Star Trek: Enterprise Episode Review
Season 2, Episode 23
Scientists find a group of Borg drones frozen in the Arctic. When the Borg awaken and hijack a ship, Enterprise is called to stop them.
Enterprise had absolutely no business bringing the Borg back. These are villains with no connections to Archer's crew, and which need to be tied in a continuity knot to even appear in a prequel series. This should feel like Season 1's "Acquisition," in which the producers brought in the Ferengi out of desperation rather than inspiration and it just didn't work. Unlike the successful "Judgment", "Regeneration" is straightforward and doesn't make any nuanced insights about its returning foe. To stack the deck even more against this episode, the Borg were well and truly played out by this point. Fans argue the details of exactly when the Borg lost their impact, but most will agree that by Voyager's seventh season outings like "Unimatrix Zero" and "Endgame," the intensity and mystique was gone. Only one broadcast season had elapsed between "Endgame" and "Regeneration," so it's not like this was a return after a long absence. By all rights, "Regeneration" should not work.
And yet, miraculously, it does. It simply comes down to good execution. "Regeneration" boasts a memorable genre-bent opening act, a relentless action-packed pace, strong presentation, and avoids the pitfalls that defanged the Borg in earlier stories. The result is one of the most engaging and driven stories of the series thus far.
The episode opens on Earth, away from the ship and main characters. This sort of framing is very uncommon in this series and is generally limited to scenes of the Vulcans arguing with Starfleet Command. It does a lot for worldbuilding to get glimpses of the wider galaxy. This season of Enterprise sometimes feels adrift or unmoored to a specific setting (quite similar to Voyager, which had a better excuse), so there is a lot of value in visiting a continuing universe that has goings-on outside of the hero ship.
What's most notable about the opening to "Regeneration" is that it goes beyond just a simple off-ship cold open, setting the entire first act in the Arctic with only guest stars. This act comprises a horror set piece clearly inspired by The Thing in which a group of scientists discover Borg frozen in the ice and are eventually assimilated. This is hardly the scariest sequence on TV but it is one of the more nail-biting sequences of Star Trek. It is very effective at quickly setting the episode's perilous tone, keeping the audience away from the familiar bright Enterprise sets for as long as possible.
This sequence also immediately establishes the Borg as scarier and more dangerous than they have been in quite some time -- at least since Voyager's "Dark Frontier" if not earlier. The complete focus on expendable characters and the dramatic irony that the audience knows more about the Borg than they do creates very strong tension early on. This tension is sustained throughout the episode as Enterprise is forced to confront a foe that the audience knows they are ill-equipped to handle. It's clear that there is only a matter of time before the Borg modify their tiny transport to the point that our heroes can no longer successfully resolve the conflict they are rushing towards. That feeling of danger is critical to the episode's success. Borg episodes can crack when they are defeated too easily ("Drone," "Unimatrix Zero") or used as lackeys for a more understandable foe ("Descent", First Contact), so it is excellent that "Regeneration" returns to their original characterization from "Q Who" and "The Best of Both Worlds": relentless and inscrutable. The most questionable element here is Phlox's nanoprobe cure, but "Regeneration" still manages to use Phlox's infection to emphasize the horror of having your autonomy stripped away by a greater intelligence.
This is all propelled by excellent presentation. Reliable Trek director David Livingston is characteristically sharp here, particularly in the horror sequences at the top of the episode. The practical and digital effects teams both do great work with the Borg action sequences -- I particularly like the way the Borg's stolen ship gradually becomes more intimidating and Borg-ified over the course of the episode. The action and atmosphere are notably enhanced by an atypical score, which is darker and more propulsive than Trek TV music was usually allowed to be. Guest composer Brian Tyler only ever scored two episodes, but many will be familiar with his prolific film scores including entries in the Averngers and Transformers franchises. Trek scores tend to fade into the background, so it is noteworthy when the music is front-and-center driving the drama, as it is here.
Although "Regeneration" is transparent fan pandering with a whiff of desperation that barely manages to justify itself in-universe, it also serves as a confident and well-paced episode in a season that often lacks those virtues. Moreover, a genuinely impactful use of the Borg turns this from a lame re-hash to a welcome return-to-form.
