DEAR GOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Yep.
What happened to the Borg being part of Q's plan to torment Jean Luc Picard?
Actually, according to the spoilers I've read, their having the Borg actually makes sense (for once!) It's a consequence of the Enterprise E traveling back in time.
Marc
I don't care how they explain it - this is an act of desperation on the part of the creators.. Give me a break. Are the ratings that poor? Bad enough how Voyager diminished the Borg - oh how I miss the Borg from "Q Who".
Amen to that! Especially when you consider that, no, it really doesn't make sense to have them showing up! Why? Follow me into the land of spoiler text... Okay, so the whole thing starts with some Borg drones that fell to Earth in the Arctic after being blown off the Enterprise in First Contact. So this means that not only did the Borg not get burnt to a crisp in the atmosphere, but they then suffered no ill effects from being buried in ice for nearly a century! So, just in case you're wondering, that sound you hear is the "NO SALE" bell ringing, 'cause I DON'T BUY IT!
Actually I probably didn't need the spoiler text, but hey, better safe than sorry.
The preview has Plox saying "I've been infected" and it shows a drone appearing to assimilate him, *shudders*
How about watching the episode before trashing it?
In response to Sparrow:
Right, because the Borg have never shown resiliency before. A Borg scout ship didn't crash on a planet, leaving a survivor who later became Hugh. It's inconceivable that Borg technology would not equip the ship with the means to survive planetary re-entry. The existence of the Borg you can buy, but not this particular episode.
Doesn't matter, we'll all watch, anyway.
Oh yeah?
The crucial difference between this and "I, Borg" was that they had a ship. From what I understand, the drones in this epsisode supposedly drop in from orbit. That's a lot harder to survive without, say, a suit of some sort. I guess they could have force fields, but it seems pretty sketchy to me...
The preview video is available here: http://www.upn.com/shows/enterprise/video/enterprise_ent_054.shtml
My understanding is that they find Borg wreckage from the sphere that was destroyed in FC, not just drones lying in the snow.
Even if they were just bodies, why couldn't those nifty Borg shields that can deflect maximum-setting phaser blasts also protect their bodies from the heat of re-entry?
I find none of this difficult to buy according to what has already been established.
I taped the show while working and am now watching it and I was really PO'd when I saw that promo. 'Twould indeed appear that Vermin, Blahhgga and their anti-Roddenberry cronies have once and for all not only run out of original ideas but for all intents and purposes have completely and totally bastardized and thus destroyed everything Roddenberry envisioned for the Star Trek universe. Were it possible for him to be turning in his grave then he'd probably set a new world's record for it.
If that's true, then that's even more suspicious, because that sphere blowed up but good. We'll see...
Say it again, MarkN, say it again!
How about watching the episode before trashing it?
But I have watched it. Bwahahahahaha!
Keep in mind, Sparrow...
First, it's not like the sphere disintegrated. The space shuttle Challenger "blowed up but good," yet large pieces were recovered.
Additionally, we only see one side of the explosion. So even if a sizable piece of the sphere couldn't be seen in the film, a larger piece could have broken away off-camera (hidden behind the explosion).
Just because they're using the Borg doesn't mean they've run out of ideas. TNG ran "The Naked Now" as their second episode. Just because that was really close to TOS's "The Naked Time" doesn't mean that TPTB ran out of ideas.
I see this as being an isolated incident. I doubt that the Borg will show up again after this episode.
THOUGHTS ON WHY THE BORG KNEW OF THE FEDERATION AND THE FEDERATION KNEW OF THE BORG PRIOR TO "Q-WHO":
1. It's in the Federation database that the El-Aurian homeworld was destroyed by the Borg. Guinan and 70 some others were rescued by the Enterprise-B. I find it difficult to believe that NO ONE ever mentioned anything about these mechanical monsters.
2. The Borg destroyed the Federation and Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone almost a year before Picard's first meeting with them.
I've always suspected a Federation coverup involving the Borg. This episode could give further evidence to that.
TUE
True, but...
... the Challenger wasn't nearly as far off the ground as the Borg sphere was. So not only would any large pieces of the ship have to survive the explosion, they'd have to get through re-entry as well.
While you have a point there Sparrow...
The Borg are much more advanced than anything on the Challenger. We already know that the Federation uses stronger, more durable hull materials, the Borg most likely even moreso.
You also have Columbia which was 40 miles up and going 12500 mph. Or Skylab and Mir, which were in orbit, and hit the ground in big pieces. If a big enough chunk of the sphere came out of the explosion, it quite conceivably could have survived.
While Josh M covers my response. So does my previous sarcastic response:
Right... it's inconceivable that Borg technology would not equip the ship with the means to survive planetary re-entry.
If I could just interject here, you all are looking for a reason why this plot doesn't work within the Star Trek universe. Let's take a look at the 20th century where real life TV writers are trying to keep this franchise going.
I don't care how they spin it or how they explain it, to me it only means the writers have run out of not only good ideas but any ideas.
My only thought within the Star Trek universe comes not from how they explain the past, but how they explain the future. Star Fleet knew nothing of the Borg in Q Who, so I'm just waiting for some lame time traveling reset button to get pushed at the end of this episode.
Ugh......
It's a follow-up to Star Trek : First Contact. Watch the episode. If it su-cks then complain. But how about WAITING UNTIL THE EPISODE AIRS!
geez.
Don't worry guys, the episode is gonna rock! We even made sure its continuity works within the boundries that we've established
I really don't believe that any sizeable chunk could've survived the explosion, but I will of course conceede that it's possible. And Darth, yes, it makes sense that the Borg would have that technology, but how well could it function when the pod was blown to smithereens? Hmmmmm...
Ed, this episode actually doesn't violate the "Starfleet knew nothing about the Borg prior to 'Q Who'" premise because at that point, the events of First Contact hadn't happened yet. Therefore at that point, if someone had time traveled back to "Enterprise"'s time and gone to the North Pole, they wouldn't find any Borg because said Borg wouldn't have been deposited yet. Does this make sense?
What? The events of First Contact had most certainly already happened by the time of both Enterprise and "Q Who," otherwise this whole warp drive thing would never have existed.
Temporal mechanics (or at least plot contrivances...) give me a headache.
No, because the precipitating event of First Contact was the second Borg attack, which happened after "Q Who." It's another one of those non-linear things, ala the Prophets of DS9 (so I hope I don't have to tell you how that works!)
Hmm. "Branon Braga" can't even spell his own first name correctly. Interesting.
TUE - I see this as being an isolated incident. I doubt that the Borg will show up again after this episode.
Canned laughter: Ha ha ha ha!
1. It's in the Federation database that the El-Aurian homeworld was destroyed by the Borg. Guinan and 70 some others were rescued by the
Enterprise-B.
You talk as if those two things are related. IIRC Guinan said the Borg destroyed her world 200 hundreds years prior to Q Who. She also said she wasn't there at the time.
I find it difficult to believe that NO ONE ever mentioned anything about these mechanical monsters.
That was a nit I had with Q Who. Why was Guinan's people so tight-lipped about this? Then again, Q did say Guinan was dangerous.
2. The Borg destroyed the Federation and Romulan outposts along the Neutral Zone almost a year before Picard's first meeting with them.
I believe it actually scooped them up rather than destroyed them. Pick, pick, pick.
I've always suspected a Federation coverup involving the Borg. This episode could give further evidence to that.
The modern writing cliche: The government conspiracy that makes no sense.
Why would it be a good thing to hide evidence of this dangerous enemy? Wouldn't it be smarter to have as many people as possible working on the problem so the Borg could eventually be dealt with?
jerwin - What happened to the Borg being part of Q's plan to torment Jean Luc Picard?
Picard: What have you done to me Q?
