just cleaned it up a bit, eh?

 

[orbitalfreak]

This has been one of the best episodes of Enterprise yet. At first, I was dreading the use of the Borg as a ratings-gimmick, but they actually did well with the story (it was still a gimmick, though ). This wasn't the travesty of the Borg that appeared in Voyager. I got the feeling that this episode captured the "feel" of the Borg, the dread, the mystery, and the power, in a way not seen since TNG.

I liked how they resolved the time-line incontinuity by having the subspace signal be in-transit for two centuries; it keeps the time-line intact while still giving a quite entertaining episode.

As far as the crew's weapons being effective: How long did it take the Borg to adapt in TNG? Several shots, IIRC. And, the Borg from TNG had already been exposed to Starfleet technology (two hundred years old at the time (from this ENT), but the basics should have stayed similar), and could have built off of that to adapt quicker in TNG than they did in ENT. Not to mention, the Borg themselves were 200 years more advanced technologically by the time TNG rolls around, and would have had time to improve their adapting process, in both speed and effectiveness.

Overall, 9/10.

 

[DerianCypher]

Argh! This episode was good but I am very annoyed at the how the Borg shielding was done.

The way the borg shields work is the adapt to the frequency of the shielding (as explained in movies/TNG). But all Reed did is boost the power level.

I could have handled this, but the fact that they got off atleast a dozen shots really annoyed me. They should've been able to adapt faster than that!

And just a nitpick.. if the Borg vessel was disabled the boarding party should've (and would've according to prior borg tactics) just taken over enterprise.

OKay.. I'm done ranting..

mhm.. maybe it's bad that I was cheering for the borg?

DC