Star Trek Retro Review: "Regeneration" | Borg Episodes

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#startrek #startrekenterprise #review #borg

[@kyleward3914]

Ice at the poles by the 22nd century? Star Trek really did get unrealistic as it went on.

[@Lia-zw1ls7tz7o]

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree. But considering that the Vulcans were able to restore the planet to a lush paradise within a century, who is to say that they couldn't also restore Earth's temperatures to late 20th century levels.

[@air1fire]

They travelled back in time to get the ice, there is a movie about it.

[@ohnme9557]

Enterprise brought the Borg back to what they were meant to be, a cold unfeeling absolute threat. There was no queen, no negotiations, no crazy plans, just Borg. It was an excellent prequel, I don't have any issues with them having done a Borg episode as honestly, they did a great job of it.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Yes, and it also made sense, because it followed directly from First Contact. The only thing that doesn't make sense, is how noone seemed to remember this in Picard's era.

[@andrewgrabauskas]

Eh, it's not like the name Borg was ever mentioned in Regeneration, and based on where the Borg were first encountered, there's not really much reason for anyone to trawl through old archives for an encounter that matches them- after all, a *lot* happened between Enterprise and TNG

[@andrewshearsby8125]

Just glad we never got the rumoured Borg Queen origin episode

[@danieltilson4053]

@@StormsparkPegasus It makes perfect sense from a Temporal Mechanics point of view. The history where Archer's ship encountered the Borg didn't happen originally. It was a result of the Emterprise E going back to undo what the Queen did.

[@DarthLocutus0]

On top of being a damn good episode, "Regeneration" actually fills in a few gaps that those same Continuity Nerds conveniently forget (pr actively ignore): Why were the Borg assimilating colonies in the Neutral Zone in TNG's Season 1 finale? They finally got the message from "Regeneration" and came to poke around. How did the Hansens know so much about the Borg? Maybe they got access to some buried data from Archer's run-in and combined it with stuff from El-Aurian refugees. Why did Q actually launch the Enterprise-D into the path of a Borg cube? He already knew about all this, and wanted to stack the deck a bit in humanity's favor. Maybe. And as to how nobody else in Starfleet knew about any of this? Either Archer's report got lost, or Section 31 buried it somewhere.

[@Demo5]

Ye its the way iv always thought about Q he was just giving humanity a heads up the Borg were already on their way to the alpha quadrat without tipping off the continuum he was up too I mean by the end of TNG it he has a soft spot for humanity so it tracks with what his character is like by the end of the show . Of course if he was maintained as more of a threatening villain during TNGs run I wouldn't read that into it .

[@MitsukiTakeda]

@@Demo5 Exactly. It works really well.

[@kevinkeeney9418]

Heck, it could easily be buried by neglect after two centuries of nothing else happening.

[@literaltruth]

I really don't even think you need a proper explanation of "why didn't Starfleet know?". The NX-01 was the first ever human vessel of its type - it was the first solely human space exploration mission - everything they encountered was new and weird. There's NO reason that anyone in 24th century Starfleet would see a Borg cube and immediately think "Oh, these must be the same guys Johnathan Archer encountered 200 years ago that one time!". And even if someone did - it would have been a curiosity at best - some historian 20 years after the the Battle of Wolf 359 saying "Wow - I think the NX-01 encountered the Borg". It's not something you'd expect any of the main characters in the show to know or to talk about - it's something that someone at the Starfleet historical archive would notice, publish a paper on and then historians would debate for the next 5 years whether it was REALLY the Borg or not.

[@literaltruth]

And like you say, it fixes a continuity error in TNG by explaining why the Borg were already in the Alpha Quadrant before Q-Who introduced them to the Enterprise D.

[@gkbur85]

Hey, scientists finding Captain America beneath the ice worked out pretty well. I mean, maybe not for HYDRA or Thanos, but I think everyone else was pretty okay with it.

[@OverworkedITGuy]

yeah but they actually did have him in a secured location when they defrosted him, and they actually did know who and what he was. This whole episode plot was just the entire crew of all ships involved being assimilated by the Idiot Ball (tm).

[@gmaclean1]

Antarctic base in SG1 worked out too! 😂

[@MegaZeta]

@@OverworkedITGuy Not really, no. It's exactly because they don't know what they're dealing with that it's reasonable they make those mistakes. The episode's biggest weakness is instead that it depends on the audience knowing more than the characters about the threat and doesn't provide enough of that information through the actual story, instead gesturing backwards toward other TV shows and movies. It's a problem with _Enterprise,_ really, a mistake the show kept making till the end. Cf. _Deep Space Nine,_ which didn't require you to watch "The Wounded" to understand Cardassians.

[@vutava8292]

@@gmaclean1 You mean when they unleashed a plague that almost killed everyone on the base and had to put a snake in O'Neill's head to save him?

[@creativerealms]

It was mentioned in the episode that the Denobulan immune system was fighting off the nanoprobes better then most races, and so assimilation was slower. The "cure" might only be effective for races where that is the case.

[@seanhall5385]

And i can see floxx less flummoxed by a hulk level nuke chamber especial as self treatment. I could see this as outside of consideration for Crusher, against the Doctors ethical subroutines, and we just dont know what Bones or Bashier would do

[@DarthLocutus0]

It could also be as simple as Denobulan physiology wouldn't liquify under that particular kind of radiation and everyone else would.

[@ZipplyZane]

True, but it would be better if he was also better able to handle the treatment itself. Still, it's not all that different from Star Trek: Borg, an interactive movie/game where you use your alien physiology to escape assimilation. And, heck, Phlox's species has a similar physiology, even if it wasn't used in this episode. (I'm intentionally trying not to spoil the game/movie for those who haven't played it.)

[@MegaZeta]

I mean, a lot of things "might" be in the story if you just make them up later and pretend they were in the story. The truth is that they needed a quick fix to tell _this_ episode's story and not raise even more questions among persnickety fans. The episode's a decent one, so it was probably the right call.