Q: What's the matter, Jean-Luc? Don't you like being Captain Archer's beagle?
Why the Feds Would Have a Borg Coverup:
1. Afraid that Federation enemies would try to ally themselves with the Borg if news of them were to leak out. (Given that the El-Aurians were rescued when Klingon-Federation tensions were high, this would be the most likely explanation)
2. Did not want the public at large to think that there was an enemy out there that the Federation couldn't defeat thus preventing fear and paranoia.
3. The Feds didn't believe the El-Aurians. ("So you're telling me that these mechanical men flying around in big Rubik's Cubes came by and scooped up your cities? Sure they did.")
Just some possibilities.
TUE
No, because the precipitating event of First Contact was the second Borg attack, which happened after "Q Who." It's another one of those non-linear things, ala the Prophets of DS9 (so I hope I don't have to tell you how that works!)
Except it's not non-linear. Zefram Cochrane's warp flight occurred before Enterprise, which occurred before TNG and "Q Who," which occurred before First Contact. Of course, this is why I don't like time travel plots - they allow writers to fudge things by making aspects of the plot completely arbitrary.
1. Afraid that Federation enemies would try to ally themselves with the Borg if news of them were to leak out. (Given that the El-Aurians were rescued when Klingon-Federation tensions were high, this would be the most likely explanation)
The El-Aurians were rescued in Generations, after the Khitomer Accords.
2. Did not want the public at large to think that there was an enemy out there that the Federation couldn't defeat thus preventing fear and paranoia.
Seems unlikely.
3. The Feds didn't believe the El-Aurians. ("So you're telling me that these mechanical men flying around in big Rubik's Cubes came by and scooped up your cities? Sure they did.")
So the Feds are like Chief Wiggum and the Springfield police?
Just some possibilities.
Not really, there's no actual evidence to support any of this. It's just speculation.
Okay, once more with feeling.
There are two timelines involved, let's call them A and B.
Timeline A is the one in which we saw most of our Trek adventures, starting with TOS and TNG, including "Q Who." This timeline continued right up until the events of First Contact, when the Borg went back in time to prevent the warp flight. This, and the subsequent events of the movie, created timeline B, which the rest of our Trek, including Enterprise is now set in.
This means that having the Borg in "Regeneration" does not violate the continuity shown in "Q Who," because they are in two different timelines, and in the "Q Who" timeline, the events of First Contact (both the relative-future and relative-past) haven't yet occured.
"The El-Aurians were rescued in Generations, after the Khitomer Accords." -- Josh Gould
"Yesterday's Enterprise" (TNG) establishes that Klingon-Federation tensions were still high for at least 22 years prior to The Next Generation. Gorkon says to Kirk in STVI, "If there is going to be a brave new world our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it." This implied (to me anyway) that all the problems were not going to be solved over night. According to the "Star Trek Chronology (not canon but just throwing it out here) the events of "Star Trek: Generations" take place less than a year after "Star Trek: VI".
"Not really, there's no actual evidence to support any of this. It's just speculation." -- Josh Gould.
Explain to me how any of the scenerios I explained is completely impossible? I would list my scenerios as "possibilities". Not very likely ones but just because something is improbable doesn't mean that it's impossible. That's what conspiracies are all about.
TUE
I'm sorry but there are no conspiracies. Now please move along, there is nothing to see here.
I actually like Sparrow's theory, if only that it means with regards to continuity all bets are off. Does Timeline B's future run fairly close to TOS's and TNG's history, or is there a new future in store for the fledgling Federation? Does the Federation itself even come into existence? Sarek, Spock, Kirk, Picard, do they exist and lead the same lives? Hm...
Well, by now it's clear that "Enterprise" is in a completely separate timeline of its own, so who knows?
That sort of invalidates its purpose as a "prequel" series, doesn't it?
Well maybe, but the (temporal) damage is already done. We can't blame every discrepancy on Section 31.
Section 31? There is no Section 31. Then why is it on DS9 you ask? That's a good question. It requires knowledge of such things as strategized marketecture.
Drink More Powerade.
That was a nit I had with Q Who. Why was Guinan's people so tight-lipped about this? Then again, Q did say Guinan was dangerous.
-Kam
Because the Borg had destroyed her homeworld 200 years earlier in a different quadrant At least I'm assuming they did. Other than a couple of isolated incidents, there was no evidence that they'd been to the Alpha Quadrant by the time of Q Who?
Given that the Borg are about 50 thousand light years away at that point, she'd have no more need to warn the Federation about them then she would about the Kazon.
Marc
Given the discussion over a changed timeline, I guess this is sort of appropriate here.
Brannon Braga's view of time travel?
There is no Section 31, I tell you now! I triply guarantee it! It is a lie told by our enemies!
There is no Iraqi Information Minister. There are no continuity errors. All of Star Trek is a paragon of continuity and logic.
Continuity is illogical, Captain.
Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers that smell bad.
RESIGILSTANCE IS FUTIGLE
YUUBUU WILL BE ASSIMMIBILAGATED
That scene where Porthos gets assimilated and runs arround the ship assimilating everyone was certainly unexpected.
Although the scene where they exit the messhall and you see Berman and Braga sitting down in the background waving to the camera was a bit hokey.
When I first heard that Enterprise will feature the Borg I kind of reacted like Joe Blow who made the first post.
After learning that this crashed sphere is the First Contact one it feels a bit better, but not much.
Even if that ship crashed in the arctic and some drones "survived". Mh I wonder, if these 3 drones survived the crash but then they couldn't stand the ice? Maybe they just decided to get frozen 100 years until they could capture a ship?
To throw in some nits not discussed already:
- They capture the expedition's ship which is warpcapable? Why would these arctic explorers have a warp-capable ship?
- Admiral Forrest personally is into that expedition? Starfleet already knew that it was a space ship to find there? Or why is it a SF operation?
- Why do they use a shuttle commonly used on Enterprise to get to the camp site?
There surely are other, planetary transport vessels.
- The woman finds the first borg body with her scanner, the second after falling over him, after she scanned the same area.
- Why didn't the Enterprise-E crew clean any borg ship debris from earth in 2060?
The borg's behavior ist kind of weird here:
- Why would they leave earth? Some many people to assimilate here!
- They kept firing upon Enterprise after they disabled her.
- They transport the 3 remaining borgs of Enterprise at the end. WHY? These could do a lot of assimilation on the ship.
- Reed's modified pistols: They kill about 4 borg on the captured ship, back on Enterprise the entering Borg adapt after 2 get killed,
back on the captured ship Reed and Archer can still kill some drones before they adapt.
- The assimilation of Enterprise's systems is a little bit too fast yet kind of useless on the long view.
Thoughts about time travel and stuff:
In it's soon 2 seasons, this series has destroyed most of Star Trek's established history.
Most of it introduced technology and aliens.
If we assume, that the actions in "First Contact" made the first warp flight possible and that it wouldn't had happened without it we have a perfect paradox. The history leading to the timetravel in FC was only made possible because of it! Cirle closed.
(We have almost the same thing with Voyager's Future's End, where the 29th century technology brought back to 1960 changed the history.)
One thought I had after some Enterprise episodes introducing all thesse future inconsistencies with the other series an that "temporal cold war" was, that maybe (It won't happen) this timeline we see now is not really the past of Star Trek (and TNG, DS9 and VOY) but a different past that will be changed and explained through time travel
some later point in the series or finale.
(I said this won't happen! Why? Only few people notice all these nits in Enterprise that would make this step neccesary plus nobody who is not totally into StarTrek and has seen every episode would understand what was going on. Well, lets wait and see what the future (or the past) will bring.)
