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
Outside. 1 of 4 wonders at the deuterium readings, and wants to find out if it's a warp coil.
Inside. The computer starts beeping, and 3 of 4 looks down at one of the Borg. The Borg's eyes are going fly open any minute now. Okay, or his mouth. The Borg gasps a bit. Do Borg breathe? I suppose that could be as rife with controversy and migraines as the same question applied to vampires. 3 of 4 starts taking readings of the Borg, and the Borg opens his eyes. The green-tinted light of Borg TV shows 3 of 4's face hovering over him.
Outside. 1 of 4 and 2 of 4 struggle with the warp coil removal until suddenly, they are distracted by something. I couldn't figure it out until I saw closed captioning indicating there was "loud gasping in distance." Because it makes perfect sense that they could hear "loud gasping in distance" happening inside the lab, when they were outside the lab in the violent Arctic winds that seem to be whipping around them. They run to check it out and see laser fire.
Upside-Down. In the lab, 1 of 4 and 2 of 4 see that at least one of the recovered Borg is missing; another one still lies on the examination table. They find 3 of 4 flat out behind some stuff, and he's gasping. We can see the grey lines of telltale Borg infection shooting up his throat. 2 of 4 orders 1 of 4 to get him a medical kit, but 1 of 4 runs smack into another Borg, who blinds her with his one red headlight.
Shot of my future hometown in the future. Admiral Forrest is told by Commander Bo Hunk that no one has heard from the excavation team in several days. The Admiral orders a sh'pod prepped.
Arctic Circle. Sh'pod lands at Borg crash site. The security team (and Admiral Forrest, I think?) enters the abandoned lab. Cmdr. Bo Hunk and the Admiral exchange looks of concern.
Wow. Seventeen whole minutes into the episode, and no sign of team Enterprise yet? Someone out there is trying to make me like this episode. Try harder.
Enterprise. Situation Alcove. Quantum pages through images of the Borg in the Arctic Circle lab and says the Admiral thinks that the technologically enhanced humanoids abducted the excavation team. Reed wants to know what they can do, as they aren't exactly near the Arctic Circle. "Earth tracking systems spotted the transport leaving orbit at warp three-point-nine," Quantum explains. Here's a question -- what did the Borg use as transport? The research team's vessel? Some babbling that the Borg reconfigured the transport to increase its warp capabilities. Quantum announces that they've been ordered to find the ship, since extrapolation puts the Borg ship in their neck of the woods. They make plans to start a search in the surrounding system, and go on tactical alert. Only Trip and Quantum remain in the Sitch Alcove. "Buried in the ice for a century," Trip comments, looking down at the images. "Hard to believe anything could survive," Quantum responds. "Handsome devil," Trip grins, and walks off. Nope, not a smidgen of a shred of a hint about what went on between them in the last episode. I was really hoping for something. Then again, I believe they filmed these eps in a completely different order from their air sequence.
Sick Bay. Reed can't figure out the bio-metric data that the excavation team gathered before their untimely assimilation, and he needs Phlox's brains. As Phlox is happy to help, Reed wants to start with the dismembered arm that appears to contain a weapon. Cannon Boy is desirous of knowing the yield of the weapon. "What sort of people would replace perfectly good body parts with cybernetic implants?" Reed wonders. Phlox thinks that he of all people should be open-minded about this kind of stuff. Reed says that as long as it stays outside of his skin, he's okay with it. Phlox asks Reed how adverse he'd be to technology getting under his skin if he needed a heart transplant and the transplant was a completely synthetic heart. Omigod, what a coincidence -- Cpt. Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation has one of those! What are the odds they'd mention that here in this completely original and never-used-before storyline? "That's different," Reed insists. Here's where Phlox babbles about the Binars (the BINARS!) and says that, at birth, the babies have their parietal lobe removed and replaced with a synaptic processor. Reed's not interested. Getting back to the Borg data, Phlox can't find any evidence of the arm containing a weapon, which makes Reed wonder how the Borg ever overpowered the heavily armed research team.