[@literaltruth]

@@MegaZeta HARD disagree. You can't write a TV episode worrying about explaining absolutely everything to pernickety fans. All a TV show should EVER do is leave enough room in the story that there COULD be a reason - you can't write every episode of a Star Trek show where every character has forced dialogue where the writer is anticipating that some Star Trek nerd is going to take issue with. You'd end up with episodes of NOTHING but exposition and continuity checking.

[@chidagamer6497]

I like that they took a bit of time to develop the researchers before their inevitable fate. They end up feeling like more than just redshirts to me, and it helps make Act 1 even more tense. This is by far my favorite Enterprise episode. I’m so glad you chose to cover it.

[@uvp5000]

Regeneration was a brilliant episode. Even better was this review. Why watch excellent television and storytelling when I can watch the priceless reactions of our hero, Steve Shives. As I've commented on other videos, this channel is quite good. I found Regeneration quite gripping. This review was incisive and a pleasure to watch.

[@michaelturner2806]

While not stated or even possibly implied, I took the relative weakness of the Borg as depicted here to be a sign of the more limited resources they had to work with. Starting with just four drones barely functional and taking over a ship of "outdated" technology gave them a lot less to work with than a fully powered cube. They could've been redlining life support as a low priority beyond minimal in order to get navigation and communications up, with little adaptability left over for assimilating nanoprobes, explaining the low weak dosage Phlox got. All speculation of course.

[@BlownMacTruck]

“Won’t get fooled again” is an utterly classic Bushism. 👏

[@G0lg0t4]

I still think he didn't want to create a soundbite where he says "shame on me" and purposefully stopped himself mid-sentence and tried to redirect it giving us this funny outcome.

[@AndrewD8Red]

@@G0lg0t4 You really think Dubya would have had the wherewithal for something like that...? Mr. "the problem with the French is that they have no word for "entrepreneur'."

[@alissapyrich1891]

This episode was both great and frustrating, because it shows what Enterprise could have been.

[@SingularityOrbit]

When done right, incongruities create questions that other writers might take as inspiration. Phlox cured Borg nanoprobes with Omicron radiation . . . would that radiation dosage have killed a human outright? Was Phlox on anti-rad medicine for a while afterwards? The nanoprobes made Borg tech appear instantly, but not aboard 24th Century ships . . . did Starfleet start making a lot of equipment that doesn't interact that way with nanoprobes after this incident? Was Section 31 involved in that research? Different species get assimilated at different speeds . . . what's different in their biochemistry to make that true? Could Starfleet put together a team of specialist anti-Borg fighters from species who both assimilate slowly and can be cured by Omicron radiation doses? Everything in one story could suggest a scenario for another story if the writers are paying attention. If they don't, rest assured the fanfic writers will notice.

[@AaronLitz]

The Borg had already been coming to the Alpha/Beta Quadrants, Q was sneakily giving Picard a heads up. They had been scooping up cities like Brainiac since the end of Season 1 ("The Neutral Zone.) This episode actually gives a reasonable explanation why.

[@TheMaddgodd81]

I feel like the signal sent to the Delta Quadrant actually meshes well with the whole "Q introducing the Borg" story from TNG; the first time we get hints of a problem, both Federation and Romulan outposts are scooped up by an unknown threat. That threat is now tied DIRECTLY to this signal. As for Q "introducing" the Borg, it's because HE KNEW THEY WERE COMING ANYWAY. So, he did what he could to help, in his own charming way; he sent the Enterprise to say hi, see how big of a threat the Borg are, then got them the hell out of there.

[@thecynicaloptimist1884]

Maybe T'Pol saying that was professional jealousy on the part of the Vulcans. "Shit, this drunken asshole in a shack invented a warp drive? Who knows what their best minds can do?!"

[@thomasjoychild4962]

He WAS one of their best minds. :P A thing that's in the novelization of the movie is that Cochrane had some psychiatric and mental health things going on that had been well managed with medication until WW3 happened and manufacturing and supplies went to hell. The alcohol was initially at least an attempt at self-medication after he lost access to the proper stuff.

[@Lia-zw1ls7tz7o]

@@thomasjoychild4962 Oooh, interesting. I just started the novelization of First Contact and I'm now very excited to read about those parts.

[@thomasjoychild4962]

@@Lia-zw1ls7tz7o Followup on re-reading it: The novel never uses the phrase "bipolar disorder" but he has bipolar disorder based on the description.

[@crystalfajman3732]

Seven of Nine's (Annika Hanson's parents) started investigating the rumors of the Borg before the events of "Q who".

[@owenlong4176]

"I'm not a Thermian. These are not historical documents." Love it. If only the Supreme Court had a similar attitude.

[@realitypoet]

Ah the good old days when W was the stupidest president we’d ever had

[@Hugh_I]

oh yes those days, when sweet summer child me was still thinking it couldn't possibly get any dumber than that guy.

[@EclecticFruit]

I have to agree, the tightness of the writing in this episode is very beneficial. It was a bit of a stretch for Archer to meet Borg, but they did it competently and so I'm on board, strap me in for the whole story.

[@simonpeteradkins]

That squeal was worth a tip!

[@rakhanreturns]

My Bingo card did not have "hear a Dubya quote in contemporary context in 2023"

[@sarahscott5305]

I appreciate your VERY VERY SUBTLE choice of beverage holder in the background! Regeneration brings the franchise total excellent Borg episodes up to 5. 20 years later, the franchise total has now gone up to: Still 5.

[@travismoore7938]

My favorite Enterprise episode and one of my favorite Star Trek episodes. It was really good. They made the Borg dangerous again! (Which was good after seeing what they did with the Borg on Voyager ).

[@sunyavadin]

Yeah, they really nailed "how to keep the borg threatening" in this.

[@Black-Swan-007]

Make the Borg Dangerous Again! MBDA!

[@johncattley5919]

I think I’m coming around to Steve’s view on continuity-they can get away with anything if it’s done well. It’s hard not to contrast Phlox almost getting himself assimilated out of innocence with Jurati’s recklessness.

