Many people cite the Xindi arc as the shift in Archer's character, but I think it started here. Archer was, in many ways, an idealist who saw himself as a real-life version of a classic scifi hero like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or Captain Proton. He's convinced he can always save the day. Here, he's facing a swiftly escalating threat and quickly realizes he's outmatched. The man who thinks he can save everyone orders the Borgified Tarkalians blown out into space and abandons the research team ("There isn't anyone on that ship we can help anymore."). It's there when first realizes he is not a hero in a space opera; he is just a man with a job that's harder than he ever imagined.
this is an excellent way of looking at it! you know, trek pays a lot of homage, sometimes, to the inevitable experience of failure. this was a kobayashi maru moment for him.
It's also a really dark moment for the crew. When Archer tells them to fire and destroy the ship, they don't hesitate, and they feel relieved to win. But they then all deem to think "wow, we just murdered people". This moment you speak of that hardened Archer really hits the entire crew at the end.
"Regeneration" is to the Borg as "In A Mirror, Darkly" is to the Mirror Universe, in that Star Trek: Enterprise of all shows did easily some of the best work with both concepts. Regeneration is great because it serves as both sequel and prequel to First Contact, and that last scene with that ominous music in the background gives me chills every time: "Sounds to me like we've only postponed the invasion until, what, the 24th century. . .?"
Does retcon q from showing humanity the borg ad a lesson in humility to him giving humanity a warning of what is coming Which given his later chatecterisation towards humanity does kinda make sense
Enjoyed this one and I agree it's an excellent episode. I think it might even squeak in over Q Who into my second favourite Borg episode. It has all the elements of the cast being over their heads and not realising it with the added body horror of borgification that hadn't been developed yet in Q Who. Only minus point for me is they find a way to de Borg Phlox quite easily (albeit painfully). Taking your philosophy of story over anything this isn't a massive issue but it does slightly diminish their threat.
@@koini11 A method that only works on Denobulans, has a high risk of failure even if they survive it, and would likely have a much shorter window of opportunity against full-strength Borg than the partly-assimilated Tarkaliens who jabbed Phlox
@@lordpelagius5078it's definitely in Q's mysterious character to pose his assistance as a challenge against humanity's foolhardy nature. And when challenged by the Continuum, he could always say he didn't "interfere" so much as "speed-up". Humanity was ALWAYS going to encounter the Borg. He just sped it up by a decade or so, and in a fashion that gave humanity just enough of an edge to stave them off.
I would add to that also, for all the mockery of "fixing" the Klingon discrepancy, the arc about the Augments does a lot to flesh out the whole thread between Khan's people and Dr. Bashier's secret. I can only imagine what the show could have been if Manny Coto had been there from the jump.
I had no idea I'd be getting a Borg Christmas carol this year. I'm going to learn all the words and sing it each and every Christmas from now on. Thank you, captain! Happy Holidays!
_Regeneration_ also locks the Borg into a Shakespearean tragedy. You can see how this bootstrap paradox locks them into a closed time loop of trying to assimilate and being defeated by humans. The collective can't break free from their fate.
It also changes Q Who. Without Q the Federation wouldn’t have taken the Borg as the threat they are. The scramble to put a fleet together at Wolf 359 wouldn’t have happened or been extremely delayed. The Borg wouldn’t know who captain Picard was and wouldn’t have sought him out to gain his knowledge. An act that gave Riker and Data an in to defeat the Borg. It’s possible the humble the humans scheme from Q was him saving humanity knowing the Borg would have come anyways because of the message the Borg sent in Regeneration.
Ah, the paradox of Enterprise, where the fan service, ratings seeking episode does a better job of conveying the purpose of the show than most normal episodes. Humanity on the frontier, outclassed by a superior opponent they're woefully unprepared for, but finding a way to succeed and providing a reason to keep exploring.
There's a pretty easy solution to why it took so long for them to adapt to the modified phase pistols - it's a combination of relatively archaic technology that they had no built in defence for, and they aren't connected to the primary hive (or even a sub-hive with a Queen), so their responses are slower.
I like the idea of borg adaptations being the product of them all mentally sitting down together inside their hive-mind and working out math problems on their TI-84 calculators they got grafted to their brains. It would take longer with just 12 of them or so working together.
This is another example of things to add to my paradoxical Enterprise list. Aside from the first TOS Mirror episode, there hasn't been a good use of the mirror universe. Except for Enterprise. After DS9, nobody has used Section 31 properly. Except for Enterprise.
@@MusicGeekery My issue is that _Enterprise_ was only four seasons. It was an episode that cutely tied in "the Tholian Web" from TOS. If _Enterprise_ was a full seven-season show, "Mirror, Darkly" would have been an interesting change-of-pace for the show. Instead, we get two less episodes about the foundation of the Federation.
@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286 oh absolutely, don't get me wrong, it had no place being plonked in the middle of an already quickly dwindling run. I just would've liked a concrete look at how we got the Terran empire, and why the ship designs stayed the same despite supposedly stealing Vulcan tech
Hot take: Emissary is the best Borg episode. It's about a man whose life was destroyed by the Borg during a frantic and ultimately hopeless attempt to stop them, discovering new meaning and purpose after years of grieving. When the "why do you exist here" line of questioning fully lands emotionally, it is simultaneously heartwrenching and cathartic, and serves as a powerful reminder to continue living.
Just because the Borg appear in Emissary doesn’t make it a Borg episode. Like you said Emissary is about a man whose life was destroyed etc. It’s not about the Borg. What makes a Borg episode? Maybe those that portray the Borg as a major threat…
Couldn;t agree more, Steve. "Regeneration" is in my top 5 ENT episodes. Watching the scientists trying to wake up "the ice aliens" just had me sitting forward, yelling "No! You idiots! Vaporise them!"
"Cinematic literacy is good for more than giving people with no actual accomplishments something to be snobby about." This is what I come to these videos for ;)
Yep, that remark about rules in storytelling at the start of the review hits home to me. I've always felt that you can break any writing rule you like - so long as you know why the rule exists, and you are breaking it in a way that actively facilitates the story being told.
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story that started with a writer and his editor having a disagreement on how the story the writer was working on should go. The writer says to his editor "I know this professor who is working on a program to write things using the rules of story-making; let's feed my story into his system up to the point of disagreement and see how it proceeds." The system uses a chimpanzee's brain as an electronic computer isn't sophisticated enough run the algorithm. As a demonstration, the professor feeds in _MacBeth_ to the chimp up to Hamlet's soliloquy. The chimp then produces the soliloquy word-for-word _except_ that it changes "to take arms against a sea of troubles" to "to take arms against a host of troubles." The professor explains that Shakespeare used a double metaphor, which is against the rules of good writing. They then put in the SF story and he chimp continues it the editor's way. The writer tells the editor "the chimp is blindly following rules; great artists know when to break the rules. It corrected Shakespeare." The editor agrees to let the writer do the story his way and leaves. The professor asks the writer what he would have done if the chimp continued the story his way, and the writer replies "I expected it to do it my way."
