2x23 Regeneration

[8.3/10] The continuity nerd in me should hate this episode. We’ve already done the Ferengi showing up before first official contact. We’ve already done the Vulcans showing up before first official contact. Now we’re doing an encounter with the Borg, where both Earth and Starfleet’s flag ship are involved, and nobody pieces anything together or so much as mentions it in the 200 years between now and when Picard and company run into them? And if that weren’t enough, the whole “subspace transmission to the Delta Quadrant” button at the end completely retcons the idea that it was Q who brought humanity to the Borg’s attention.

But you know what? I don’t really care. I’m not one to throw continuity to the wind, but this was a tense, dramatic, at times downright frightening episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. It maintained a level of suspense throughout that the show has not been able to muster in even in its biggest episodes. And while you know, given the demands of episodic television, that Archer and his crew were going to find some way to make it out of this scrape, the threat seemed imposing and unavoidable enough that you genuinely wonder how, and maybe even if, they would make it out unscathed.

Plus, the episode even throws a bone to us continuity hounds. While I initially bristled at the idea that there were full-fledged Borg on Earth, who were not only frozen in the Antarctic, but who could use nanoprobes and instant assimilation, “Regeneration” implies that these drones were leftovers from the events depicted in First Contact. There’s even a subtle put very plausible retcon for Cochrane himself as a teller of tall tales that not everyone took seriously, mitigating whatever timeline pollution the Next Generation crew may have committed in that movie.

But more than how “Regeneration” lines up with, or conflicts with, what’s happened in past Star Trek installments, it’s just a cool episode that poses continual challenges that our heroes may not be ready for. Not for nothing, this may be the first time that Archer has had to out and out kill people (aside from the wisps that he was seemingly blasé about obliterating). I’m sure I’m forgetting some instance where he took a life in a skirmish with the Suliban or something, but the episode puts a real focus on him making a mortal choice here, and it underlines the gravity of the situation.

I’m still not much for Bakula as an actor, but I like that the episode takes time out of the thorough “tactical alert” heart-pumping action for just a second to show him feeling pained by the fact that he had to eject two aliens who’d been assimilated by the Borg out of the airlock. In the same way, I like that he debates with T’Pol and struggles with the decision of whether to try to save the 29 souls on the transport the Borg have taken over, or destroy it to eliminate the threat. It is a moral line that Archer is crossing here, which underscores how serious the risks are here.

That’s not the only way “Regeneration” makes a galaxy-spanning risk much more personal, though. My favorite part of the episode, as usual, is the interludes with Dr. Phlox. John Billingsley continues to do tremendous work, and the mix of fear, resignation, instability, and determination he shows after having been injected with nanoprobes and trying to find a cure is nigh-masterful.

It’s a layered performance, balanced between the steely “business as usual” face Phlox tries to put on before choosing to batter himself with radiation, and the “there’s a good chance this ends in my death” fear and concern he’s grappling with under the surface. It’s a hard thing to show without going overboard, but Billingsley knocks it out of the park.

Otherwise, Enterprise can coast, to some extent, on the same Borg tricks that The Next Generation and Voyager used. No matter who the crew is, there’s something scary about these unthinking, unfeeling automatons who don’t even acknowledge your presence wandering around and messing things up on your ship. There’s still something inherently scary about their look and bearing, with the pale faces and technological Hellraiser appearance. And there’s something especially terrifying about their abilities, to be able to remake any piece of technology you have and adapt to whatever you throw at them.

Sure, it’s been a while since Voyager for me, but if I remember correctly, the Borg got pretty well nerfed on that show. Still, the advantage of throwing them at the crew of Enterprise, however continuity defying it may be, is that what’s old is new again. Reed and Trip and Archer don’t automatically know how to fight this enemy based on past experience. They don’t know about assimilation or adaptation or technological prowess beyond what they learn in real time, which puts them in roughly the same position that the Next Generation crew was in during the seminal “Best of Both Worlds” duology.

“Regeneration” isn’t quite that good, but it’s still a definite high water mark for Enterprise. The excitement of Reed having multiple run-ins with the cybernetic baddies and their freakish strength was frightening. The opening segments in Antarctica had a nicely creepy vibe borrowed from The Thing. And T’Pol and Trip and Archer scrambling to stay one step ahead, or not fall one step behind, the Starfleet transport commandeered by the Borg has a level of panic and excitement that this show is not usually able to pull off.

So continuity be damned. Borg exhaustion be damned. Cheesy connections to future (and if I’m honest, better) episodes be damned. The stakes when Archer’s crew takes on the Borg feel higher, much higher, than the usual random run-ins with a hostile species. However softened they’ve been in the past, seeing the cyborg enemies do their usual menacing stroll still packs a punch all these years later. Seeing the crew hang together, sabotage the transport, recover the ship, and come close to death’s door trying to prevent another invasion from the inside, is some of the best teamwork and responding to a threat in real time we’ve ever seen.

If it takes violating the canon to put together television this good, then by all means, Enterprise, throw the past (er, future) away.