[@OpinionsNoOneCaresAbout]

Never gotten over the fact that Phlox found a cure for assimilation that everyone apparently just plumb forgot about... ...and next time I wait till the end of the video to comment.

[@johnpotts8308]

Wasn't it a cure than only a Denobulan could survive? Which isn't completely useless (presumably if you could find a way to focus the effect purely on the Borgified tissue, it might be more survivable for humans), but does limit its utility.

[@pjlusk7774]

I mean, sure. By the same token, a) the cure was very painful for Phlox, and may not be survivable by other species, and b) it's entirely possible the records just kinda got lost. 200 years is a long time, even in Star Trek.

[@sarahscott5305]

They did hand wave it away by saying his Denobulan physiology was more difficult to assimilate. The same contrivance that saved Spock on so many episodes of TOS!

[@gogreen7794]

​@pjlusk7774 Yes, and Trip didn't die. The holodeck was broken. (Sorry, I couldn't help but refer to another 200 year gap.)

[@AndrewD8Red]

"Fool me... once... shame... on... * profuse sweating * you..." "Fool me... twice... * shidding and farding * you ain't gon' git fooled again!"

[@kaitlyn__L]

They finally attacked the Borg by pulling their tubes out! …why didn’t Worf ever try pulling or severing their tubes Bane style?? C’mon Worf, big oversight! Honestly, I’ve always viewed this episode very cynically. Thanks for giving me a chance to view it through a more earnest approach. IE I took the horror movie tropes as lazy storytelling rather than an honest pastiche/homage. Especially as on some rewatches I really enjoyed the first act with the scientists and how the Enterprise crew isn’t part of it at all. And the silly way they contrived to have the guy knock his thermos on the floor when he got got. Yet I couldn’t let myself think I actually liked The Episode because I wasn’t looking forward to going back to the ship. But I definitely liked that they were overwhelmingly powerful again. I liked that Reed and co couldn’t do anything about it. I think the hardware growing out the wall could’ve worked better with a more considered effect and a slower visual progression. But as a plot element it’s fine. It did always bug me that Phlox figured everything out so well given how the Borg baffled the TNG crew. But I always liked Phlox’s out of the box thinking in general so maybe I could bring myself to overlook that… as he experiments more, where the TNG crew run scans and simulations. Lastly, the upscaling has suddenly done a markedly better job at text and textures. Though I find it interesting that it accentuates the render noise on the CGI shots, visually they look very much like film grain but the film grain has been erased by the upscaling. So I guess it’s detecting that it’s not truly random. (If so, that makes me suspect neural networks are secretly being used for encryption breaking…)

[@susanscott8653]

Nice to see Enterprise getting some praise for once. I enjoyed the episode and can definitely see Star Fleet losing Archer's report in some future computer update.

[@literaltruth]

There would also be no real reason that Picard would encounter the Borg and someone would say "OMG! This must be the same race of cyborgs that Captain Archer encountered 200 years ago that one time!". The story of this episode seems like a big deal to US because we know who the Borg were, but within universe it would have just been only of the many, many, MANY new species that the NX-01 encountered during its first mission - and when people in the 24th century think about Captain Archer and his crew they'd likely think of them being the first human solo mission and their role in Xindi war. Probably nobody even remembers that they once met some cyborgs and then blew up their ship. Even if someone eventually put the two things together, there would be absolutely no reason that any of the characters on the 24th century TV shows would talk about it.

[@Oonagh72]

I love jour videos. Whether I agree with your analysis or not, I enjoy your process. You actually make me rewatch these episodes with fresh eyes.

[@WarpigGaming.]

Love this episode as it doesn't mess with continuity... Not once is the name Borg said or anything else that is a Borg staple said so if anything it would of just gone in the books as a random attack or robot attack, and with the Dr more primitive teck fixes the problem where tng + onwards had evolved past that

[@susanscott8653]

Also Phlox seemed to favour organic medicine, making use of the qualities of his menagerie, so that might have something to do with his resistance.

[@RadioJosiah]

Phlox was able to defeat the Borg nanoprobes due to a heightened tolerance in his physiology which most humanoids do not possess. So you could use his method to to de-assimilate another Denobulan, but anyone else would die first.

[@literaltruth]

I like to think that 20 years after the Battle of Wolf 359 some historian is searching the Starfleet archive and comes across this mission log from 200 years ago and publishes a paper arguing that the NX-01 encountered the Borg. She then spends the next 7 years defending her thesis and getting called a crank by the Borg Studies establishment academics and is vindicated when she finally gets approval to excavate the site of research base and finds a single Borg nanoprobe trapped in the ice.

[@Alixir_of_Life999]

This episode was a favourite of mine and proved to me what I suspected at the time: Enterprise is a sequel, not a prequel. Just as the Kelvin timeline caused things to skew wildly away from the prime timeline, this series happens after Star Trek First Contact and that has minor effects on the timeline. It just so happened that these changes were small enough that they didn't change the events of 23rd and 24th century. When dealing with real world history this is known as Historically Consistent fiction, i think. (The difference between the stories of Sherlock Holmes and War of the Worlds). Enterprise may break a few tenets of the almightly Canon but you gotta realise that, though it is set in "the past" from the point of view of other series, in terms of CAUSALITY the sequence of events goes: TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY and lastly ENT. The new treks are probably in this new, post-First Contact timeline but there isn't any thing apart from the new visual interpretation that supports that yet. However subtle, anything past that 1996 film is a new timeline. Canon obsessives have to realize that the TOS stuff played so fast and loose with its canonical details that you really can't start nailing down a true narrative consistency until the ToS films and TNG

[@literaltruth]

While I would argue strongly that this episode in NO WAY breaks cannon, I would also argue that if you think it did then you have to consider what you're saying here. When Picard encountered the Borg in Q-Who it was the first time any Starfleet officer had encountered the Borg because, in Picard's timeline, First Contact hadn't happened yet. It was only after Picard went back in time and changed the timeline that he wasn't the first Starfleet officer to encounter the Borg any more.