@@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286 I remember that story! The moment when the chimp types: * * * And they’re both *shocked*, because that’s one of the writer’s distinct writing traits, indicating he’s about to switch things up in the story!
In less than 5 minutes, the opening sequence of DS9's "Emissary" wipes the floor with every post-DS9 series' take on the Borg. The Battle of Wolf 359 presents a truly cinematic take on Trek's cybernetic villains, but shows the human toll while we see a sobbing, screaming Sisko being pulled away from his dead wife. Nothing, not even ST: FC, can touch this one SCENE when it comes to illustrating the full horror of the Borg on a massive scale and personal as we see Sisko break down into a weaping, inconsolable heap years later in front of the Prophets while whispering: "No. It's not linear..."
I like how "Regeneration" essentially puts every Borg story in the chronology of the show from here up through "First Contact" into a massive 300-year time loop. The message sent from here reaches the Collective, and prompts them to start looking at the Alpha Quadrant... and then they notice those idiot Hansens followed a Cube home, and think "Okay, maybe there's more to these people" and start poking around more and more, culminating in the loss of Federation and Romulan bases in "The Neutral Zone", and they start to gear up for an invasion. And then Q sends Picard and Friends to J-25 for an early warning, which in turn might speed up the Collective's plans and causes "The Best Of Both Worlds", and when that fails they take some time to plan out a new strategy - which gets pushed up *again* by the war with Species 8472, causing the second attack and "First Contact", which in turn leads to the two drones and sphere wreckage that kicks this episode off. Time Loop Complete.
The writers used an old horror technique from the great Alferd Hitchcock to generate suspense. He shows a ticking bomb to the audience under the dinner table but the characters don't know it's there. The audience also doesn't know how much time is on the timer. In this case the audience knows the borg are the vehicle to build the suspense and tension. I really loved the writing here and it was a great episode.
I LOVED this episode of Enterprise. Hell, I loved all of Enterprise and would toss money at Paramount for another 22nd century Trek with MORE space politics! BTW, Steve, I know Trek is your thing but have you considered making more Babylon 5 videos? When considering the times we're in, the show feels even more relevant today. I would love to see more of your take on B5!
@@Tuaron I can just imagine the lyrics! And it's title would probably be: "The Borg Queen's Claws are Coming to Town!" Her "claws" being her two nanoprobe injection tubules!
One more thing. My two rules for life are #1 follow the rules, they're there for a reason. Rule #2 know when it's time to break the rules or you'll never get anything done
considering Denobulans are depicted as more resistant to Borg assimilation or at least Phlox is we basically can understand why. Humans and Tarkalians are basically incapacitated until the last few moments leaving no real room for such methods
I only "hate" fan-service when it's done in a lazy fashion. Fan service can be delicious when it's done well, competently written and properly thought out. Merry Christmas y'all
“Regeneration” ham fistedly does a decent job. I was a big fan of Enterprise and saw this episode as it aired. If you don’t think too much it works perfectly.
When fan service is bad it is distracting or pulls attention away from the current story. When it's good it can tie different parts of a series together and elevate both the current story and the one being referenced.
Happy Holidays, Steve. Clever and well sung lyrics on your Carol. Sounds like something you might want to release as a RUclips short in September or whenever your local Lowes starts putting out holiday lights and inflatables to start the holiday season.
5:56 Boss: Could you date them? Scientist: Yes. This debris has been here for around a hundred years. Boss: Could you date me? Thank you Steve for this first Christmas gift.
Kind of a plot hole for the Enterprise-E to not collect all borg stuff before going back to the future. You'd think they'd have a way to scan for that sort of thing. The story kind of works if you swap out the borg for another bad guy. Part of what makes the episode work is that the borg are treated as a force of nature.
I think the only reason that the Enterprise-E didn't do that, was because they were more concerned about being detected by the Vulcans, & further damaging the timeline.
I am convinced that in the Trek episode of Futurama where Uhura explains that Trek fandom was reorganized into a religion, she was referring to you, Steve. Given that we're both Atheists, I find this incredibly heartwarming.
I didn't actually know about the backstory of Casper the Friendly Ghost. I was just going by the "fan-theory" made up by Bart Simpson that Casper's the ghost of Richie Rich.
The 'dead child' explanation is only in the movie; the people at Whitman were unhappy about it but got overruled by Spielberg and Amblin. In the comics, Casper is merely a juvenile noncorporeal being.
I love the Borg Carol. Also, I don't hate the Picard Borg arc. But as someone who survived the desert between the last TOS and the Wrath of Khan. (I've blocked out the memories of The Motion Picture. My shrink says it's how I cope with the trauma of going thirsty for so long only to be offered a drink at last, then tasting the piss.)
ya know am having a f**king misrable christmas, but this video legit perked me up today, esp for the unexpected singing. Keep up the good work. it takes a tremendous ammount to make me smile too! and you know, your voice wasn't so bad at all!!!!!!
It’s wild that I literally watched this episode the night you put this video out 😂😂 I came across a clip of regeneration here on YT and said let me go and watch it again. ENT is my favorite trek series followed very closely by DS9
Great analysis of an episode that pleasantly surprised me back when it was first broadcast. One aspect of the episode you didn’t mention is Brian Tyler’s terrific score, making “ Regeneration” one of several Enterprise episodes that somehow escaped Rick Berman’s preference for “sonic wallpaper.” Loved your Borg carol, though-you have a great voice!
The main thing I always liked about Enterprise was seeing the various mini star nation/empires that would form the core of the Federation being at each other's throats. Like seeing the various warring kingdoms of Europe back 100 to 150 years ago before NATO and EU came along. Made the Federation feel more important as everyone is the area is later like "None of us want to go back to that so we got to make this Federation thing work."
I'd argue it's even better for one who's got some background in the series. I just wish they perhaps made it more obvious in some aspect. The drones were damaged, they were never at their full potential. They were still recovering and it was still so overwhelming they couldn't do anything. I'd also say I don't think Steve here has fully credited the horror elements here. It's not just the mystery or the power imbalance. It's also the cues and the timing. It's use of the Borg is deliberate and chosen with purpose. It's so very deliberate about what the Borg are. It's not a shoe horning, it's a deliberate and tailored appearance. It uses their strengths and identity constructively. It builds on a foundation with driven intent. That's what I find a lot of Borg eps miss. It's just Borg and it's just the Borg.
