The Borg
are the ultimate enemy. They're just about the most powerful
foes in the Star Trek universe.
Sure there
are beings with more power (Q, The Organians), but no one
is more evil and has more potential than the Borg. They can
adapt to any situation. They have access to countless centuries
of research and technology. Their entire society works together
as one mind, capable of time travel, trans warp and self-replication.
And for some odd reason, humans can beat them every time.
And worse
yet, now humans of the 22nd century have defeated the Borg.
What are the Borg thinking when they take on the humans? Let's
tie one servo behind our craniums?
Since
Enterprise is sort of inspired by Star Trek: First
Contact, it stands to reason that we would discover Borg
bits on Earth. And so there are: frozen relics buried in the
Arctic Circle. A team of researchers spends the first 15 minutes
of Enterprise cataloguing the wreckage and combing
over two Borg corpses.
Among
this team is the only person on Star Trek that has
ever seen a horror movie. (Well, except for the crew of the
Enterprise, who watched Frankenstein a few weeks back.)
One of the scientists suggests putting the Borg bodies under
ice until they can be inspected in a controlled situation.
But his superior, more interested in his discovery, denies
the request.
Of course
the Borg assimilate the whole lot of them, commandeer a transport
ship and chart a course home to the Delta Quadrant.
Archer
and crew are asked to capture the transport and rescue the
scientist. Star Fleet has no idea that Borg captives become
Borg. They also have no idea that the Borg come with built-in
upgrades. The transport ship quickly becomes a top warp speeding
vessel with almost as much fire power as Enterprise.
And when
Enterprise stops an attempted assimilation, Doctor Phlox is
"infected" with the nanites. But his amazing alien
immunity forces the micro Borgs to slow down their assimilation
process.
"Assimilated?
I hardly know Ted..."
"Good one, 6 x 10 to the 23rd..."
Wait a
second. Hold on here. The Borg that are attacking Enterprise
are from the 24th century. They've assimilated countless species
in the Alpha Quadrant. And in all that time the Borg have
NEVER assimilated a Denobulan? If they had they would already
know how to conquer a Denobulan's immunity system. Wouldn't
they?
And if
they're from the 24th century then they would know that Earth
is prime subject number one. In the last seasons of Voyager
the Borg did nothing but try to assimilate Earth. Those rogue
Borg had the element of surprise. They could've easily
assimilated the entire planet, spreading from the Arctic around
the globe like a plague or a boy band. (Or both -- it explains
so much.)
Maybe
they were afraid of the backward 22nd century technology.
After all, they must've been using a different phase variance
on these old time phasers. The Borg have been blocking phaser
fire for a decade now. And in all that time they never learned
to adapt to the ancient phasers of the 22nd century? Not likely.
This is
the problem with such a powerful enemy. There isn't anything
stopping the Borg from traveling back in time to when they
were first started and giving themselves the technology to
conquer the galaxy when it was in its cradle. That's no different
from the now TWO times they've tried to contact Borg on the
other side of the galaxy.
But instead
of taking over the galaxy, Dr. Phlox, somehow, discovers a
radiation cure to kill all the slow moving nanites, and he's
free from assimilation. While under the Borg influence, however,
he heard their minds send coordinates to Earth. And Archer
declares the invasion will begin in the 24th century. Doom
doom doom doom!
We'll
definitely see the Borg again on Enterprise. The creators
just can't keep their little unoriginal hands off one of the
most popular enemies. Even if they are far too powerful.
But not
next week. Instead we'll get a double dose of Enterprise.
An interesting back story about the alternate choice for Enterprise
captain. And then the moment we've all been waiting for…
T'Pol
goes into Pon Farr, or as we like to call it around the Fanboy
Planet offices, VULCAN HEAT!!!