[@darth-imperius]

My favorite episode of Enterprise is "Dead stop". A review would be interesting. 🤓

[@colinmontgomery1956]

Great episode. Very original.

[@catherinewood948]

Thanks!

[@seraphonica]

I'm not saying audiophiles don't exist, or are lying... but my dumb ears truly don't care. My eyes are bad enough that I can't see resolution differences over about 480p, too. Saves me a bundle on hardware. Thanks for another great review! Sure was weird seeing this episode before seeing First Contact, though. I wish writers were better at adding sentimental fanservice without alienating (no pun intended) newer fans.

[@CyclonusEX]

Steve, I salute you on this one. Bless you for making my road trips so much more enjoyable with these thoughtful and articulate video essays. This was brilliant as always.

[@Scourge77]

14:55 Sorry, but there's an entire scene in the episode where Reed dives into that issue. They wonder why the Tarkalean's could absorb their phaser shots. Reed adjusts the frequencies of the weapons till their phasers could break through and stop them, just like we see in future series when they deal with the Borg. It pays off in the scene with Archer and Reed able to kill the Borg and plant the bombs.

[@IanZainea1990]

I feel like when it comes to Canon. You have to have internal consistency within the episode at like 95% or above for the series 80% and above and for the franchise 50% and above. I'm sure you could fudge those numbers, move them up or down, but that seems pretty good to me or something like that

[@ArcherNX1701]

Steve, I agree with you. This was one of the BEST episodes for ENT. Your last vid regarding VOY overusing the BORG "well" also rang true. I would like to see you do one of your famous Fan-Fic readings of what BORG episode would you produce for VOY, one and done to keep their threat alive. Also trying to answer why the Queen exists even after ST characters keep killing her. I can't wrap my limited 3 dimensional mind around that.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

Due to how Star Trek works, you can totally twist the canon around to make all this work anyway. First Contact probably changed history slightly. Done and done. It's a good Enterprise episode, and that's what matters.

[@ZipplyZane]

Plus Enterprise is set during a temporal cold war. So it's clearly already a past that has been modified by things in the future, and not the original timeline.

[@literaltruth]

It doesn't need any work and it actually FIXES the continuity of TNG. Originally the season 1 finale, "The Neutral Zone" was going to be a 2-parter and the attacks on the colonies in the Neutral Zone were supposed to be Borg attacks, which was later confirmed in Best of Both Worlds part 1, I believe. There was a reshuffling of the episodes that meant that "The Neutral Zone" was cut to a one-parter instead and they didn't have time to introduce the Borg...but the plot still centred around Borg attacks - so there was this weird continuity problem where the Borg had actually arrived in the Alpha Quadrant before the Enterprise D had "attracted their attention" in Q Who. This Enterprise episode fixes that - because the Borg attacking the Neutral Zone could reasonably be scouts who were there in response to the signal sent in "Regeneration" trying to determine if the Alpha Quadrant was worth assimilating. Then after the Borg encountered the Enterprise D and saw that it was able to escape them using what looked like unknown highly advanced technology (actually Q clicking his fingers) they decided to switch from a scouting mission to a full scale attack to find out WTF happened there and hopefully discover and assimilate whatever allowed the Enterprise D to whizz back to the Alpha Quadrant at impossible speed.

[@danieltilson4053]

@@literaltruth That continuity doesn't need fixing though, because the Borg hit a system relatively near the Romulans about 100 years prior to Picard's time. The El-Aurian Homeworld. 100 years of wandering around and assimilating anything shiny enough later, they hit the neutral zone colonies. If they had a signal that was like "Yo, Earth will be a PROBLEM! Assimilate it!" they wouldn't have wasted time on the colonies. The first appearance of the Borg would have been an unknown vessel traveling toward Earth at high Warp. Somebody would hail them, they'd be ignored, and any hostility would be met with pretty green beams and nanoprobes for everyone.

[@michelletheia9853]

I always liked the head-canon that the cube from Q Who was already on its way to Sol, and in sending the Enterprise to encounter it Q was actually subtly warning the federation and giving them a chance to prepare.

[@michelletheia9853]

In this version the signal from the ENT borg got through and they started heading out, then Q throws the D in the cube’s path, and the rest is future history.

[@mandude1827]

​@@michelletheia9853its confirmed it's not the same cube, the one from q who is from j25 , while the best of both worlds, one was destroying outposts already within the romulan neutral zone, so no its not that cube q send the D on , but they did learn from it.

[@davidpumpkinsjr.5108]

Many people cite the Xindi arc as a shift in Archer's character, but i think it was here. First there's the moment when Archer orders the Borgified Tarkalians blown into space and then when T'Pol asks if he found the research team and he replies "There isn't anyone on that ship we can help anymore." When Archer, the guy who seems to think he's Buck Rogers or Captain Proton and can save everyone, admits defeat, you know things have changed.

[@Theoddert]

It's a really good play on The Thing which is not something alot of media can do which I really like. I also like the way they add a new dimension to the fear and strangeness aspect of the Borg by introducing that they can, with enough time, just stich themselves back together! That's messed up!

[@AshBob5000]

These videos make my Thursdays, thank you 🙏

[@uchihaitachifan00666]

I think the message they send at the end actually makes Q into a better character. I never got the impression that Q ever wanted to stop Enterprise D fuck with them a bit ya but I feel he always wanted them to advance. And knowing that the Borge were coming Q threw Piccard and crew into the deep in and saved them before ut was to late. Then left the crew to realize that they needed to learn how to swim.

[@thomasjoychild4962]

Q talks a big game about primitive life being unworthy and his tests are serious business that can and will kill you and maybe your species if you fail, but it's never just him trying to screw Picard et al over in an elaborate way with something they can't overcome. He's always WANTED Picard et al to succeed and grow and step up to be more.