I actually love how this episode ties in why the Borg are headed towards Federation space in Q Who as well as giving context to how the Hansens knew about them before even the Enterprise did. It was genuinely as good as Q Who in my eyes because of the stakes at play and how they'd handle it. The only thing I don't get is why they didn't study the debris. I guess that's the JJverse movies
@FiXato They somehow knew about and were studying them before Q Who, as Annika/Seven was a child at the time. While not explained it would make sense that Starfleet kept records of these Borg, eventually leading to the Hansens researching them
Originally, they would have shown the Borg taking the debris of the sphere with them. It's how they manage to upgrade the transport so quickly. When admiral Forrest arrives at the arctic site you can see the debris is no longer there. Listen to the audio commentary on the dvd if you can, they explain it all there.
@FiXato While we never get any explicit explanation as to how the Worst Parents In Star Trek knew about the Borg at all, there's a few possibilities that can be seen if you study the lore enough. 1 - that speech Cochrane gave is (probably) not the only time that subject came up. 2 - those El Aurian refugees from the assimilation of their world might not stay as tight-lipped as Guinan did. 3 - given both the loss of the Romulan outposts and the note in Dark Frontier about Seven's Idiot Gene Donors flying through the Neutral Zone, they may have gotten rumors from that region. Magnus himself even mentions that what data they have could have been rumors in that very scene, right before they stumble into a Cube. 4 - being the tunnel-visioned morons they are, the Hansens could very well have been pointed in this direction by Section 31 as a way to make sense of data they had from the first three options.
What a friggin weird way to wake up on Christmas morning. Like when our kids were little, jumping on our bed: join us at gift tree unimatrix zerooooooooo!! Well Merry Christmas to you too.
That's the key to good fan service. You can enjoy it without any background. It just adds depth or texture if you catch it. Afterall character in a show referencing something from a previous season is basically fanservice. Continuity vs fanservice is a blurred line.
Great episode! Good trick to use the crashed time travelling Borg from “First Contact”. The Borg seemed much harder to defeat after this if they can come back to life.
Super excited for the next Trek Actually video! Personally, I'd probably most want to live right around the TNG/DS9 era, but before the Dominion War. Seems like the closest the series ever gets to at least attempting to fulfill the idea of a utopia, at least in concept if not entirely in practice. Merry Christmas, Steve, and the same to everyone else in the comments. I hope you're all having a great holiday season, and if you're not, here's some kittens. 😺😺😺
I don't get the poor reception of Queen Jurati. She makes a lot of sense to me as a resolution to the problem of the Borg that probably needed to happen sooner. What she demonstrated is all the ways that we "infected" them with our selves and our ideas. It was always the way that the optimistic and peace-loving Federation wanted to do things, but thought it impossible, while they accomplished it in spite of themselves trying to solve the problem through violence. Jurati being so damaged and lonely spoke to me. She was me. When she sang in front of a crowd, and took joy in it, I rooted for her, because I knew what it felt like to be invisible and feel unworthy of others' attention, while imagining what it must be like to rise up and be courageous and seen. To be able to wear that spectacular dress and stand out for it, and imagine just getting to feel like I belonged there, and that it was my right to be noticed, it was like those episodes were written in my personal internal language by a native speaker. The queen was taking advantage of Jurati's vulnerability, of course, but in doing so, she exposed her own vulnerability to Jurati. That their minds were directly connected allowed the mutual assimilation that followed. I fantasized a lot growing up about the technology that connected the Borg, and all the wonderful things that it could do if it were used to help us understand each other. I was writing my own little fantasy escape from being forever misunderstood, and imagining myself encountering the Borg, and being connected with them, and rather than feeling as if my mind were being invaded, insisting that my thoughts be heard and understood. I imagined finally getting to feel special, and not because I was in charge, but because, in being understood, I could maybe finally serve others in a way that let me do good and be pat of something beautiful and transformative. Queen Jurati was, to me, the perfect ending to the Borg threat.
I loved jurati and totally agree. I similarly don't understand why people think the Borg Queen existing ruined the Borg? IThe creation of the queen was a natural attempt of adapting to humanity. The borg, having lost to humanity a couple of times, realized that they had to adapt. Humanity's strength is their individuality, something the borg doesn't have. To adapt to this, the borg created the Queen. A vehicle of individuality that still existed within the hive mind. Of course this weakened the borg. That was the literal point. The borg are designed to adapt to any threat, but that adaption is also their greatest weakness since it means they adapt things they are inefficient. prime example: Why do borg ships have touch interfaces when they're a hive mind? Why do borg even rely on bipedal movement at all when they claim to be the perfect life form? They're not perfect, it's a machine trying to brute force perfection and it makes mistakes. The Queen was their greatest mistake because it created a single point of failure in the system, but it also was the only way to fight humans, since human individuality had always beat them.
@@AsheLucia the borg queen completely recontextulizes the Borg. It gives them a central leader figure. You can watch every TNG episode about the borg, and not once will you ever assume there's a central figure to them. People dislike change.
I'm just glad that some others actually enjoyed Picard. The only thing I'm curious about is how Juratiborg has gone about their business in the universe.
@@AsheLucia what you and I have to always remember is that these things are fanon/headcanon -- though they aren't contradicted, and imo they work great. but as far as confirmed canon goes, i don't think i remember any insinuation that the borg one day decided to adapt by forming a queen. picard in first contact, iirc, says that he could remember hearing her voice while he was locutus. the implication is that there has always (or at least previous to tng) been a queen (or queens?), but unseen. what is really interesting to me is that having a queen at all -- in the monarchic conception rather than the insect context (very different) -- is that it exposes that the "collective" is a conceit. she talks about adding, blending, perfecting, but she exposes herself as only an authoritarian, and the collective itself directs nothing. when a mutation creates unimatrix 0, the free dream space thing where drones are free while regenerating, she sees an emergent property of a hive mind as a threat, and she destroys it. and it isn't a dispassionate act! we see her punish drones for having the mutation in the way that she destroys them. her emotions are subdued, but we see her demonstrate at least anger and pride (the hateful kind, not "i'm so proud of my baby drones"), and i saw anger when she killed that one "defective" drone. if we take fanon, that the borg took the worst of us when they tried to take the best of us, then developing hierarchy was the contradiction that destroyed the borg (similarly, hierarchy is what ended the revolutionary potential of the ussr, and i don't doubt that this could have been an influence on the writers). if they remained what we saw in early tng, they could never have been driven back by any alpha quadrant force i can imagine. that form of the borg, though, is what the queen "ruined." before then, they were more of a force of nature. a cosmic horror. lovecraftian, perhaps. i think that can be pretty great for a scare, given we are coming from the perspective of an advanced and ever-optimistic multicultural peacenik federation that has never truly met its match. this presents the highest possible tension for our federation friends and their worldview. the problem is: lovecraft sucks. oooh, scaaary, the hopelessness of resistance, the guarantee of demise, body horror -- hit me with something new, you know? maybe this well-to-do white guy had never experienced existential dread or nihilistic thinking, but i call that a monday. i've seen shit. the lower classes, disabled, women, queer people, the racialized and colonized peoples of the world -- we've seen shit. so the "ruining" of the borg, i feel, yes, comes from a dislike of change, as another commenter mentioned, but i also think there's privilege at work.