It was an entertaining episode, but I wish they had not gone here. I enjoy Enterprise but I have the feeling that it will wipe out the history of the star trek universe. I am sure Braga and Berman will say it is not a nit because the Borg were never mentioned by name.
I agree.
Sigh.
I don't even care if you explain all the nits. I just didn't like seeing the Borg here.
I have a feeling the rest of the series will be the war with the Borg and/or the Sulibon. It'll be like the later seasons of DS9, one space battle after another.
I suppose the Temporal Cold War will fix everything, but that sounds like such an easy
cop-out.
I want more First Contacts, with the Tellarites, Bolians, Orions, Regulans, etc.
I will note one thing--T'Pol thinks it'll take 200 years for the Borg signal to reach the Delta Quadrant. Is that the nearest edge of the Delta Quadrant? The Delta Quadrant supposedly occupies one-fourth of the galaxy. She should have given a range of numbers, since she doesn't know where in the Delta Quadrant the signal would be received.
Well, heading into this episode, my thoughts centered on judging it based upon how many times I ended up yelling "bullsh*t!" at my TV. How many times was that? Well, a few. More than a few, actually. But we'll get to it all in turn.
First, three things that I liked:
3) Shout out to TNG! Phlox's mention of the Bynars was a nice touch.
2) There was some good camerawork here, especially when the Borg were on the ship, which helped to amp up the tension.
1) The brief microscope shots of the nanoprobes was pretty nice. It actually looked life-like, as opposed to what we saw in certain Voyager episodes...
Three things I didn't like:
3) So... simply amping up the power to the phase pistols made them more effective against the Borg? That's funny, because would that have been tried at some point in the (relative) previous encounters with the Borg? From the initial meeting with the Borg on, the trick was to modulate phaser frequency, not just pump more power into the things. Does this make sense?
2) So, the Tarkelian Borg just stuck some tubes into the wall and the entire wall changed instantly? Are you kidding me? I don't buy that at all.
1) But that's nothing compared to the experience of the good doctor. First, let's keep in mind that the Borg in this episode are effectively on par, technology-wise with the drones of First Contact. The nanoprobes in that movie worked really, really fast. So... why exactly does Phlox wander around for the whole episode with nanoprobes in him without becoming a Borg? Shouldn't they have assimilated him at a near-instant clip? What was up with that?
other notes:
So... in another bit of sheer convenience, the Borg never gave their name when hailing the ship. This is odd, since we all know the classic refrain is "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." But, for some reason, that first sentence was dropped.
So, people reading above will note that my potential problems with this episode started with the amount of the Borg sphere that was recovered in the Arctic. And boyyyyyyyyyyy, there was an awful lot of wreckage. First of all, I'm not up on my orbital physics, but wasn't the sphere orbiting above Montana? How'd all that wreckage get up there to begin with? Anyway, my oh my did I not believe the amount of wreckage they had accumulated there. Not for a second.
Interestingly, with all the modifications they made, the Borg never gave themself shields, thus allowing Archer and Reed to beam directly in when they needed to. Mighty convenient.
I have to say, the way they wrapped it up, with the whole "waiting for the 24th" century bit, was semi-satisfactory. The implication is supposed to be that the cube Q threw the Enterprise in front of was headed towards the Federation anyways, right? But then again, wouldn't there have been some sort of recognition of this by the crew? As in, "Oh, maybe these are the same type of aliens that the original Enterprise encountered way back when..." But no. Hmph.
Okay, this is a little scattered- I'll try to come back with some more later if I have time.
Grade: C- Next week: Something about some Starfleet person, and the episode we all knew would happen eventually.
I thought the episode was okay...FC laid the foundation for this episode, and I liked how they wrapped it up at the end.
The nit I saw that no one else has mentionned yet is why was the archaeological expedition was so heavily armed for an expedition to the arctic circle? One of the archaeologists made some crack about polar bears, but if memory serves correct, polar bears don't live in the arctic circle but further south in the tundra. They (being the archaeologists) weren't expecting to find dangerous aliens.
"In it's 2 seasons, this series has destroyed most of Star Trek's established history.
Most of it introduced technology and aliens." -- Elwood
I think you may be exaggerating. Star Trek's history is extensive. I think Enterprise may have stretched history (Ferengi seen but not mentioned by name, Klingon first contact not exactly as hostile as previously implied, etc) but overall I haven't noticed anything REALLY major.
I have a feeling the rest of the series will be the war with the Borg." -- oregano
Oh come on! You can't honestly believe that? It is stated at the end of the episode that it will take about 200 years for the Borg in the Delta Quadrant to get the signal. I think we've seen the last of the Borg on Enterprise. The creators pushed the envelope here explaining the Borg's presence and I think they got away with it pretty well (not perfectly, but they didn't bungle it up too badly). I hope they know better than to push their luck by having them come back. They certainly wrote the ending as though the Borg will not be coming back until the 24th century.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Sounds like we've only delayed the invasion until, what? The 24th century?" -- Archer explaining why the Borg showed up in TNG's "The Neutral Zone."
BIOLOGICAL DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE WEEK: So Phlox's immune system is extremely resiliant to Borg nanotechnology eh? I'm no biologist, but I thought an immune system could only defend against something that it has encountered before. (I'm basing this off of what I can remember from high school biology so I could be wrong)
ALCOHOL AWARENESS OF THE WEEK: T'Pol tells Archer that Cochrane was frequently intoxicated so that is why he was carrying on about the people from the future. One would think that after becoming a global hero, Cochrane might have cut down on his excessive drinking, or at least not appeared drunk in public enough for it to become common knowledge.
LOST SHIP LOGS OF THE WEEK: One might think Picard would have access to the NX-01's logs and would have found the records of mechanical men who could assimilate beings to be of value during his encounter in "Q-Who". Data, at least, should have been able to find this encounter. (I consider this a nit and not the unravelling of Trek history as we know it! I suggest that some people need to chill out a little bit)
TNG RECALL OF THE WEEK: Phlox mentions seeing an implant being installed in a Bynar (as seen in TNG's "11001001")
WEAPON REDESIGN OF THE WEEK: Why is it that increasing the power to phasers in this episode will harm the Borg but this tactic doesn't work when Worf tries it in "Q-Who". (Though these Borg are from the same group who were gunned down by holographic bullets so maybe they're all defective)
LAZY ENTERPRISE-E PERSONNEL OF THE WEEK: What was wrong with Picard in First Contact? He just left all of this Borg wreckage (and it was quite a significant amount) just laying around for our heroes to find?
CHANGED MAPPING OF THE WEEK: In this episode, T'Pol tells Archer that the Borg sent the signal to somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. This is consistent with TNG/DS9/VOY's techniques of identifying quadrants; however, in the original movies, quadrants are always referred to as though they're smaller ("We're the only ship in the quadrant," Kirk says in one of the movies).
SUBSPACE SPEED CHANGE OF THE WEEK: T'Pol tells Archer that it will take a subspace signal about 200 years to reach the Delta Quadrant. In Voyager, it was stated that it would take 75 years at maximum warp (warp 9.9) to reach Earth. Isn't subspace communication at least as fast as that? Shouldn't it reach the Borg in less than a hundred years?
FORGOTTEN TECHNOLOGY OF THE WEEK: Why didn't the Borg head for the transwarp corridor that exists less than one lightyear from Earth (as seen in "Endgame")
TUBE PULLER OF THE WEEK: This award goes to Archer for once again demonstrating that having life-sustaining tubes jutting out from your body is a bad idea. Phil noted (with a good bit of humor) that Hugh used this same tactic to defeat a drone in "Descent, Part 2".
IRREGULAR ADAPTATION OF THE WEEK: The Borg that board the Enterprise are able to adapt to the phase pistol after only two Borg are killed. The Borg on the transport take almost 6 or 7 Borg deaths before they adapt. Since these Borg seem to be in a mini-collective with each other, they should have all adapted simultaneously.
