Before watching the classic Next Generation story "Q Who", where Q convinces the Enterprise crew they need him by sending them into a sector of space where they get a good ol' fashioned Borg-style asskicking, I actually decided to skip a few episodes of Enterprise onto the relevant episode, "Regeneration", where an Arctic research base gets assimilated by freshly thawed out Borg left behind from the events of Star Trek: First Contact. It goes without saying that the new Collective take over the research vessel and proceed to go on a rampage, leading to Archer and co. to pursue them.
This is a very controversial story, and it further cemented Enterprise as a punching bag amongst Star Trek Elitists. Indeed, despite getting a high rating nowadays on IMDB, the first featured review is that of one such elitist ranting and raving about how Enterprise was the devil and this story was its legion.
And honestly, it does not deserve the hate. It's a damn fine adventure. And a really fun Borg story. I love how the first Borg the NX-01 crew encounters are people in the midst of becoming fully-fledged drones. The fact that they're already threats is a true testament to the Borg's assimilation skills and how fast said assimilation is. The newborn drones and the headache they cause for Tucker and Reed are one of my favourite parts of the story, and I also really like how they explained the Borg's assimilation and regeneration: Nanomachines might be a bit cliche nowadays, but it's a very solid reason as to why the Borg assimilate, infect and get back up so quickly. And finally, the explanation they gave for why these events are common knowledge is actually sound: the ending implies that since the Borg signal won't reach the rest of the Collective until the 24th Century, that the incident will be swiftly covered up and scrubbed from records, hence why Q giving the Enterprise-D crew a kick in its complacency is still a big deal timeline wise.
It also has strong pacing, action, atmosphere, and a good soundtrack from Bryan Tyler which serves the atmosphere. So ultimately, yeah. "Regeneration" is one of my favourites from Enterprise. Right up there with "The Andorian Incident", "Cold Front" and the rather overlooked "Two Days and Two Nights". It's just a riveting thrill ride and a blast from start to finish.
EDIT: Oh, and "Q Who" is another fantastic story ICYC.
This is a very controversial story, and it further cemented Enterprise as a punching bag amongst Star Trek Elitists. Indeed, despite getting a high rating nowadays on IMDB, the first featured review is that of one such elitist ranting and raving about how Enterprise was the devil and this story was its legion.
And honestly, it does not deserve the hate. It's a damn fine adventure. And a really fun Borg story. I love how the first Borg the NX-01 crew encounters are people in the midst of becoming fully-fledged drones. The fact that they're already threats is a true testament to the Borg's assimilation skills and how fast said assimilation is. The newborn drones and the headache they cause for Tucker and Reed are one of my favourite parts of the story, and I also really like how they explained the Borg's assimilation and regeneration: Nanomachines might be a bit cliche nowadays, but it's a very solid reason as to why the Borg assimilate, infect and get back up so quickly. And finally, the explanation they gave for why these events are common knowledge is actually sound: the ending implies that since the Borg signal won't reach the rest of the Collective until the 24th Century, that the incident will be swiftly covered up and scrubbed from records, hence why Q giving the Enterprise-D crew a kick in its complacency is still a big deal timeline wise.
It also has strong pacing, action, atmosphere, and a good soundtrack from Bryan Tyler which serves the atmosphere. So ultimately, yeah. "Regeneration" is one of my favourites from Enterprise. Right up there with "The Andorian Incident", "Cold Front" and the rather overlooked "Two Days and Two Nights". It's just a riveting thrill ride and a blast from start to finish.
EDIT: Oh, and "Q Who" is another fantastic story ICYC.