Yes Steve! This episode is my favorite Borg episode besides Best of Both Worlds! It makes them actually menacing again and scary.... not only is it one of my favorite Borg episodes... I think this is maybe My favorite Enterprise episode! I've never commented on your posts before but yeah lol...Star Trek is my first comment.. I've been watching for a while now and I enjoy the content you release! Politically and especially the Star Trek material 😎 Continue on sir!
Perfect thing to watch whilst bed-ridden at home alone this Xmas morning of it's upload to pass the time :3 ST:E gets better with age, I wish people gave it more of a chance when it was finally finding its feet.
Somehow, and it's probably just me, i cant watch this Episode without wondering if the frozen Borg would be eaten by Polar Bears, before whatever Piece of Ice they crashed on would be carried south and melt. Which is a lengthy Way to say it would have made more Sense if the Begining was set in Antarctica, where erm "Oganic Matter" can last for over a Century.
Agreed, Regeneration is one of my absolute Favourites. You mentioned it, its like a horror movie. The Setting at the beginning is like in The Thing, spooky. The Music is also some kind of dramatic here and there. Love it.
The researchers never saw The Thing and Malcolm never saw Robocop. But i like that scene a lot that you mentioned, were he realizes that the Phase Pistol doesn't do shit and immediately decides to fall back. That level of competence is just *chef's kiss* i love it. A little detail that i found most remarkable since the first time i've seen the episode is the moment they damage the ship and the cutting beam is shutting down. It doesn't just go poof, it fluctuates, so neat. Oh yeah, sing along: "We wish you a merry nanite and a happy new mind!"
For me, the fan service provided in the Enterprise episode works because of how well the episode is written. It’s an entirely free move from First Contact, and they wrote it to make sense. It’s just a standard horror episode where the audience screams NO, DON’T DO THE THING!!!
The question I always had (which was probably answered but has slipped my mind...in fact I think I've asked people before and had it answered...) was "Phlox figured out a way to resist assimilation, but didn't make ANY record of it?"
Many people cite the Xindi arc as the shift in Archer's character, but I think it started here. Archer was, in many ways, an idealist who saw himself as a real-life version of a classic scifi hero like Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers or Captain Proton. He's convinced he can always save the day. Here, he's facing a swiftly escalating threat and quickly realizes he's outmatched. The man who thinks he can save everyone orders the Borgified Tarkalians blown out into space and abandons the research team ("There isn't anyone on that ship we can help anymore."). It's there when first realizes he is not a hero in a space opera; he is just a man with a job that's harder than he ever imagined.
That's a great point
Love this analysis!!
this is an excellent way of looking at it! you know, trek pays a lot of homage, sometimes, to the inevitable experience of failure. this was a kobayashi maru moment for him.
It's also a really dark moment for the crew. When Archer tells them to fire and destroy the ship, they don't hesitate, and they feel relieved to win. But they then all deem to think "wow, we just murdered people". This moment you speak of that hardened Archer really hits the entire crew at the end.
She sees us when we’re sleeping
She knows when we’re awake
There isn’t any bad or good, just worlds for her to take
"Regeneration" is to the Borg as "In A Mirror, Darkly" is to the Mirror Universe, in that Star Trek: Enterprise of all shows did easily some of the best work with both concepts. Regeneration is great because it serves as both sequel and prequel to First Contact, and that last scene with that ominous music in the background gives me chills every time:
"Sounds to me like we've only postponed the invasion until, what, the 24th century. . .?"
Does retcon q from showing humanity the borg ad a lesson in humility to him giving humanity a warning of what is coming
Which given his later chatecterisation towards humanity does kinda make sense
Enjoyed this one and I agree it's an excellent episode. I think it might even squeak in over Q Who into my second favourite Borg episode. It has all the elements of the cast being over their heads and not realising it with the added body horror of borgification that hadn't been developed yet in Q Who.
Only minus point for me is they find a way to de Borg Phlox quite easily (albeit painfully). Taking your philosophy of story over anything this isn't a massive issue but it does slightly diminish their threat.
@@koini11 A method that only works on Denobulans, has a high risk of failure even if they survive it, and would likely have a much shorter window of opportunity against full-strength Borg than the partly-assimilated Tarkaliens who jabbed Phlox
@@lordpelagius5078it's definitely in Q's mysterious character to pose his assistance as a challenge against humanity's foolhardy nature.
And when challenged by the Continuum, he could always say he didn't "interfere" so much as "speed-up". Humanity was ALWAYS going to encounter the Borg. He just sped it up by a decade or so, and in a fashion that gave humanity just enough of an edge to stave them off.
I would add to that also, for all the mockery of "fixing" the Klingon discrepancy, the arc about the Augments does a lot to flesh out the whole thread between Khan's people and Dr. Bashier's secret. I can only imagine what the show could have been if Manny Coto had been there from the jump.
I had no idea I'd be getting a Borg Christmas carol this year. I'm going to learn all the words and sing it each and every Christmas from now on. Thank you, captain! Happy Holidays!
something tells me Ai might have had a hand in this Star trek holiday tune, but if not, very clever and talented my hats off to him!
_Regeneration_ also locks the Borg into a Shakespearean tragedy. You can see how this bootstrap paradox locks them into a closed time loop of trying to assimilate and being defeated by humans. The collective can't break free from their fate.
It also explains why they lost.
It also changes Q Who. Without Q the Federation wouldn’t have taken the Borg as the threat they are. The scramble to put a fleet together at Wolf 359 wouldn’t have happened or been extremely delayed. The Borg wouldn’t know who captain Picard was and wouldn’t have sought him out to gain his knowledge. An act that gave Riker and Data an in to defeat the Borg. It’s possible the humble the humans scheme from Q was him saving humanity knowing the Borg would have come anyways because of the message the Borg sent in Regeneration.