[@ninjabearpress2574]

This is my favorite episode of Enterprise, I wound up screaming at my TV, "Archer you have no idea what you're dealing with, KILL IT, KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

[@danm6499]

If i understand it correctly, the Borg ship Q introduced to the 1701-D was the same one that attacked in BOBW. One could make the connection that the message was received nearly 200 years later, a cube was dispatched, and Q simply gave them a warning with about a year to prepare a defence.

[@Hugh_I]

I think that was very much implied at the end of the episode when they say the message will arrive 200 years later. It it IMHO the most brilliant and meaningful time loop ever done in Star Trek. It not only makes sense and is very consistent while spanning over two TV shows and a movie, it is also much more impactful in adding to the story than the usual one-off episode. It hints at Q's intentions towards humanity being kinda benevolent and also answers the question why the Borg were in the alpha quadrant before the D met them (at the end of TNG S1).

[@eugeneluk5050]

I agree that, on the whole, this was a well-done episode, and a smart way to use an old villain in a way that feels fresh and interesting. But the episode does bring up a larger issue for me: why are the Borg so obsessed with Earth, and taking over/assimilating it? In the grand scheme of things from the Borg perspective, the Federation should be just another one of thousands of intergalactic civilizations that the Borg have encountered. What made the Borg scary in TNG is the cold and clinical way they viewed the Federation - as just another source of technology and resources to be exploited, no different nor more special than any other. This episode, however, is effectively telling us that the Borg have taken a particular interest in Earth, and have highlighted us as a special planet for attention (which also brings up questions of the human-centric nature of Trek in general, when the Federation is supposed to be a gathering of many equals). The depiction of the Borg here and in Voyager made it seem (whether intentionally or not) like they hold grudges, and that diminishes the horror of them as what is supposed to be an inhuman, coldly analytical threat.

[@RadioJosiah]

There is First Contact to take into account. These Borg inherited the 24th Century hive mind that had attacked Earth, been foiled, went back in time, and were foiled again. They were sending for backup.

[@ZipplyZane]

My usual argument is that they become obsessed when Q has them show up and leave. Nothing they assimilate helps them figure it out. This ship gets away and they don't know how, and they want to know. So they go into Best of Both Worlds to assimilate the captain of that ship specifically. And then humanity very clearly beats them. Not just gets their captain back, but actually shuts down the Borg. Then there's the issue with Hugh, which causes a bunch of strife in the collective, resulting in them actually losing drones. And surely they would be able to read all the thoughts Hugh has, so they know it's the Federation again. At that point, assimilating humanity and the Federation become a point of pride. Resistance is supposed to be futile, and yet they've not been assimilated.

[@thesenate5770]

I think the borg see the federation as their only credible threat because of how the federation “assimilates” other cultures into their Commonwealth thus being a match for the borg

[@Insightfill]

Love your take on canon at the end. I'll have to give this ep a rewatch.

[@KassFireborn]

I gotta thank you, Steve, for telling me this episode was worth my time -- I'd given up on ENT by this point, and consequently missed this gem. It really does do everything right: good use of dramatic irony for the audience, good use of it being a prequel to set up the situation for that irony, good use of the way Enterprise's sets give it that kind of submarine-movie vibe when handled correctly... all in all an episode way better than a blatant ratings grab had any right to be.

[@DominionofGod]

This was a damn good episode. It ties the events form different generations/shows of trek incredibly well to where nearly everything, if not everything, makes perfect sense. In fact, when i first saw star trek first contact and they destroyed that sphere above old earth, 'what about the debris they left behind' was a thought i actually had. So making that all work and then combining it with a good story for the episode, made this a great one to watch. They attempted it again with that klingon story line and there loss of the forehead ridges. A known but accepted difference between the tos and tng klingons. They tried to tie that together as well. Which as a writer must have been interesting to attempt. As far as continuity errors... there were really only two that ever made me wonder. The one that i actually questioned was floxes ability to actually cure himself from the nanoprobes. It was something that never was able to be done in any other show with better technology. So the thought that flox pulled it off back then seemed a little odd. But still better then losing flox of course. - However, they did kinda 'cure' laqutist/picard. And while seven was disconnected, it was well documented that she kept her nano probes. - So maybe that could have been worked in somehow someway instead of flox 'fully irradicating' the nanoprobes. Second, was just a thought. The borg that they dug up in the ice, that started all this, were 24th century borgs. It would stand that they had all the 24th century knowledge. Which could explain why they were able to over run everything even easier then usual. At least until the heros have to win. So all that 24th century tech and knowledge could be used to explain why they could take over parts of enterprise and other ships so easy. They would have been highly outdated, and the borg would have likely had full tech/design machinics on all those ships already. - SO enterprise was not only fighting the borg, but 24th century borg knowledge trying to adapt it to earlier tech. - A whole long thought that i found interesting. -- It does however make me question flox curing himself of 24th century nanoprobes again tho...

[@tilarium2]

As someone who IS a continuity nerd, I don't mind this episode at all and it's one of my favorites of Enterprise. As for the continuity, it's not a problem at all and in fact it works wonderfully in making a nice closed loop time travel story. The Borg here send their message to the delta quadrant, 200 years later it reaches the Borg who send a cube to assimilate Earth, Q then sends the Enterprise D into the path of that cube to give them a warning about the Borg. After a couple of defeats, the Borg then send another Cube to Earth with the intent to time travel a sphere back in the past to be destroyed, seeding Earth with Borg that will eventually thaw out and send a message to the delta quadrant to get the Borg to send a cube to Earth. It is a perfect example of a closed loop paradox. As for the the complaints of why Earth, Starfleet, or the Federation didn't know about them by the time TNG rolled around. The Xindi crisis. The Romulan War. Klingon War. Governmental changes on a drastic, planet wide scale. But remember that the Hansons knew about the Borg. So at some level, Starfleet and/or the Federation knew about them, but it was so under wraps and probably on the highest lever of security imaginable. Only a very small, select few knew about them.

