Regeneration (episode)

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

Jump to: navigation, search
This article is on the Star Trek: Enterprise episode. You may also be looking for the state of regeneration.
This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
"Regeneration"
ENT, Episode 2x23
Production number: 049
First aired: 7 May 2003
← 48th of 97 produced in ENT →
← 48th of 97 released in ENT →
  {{{nNthReleasedInSeries_Remastered}}}th of 97 released in ENT Remastered  
← 677th of 726 released in all →
Written By
Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong

Directed By
David Livingston
March 1, 2153
← Arc: Borg and First Contact (2 of 3) →
  Arc: {{{wsArc1Desc}}} ({{{nArc1PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc1PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc2Desc}}} ({{{nArc2PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc2PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc3Desc}}} ({{{nArc3PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc3PartCount}}})  
  Arc: {{{wsArc4Desc}}} ({{{nArc4PartNumber}}} of {{{nArc4PartCount}}})  
Borg debris is discovered on Earth
Borg debris is discovered on Earth

A scientific team in the Arctic discovers two Borg drones. When the drones assimilate the scientists and move into space, Enterprise is called upon to find the cybernetic beings and stop them.

Contents

[edit] Summary

Investigating what appears to be the site of a wreckage in the Arctic, scientists begin scouting the area around the debris. Initially they find a drone locked in solid ice, while another scientist finds a drone just covered in ice. They bring them back to the recently set up module and start experimenting with the drones and their equipment. The drones' nanoprobes make repairs and begin reviving the biological and technological systems in their dead bodies. In no time, one of the drones reanimates and attacks a lone scientist having his coffee break. A battle ensues, resulting in the scientist being assimilated. Two nearby scientists hear a scream along with phase shots and rush back to see what was wrong, only to be ambushed and assimilated as well.

The scene jumps to Admiral Forrest's office where he is informed that contact with the Arctic team has been lost and they rush to the site, only to find it abandoned.

Meanwhile, on Enterprise, Captain Archer briefs the crew about the situation. The scientists' shuttlepod has been hijacked by the alien beings, and much of the debris from the crash site is gone. The scientists' data is transmitted to the Enterprise's computer, and the crew studies it. Soon, a distress signal is received from a Tarkalean freighter. Enterprise races to the scene to find the scientists' transport upgraded into a small warship, cutting a piece out of the freighter. Enterprise opens fire with her phase cannons and destroys the Borg ship's weapons array, which prompts the Borg to jump to warp. Archer decides to stay and try to save the Tarkelean crew instead of pursuing the Borg ship.

With the two remaining crew being brought aboard, Phlox examines them, and discovers nanites, like those which revived the frozen drones, slowly absorbing their bodily systems, and then proceeds in vain attempts to cure them using various methods. Phlox attempts to reassure one of the Tarkaleans about his condition, telling him that he is being treated and will be fine. However, the Tarkalean goes into convulsions, but when Phlox tries to sedate him, he is attacked – the Tarkalean injects him with assimilation tubules and throws him over the bed, knocking him unconscious. The other Tarkalean leaps from her bed and hurls the security guard across the room. They both then escape via a maintenance hatch.

Later, Archer awakens Phlox, who has begun to hear voices at the edge of his consciousness. After a quick diagnostic, he discovers that he is being assimilated by nanoprobes and races against time to find a cure. Meanwhile, Malcolm Reed and a security detachment are ordered to pursue the Borg. Phlox advises extreme caution, stating that the Tarkaleans have been greatly physically enhanced. When the security team finally catch up with the drones, they discover them modifying ship's systems, injecting them with nanites and reprogramming computer banks. Reed gives out a verbal warning to which the drones are unconscious or indifferent. The team fires a few futile shots and retreat when the female Tarkalean advances upon them. While in retreat, they are ambushed by the male Tarkalean, who throws one of the security personnel away and attacks a second, stunning him and throwing him to the ground where it attempts to inject him. Reed renders the drone unconscious by clubbing it in the back of the head with his rifle, and they escape and close the hatch to the section behind them. Archer regretfully decides to vent the area and eject the drones to space. T'Pol advises him that he did the correct thing.

In the meantime, Trip Tucker and Reed try to figure out what has been done to the systems, Tucker mentioning that it would take days to disable the modifications it took the drones mere minutes to install. Reed decides to go to the armory and tries to improve the phase pistols by increasing the power output by several megajoules. The resultant modified hand phasers are quite effective, however, the pistol needs a few seconds to recharge between shots.

Phlox meets with Archer in sickbay and says he believes he has a "cure" for this cyber-infection. He will expose himself to large doses of Omicron radiation, which he believes will burn out the quantum processors of the nanites. He also instructs Archer that, if the procedure should fail, he wishes to be dosed a neural toxin that will completely destroy his brain pathways, as he has "no intention of becoming one of those cybernetic creatures.”