Ah, the paradox of Enterprise, where the fan service, ratings seeking episode does a better job of conveying the purpose of the show than most normal episodes. Humanity on the frontier, outclassed by a superior opponent they're woefully unprepared for, but finding a way to succeed and providing a reason to keep exploring.
There's a pretty easy solution to why it took so long for them to adapt to the modified phase pistols - it's a combination of relatively archaic technology that they had no built in defence for, and they aren't connected to the primary hive (or even a sub-hive with a Queen), so their responses are slower.
I like the idea of borg adaptations being the product of them all mentally sitting down together inside their hive-mind and working out math problems on their TI-84 calculators they got grafted to their brains. It would take longer with just 12 of them or so working together.
That explanation is totally logical and makes perfect sense!
This is another example of things to add to my paradoxical Enterprise list.
Aside from the first TOS Mirror episode, there hasn't been a good use of the mirror universe. Except for Enterprise.
After DS9, nobody has used Section 31 properly. Except for Enterprise.
My only issue with In a Mirror, Darkly is that I would've liked to see a full season of it. There was so much potential to explore with that.
I beg to differ in one respect. Discovery does the evil, darkness more realistically and brutally than any other Star Trek !!
@@MusicGeekery My issue is that _Enterprise_ was only four seasons. It was an episode that cutely tied in "the Tholian Web" from TOS. If _Enterprise_ was a full seven-season show, "Mirror, Darkly" would have been an interesting change-of-pace for the show. Instead, we get two less episodes about the foundation of the Federation.
@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286 oh absolutely, don't get me wrong, it had no place being plonked in the middle of an already quickly dwindling run. I just would've liked a concrete look at how we got the Terran empire, and why the ship designs stayed the same despite supposedly stealing Vulcan tech
Well. Voyager couldn't use them, due to their unusual circumstances.
Hot take: Emissary is the best Borg episode. It's about a man whose life was destroyed by the Borg during a frantic and ultimately hopeless attempt to stop them, discovering new meaning and purpose after years of grieving. When the "why do you exist here" line of questioning fully lands emotionally, it is simultaneously heartwrenching and cathartic, and serves as a powerful reminder to continue living.
I like this hot take. Don't 100% agree, but it's good food for thought.
Oooooooooo!!! That there is some dayum fine legalism to clearly win the debate!! Never thought about DS9 Pilot! Lol.
Yes. People often forget that the DS9 pilot episode was DS9's only episode with the Borg.
Just because the Borg appear in Emissary doesn’t make it a Borg episode. Like you said Emissary is about a man whose life was destroyed etc. It’s not about the Borg.
What makes a Borg episode? Maybe those that portray the Borg as a major threat…
Couldn;t agree more, Steve. "Regeneration" is in my top 5 ENT episodes. Watching the scientists trying to wake up "the ice aliens" just had me sitting forward, yelling "No! You idiots! Vaporise them!"
Enterprise is "the only ship in range" ?
This will never be a thing ever again once earth build it's Starfleet😅
"Cinematic literacy is good for more than giving people with no actual accomplishments something to be snobby about." This is what I come to these videos for ;)
Yep, that remark about rules in storytelling at the start of the review hits home to me. I've always felt that you can break any writing rule you like - so long as you know why the rule exists, and you are breaking it in a way that actively facilitates the story being told.
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story that started with a writer and his editor having a disagreement on how the story the writer was working on should go. The writer says to his editor "I know this professor who is working on a program to write things using the rules of story-making; let's feed my story into his system up to the point of disagreement and see how it proceeds." The system uses a chimpanzee's brain as an electronic computer isn't sophisticated enough run the algorithm. As a demonstration, the professor feeds in _MacBeth_ to the chimp up to Hamlet's soliloquy. The chimp then produces the soliloquy word-for-word _except_ that it changes "to take arms against a sea of troubles" to "to take arms against a host of troubles." The professor explains that Shakespeare used a double metaphor, which is against the rules of good writing. They then put in the SF story and he chimp continues it the editor's way. The writer tells the editor "the chimp is blindly following rules; great artists know when to break the rules. It corrected Shakespeare." The editor agrees to let the writer do the story his way and leaves. The professor asks the writer what he would have done if the chimp continued the story his way, and the writer replies "I expected it to do it my way."
Yes. As a writer (particularly of science fiction) I totally agree.
@@lennierofthethirdfaneofchu7286 I remember that story! The moment when the chimp types:
* * *
And they’re both *shocked*, because that’s one of the writer’s distinct writing traits, indicating he’s about to switch things up in the story!
16:55 They also specifically inject 2 pointy bits into your neck, exactly the way vampire bites are portrayed
In less than 5 minutes, the opening sequence of DS9's "Emissary" wipes the floor with every post-DS9 series' take on the Borg. The Battle of Wolf 359 presents a truly cinematic take on Trek's cybernetic villains, but shows the human toll while we see a sobbing, screaming Sisko being pulled away from his dead wife. Nothing, not even ST: FC, can touch this one SCENE when it comes to illustrating the full horror of the Borg on a massive scale and personal as we see Sisko break down into a weaping, inconsolable heap years later in front of the Prophets while whispering: "No. It's not linear..."
Thank you for reminding me of the series start. It was a great foundation for Sisko, and a different sort of competent but reluctant Trek officer.
That unnamed bolian was the hero of that intro, getting Jake to safety then dragging Benjamin to an escape pod. We never even found out his name
I'ts not linear...
*It's
@@seanirl9552 Apparently it was just "David Jones." Weird Bolian traditions... 😉
Didn't expect that singing, great voice man
I didn't think he'd go for that high note, but he went for it, and he hit it!
@@GSBarlevit was beautiful🥹
...and yes, the Borg version of 'santa Claus is coming to town' would be both adorable and terrifying
Yes, thanks for your "Christmas Subspace Rhapsody" of the Borg.
I like how "Regeneration" essentially puts every Borg story in the chronology of the show from here up through "First Contact" into a massive 300-year time loop.
The message sent from here reaches the Collective, and prompts them to start looking at the Alpha Quadrant... and then they notice those idiot Hansens followed a Cube home, and think "Okay, maybe there's more to these people" and start poking around more and more, culminating in the loss of Federation and Romulan bases in "The Neutral Zone", and they start to gear up for an invasion.