[@plasmaburndeath]

TY for covering this, Picard is the most reckless time traveler, but made an interesting episode.

[@bentoth9555]

"Fool me three times... won't get fooled again." Wasn't that a GW Bush quote?

[@RadioJosiah]

Sort of. It was "Fool me once... shame on... shame on you...... but fool me, you can't get fooled again!" He refused to say the actual lesson, because he did not want anyone to think him a fool. The irony was potent.

[@TheLittleMako]

I've seen people say that this is a bad episode, because it's unrealistic that Archer and co could defeat the borg with 22nd century tech when the people of the 24th could barely do it with their tech level. To be honest, I also had the same reaction while watching this ep for the first time years ago. Re-watching it now before starting your video, I was much more impressed with the rising tension, especially via the soundtrack! I feel like the insistence on 'tech levels' as the ultimate deciding factor in the show's quality is a very trekkie thing.

[@travisboyle285]

I was fine with it. There was only a handful of Borg drones and they assimilated an unarmed civilian ship. And how much of their technology survived the crash/explosion. I just say Archer engaged them early enough and if he didn't a couple more evolutions would of made them superior to 22nd century technology.

[@johnchedsey1306]

Definitely one of the best Enterprise episodes. It's just a great romp from start to finish. I thought that it was a great way to reuse an enemy without really messing with canon much. (Not that I'm a stickler on canon) I watch Star Trek for good entertainment and this delivers bigtime.

[@laikapupkino1767]

Are you SURE you're not a Thermian? I thought I saw a tentacle there for a second...

[@Ayelet_BringThemHome]

Thanks for your review! I was actually terrified of the Borg in Voyager and less scared of them here (I was scared of them here though. Just not as much).

[@keiththorpe9571]

I recall this episode. I was curious as to how they would reconcile the fact that such a terrifying threat faced by the 22nd century NX-01 Enterprise and her crew would somehow become an encounter so arcane and esoteric that by the 24th century (when Enterprise D confronts The Borg) there's no intel on them to access from any Starfleet database. It just seems to me that somebody, somewhere in Starfleet Intelligence, would have access to all the threads of information. From the "First Contact" encounter during the lead up to the flight of The Phoenix to the data from this run-in with The Borg. That way, by the 24th century, this information would be accessible to Picard and Co. from the Enterprise D's library computer. Or (at the very least) after their return home and their debrief, this would all be documented, leaving Starfleet more informed and prepared than it seems they were. Now, I know you can't retcon everything from Seasons 2 and 3 of ST:TNG in order to accommodate new stories told decades later elsewhere in the franchise. However, this failure certainly makes Starfleet seem a lot (I don't know, what's the phrasing I'm looking for here?) a lot more like a standard bureaucratic institution of our own era, in which vital information is...just kinda lost. Finally, when it becomes of crucial importance (as it turned out it would have come in handy in the 24th century) the intel is nowhere to be found.

[@RadioJosiah]

The word "Borg" was never heard during this event. It went down in history as an odd occurrence that had no other frame of reference to connect it to. And since the Borg of the 24th century were first perceived as a threat coming from the other end of the galaxy, nobody thought to dig into Earth history looking for similarities.

[@literaltruth]

For someone in the 24th century, this is just an insignificant mission where the NX-01 encountered some cyborgs and blew up their ship 200 years ago. Even if anyone noticed the similarities, it's likely any intelligence officer in the 24th century would rule out this being the Borg on the basis that it happened so long ago. And even if they did put it together, what would they do with that info - it's an "interesting fact" at best. There's no significant tactical info to be gleaned from it - no reason any of the on-screen characters would discuss it. The only thing they did was come up with an INCREDIBLY dangerous method to remove Borg nanoprobes that most species couldn't survive.. However, they were able to do that much more safely in the 24th century without that method - they were able to successfully remove multiple characters from the collective over the course of TNG and VOY - Picard, Seven of Nine, Janeway, Tuvok, Be'lana, Icheb and the other Borg kids...de-assimilation has never been that big a challenge and they've had better ways to do it than exposing someone to lethal doses of radiation since Best of Both Worlds. They might pass along the details to Starfleet medical - but either it's something that only works on a limited range of species or maybe it's part of how they were able to so quickly de-borgify Janeway et al in "Unimatrix Zero".

[@Jimbo877CashNow]

The more continuity-obsessed among us can simply headcannon it that the Borg DID receive the message, only it took enough time to reach them that the cube that was sent to Earth has been on its way this whole time and only JUST got there in Best of Both Worlds. Q threw Picard and Fam into the D quadrant and they ran into another cube. Done and done.

[@RadioJosiah]

I strongly believe that the cube they encountered in "Q Who?" was the same one that attacked Earth in "The Best of Both Worlds." There is no other explanation for their interest in Captain Picard. But you could make a strong argument that Q knew the clock was ticking and that the humans didn't have much time left to prepare.

[@leocallan3691]

It's a two-fer day!.. You and Junkball both put out videos today

[@Marcus51090]

Always wondered why DS9 didn’t have a Borg episode… I dunno the defiant is in the gamma quadrant on patrol to see what the dominion is up to under cloak… they detect a large debris field it’s jem’hadar ships they scan the wreckage of the fleet, the weapon signature is Borg, a warp trail shows a tactical cube assimilating the dominion

[@loganmiller2344]

Hey Steve! Regarding the audio issue, as a fellow KZbinr I really recommend using Adobe audio enhance ai (it’s free) for situations like this. Not to sound like an ad, but it legitimately turns the crappiest audio into perfect to near-perfect audio in seconds. Love the channel btw

[@OakCityGamers]

16:39 I’d recommend tracking down the dvd and there is a text track by Micheal Okuda and it fills in some story. Also if there’s a REAL geek for this stuff it’s him. I believe his explanation was that the events were most likely classified. And in Dr. Crushers day she would have access to the documents, and would’ve use the computer to cross reference the entire thing

[@air1fire]

I just watched this episode and found it to be absolutely fantastic. Such a movie-like quality, the music. One thing you didn't mention was Scott Bakula's acting, when he has to give the order to kill those two people.