Enterprise catches up with the Borg ship, which shortly before was a mere shuttlepod. It is now heavily modified, and has increased in mass by 3%, apparently having absorbed some unfortunate starships. Though not originally fitted for interstellar travel, the craft is now reaching high warp speeds, and is actually visibly increasing in warp factor. Enterprise targets an exposed EPS conduit and prepares to disable power aboard the vessel. However, the Borg ship unexpectedly drops out of warp, where it transmits a signal aimed at the Enterprise. The signal activates the Borg implants installed by the two Tarkalean drones. The implants interfere with the Enterprise systems, disrupting its plasma network and thereby cutting main power. Aboard the Enterprise bridge, a hail is received from the alien vessel, which Archer accepts, furious and afraid. Before he can speak, a voice issues over the comm system: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Meanwhile, out in space, the Borg ship comes about to face the Enterprise.

The Borg mount a successful attack, and the Enterprise is heavily damaged. The Borg ship continues to attack the Enterprise, and Archer and Reed decide to beam aboard the Borg ship with modified phase pistols to attack the EPS conduit manually. On their way, they encounter several Borg drones and use the opportunity to take scans of regenerating drones. They also test their newly-upgraded weapons on two drones who fall dead upon being hit by phase beams. On closer inspection, they realize that one of the drones is the female researcher and determine that the drones are no longer biological Humans, based on bio-readings. They navigate their way to the EPS router, though Reed is attacked by a drone, which lifts him up against a wall and prepares to inject him with nanites. Archer attacks the drone from behind, striking it repeatedly in the head with the butt of his gun, but only succeeds in injuring it when he violently rips a cable from out of a port in it’s head. He takes hold of it from behind and it drops Reed as it attempts to gain hold of him. Reed throws himself into it, sending all three of them to the floor, and they disable it by further forcibly disconnecting cybernetic components and wires from its skull. Meanwhile, Borg drones beam aboard Enterprise and are engaged by security personnel, who manage to neutralize two of the attackers before their regenerative shields adapt and the security teams are scattered in retreat.

On Enterprise, Phlox again hears the voices of the collective consciousness as the nanoprobes infect his brain. He manages to ignore it while instructing the security post to activate the radiation devices that he believes will stop his assimilation. He enters the chamber and, after the devices activate, he seems to find the treatment expectedly unpleasant.

Outside, in space, the Enterprise hull-polarization has been completely negated by the Borg attack, and the cybernetic ship begins using a LASER beam to slice a circular segment from out of the Enterprise's structure.

Reed and Archer arrive finally at the EPS manifold, and are attacked by several more drones. They begin placing explosive charges along the base and top of the manifold, and finish just as a group of Borg enter the chamber and begin to close upon them. They open fire, but the Borg shields have adapted to the modified weapons. Archer and Reed are transported out, and the drones set to the task of disabling the explosives. Archer and Reed, now in the Enterprise's transporter room, activate the explosives via a remote transmitter. The EPS manifold bursts, punching a hole in the Borg ship, and disabling most of their systems and their cutting beam.

Meanwhile, Tucker finally gains access to a critical device inside the Borg-modified systems on Enterprise. He disconnects the device, and the plasma distribution network begins reintegrating itself. Main power comes back online, and Tucker reports this through the comm system. Archer and Reed hurry back towards the bridge for a status report. The drones aboard Enterprise stop their pursuit of the beleaguered security team and transport back to their ship.

On Enterprise, on the bridge, Tucker and Archer arrive for their report, and the crew seems well pleased, though frayed, with the results. However, within moments their sensors are back online, and they discover that the Borg ship has already been restored and is readying weapons. Enterprise hurriedly falls away and launches a volley of spatial torpedoes followed with phase cannon fire, aimed directly at the Borg transwarp drive, and destroys the ship.

With the battle over, Enterprise starts repairs and travels back at low warp. Phlox briefs Archer and T'Pol about his experience with the hive mind and informs Archer that he believes the drones transmitted a subspace message. He hands Archer a datapad that contains the message.

In Archer's room, T'Pol enters and Archer tells her that the computer has finally decoded the message and informs her that the message is being sent to somewhere in the Delta Quadrant. T'Pol replies that there shouldn't be any worries as any subspace message would need two hundred years to get to the Delta Quadrant. Archer replies that it is a listing of pulsar frequencies and geometric light year measurements – a spatial coordinate system. The cybernetic beings have apprised their homeworld of the location of Earth. He believes they may have only postponed a larger invasion until the 24th century.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"We have no reason to believe they're hostile?"
"They don't exactly look friendly."

- Arctic researchers, discussing the drone corpses


"What sort of species would replace perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?"

- Reed


"Use extreme caution Lieutenant, their physical strength has been enhanced. It is critical that you do not let them touch you."

- Phlox, having been injected with nanoprobes


"They've adapted!"