OVERALL OPINION OF THE WEEK: It was actually quite entertaining. I'm a sucker for these hints about the future that we've already seen. I really think they pushed the envelope a bit too far in some instances but I don't think it's the destruction of Trek history that some people are making it out to be.
TUE
I started watching Star Trek back at "The Best of Both Worlds". I was introduced to this great story about the Borg, an unstoppable ruthless race that enslaved people. It was great. I was hooked and would look forward to each episode of TNG and DS9.
Then came Voyager. It wasn't so good but it wasn't terrible. But I was asked to believe that a scout ship far from home could regularly beat the Borg. While far fetched, it could be entertaining. I faithfully suffered through some really bad episodes but was rewarded with some really good ones and the finale was a blast.
And now I have Enterprise. I liked it at the beginning. But, from my previous postings, you may have noted my mounting frustration with this show. Perhaps less obvious, the magic that had me yearning for more Trek was waning. But I kept telling myself that if I just hung on a little longer, Enterprise might, for lack of a better word, regenerate that magic.
Then I saw this episode. And the mighty Borg who had terrorized TNG had been reduced to the alien of the week who were summarily dispatched before the closing credits.
BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
The magic is gone. I suppose it is appropriate that this episode has a whopper of a time paradox. The race that brought me into the Star Trek fold has now ushered me out.
Sorry, it isn’t fun anymore. This is my last episode.
Live long and prosper.
Goodbye...good ridance.
Anyway, this was an enjoyable episode. It kept me interested and that's all that matters.
Real nice, Rene. But then, that is your reputation around here, isn't it?
Best line of the show:
"It was like we were shooting them with holographic bullets" —Reed
I'd say that was uncalled for...
First off, a couple of replys to other nits:
1. About the weakness of the ship. Remember, the Borg could only assimilate the technology that was available. They were able to increase the speed of the transport (increase efficiency of the engines, etc) but couldn't create the technology of the 24th century with the technology of the 22nd. It would be like a computer engineer from today going back to 1803 and trying to create a computer. He or she could upgrade the technology that was there, but the raw materials and the technology that would be needed wouldn't be there. In TOS episode "City on the Edge of Forever", Spock had to cannablize his tricorder, and hook it up with 1930's radio equipment just to get a 2 second look at the files that already existed in it.
2. I think in a few of the Star Trek books, they say that subspace radio wasn't as fast. I can't remember the book-it's the one with Captain Bozeman taking control of the Enterprise E-but in the book, there is a comment about subspace radio not being able to contact Starfleet Command quickly for "twelve years later" after the episode "Balance of Terror". As the Borg were using 22nd century technology, it would make sense that it would take the message that long.
3. From what I remember from high school biology, the immune system will respond to any infiltration of the body, with white blood cells. Then the body will try to produce antibodies to stop the invasion. Maybe the Denoblian (sp) immune system is even more advanced then ours. Also, didn't the guy make the comment before being assimilated that the Denoblian's had been working with nanotechnology. How do we know that he doesn't have nanoprobes already in his blood, that could be fighting the Borg nanoprobes.
Whoa. I thought this episode was supposed to respect continuity. Not only did it not, it essentially punched, kicked and clobbered on continuity until it was writhing on the ground, then it began jumping up and down on continuity. There is no longer any conceivable reason that the Enterprise-D had not heard of the Borg when they first encountered them in “Q Who.” (Of course, Voyager had been making it tough for years.) Just because the line “We are the Borg” was cut off from their transmission that Archer heard, this was supposed to explain why humans did not know their name! T’Pol’s line about the Borg transmission taking 200 years to reach the homeworld only made the continuity flaws more obvious, even though it might have been an attempt to smooth them over. (sigh)
I have to admit, though, I was able to put aside the continuity issues and say, I liked this story. It was well-paced, much more quickly than what we’ve been used to on Enterprise, and that was refreshing. The action was good, the suspense was, uh, suspenseful, and the special effects as gorgeous as always. Never has the destruction of a ship looked so cool.
It also was a great character story for Archer. He finally had to grow up, take some risks and make huge life-or-death decisions -- such as to jettison the Tarkalians and to sacrifice the humans on the transport. This was an important story for Archer, one that made him look more determined and focused, and less goofy, than ever before.
For those two reasons, this story does deserve some kudos.
More nits and notes:
-- Once more about the continuity: The innovations that the TNG crew made after they discovered the Borg look trite now because they already had been done 200 years earlier by people with much more primitive technology: penetrating personal Borg force fields, successfully removing nanoprobes. I know I can look at these examples, look again at the TNG stories and see how those people could have researched the NX-01 mission and learned from it. But still, it just continues to close the gap between 22nd and 24th century technology.
-- We can now un-nit a line from Voyager’s “Year of Hell.” Seven claimed to have known of the Borg mission from the 21st century, which hadn’t seemed possible because they weren’t able to contact the collective. But now we know they were able to. (She was right. It was complicated.)
-- Y’know, if we retcon “Q Who” out of existence, almost everything else still fits properly concerning the Borg (more on that later). Plus, we also can retcon out of existence that hideous/hilarious cat-stance that Guinan took against Q.
-- What a terrible first line: “I think this is the place.” Ugh. Let’s see. You’re in a snowstorm in the barren wilderness, and you happen upon huge amounts of space debris. Good call.
-- One of the humans mentioned a Vulcan scientist with an arm prosthesis and compared it to the Borg’s. His line made me think of Luke Skywalker and his arm prosthesis from “Empire Strikes Back.”
-- The Borg nanoprobes failed to reactivate for 100 years after crashing into the earth, but they did once they were brought in from the cold.
-- So, Forrest and Williams go on the rescue mission to the Arctic Circle themselves. I thought these guys were supposed to be Starfleet desk jockeys. Would you expect the Joint Chiefs of Staff to go rescue POWs in Iraq?
-- I think any authority that Starfleet would have over humans in the Arctic Circle was rather fuzzy, but that’s pretty much typical “Star Trek” -- everybody reports to Starfleet.
-- It was a gutsy call to not show our heroes through the teaser and first act, but it worked out well. Archer, Trip, Malcolm and Phlox still played big roles -- that says a lot, considering they didn’t appear until 10 or 15 minutes into the hour.
-- I liked Phlox’s mention of the Binars, who appeared in TNG’s “11001001.” Watching that show in retrospect, it occurred to me how the Binars were the proto-Borg -- in a storytelling sense. Both species were totally dependent on their connections to computers and machines. That touched on a recurring theme in society in the late 80s -- a fear of humans becoming slaves to computers.
-- I wish the crew hadn’t quoted the 24th century Borg lingo verbatim: “nanoprobes,” “adapt.” They could have chosen other words to describe the same things.
-- More 24th century lingo: I counted three “somekindas,” two by Phlox and one by Malcolm.
-- Archer ordered his coffee by speaking to the computer. I thought 22nd century computers didn’t have voice recognition.
-- Where did the phase rifles come from?
-- I’ll give a few seconds of thought to an alternate theory of what was happening with the Borg. The Borg sending the transmission before being destroyed by Archer could have been part of a Moebius loop -- a circle in time. When the Borg received the transmission in 200 years, they learned of Earth. But when they started sending cubes there, it wasn’t just to enslave humanity, it was to fulfill their destiny, to go there and travel back in time. They sent a first cube there, the one from “Best of Both Worlds.” When it failed, a second cube was sent, and it succeeded in traveling to the past (the movie “First Contact”). It was all predestination, and the Borg felt compelled to fulfill it.