[@mindyp51d]

Love this episode!!!! I only wish that ENTERPRISE had produced more episodes as successful as this one.

[@HebaruSan]

Since this whole series is Riker doing re-enactments in the holodeck, this one must have been particularly uncomfortable for him!

[@jasonwolf3591]

The only necessary appearances of the Borg are Q Who, Best of Both Worlds, First Contract, and Regeneration. Everything else is just watering them down. Seven of Nine included.

[@raideurng2508]

Don't forget the music of this episode. It's not the typical Star Trek music. It's spooky, it's scary, it's full of tension and foreboding. It makes the episode that much better.

[@docweidner]

I like the retro audio. Fits the Enterprise vibe.

[@erf3176]

Bringing back the Borg for season 2 actually worked out for Enterprise. I like this episode. Bringing back the Ferengi in Season 1 now *that* was just terrible.

[@G11713]

The effectiveness of Flox's self cure can be explained as being a consequence of Borg's less developed technology, a hole they no doubt plugged. In particular, Flox's transformation was similarly slow.

[@krim7]

My pet theory has always been that First Contact was the point where a new timeline was created that all shows & movies that followed it are housed within. This is why things on Enterprise (and Discovery & Strange New Worlds) feel more advanced than they did in TOS. This also helps explain away any continuity oddities that might crop up, like the Klingons with cloaked ships in Discovery, the brutal Federation-Klingon War from Discovery, the earlier inclusion of lots of Mirror Universe characters from Discovery, the fact that the Gorn are god damned scary as seen in SNW, and the fact that Enterprise had view screens and did not run around with nuclear torpedoes (as was implied happened in the Earth-Romulan War in TOS).

[@joearnold6881]

Ok, I just got an ad that said Paradox, of all companies, is making a 4X Star Trek game. I spent sooo many hours back in the day playing Europa Universalis 3, Vicky 2 and Crusader Kings. Idk if they’re still good at it, as I’ve not played their newer iterations of those games… But I’m cautiously looking forward to a possible grand strategy Star Trek game that’s as good as those were. That would be wicked cool.

[@TomOmnom]

I 100% agree about "Regeneration," it's a great horror story, and it's also really well handled in terms of continuity. Much better done than when ENT brought up other later trek antagonists like the Ferengi.

[@AndrewLakeUK]

I think's it's before the hagiography. Certainly before his cloud fucking kink was exposed. The episode does explain why the Hansons investigated them, some vague mentions in a log, following the signal... I did like the Bush quote, you almost made it palatable.

[@TheRealKaiProton]

The sub space message kinda makes sense in TNG, in The Neutral Zone, werent the Colonies that got destroyed that brought the Romulans out of the woodwork, meant to be the borg scouting parties.

[@ShikiKiryu]

Looking forward to the time travel stories. I know they overdid it because Janeway wants her own way but... Voyager had some great time travel stories. I like Future's End a lot. Timeless. Relativity. All fantastic episodes.

[@Mallory-Malkovich]

It's a good episode. And just think, if _Enterprise_ could have managed another eight or nine of those a season, it might have been a watchable series!

[@rvdsmith]

Hey Steve a suggestion for a bunch of episode reviews.... episodes where the ship/space station has been captured.

[@yuuzyerbrejn9603]

I really appreciate this review bcs that was a great episode. I'm looking forward to your reviews of this whole time travel thing, a plot line one gets truly tired of, no matter which franchise tries to exploit it. That and holodeck fantasies. And courtroom/trial plots, which got old right after the first 2 episodes of TNG but was mercilessly wrung out for all it was worth over time. Still, I appreciate good writing, too. Yours included.

[@ChrisMWalker]

IMO this episode cleared up some of the continuity issues Voyager made. I’ve always assumed that this episode is how the Hansens knew about the Borg before Q Who and why the Borg were in the Alpha quadrant to begin with.

[@jessesloan864]

I remember enjoying the "Thing" vibe in act one.

[@berthulf]

I was in the camp that went 'Eugh, Borg.' and, fearing the implications, never watched it when it aired: I found something else to do, and when I first rewatched the show, I simply skipped the episode... Until a couple years back on my second rewatch, when I just watched it and realised how much I'd missed out on all this time. It really is a good episode, at a time I think the show still wasn't doing all that great too. My biggest issue with the episode is that so many characters think so little of the concept of security. Yes, it's fascinating this.. being... is healing and repairing itself, but we know nothing about it and a measure of caution isn't impractical, we can observe and investigate them AND maintain a safety net in case they aren't friendly - it's literally First Contact 101 (not the film, or episode, but the practice). The trope that science requires extreme risk and that scientists can't be trusted to ensure the safety of genpop, eschewing safety measures and precautions left and right, is STILL being pushed by media; has been to the point that genpop now truly seems to believe it's true, and its now being used against scientists by people with an agenda to push: we've seen it with politicians and pundits undermining the scientific and medical communities in regards to anti-vaxers, covid deniers, and currently with Trans peoples rights. I knew the trope was damaging, but I never realised how pervasive it had already been, or how far some people would run with it.

[@katiepersons6575]

I think the statue already existed by that point as Archer grabs a miniature of it and smacks a bad guy with it in one episode.

[@HAGZ0483]

About the "continuity issue" this episode could be used to explain how Anika/7 of 9 parents knew about the borg years before Q met Picard, having them as agents of section 31, Section 31 learning about the borg by Malcolm, their Enterprise agent.

[@travisboyle285]

The El Aurian's could of informed Starfleet about the Borg. Guinan was saved by the Enterprise B.

[@bluedotdinosaur]

Actually, while I too am no Thermian, it does strike me that the message to the Delta Quadrant does slot into Star Trek continuity in one neat way. As a retroactive reason for Q providing the Federation with an advance warning about the Borg in the first place. Q could have selected any number of massively advanced and hostile unknown civilizations in the galaxy with which to teach Picard a lesson. Why the Borg? Because in his non-linear omniscience, Q would know that the Borg were about to get a transmission from the 22nd century. And decided to lend a helping hand - in his own frustrating way.