- Reed, realizing that the proto-drones have phase shielding


"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

- The Borg

[edit] Background Information

  • The episode has a much darker theme than other installments of Enterprise. For example, the background music creates a more sinister effect.
  • Among the Borg debris is a filming model of the Enterprise-E's front saucer section, originally created for the crash scene in Star Trek Nemesis.
    Enterprise-E saucer in "Regeneration"
    Enterprise-E saucer in "Regeneration"
  • When the assimilated transport attacks the Tarkalean freighter, and later Enterprise, it is seen cutting a circular chunk into their hulls. This is an allusion to TNG: "Q Who", when the Borg take a cylindrical cross-section of the Enterprise-D. The writers had initially hoped to show the cylinder being tractored away from the Tarkalean freighter, but the effect was deemed too expensive.
  • The scene where Reed tests phase pistol efficiency was added at the last minute, as David Livingston's quick form of directing left several minutes to be filled.
  • Reed's line about shooting the Borg drones with holographic bullets was an in-joke by the episode writers. In the holodeck scene in Star Trek: First Contact, drones could indeed be killed by holographic bullets, assuming the holodeck safety protocols were turned off.
  • In the first draft of the script, the Arctic research station was to have been "scooped" off the planet, leaving only a crater behind (as seen in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds"). It was decided by the producers that only a Borg cube would have this capability, so the debris was simply removed from the ice field, presumably carried away by the drones.
  • In the original premise, the assimilated Earth shuttle was to have transformed into a partial Borg sphere by assimilating more ships over the course of the episode, analogous to a snowball growing as it rolls down hill. However, this idea was dropped from the script, although in the final confrontation between the Enterprise and the shuttle, the segment of the ship containing the transwarp drive had been reconfigured into a a small cube shape which dominated the hindquarters of the ship.
  • There was some controversy among fans over the fact that the Borg drones omitted their standard greeting ("We are the Borg") when they hailed Enterprise, conveniently keeping Starfleet in the dark about the identity of the cybernetic species. In their podcast commentary, the writers' justified this by pointing out that the Borg in TNG: "Q Who" never said "We are the Borg" when they encountered the Enterprise-D, nor did they use that catchphrase when they confronted Picard's ship again in TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds". Moreover, the drones encountered by Enterprise were not directly linked to the Collective or the Borg Queen – for them to have identified themselves as the Borg might have been disingenuous. Or, perhaps the surviving drones from Star Trek: First Contact had a secondary protocol not to identify themselves in Earth's past so they could conduct their business more covertly.
  • It is interesting to note that Phlox wasn't immediately assimilated by the Borg after he was injected with the nanoprobes. In Star Trek: First Contact it was shown that the initial assimilation of Humans was almost instantaneous. Phlox suggests that his Denobulan physiology was somewhat resistant to the assimilation process, but would eventually lose the battle with the nanoprobes. It may also be that the Borg, preparing for a full scale invasion of Earth, have found a way to assimilate humans more quickly.
  • The episode introduces a potential predestination paradox into the overall Borg story arc. At the end of the episode, it is revealed that the assimilated Earth freighter dispatched a subspace message to the Delta Quadrant. T'Pol theorized it would take at least two hundred years for the message to reach the Delta Quadrant, implying that this may be how the Borg Collective originally learned of Humanity's existence (it is worth noting there is no evidence the signal was actually received). If the message were received, it may explain why, in the 24th century, the Borg sent at least one vessel to the vicinity of Federation space, destroying several Romulan and Federation outposts in 2364. (TNG: "The Neutral Zone") A series of incidents with the Federation followed over the next several years, culminating in the Battle of Sector 001, wherein a Borg sphere traveled to the 21st century in an effort to assimilate Humanity in the past. (Star Trek: First Contact) The sphere was destroyed, and several drones from the vessel were frozen in an Arctic glacier in 2063, which were uncovered by the Arctic scientists 90 years later in "Regeneration," starting the causality loop all over again.
  • The events of this episode form the basis of the story for the 2006 non-canon game Star Trek: Legacy. A Vulcan scientist named T'Uerell is assigned to study the Borg debris and after learning their true nature, injects herself with Borg nanoprobes. Armed with knowledge of future events, she spends the next two centuries building her forces and waiting for the opportunity to seize control of the Borg Collective in order to use them to bring a state of total logic to the Alpha Quadrant.
  • The Bynar species, which first appeared in TNG: "11001001", are mentioned in this episode by Phlox as being an example of an admirable use of cybernetic technology.

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

[edit] References

A-6 Excavation Team; angel hair pasta; Arctic One; Arctic One type; Borg; Borg Sphere; Bynars; Cochrane, Zefram; commencement address; metabolism; nanotechnology; Pulsar triangulation; Tarkaleans; Tarkalean freighter; Zefram Cochrane's commencement address


Previous episode:
"Cogenitor" 		Star Trek: Enterprise
Season 2 		Next episode:
"First Flight"
Retrieved from "http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Regeneration_%28episode%29"
Personal tools
In other languages