Episode Report Card Keckler: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Importance of Being Earnest Borgnine
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 23 | Aired on 05.06.2003
Quantum's Ready Room. T'Pol reports picking up an automated distress call from a Tarkalean freighter.
Bridge. Hoshi reads the S.O.S. back, which amounts to the Tarkaleans requesting immediate assistance, as they are under attack by an unknown species. May-XX thinks it will take them an hour to reach the freighter. Quantum orders the course set.
Enterprise arrives on the scene to see the Borg transport vessel doing stuff with a green laser to the Tarkalean ship. There aren't any explosions evident, so it must just be remodifications. Opening a channel, Quantum attempts to tell the Borg to back off. Instead of responding, the Borg ship charges weapons and fires a proton burst. "Those kind of transports aren't normally armed!" Reed announces, as T'Pol comes to the obvious conclusion that the engines aren't the only things the Borg upgraded. T'Pol detects nine bio-signs on the Borg ship, and reports that the readings are erratic. The Borg ship continues to fire on Enterprise, and Quantum tells Reed to disable the enemy weapons. With two red blasts, Reed reports that the Borg's weapons are down. That's all it took? As the Borg ship jumps to warp, Quantum decides he wants to rescue the remaining barely-alive Tarkaleans from the disabled ship. He and Reed catch a sh'pod and leave T'Pol in charge.
Sick Bay. Phlox examines two Tarkaleans and posits that they'll live, but many of their inner systems have been replaced by nanoprobes. "Essentially, these individuals are being transformed into some sort of cybernetic hybrid," Phlox finishes. Since the human bio-signs on the Borg ship were erratic, T'Pol thinks the abducted Arctic scientists are going through a similar transformation. Phlox can't surgically remove the nanoprobes, as they are multiplying with a quickness, but he thinks he may be able to slow their rate with a retrovirus. T'Pol suggests isolating the two Tarkaleans in the Decon chamber. Phlox pooh-poohs this, saying that he wouldn't be able to treat them as effectively, and opines that they are no danger to the crew. "I'm not so sure," Quantum says, looking at the Tarkaleans. "I'll have Malcolm post a guard. Keep me updated." So now we're supposed to buy that Quantum has suddenly had a flash of intelligence here? What about in "Dear Doctor" and "Breach" when he brought aliens aboard for treatment without posting a guard in Sick Bay?
Quantum's Ready Room. Quantum reads TWoP and wonders over the term "HoYay!" Didn't I just tell you he's not that bright? T'Pol enters to tell him that she contacted Tarkalea and let them know they are doing all they can for their planetmen. Look, "countrymen" works, so don't quibble with "planetmen." Quantum's been taking his Ginkgo Biloba today, and has his second big flash of insight when he tells T'Pol that there's "something familiar about all this." "But I couldn't put my finger on it until I found this speech Zephram Cochrane made eighty-nine years ago." Quantum drones some more about reading everything (including Starfleet washroom graffiti) ever written about Cochrane. "He was giving a commencement address at Princeton ["Shout-out to me and to Sars!" -- Mathra] when he started to talk about what really happened during First Contact. He mentioned a group of cybernetic creatures from the future who tried to stop his first warp flight when he was living in Montana. He said they were defeated by a group of humans, who were also from the future." "As I recall, Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories," T'Pol comments. He was also a big drunk. "He was also known to be frequently intoxicated," T'Pol finishes. Okay, then. Quantum agreed that no one took him seriously, and that he recanted the whole thing a few years later. "But you have to admit there are similarities," Quantum insists. "He said their ultimate goal was to enslave the human race," T'Pol reads. "If he was right," Quantum adds, "they may be heading back to their homeworld so they can try again." And again. And again.