Just An Observation- This "archaeological expedition" was reporting to Starfleet. I thought this was a nit, but sitting here something occurred to me. I think that they just discovered the debris recently. They seemed surprised at the age (understandably). I think that the science team may have been some future equivalent to the NTSB combined with the Coast Guard.
-Apparently teamwork is out of fashion in the future. They just let one of their investigators wander about without a parter, in the middle of a debris field, on a glacier, with a risk of polar bears. Does this make sense?
-Similar to the above, Malcolm states he is placing "a guard" on the two aliens in sickbay. It turns out this meant precisely one guy. There are two aliens, both of whom are potential risks (or else why post the guard?). Couldn't they spare a second guy?
-Continuing, once Phlox is inspected the same sole guard is placed on him, despite his comments that the nanites can provide increased strength! And the guard later gets WAY too close to Phlox, too.
-And still continuing, why couldn't Hoshi stay in the room, but sit against the far wall? She could still talk to Phlox, and her and her phaser would provide backup for the guard.
-When Malcolm and his team evacuate the section they need to go through SEVERAL secure doors/hatches. Wouldn't they only need to go through just one? If those doors/hatches aren't to provide compartmentalization in case of air loss, what are they for?
-When the Borgified Tarkelians escape Archer orders the hatches sealed, but they still go through at least one Jeffries Tube sliding hatch just by touching the switch. Shouldn't these hatches lock closed?
-When they return to the Borgified Earth transport it is reported that the Borg have increased the ship's MASS. Adding to the volume I could see, since they could get the parts from interior compartments, but how do you increase the MASS of a vessel in deep space? It didn't sound like that mass had been taken off the Tarkelian vessel. Did the Borg make a pit stop to grab a few asteroids for raw materials?
It's a shame that archeologist didn't share the crew's love of old movies. If he had watched a couple of old horror movies he would have known better than to have stayed there all alone with the alien bodies.
My nephew, Brandon thought the Tarkalean Borg moved a lot faster than other Borg.
Why did it have to be a public speech? Couldn't the writers have had Cochrane's time travel tale be something that some rag sheet reporter overheard a drunk Cochrane say once? Then it would be more believably dismissed then a public speech.
Amazingly Phlox in the 22nd century found a cure for Borg nanoprobes that 24th century doctors missed. Even Voyager's Holodoc, who supposedly has the medical records of lots & lots of doctors, somehow missed the whole "zap 'em with omicron radiation" technique.
TUE - I think we've seen the last of the Borg on Enterprise.
Not necesarily. These Borg & their nanoprobes survived their sphere being blown up by quantum torpedoes, the heat of re-entry, the impact with the ground & being frozen. By the end of this episode we had two Tarkalean Borgs floating in space (and we saw in Unity that the Borg can be revived after exposure to space) and while the Borgified ship was blown up did it destroy everything? Including those pesky nanoprobes?
TUE - Why didn't the Borg head for the transwarp corridor that exists less than one lightyear from Earth
Since that corridor was only seen in Endgame, which was after First Contact, I think it is safe to assume that the corridor was a recent creation of the Borg & would not exist in the 22nd century.
As for the subspace communications nit. I beleive that the Star Trek Omnipedia said that subspace communications were 60 times faster than the fastest warp. I do remember calculating that if it were true then a message from Voyager to the Federation should take around a year and a half (or thereabouts). However TPTB don't apparently consider the Omnipedia reference to be canonical.
Spockania, a while back on the Misc. Nits V board, in The Kitchen Sink, Sophie asked, "what are they using for raw material? Borg nanoprobes appear to create metallic implants. The human body contains enough iron to make a 6 inch nail. Where are they getting the metal from?"
Apparently the answer to your mass question & her metal question would be that Borg nanoprobes have somekinda replicator built in.
Think about this. In TNG's "The Naked Now," Riker was reminded of an incident of someone showering in their clothes, as he had read of a similar incident in a book about the missions of all the past starships named Enterprise.
I think it's safe to say that the book never mentioned the Archer story about running into cybernetic creatures who transformed a group of Earth scientists into their own, cause when Riker first meets them in "Q Who," it didn't ring a bell.
Hmm. He remembers a man in the shower, but not cyborgs. Go figure.
Archer ordered his coffee by speaking to the computer. I thought 22nd century computers didn’t have voice recognition.Trike
The one in the mess hall apparently does. T'Pol gave it a voice command in "Unexpected."
Something else I thought of- why didn't the Tarkalean Borg try to assimilate the gaurd in sickbay? Would he have decreased the level of perfection?
OK, one more time, Malcolm: Joules are ENERGY. Power is measured in WATTS.
And while I’m at it, Malcolm, “Why would anyone replace perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?” Have you looked around the bridge, son? If inert implants are good, cybernetic ones would be, well, BETTER.
Why 200 years for the subspace signal to reach the Delta Quadrant? Because the sending station can only develop a warp 5 (or thereabouts) subspace field. Presumably, a speed-of-light signal within a warp 5 field would take longer than Voyager traveling sublight within a warp 9.9 field.
I hereby retract all my prior criticisms of phaser rifles (and by extension phase rifles) as being a nonsensical excuse for an antipersonnel weapon. It appears they make a dandy CLUB. Perhaps they can be fitted with a bayonet as well.
First Enterprise mention (I think) of “omicron” which, you might recall from my Datalore comments, is code for 47 (just in case anyone still cares).
TUE: One would think that after becoming a global hero, Cochrane might have cut down on his excessive drinking, or at least not appeared drunk in public enough for it to become common knowledge.
:: Kind of like being elected President and yet not keeping it in one’s knickers?
Some speculation offered as a jumping off point as to what these Borg can do:
(1)They have all the capabilities that can be imparted by the 24th Century nanoprobes.
(2)This would include an immediate connection to the collective.
(3)The local connection would be real-time. Thus, the newly assimilated would have the same archived knowledge as the 24th Century Borgsicles.
(4)But any local subspace signal from the greater collective would be old (albeit not 200 years old–the 23rd Century Delta Quadrant Borg originating the signal are not limited to warp 5) and degraded, and the content would be 23rd Century at best.
So, some preliminary conclusions:
Their inability to adapt internal defenses after the first phase shot, and to pass the adaptation to their peers, is a huge nit.
Their not using the transwarp corridor would be a nit unless (1) it was built after FC, or (2) their ship lacks the wherewithal to enter.
But bugging out is probably not a nit. Their “genetic” imperative to reconnect with the collective would likely trump the imperative to stick around and assimilate everything in sight.
I agree with Sparrow that we may have two timelines involved.
Comparing Enterprise-E from FC and Enterprise-E from Nemesis (design of the brefing room, which changed for no apparent reason) there was some changes that can be explained by timeline changes.
And note I didn't said 'this is the ONLY explanation', but it's the simplest one and it makes sense to me
I mean, I can accept the fact that Enterprise E was refitted "slightly" between FC and NEM, but how else can we explain model of NX-01 in the new brefing room? It wasn't in the Rec. room on refit Enterprise, it wasn't in the Brefing room on Enterprise D (which included even CVN-65), it wasn't in the Brefing room on Enterprise E in FC, so why the sudden change? What, there was no model kits of NX-01 before 2377?
One of the nice things about having a laptop is that you can type your nits as you watch the episode :0)
First thing: When Enterprise comes upon the transport and the Tarkalean vessel, he orders Hoshi to hail them. She immediately hails the attacking vessel. How did she know which ship to hail? Archer didn't specify.
If the Tarkaleans have already been taken, why are the Borg still firing on the ship?
Why didn't the two Tarkaleans infect the guard in sickbay when they infected Phlox? He was still alive, and I'd think they'd want all the help they could get.
I like watching shows with the captioning on, it allows even more nits. Archer and T'Pol are chatting in the mess hall, and Archer says he wants to take the victims home, no matter what shape their in. The contraction is they're, which is short for 'they are'. 'Their' implies ownership.