And then Q sends Picard and Friends to J-25 for an early warning, which in turn might speed up the Collective's plans and causes "The Best Of Both Worlds", and when that fails they take some time to plan out a new strategy - which gets pushed up *again* by the war with Species 8472, causing the second attack and "First Contact", which in turn leads to the two drones and sphere wreckage that kicks this episode off.
Time Loop Complete.
The writers used an old horror technique from the great Alferd Hitchcock to generate suspense. He shows a ticking bomb to the audience under the dinner table but the characters don't know it's there. The audience also doesn't know how much time is on the timer. In this case the audience knows the borg are the vehicle to build the suspense and tension. I really loved the writing here and it was a great episode.
I LOVED this episode of Enterprise. Hell, I loved all of Enterprise and would toss money at Paramount for another 22nd century Trek with MORE space politics! BTW, Steve, I know Trek is your thing but have you considered making more Babylon 5 videos? When considering the times we're in, the show feels even more relevant today. I would love to see more of your take on B5!
Wow, Steve has a pretty good singing voice.
Steve's always desperate to show off his singing. I wish he'd hurry up and release an album already.
Comes with the Borg implants.
Honestly this was a wonderful shot of life for the Borg as a threat. They finally felt as deadly as they do in Q Who, and Best of both worlds.
And now I want to hear The Borg's version of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town!"
For a second there, I thought he was going to say "Santa Baby". Not sure which'd scare me more.
@@Tuaron I can just imagine the lyrics! And it's title would probably be:
"The Borg Queen's Claws are Coming to Town!" Her "claws" being her two nanoprobe injection tubules!
How about "all I want for borg day is my two wrist tubes"?
I caught this right as it dropped,35 seconds ago. And here I was, thinking that I was going to go to bed early.
Same here, but an hour later
Santa Steve dropping Enterprise analysis down the chimney.
I like that you have “108” AND “bodhi” in your name.
@@charlieevergreen3514 Thanks. I love it too.
One more thing. My two rules for life are #1 follow the rules, they're there for a reason. Rule #2 know when it's time to break the rules or you'll never get anything done
Rules only exist for those too stupid to break them.
I like how Phlox cures his nanoprobe infection using a tool not available in later Trek series: his crude, primitive futuristic MRI chamber.
considering Denobulans are depicted as more resistant to Borg assimilation or at least Phlox is we basically can understand why. Humans and Tarkalians are basically incapacitated until the last few moments leaving no real room for such methods
It’s A Wonderful Borg
Yes. Merry BORG-mas(s destruction)!
I only "hate" fan-service when it's done in a lazy fashion. Fan service can be delicious when it's done well, competently written and properly thought out.
Merry Christmas y'all
"Relics" and "Trials and Tribble-ations" prove your point to the letter! However episodes like those are few and far between.
“Regeneration” ham fistedly does a decent job.
I was a big fan of Enterprise and saw this episode as it aired. If you don’t think too much it works perfectly.
When fan service is bad it is distracting or pulls attention away from the current story. When it's good it can tie different parts of a series together and elevate both the current story and the one being referenced.
Yes, like it was in "Regeneration." I agree.
@@patrickdodds7162 And don't forget "Sarek" & "Reunification" from TNG.
Happy Holidays, Steve. Clever and well sung lyrics on your Carol. Sounds like something you might want to release as a RUclips short in September or whenever your local Lowes starts putting out holiday lights and inflatables to start the holiday season.
I'd want to live just before the events of Next Gen. Everything's as close to Utopia as it ever would be.
Damn that Borg hymn makes me want to join the Borg. Communal singing is intoxicating.
Loved the carol at the end. Very nicely done sir
5:56
Boss: Could you date them?
Scientist: Yes. This debris has been here for around a hundred years.
Boss: Could you date me?
Thank you Steve for this first Christmas gift.
Thank you for the „Borgspace Rhapsody“ at the end 🎄👍🏼
Merry Christmas to you Steve. Thanks, love your videos. Keep speaking the truth my man.
Kind of a plot hole for the Enterprise-E to not collect all borg stuff before going back to the future. You'd think they'd have a way to scan for that sort of thing. The story kind of works if you swap out the borg for another bad guy. Part of what makes the episode work is that the borg are treated as a force of nature.
I think the only reason that the Enterprise-E didn't do that, was because they were more concerned about being detected by the Vulcans, & further damaging the timeline.
Woah, my potatoes picked a good time to finish cooking.
I am convinced that in the Trek episode of Futurama where Uhura explains that Trek fandom was reorganized into a religion, she was referring to you, Steve. Given that we're both Atheists, I find this incredibly heartwarming.
You mean the vast migration of Star Wars Fans?
@@qwopiretyuthe Star Wars trek, as opposed to the Star Trek wars … 😂
Merry Christmas Steve, thank you for all the entertainment!
The song at the end was beautiful, Steve. Just beautiful. Brought a tear to the eye.
Well done on the "Oh Holy Night" parody at the end of the video! Certainly made me chuckle while stuffing my kids stockings?
I didn't actually know about the backstory of Casper the Friendly Ghost. I was just going by the "fan-theory" made up by Bart Simpson that Casper's the ghost of Richie Rich.
The 'dead child' explanation is only in the movie; the people at Whitman were unhappy about it but got overruled by Spielberg and Amblin. In the comics, Casper is merely a juvenile noncorporeal being.
I love the Borg Carol. Also, I don't hate the Picard Borg arc. But as someone who survived the desert between the last TOS and the Wrath of Khan. (I've blocked out the memories of The Motion Picture. My shrink says it's how I cope with the trauma of going thirsty for so long only to be offered a drink at last, then tasting the piss.)
ya know am having a f**king misrable christmas, but this video legit perked me up today, esp for the unexpected singing. Keep up the good work. it takes a tremendous ammount to make me smile too! and you know, your voice wasn't so bad at all!!!!!!
It’s wild that I literally watched this episode the night you put this video out 😂😂
I came across a clip of regeneration here on YT and said let me go and watch it again.
ENT is my favorite trek series followed very closely by DS9
The Casper bit sounded like something straight out of a John Oliver segment and I love it. 23:57
Great analysis of an episode that pleasantly surprised me back when it was first broadcast. One aspect of the episode you didn’t mention is Brian Tyler’s terrific score, making “ Regeneration” one of several Enterprise episodes that somehow escaped Rick Berman’s preference for “sonic wallpaper.” Loved your Borg carol, though-you have a great voice!
Yes. They were actually scarry in this episode.
The main thing I always liked about Enterprise was seeing the various mini star nation/empires that would form the core of the Federation being at each other's throats. Like seeing the various warring kingdoms of Europe back 100 to 150 years ago before NATO and EU came along. Made the Federation feel more important as everyone is the area is later like "None of us want to go back to that so we got to make this Federation thing work."