[@camortie]

I have always thought of this episode as part of a circle that begins and ends in the same place. Let me elaborate: 1: the Enterprise E follows a Spear Ship back to 2063 and stops the Borg from interfering with First Contact 2: Roughly 100 years later a research team finds the wreckage of the Borg Spear in the artic along with two drones. The drones thaw out, assimilate the team and their security detachment, and modify their ship for space. They are then stopped by the NX-01. After this Johnathan Archer and his fist officer/science officer T'Pol send in their reports on the incident and the, along with everything collected by the research team before they where assimilated was taken by the group that would soon be known as S31. 3: After being rescued by the Enterprise B from the Ribbon in 2293, El-Aurian refugees begin to tell stories about the fate of their planet. Hearing these stories S31 goes back to the old reports from the NX-01 and are able to finally add new info about the mysterious aliens, even putting a name to them, the Borg. They begin the hunt for individuals willing to study such a dangerous race. 4: S31 learns of Magnus and Erin Hanson, a couple of xenobiologists that are not afraid to bend the rules in the pursuit of knowledge. They leak the Borg info to them and are able to get them permission to go off and study the Borg. The Hansen's along with their 6 year old daughter Anika dissappear, their fate not being discovered for over 20 years when Voyager frees Anika, now known as 7 of 9, and comes apon their pacially assimilated ship. 7 even meets the drone that was once her father. 5: The events of The Neutral Zone (tng 1-26) 6: The events of Q-who (tng 2-16) 7: The events of Best of Both Worlds (tng 3-26 and 4-1) 8: The Borg launch a second attack on Earth and are eventually followed back to the later half of the 21st century, circle ends/circle begins again.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

This was overall a great episode. The only nitpick I have with it, is how seemingly the NX-01 didn't record anything about this encounter, and seemed to get collective amnesia about the Borg. So that 200 years later noone knew anything about this and when the 1701-D encountered the Borg noone had ever seen anything like them. I mean yes you can say, oh they were all destroyed. But even T'Pol made a point of saying 24th century.

[@guygrist4436]

Probably one of Enterprise’s best episodes. I it fits quite well with Q Who because Q threw the Enterprise D only (relatively speaking) 7,000 lights so not that far into the Delta Quadrant so perhaps the Borg where already on their way.

[@yeenmachine206]

Honestly, this probably one of my favorite Star Trek episodes, period

[@philgodin6493]

Maybe this episode creates a new timeline where the Borg know about humans before Q introduces them. Thus, regenerating the threat of this new timeliness Borg?

[@jtzor5922]

I just head canon that Phlox wasn't good at paper work and that's why Star Fleet doesn't get records for a possible cure for a lifeform that was not discovered thoroughly yet. The same can be said for the Ferengi that were trying to steal the Enterprise, "who we are is not important."

[@bobcarn]

I loved everything about the episode when it aired. It had everything in it that made Star Trek great. It was gripping and exciting and dramatic and stuck to canon. I've watched it several times since then, loving it each time. The only thing I didn't like was that it was such a great episode, and the series had a lot of other good episodes, but was still cancelled. "Enterprise" was one of my more favorite shows, with characters that weren't quite so homogenized as they were in TNG's timeline. Also, the NX-01 was a great ship design. It felt... approrpriate.

[@scitrek]

This was easily the best Enterprise episode made.

[@philiusmaximus6517]

I always thought that The Borg signal in this episode was why Q intervened. Sure, that retroactively makes Q much nicer than he seemed, but I didn't mind that. I'm not saying that I insist on exacting continuities, but I never felt the discrepancy here. Perhaps, as Steve states, I was won over by the story and my mind filled in the blanks. Also, thank you for acknowledging the horror/suspense aspects of this episode as I always felt a little silly for being on the edge of my seat!

[@thomasjoychild4962]

Q's always, much as he talks down to the primitives, been not-too-secretly rooting for them to succeed and survive. That's always the point of his obstacle courses, challenging Picard et al to grow and learn, not to elaborately kill them. These insects are FUN and Q likes the moxy of them going out and stumbling around exploring.

[@GrannyGamer1]

Scavenger hunt. Find the George W. Bush joke.

[@mitchbray6637]

I give the episode a ten out o One of my favorites in the entire franchise.

[@TV4Fun2]

1:31, don't forget the ur example of scientists finding something strange in the Arctic and it going bad, Frankenstein.

[@martind7612]

Good commentary!

[@Shindai]

Hot damn, a Bushism in 2023, that wasn't on my bingo card for this year lol

[@OakCityGamers]

Steve. This audio definitely had a hat on it. 🎩 😂 eh. This episode is just ok. To be real… Star Trek and most Sci-Fi shows lean heavily on other media to mine aspects for storytelling, I also think many times it’s because of “studio interactions” and from lazy writing. I think this episode has small amounts of original thought but it’s still loaded with the aforementioned writing aspects. When it came out, I thought it was good, but I recognized it for what it is. Fan service. I remember the episode fondly because it was done well. I like your take, it reminds me of the day I watched it for the first time. Thanks. 11:21 love that reference, they did that in Krod Mandoon and I was the only one who caught it while watching with my friends.

[@OakCityGamers]

Also I like the text commentary from the dvds, Michael Okuda has some soft insights on how detached this story is from the first encounter with the Enterprise D and “best of both worlds” and how he felt that Dr. Crusher would’ve done some scans, and cross referenced with historical databases and put the two together. It’s an interesting DVD feature, and a great place to mine stuff for Star Trek based content.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@OakCityGamers text commentary? I always watched the commentary tracks on all my DVDs and after the interesting ones for the Trek movies I was saddened they’d not done it for the TV series. Yet somehow I missed this! (Unless it was only on the NTSC discs?)