Let's talk tactics for a second. We know that these beings inject their victims with nanites. Proximity then brings a risk of infection. To avoid this risk, do you a)Post a guard outside sickbay and slide Phlox's food into sickbay, staying as far away as possible? Or b) Post a guard within a few feet inside sickbay and bring Phlox's food right up to him and stay and chat? I'll give you a hint, it's not 'b'.
When Reed and his team are running away, they tell Archer that they can't stop the Borg. This is just after they knock one unconscious. I'm confused, doesn't being knocked unconscious constitute 'being stopped'? Of course, the Borg does get up rather quickly, so I guess it's not a total nit.
If Phlox is so concerned about Hoshi's safety, why does he let her stay and feed the animals first? Doesn't that increase the risk of him attacking her?
For that matter, why is Phlox being allowed to stay in sickbay? There are a lot of potential weapons there. To be safe, he should have been put in the brig, or at least confined to quarters.
If the researcher is no longer human, how is Archer able to identify her? Obviously she still had some human DNA in her, but it would have been nice if Archer'd mentioned that.
Why does the Borg try to choke Malcom on the transport? Wouldn't assimilating him make more sense?
Marc
Somebody was sceptical of my assertion that the following seasons will feature battles with the Borg and Sulibon. But the producers don't care about continuity, so they'll bring the Borg back if they feel like having more space battles and explosions.
Okay, even if they don't bring back the Borg, I think future Enterprise episodes will be just like the later seasons of DS9, with a Sulibon War.
They can use the Temporal Cold War to rationalize lots of stuff. I'm not looking forward to it.
They reported their find to Starfleet because these were aliens, and that's Starfleet's purview.
The Borg remains should have been scattered along a long, narrow path, parallel to the original orbit they were in. They should have been found at many different latitudes.
It's not that much below freezing in the Arctic, and with global warming, it should sometimes be a little above freezing; so the nanoprobes should have been able to deal with those temperatures.
I mentioned First Contact scenarios, which would be more fun and interesting.
This would have been a more fun episode if the beings frozen in ice had been Tellarites. 
When watching the teaser and first act, sans Enterprise crew, I had a weird feeling I was watching a Doctor Who episode. Then I realized why: "Regeneration" reminded me of "The Tenth Planet" (and how appropriate, too, as the Doctor regenerates in "Tenth Planet").
This ep had plot holes big enough to drive a Borg sphere through.
That sphere was blown to smithereens; and what was left of it should have burned up in the atmosphere. There shouldn't have been enough of it left to fill a pickup truck, let alone to crash all over the landscape(Who, seeing the crash site, didn't think of John Carpenter's The Thing?).
And what's with this slow assimilation? Usually when the Borg nail somebody, he's cyberzombified in about a minute.
Also, since when can Captain Quantum-Boy and Lieutenant Gun-Crazy Cardboard Cutout take out a drone in hand-to-hand combat? For that matter, how can they drop drones like the proverbial bad habit, using those clumsy phase pistols, when the TNG Enterprise crew had trouble taking them out with those cool compression phaser rifles?
And _I_ thought _Voyager_ punked out the Borg!
And that's the bottom line...if you smell what I'm cooking.
Spockania and Keith Alan Morgan commented about the Borg increasing the mass of the ship...I agree with Spockania that they stopped somewhere and picked up some more mass. One of the laws of thermodynamics says energy can neither be created nor destroyed in any given reaction. Maybe they scooped up interstellar matter as they went along.
That was one ugly ship by the end, I thought.
I also thought that the Borg got out to where Enterprise was too quickly. The Borg ship was only approaching warp 5 when the Enterprise met it. The Enterprise had been traveling from Earth for almost two years. Sure, Archer and company hadn't been traveling at warp 5 continuously for all that time, but they should have been further out than the mere hours or days it took the Borg to reach them.
I don't think the Borgs' diminished capabilities are a nit. Maybe a hundred years in the ice degraded the technology, and the Borg in the Delta Quadrant in Enterprise's time aren't as technologically advanced.
Finally, I thought dumping the two in open space was pretty cool. Maybe now we'll see a reprise of the TNG episode where Lore reappeared after a few years of drifting?
That sphere was blown to smithereens... - Sven
Define "smithereens."
The sphere didn't disintegrate, it exploded. Even from a long-shot of the exploding sphere, several large pieces can actually be seen breaking away. And that's just what we see on-camera. It's conceiveable that other large, perhaps even larger, pieces break away in the part of the explosion we can't see.
...and what was left of it should have burned up in the atmosphere. - Sven
Unless, of course, the Borg ship is made up of some material that is impervious to the heat of re-entry. We have seen crashed Borg ships before (I, Borg) and bought the notion that it could survive re-entry.
There shouldn't have been enough of it left to fill a pickup truck, let alone to crash all over the landscape... - Sven
This, of course, ignores the fact that Borg spheres are HUGE!!!
The space shuttle Columbia also exploded and large pieces (some larger than a pickup truck) also survive re-entry. Why is Borg debris such a stretch?
I meant regular Tellarites, of course, not Borgified ones.
The scientist calculates the size of the sphere from the curvature of the pieces--why does she assume the piece she's measuring is from the outermost layer? Why does she assume all parts of the sphere will have equal curvature?
At the end, Archer says something about the pulsars and the direction of the signal. Why couldn't they give those lines to Mayweather? That's right up his alley.
Looks like the Enterprise doesn't have a crew of more than ten or so.
Erm, Darth, you've confused me for someone else. I have neither seen this episode nor commented on it on this board.
I think Darth means 'Steven of None', going by the quotes.
Quote:If the Tarkaleans have already been taken, why are the Borg still firing on the ship?
- Marc Lechowicz
Sparrow47: So... in another bit of sheer convenience, the Borg never gave their name when hailing the ship. This is odd, since we all know the classic refrain is "We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." But, for some reason, that first sentence was dropped.
I assumed this was because in the 22nd century, the Borg didn't refer to themselves as such. Perhaps they gave themselves a species name later.
Trike: Archer ordered his coffee by speaking to the computer. I thought 22nd century computers didn’t have voice recognition.
Sparrow47: The one in the mess hall apparently does.
:: So does mine, 150 years earlier.
(But it doesn't make coffee. So could someone please change my early morning comments from "23rd Century" to "22nd Century"?)
"I assumed this was because in the 22nd century, the Borg didn't refer to themselves as such. Perhaps they gave themselves a species name later." -- Dragon
Except that these Borg were from the 24th century.
TUE
Sorry, Sven...
The similar-sounding names threw me off, as does Steven of None's (or your?) penchant for continually altering the username.
But I should have read more carefully.
Richie, for some reason, startrek.com omitted Matthew Kaminsky from the credits. He played Cunningham.
---Critique:
---Wow, it was actually pretty good!
---This episode is the epitome of how superb execution can elevate an episode beyond the expectations of its premise. Too many episodes—Vox Sola, The Catwalk, Horizon, had interesting initial premises with a lot of potential, but were marred by mundane, unimaginative uses of them. This episode serves as the antithesis of those. It had a premise that no doubt caused a lot of groans among those who felt the Borg were overused and watered down by Voyager, and who questioned yet another possible mutilation of established continuity—but which worked because it was well-written. I’ll admit that I certainly wasn’t thrilled at the Borg showing up on Enterprise. Sure, some argued that it was perfectly logical for debris from ST First Contact to land on Earth, but that’s beside the point. Their Borg Delta Quadrant home made their appearances on Voyager perfectly logical. That doesn’t mean that those episodes were well-written, or that as a villain or race, the Borg were well-served by appearing on that show.