Excellent historical analogy! I totally agree!
Steve, I just have to say, I thought your Borg Christmas song was the best thing EVER. I'm a big fan of parody music like that. Love it. 29:20
Happy holidays Steve. I loved the carol.
I'd argue it's even better for one who's got some background in the series.
I just wish they perhaps made it more obvious in some aspect. The drones were damaged, they were never at their full potential. They were still recovering and it was still so overwhelming they couldn't do anything.
I'd also say I don't think Steve here has fully credited the horror elements here. It's not just the mystery or the power imbalance. It's also the cues and the timing. It's use of the Borg is deliberate and chosen with purpose. It's so very deliberate about what the Borg are. It's not a shoe horning, it's a deliberate and tailored appearance. It uses their strengths and identity constructively. It builds on a foundation with driven intent.
That's what I find a lot of Borg eps miss. It's just Borg and it's just the Borg.
This video not only provides the case for regeneration as one of the best Borg episodes but also gives me a classic new Christmas carol at the end
For the carol at the end on Christmas, you get a like. That was something no one in my family could ever think of or understand.
Thanks for a great year of content Steve. Appreciate it
I actually love how this episode ties in why the Borg are headed towards Federation space in Q Who as well as giving context to how the Hansens knew about them before even the Enterprise did. It was genuinely as good as Q Who in my eyes because of the stakes at play and how they'd handle it. The only thing I don't get is why they didn't study the debris. I guess that's the JJverse movies
Can you explain how it works with the Hansens?
@FiXato They somehow knew about and were studying them before Q Who, as Annika/Seven was a child at the time. While not explained it would make sense that Starfleet kept records of these Borg, eventually leading to the Hansens researching them
Originally, they would have shown the Borg taking the debris of the sphere with them. It's how they manage to upgrade the transport so quickly. When admiral Forrest arrives at the arctic site you can see the debris is no longer there. Listen to the audio commentary on the dvd if you can, they explain it all there.
@@GeeVanderplas didn't know any of that, thanks. I'll try to find it
@FiXato While we never get any explicit explanation as to how the Worst Parents In Star Trek knew about the Borg at all, there's a few possibilities that can be seen if you study the lore enough.
1 - that speech Cochrane gave is (probably) not the only time that subject came up.
2 - those El Aurian refugees from the assimilation of their world might not stay as tight-lipped as Guinan did.
3 - given both the loss of the Romulan outposts and the note in Dark Frontier about Seven's Idiot Gene Donors flying through the Neutral Zone, they may have gotten rumors from that region. Magnus himself even mentions that what data they have could have been rumors in that very scene, right before they stumble into a Cube.
4 - being the tunnel-visioned morons they are, the Hansens could very well have been pointed in this direction by Section 31 as a way to make sense of data they had from the first three options.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Loved the song, you have a good singing voice .
Merry Christmas, brother.
What a friggin weird way to wake up on Christmas morning. Like when our kids were little, jumping on our bed: join us at gift tree unimatrix zerooooooooo!!
Well Merry Christmas to you too.
With regard to your singing skills, Steve, you are an *excellent* reviewer...
Thanks for his wonderful Christmas gift Steve!
That's the key to good fan service. You can enjoy it without any background. It just adds depth or texture if you catch it.
Afterall character in a show referencing something from a previous season is basically fanservice. Continuity vs fanservice is a blurred line.
Wow! Steve you have a lovely voice… enjoyed this video. Thank you.
Happy holidays to you, I love your stuff
Wow, what a holiday present! ❤
Good one with a Fine Finish. Merry Christmas!
Great episode! Good trick to use the crashed time travelling Borg from “First Contact”. The Borg seemed much harder to defeat after this if they can come back to life.
Merry Christmas, Steve.
Merry mid winter festival of your preference, brief mortals!
I appreciate your show. Love the Star Trek stuff and the variety. Politics, Star Trek and Christmas. All of it!
I can't sign off on this being the best Borg ep but it's certainly on the list, and had no right to be as great as it was
You were in great voice there at the end.
Super excited for the next Trek Actually video! Personally, I'd probably most want to live right around the TNG/DS9 era, but before the Dominion War. Seems like the closest the series ever gets to at least attempting to fulfill the idea of a utopia, at least in concept if not entirely in practice.
Merry Christmas, Steve, and the same to everyone else in the comments. I hope you're all having a great holiday season, and if you're not, here's some kittens. 😺😺😺
I don't get the poor reception of Queen Jurati. She makes a lot of sense to me as a resolution to the problem of the Borg that probably needed to happen sooner. What she demonstrated is all the ways that we "infected" them with our selves and our ideas. It was always the way that the optimistic and peace-loving Federation wanted to do things, but thought it impossible, while they accomplished it in spite of themselves trying to solve the problem through violence.
Jurati being so damaged and lonely spoke to me. She was me. When she sang in front of a crowd, and took joy in it, I rooted for her, because I knew what it felt like to be invisible and feel unworthy of others' attention, while imagining what it must be like to rise up and be courageous and seen. To be able to wear that spectacular dress and stand out for it, and imagine just getting to feel like I belonged there, and that it was my right to be noticed, it was like those episodes were written in my personal internal language by a native speaker.
The queen was taking advantage of Jurati's vulnerability, of course, but in doing so, she exposed her own vulnerability to Jurati. That their minds were directly connected allowed the mutual assimilation that followed.
I fantasized a lot growing up about the technology that connected the Borg, and all the wonderful things that it could do if it were used to help us understand each other. I was writing my own little fantasy escape from being forever misunderstood, and imagining myself encountering the Borg, and being connected with them, and rather than feeling as if my mind were being invaded, insisting that my thoughts be heard and understood. I imagined finally getting to feel special, and not because I was in charge, but because, in being understood, I could maybe finally serve others in a way that let me do good and be pat of something beautiful and transformative.
Queen Jurati was, to me, the perfect ending to the Borg threat.
I loved jurati and totally agree. I similarly don't understand why people think the Borg Queen existing ruined the Borg? IThe creation of the queen was a natural attempt of adapting to humanity. The borg, having lost to humanity a couple of times, realized that they had to adapt. Humanity's strength is their individuality, something the borg doesn't have. To adapt to this, the borg created the Queen. A vehicle of individuality that still existed within the hive mind.
Of course this weakened the borg. That was the literal point. The borg are designed to adapt to any threat, but that adaption is also their greatest weakness since it means they adapt things they are inefficient. prime example: Why do borg ships have touch interfaces when they're a hive mind? Why do borg even rely on bipedal movement at all when they claim to be the perfect life form?