---So why does Regeneration work?
---It was well-written, suspenseful, and fairly logical with the premise. Right from the start, by breaking with tradition and setting the entire teaser and first Act on Earth, not showing a single drone walking around, depicting what happened by the reaction of those who happened on the scene afterwards, and not even seeing the Enterprise until Act 2, the episode generated an ominous and scary feeling not elicited in me from the Borg since The Best of Both Worlds partsI and II(TNG). This was a nice, legitimate way of finding Borg on Earth, yet bringing the Enterprise into that story without sending it all the way back there, each Act ended just right, with a visual hook that left me genuinely curious as to what would happen next, the threat was personalized by Phlox’s situation, and there were loads of nice touches throughout.
---John Billingsley absolutely SHINES in this episode. His performance is one of stolid determination to examine his predicament and find the treatment for it, his deperate attempt to keep his mental faculties sharp as he does whatever necessary to delay its progress, and the fear with which he resolves to prevent himself from turning into a drone. The way his voice actually drops an octave or two during his near assimilation, as he slowly succumbs to its effects, (really evident as he calls Archer in the Mess Hall in Act 3) was just plain haunting. I actually was able to suspend my disbelief while watching, and wonder in fear how he would survive.
---Archer’s restrained order to T’Pol to eject the Tarkalean drones was dead-on, the musical score in both this scene and in the first confrontation between the Enterprise and the Arctic transport was really good, and Reed smashing the female Tarkalean right before her assimilation tubules touch one of his men also provoked suspense. And of course, there is a nice wrapping up of sorts, as we learn that the events in this episode are actually what alerted the Borg to Earth’s location in Q Who(TNG).
---There are, of course, at least two glaring continuity mutilations that no doubt every nitpicker will complain about. First, there was no indication in Q Who(TNG) of Archer’s encounter with the Borg, and I don’t wanna hear any nonsense about how no one “named” the Borg in this episode. It was always S.O.P. for Data to scour his noggin and the Enterprise databanks for past instances of situations that bore a resemblance to the one at hand. Up until now, I was content to accept the possibility that reports of the El Aurians rescued in ST Generations were filed away someplace, since they didn’t have visual records, proof, or possibly even detailed explanations of the people who they fled from. But here, we have LOADS OF PHOTOGRAPHS of Borg drones, which Data should’ve produced in that episode. The second bit of continuity acrobatics is Phlox’s discovery that omicron particles are harmful to the nanoprobes. Again, nothing was every mentioned of this in any of the TNG or VOY episodes featuring the Borg. Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to overlook these things because the episode was entertaining, and the latter bit an integral part of Phlox’s dilemma, but I was kinda hoping through the episode, that the Borg would destroy or tamper with the Enterprise’s databanks, and maybe that even this information might have been compromised when the assimilated portions of Phlox’s brain containing it was restored. But hey, ya can’t have it all.
---Notes:
---Dr. Moninger indicates in Act 1 that the Denobulans have experimented with nanotechnology, but nothing like what the explorers see with the Borg.
---The female excavator’s statement to Drake in the beginning of Act 1 indicates that the Borg sphere in ST First Contact was 600 meters in diameter. Phlox discovers in Act 3 that the intra-molecular processors of Borg nanoprobes are vulnerable to omicron particles.
---We learn a bit more about the Bynars, in that Phlox tells Reed in Act 2 that their parietal lobes are replaced with synaptic processors when they’re born.
---We see Tarkaleans for the first time, as well as a Tarkalean ship for the first time, and T’Pol mentions their homeworld in Act 2, Tarkalea.
---In the beginning of Act 2, Archer tells the crew that an Earth tracking station spotted the Arctic transport leaving Earth’s orbit at Warp 3.9. In Act 3, as Archer and Trip look at a schematic of the assimilated transport, T’Pol calls Archer and tells him that she’s spotted the transport at Warp 4.8. Trip then says in Engineering in the next scene that they’ve doubled their top speed in less than twelve hours. This would seem to indicate that Warp 4.8 is double Warp 3.9. This would also indicate that the 2150’s warp scale operates an a fundamentally different principle than in later centuries, because the reference books indicate that the warp scale is a logarithmic one, in which each point along the scale is not only higher than the previous one, but exponentially higher, much like the Richter scale. We also learn that the outer hatch to Maintenance shaft C, junction 12, where the warp plasma regulators are located, is on the port “catamaran arm” that connects the saucer to the port nacelle, and we get a view from the inside of the sickbay imaging chamber for the first time in Act 4.
---We learn at the end of Act 4 that the Alpha-Beta-Gamma-Delta designations for the quadrants of the galaxy are already in use in 2153.
---Continuity Nods:
Phlox mentions the Bynars to Reed in the second scene of Act 2. The Bynars first appeared in 11001001(TNG).
---We see Tarkaleans, and one of their freighters. Tarkalean tea was first mentioned by Odo in Trials and Tribble-ations(DS9), which I believe was the first time that race was mentioned.
---Terms:
Drake The excavator who orders Arctic One to set up a base camp in the opening scene of Act 1.
Dr. Moninger The male Arctic excavator who examines the two drones in Act 1, and is first assimilated to be assimilated. (name from startrek.com only.)
Rooney The female Arctic excavator who finds the two drones in the teaser and in Act 1. (name from startrek.com only.)
Arctic One The Earth ship that lands in the Arctic in the teaser with the Excavation team, as Drake mentions in the opening scene of Act 1.
Alpha Team Group that Drake orders Arctic One to get started in the opening scene of Act 1.
A5 Excavation Team The Team that finds the Borg drones in the teaser.
Science Council Earth organization, possibly a branch of Starfleet, that Commander Williams mentions near the end of Act 1.
boiled rootleaf Food that Phlox tells Archer in the opening scene of Act 3 that his Edosian slugs are partial to, which he normally gets from the Galley.
Edosian slugs One of the animals Phlox keeps in sickbay, as he tells Archer in the opening scene of Act 3.
Vulcan sandworms. Animal that Phlox feeds his bat, as seen in Act 3.
Maintenance shaft C, junction 12 Section of the Enterprise where warp plasma regulators, and an outer hatch are located, as seen in Act 3.
Giving plausibility lovers a real snowjob
Anyone else find it odd that that the two drones the excavators found in the teaser and Act 1 were so close under the surface, given that they had 90 years to be covered by snow and ice?
As opposed to the Orkians, who have experimented with NanooNanootechnology
When one of the explorers examining the drones in the beginning of Act 1 sees the nanoprobes repairing cell membranes under a microscope, Drake says that the Denobulans have been experimenting with nanotechnology, but nothing like what they see in the drones. Why mention the Denoublans? Haven’t humans experimented with nanotechnology by 2153?
Perhaps this becomes the 2150’s equivalent of bungee jumping or sky diving
Why in the world are Admiral Forrest and Commander Williams not only on the search and rescue team at the end of Act 1, but the first ones through the door!!??
Gee, I wonder what Forrest’s theory is on who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb
In the beginning of Act 2, Archer, briefing the crew on the Borg in the Situation Room, says,“The admiral thinks they’re humanoids.” Gee, how did he come up with that theory? The fact that they have heads? Arms and legs? The fact that they have loads of photographs showing them? Brilliant deduction, Sherlock!
Yeah, you should call it what it really is: A sport utility transport
If a ship is designed to travel from a planet, or its orbit, to other systems, would you really call it an Arctic transport? To me, “Arctic transport” sounds like a vessel that either transports one to and from the Arctic from other points on the planet, or is used to transport people and things within the Arctic. If it’s not, and is designed to go to Warp 1.4, as Trip states in the opening scene of Act 2, then why is it called an “Arctic transport”? Sure, maybe it relays things from the Arctic to other planetary systems, but then wouldn’t its designation emphasize the planets, rather than one point on it? It would seem a bit unnecessary for a transport designed for the Arctic to have warp drive.
Giving continuity freaks a real rimjob
The Enterprise only has one phase cannon on the starboard side of its saucer, but when disabling the Arctic transport’s weapons in Act 2, the two phase beams come from two different points along the starboard side of the saucer, and it doesn’t even look like they come from any cannons that are deployed, but from the saucer’s rim.
Except to the plot logic
After disabling the transport’s weapons quite easily, Travis says it’s going to warp, and Archer then asks about the Tarkaleans, and orders them brought about the Enterprise, totally ignoring the Arctic transport. Why is this? Isn’t he interested in examining the transport, and perhaps rescuing any humans on board it? Why doesn’t he tell Reed to also disable its engines? Archer later tells T’Pol in the Mess Hall in Act 3 that Reed thinks he can knock out its power systems without causing too much damage.
So one guy states the obvious as a theory, and another guy knows too much? Can’t anyone on this show get it right?
After coming to the aid of the Tarkalean freighter, Phlox tells Archer that the “nanoprobes” have infiltrated the Tarkaleans’ autnomic systems. Wow, so Phlox refers to the nanoprobes by the exact name they come to be referred with in Star Trek Voyager? Interesting that he didn’t call them “nanocells,” or “nanobots,” or “nanoretroviruses.” He even refers to the drones’ nanoprobe injector apparatus as “tubules,” instead of say, “tubes,” or “tentacles.” What a great guesser!
Set phasers to “Contradict”
Reed fires on stun at the female Tarkalean drone in Act 3, with no effect. Then he and his men fire together on stun, and the combined force of their three weapons has no effect. They then switch to kill, and the Borg shields manifest themselves. But shouldn’t at least one of the blasts have damaged her before her body adapted? Isn’t that how it’s always worked up until now? And is precisely what does happen later when Archer and Reed board the transport in Act 4?
Giving lovers of the Tech Manual a real blow—uh,….never mind.
When Reed tells Archer in Act 3 that the drones are in maintenance shaft C, junction 12, he has to ask T’Pol what’s in that section, and then has to confirm with her that there’s an outer hatch there. Why does the Vulcan who joined the crew in the pilot know this, but the Starfleet captain whose father built the friggin’ thing not? As soon as Reed told Archer they were near that hatch, Archer should’ve been able to immediately order T’Pol to blow it.
Geez, being Cutler’s friend really is the pitts
Given Phlox’s predicament, why aren’t any of the science departments helping him examine the nanoprobes? Since he decided to look at the probes from an engineering standpoint, why aren’t any engineers in sickbay with him? Cutler’s a science officer, and cares very much about him. Why isn’t she there to help him?
The kinder, gentler Borg drone
It sure was kind of that one drone on the Arctic transport in Act 4 to wait a while after grabbing Reed by the throat and lifting him for Archer to holster his phase pistol, elbow him, and then rip out one of the tubes in his head without breaking Reed’s neck or injecting him with assimilation tubules.
From the “Ah, Screw ‘Em” Dept.:
After Archer and Reed return from the transport, T’Pol asks him if he found the research team, and Archer responds that there isn’t anyone on that ship they can help anymore. Why is this? The transport has been disabled, as has the Borg circuitry on the Enterprise. Why not beam the drones off, and see if Phlox can treat them with the same treatment he’s using on himself? Sure, they’ve been fully assimilated, but there’s nothing that should indicate to him that they’ve passed a point of no return. Just because their bio-signs are no longer human doesn’t mean the assimilation process can’t be reversed.
The boards up to 133k :D and not even 24 hours since the episode aired ;)
Yeah, for some reason Ritchie didn't split the pre-show posts from the show posts, giving us an instant need for another board.
Ritchie, if you want to correct this problem, you can take elwood's May 7, 7:17 post as the cut-of point and make that the first post of the show board.
Oops! When I twice referred to "Ritchie" in the previous post, I meant Richie. Mea culpa! (By the way, I might add that these posts should be deleted when the appropriate changes to the boards are made)
If the Tarkaleans have already been taken, why are the Borg still firing on the ship?
- Marc Lechowicz
Because they were carving up the Tarkalean ship to provide material for further expansion of their vessel.-Clayton Rumley
Then why were the two borgified Tarkaleans still on the transport?
Marc
"The space shuttle Columbia also exploded and large pieces (some larger than a pickup truck) also survive re-entry. Why is Borg debris such a stretch? "- Darth Sarcasm
Point taken, the Borg Sphere was easily large enough for sections to fall to Earth and cause the debris field we see. Unfortunately, your analogy is imprecise. At this time there is no evidence that Columbia exploded. The working theory is that the stress of re-entry caused fatigue in the left wing and caused the craft to tumble out of control and break up.
- Does anyone else think the torpedos fired by Enterprise to finish off the transport look quite a bit like photon torpedos?
- The largest nit seems to be the lack of knowledge of the Borg in the 24th century, given the Starfleet encounters with them in the 22nd. It is possible that this information will be lost somehow in a future event, especially given that the Suliban have the ability to time-travel, and have it in for Starfleet.
Then why were the two borgified Tarkaleans still on the transport?
Maybe they were there to serve tea? (Tarkalean Tea, anyone?)
As I understand it, the different time-lines would look something like this:
Time-Line A
21st Century: Cochrane breaks the light barrier and has First Contact without any interference from Borg.
22nd Century: Events are unknown, but it is assumed that Earth’s first Warp 5 ship begins exploration.
24th Century: The Borg assimilate the Hanson family and learn about Earth (I forget, how did the Hansons get to the Delta Quadrant?). Later, the Borg gain more information on Earth from the Enterprise-D. Later still, the Borg attack Earth, but the E-E destroys the cube. However, a sphere escapes and goes back through time followed by the E-E.
Time-Line B
21st Century: The Borg arrive to prevent Cochrane’s achievements and then they enslave the Earth.
Time-Line C
21st Century: The Borg arrive and attempt to stop Cochrane, but the E-E arrives and destroys the sphere.
22nd Century: Events are unknown, but it is assumed that Earth’s first Warp 5 ship begins exploration. IF researchers find the Borg in the Artic, then it is further assumed that the Warp 5 ship stops the Borg, but not before a transmission is sent.
24th Century: The Borg learn about Earth either from the Hansons, or from the transmission. Later, the Borg gain more information on Earth from the E-D. Later still, the Borg attack Earth, but the E-E destroys the cube. However, a sphere escapes and goes back through time followed by the E-E.
Time-Line D
21st Century: The Borg arrive and attempt to stop Cochrane, but the E-E arrives and destroys the sphere.
22nd Century: Suliban, under orders from the distant future, pursue a Klingon and clash on Earth. Earth’s first Warp 5 ship is launched early with the name Enterprise. Researchers find the Borg in the Artic, and the Enterprise stops the Borg, but not before a transmission is sent.
24th Century: Events are unknown, but it is assumed that the Borg learn about Earth from the transmission. Later, they gain more information from the Hansons and the E-D. Later still, the Borg attack Earth, but the E-E destroys the cube. However, a sphere escapes and goes back through time followed by the E-E.
Temporal mechanics give me a headache.
The working theory is that the stress of re-entry caused fatigue in the left wing and caused the craft to tumble out of control and break up. - Anonymous
Same principle. The only difference is the force that broke it up was external for Columbia as opposed to internal for the Sphere.
BTW, I don't know if it's been mentioned or not... but Bonita Friedericy (who played Rooney) is married to John Billngsley (Phlox).
I'll add that to my Sets of Trek Actors Related to one Another Tote Board.
Luigi I believe that they only mentioned Crewman Cunningham