They're not perfect, it's a machine trying to brute force perfection and it makes mistakes. The Queen was their greatest mistake because it created a single point of failure in the system, but it also was the only way to fight humans, since human individuality had always beat them.
@@AsheLucia the borg queen completely recontextulizes the Borg. It gives them a central leader figure. You can watch every TNG episode about the borg, and not once will you ever assume there's a central figure to them. People dislike change.
@@---oq5kb People dislike change cause they're pathetic cowards.
I'm just glad that some others actually enjoyed Picard. The only thing I'm curious about is how Juratiborg has gone about their business in the universe.
@@AsheLucia what you and I have to always remember is that these things are fanon/headcanon -- though they aren't contradicted, and imo they work great. but as far as confirmed canon goes, i don't think i remember any insinuation that the borg one day decided to adapt by forming a queen. picard in first contact, iirc, says that he could remember hearing her voice while he was locutus. the implication is that there has always (or at least previous to tng) been a queen (or queens?), but unseen.
what is really interesting to me is that having a queen at all -- in the monarchic conception rather than the insect context (very different) -- is that it exposes that the "collective" is a conceit. she talks about adding, blending, perfecting, but she exposes herself as only an authoritarian, and the collective itself directs nothing. when a mutation creates unimatrix 0, the free dream space thing where drones are free while regenerating, she sees an emergent property of a hive mind as a threat, and she destroys it. and it isn't a dispassionate act! we see her punish drones for having the mutation in the way that she destroys them. her emotions are subdued, but we see her demonstrate at least anger and pride (the hateful kind, not "i'm so proud of my baby drones"), and i saw anger when she killed that one "defective" drone.
if we take fanon, that the borg took the worst of us when they tried to take the best of us, then developing hierarchy was the contradiction that destroyed the borg (similarly, hierarchy is what ended the revolutionary potential of the ussr, and i don't doubt that this could have been an influence on the writers). if they remained what we saw in early tng, they could never have been driven back by any alpha quadrant force i can imagine.
that form of the borg, though, is what the queen "ruined." before then, they were more of a force of nature. a cosmic horror. lovecraftian, perhaps. i think that can be pretty great for a scare, given we are coming from the perspective of an advanced and ever-optimistic multicultural peacenik federation that has never truly met its match. this presents the highest possible tension for our federation friends and their worldview.
the problem is: lovecraft sucks. oooh, scaaary, the hopelessness of resistance, the guarantee of demise, body horror -- hit me with something new, you know? maybe this well-to-do white guy had never experienced existential dread or nihilistic thinking, but i call that a monday. i've seen shit. the lower classes, disabled, women, queer people, the racialized and colonized peoples of the world -- we've seen shit.
so the "ruining" of the borg, i feel, yes, comes from a dislike of change, as another commenter mentioned, but i also think there's privilege at work.
Yes Steve! This episode is my favorite Borg episode besides Best of Both Worlds! It makes them actually menacing again and scary.... not only is it one of my favorite Borg episodes... I think this is maybe My favorite Enterprise episode! I've never commented on your posts before but yeah lol...Star Trek is my first comment.. I've been watching for a while now and I enjoy the content you release! Politically and especially the Star Trek material 😎 Continue on sir!
Happy Holidays Steve
😂 I didn’t know that I needed that original song, Steve! Thank you! ❤ 🎄
Merry Christmas fella enjoy 🎉
Great take on one of the best from Enterprise! Your humor is epically epic & always a joy! Thank you for all the LOLs!!
Perfect thing to watch whilst bed-ridden at home alone this Xmas morning of it's upload to pass the time :3 ST:E gets better with age, I wish people gave it more of a chance when it was finally finding its feet.
Good show, annnnd I totally had to stop reading a document at my desk to fully engulf myself into your Borg Christmas Carol.
Thank you for that! 🎵🎄🧟🎤🎶
Steve,
That T-shirt is SICK, I need one where'd ya get it?
I second this
search for:
Popfunk Enterprise NX-01 shirt
(I found it doing a google lens image search on a crop of Steve's shirt)
Thanks, Steve. That was the best Borgmas song I've ever heard.
Happy Christmas to you and yours ... and of course to everyone in the community -- however you celebrate (or dont)
A like just for the singing, and if I could another for the song. Well done mate, very entertaining.
Somehow, and it's probably just me, i cant watch this Episode without wondering if the frozen Borg would be eaten by Polar Bears, before whatever Piece of Ice they crashed on would be carried south and melt. Which is a lengthy Way to say it would have made more Sense if the Begining was set in Antarctica, where erm "Oganic Matter" can last for over a Century.
Throwing fate on the bed and grinding on it - Thank you Steve, that was sheer poetry of thought and word..and a nice little Christmas bonus laugh
Agreed, Regeneration is one of my absolute Favourites. You mentioned it, its like a horror movie. The Setting at the beginning is like in The Thing, spooky. The Music is also some kind of dramatic here and there. Love it.
The researchers never saw The Thing and Malcolm never saw Robocop. But i like that scene a lot that you mentioned, were he realizes that the Phase Pistol doesn't do shit and immediately decides to fall back. That level of competence is just *chef's kiss* i love it.
A little detail that i found most remarkable since the first time i've seen the episode is the moment they damage the ship and the cutting beam is shutting down. It doesn't just go poof, it fluctuates, so neat. Oh yeah, sing along: "We wish you a merry nanite and a happy new mind!"
Excellent examination of one of my favorite Trek episodes. When it premiered, I must have watched it at least 3 times that night.
you possess a lovely baritone, mr. shives. merry holidays.
Not going to lie, I did not expect an entire song there. Well done! :)
This entire video was obviously crafted just as an excuse for Steve to sing his Borg carol, and I'm here for it.
First time here, loved your video and subbed
It's better than TNG's Descent two parter too
That is a new song for my x-mas playlist, thank you Steve
I’m always caught off guard by how nice Steve’s singing voice is
For me, the fan service provided in the Enterprise episode works because of how well the episode is written. It’s an entirely free move from First Contact, and they wrote it to make sense. It’s just a standard horror episode where the audience screams NO, DON’T DO THE THING!!!
The question I always had (which was probably answered but has slipped my mind...in fact I think I've asked people before and had it answered...) was "Phlox figured out a way to resist assimilation, but didn't make ANY record of it?"
That Christmas Borg song was actually kinda clever. Lol
I was actually kind of impressed by the carol parody, Steve’s got a good singing voice