'Regeneration' Fails To Assimilate Critics

See Also: 'Regeneration' Episode Guide

The first reviews for last Wednesday night's Enterprise episode, "Regeneration", have been posted online. Reactions were mixed. Most reviewers praised the special effects, the performances and the interaction between Phlox and Sato, but many found the lack of franchise continuity absurd.

• Star Trek Hypertext's Jammer gave "Regeneration" a rating of three and a half stars, only half a star below last week's "Cogenitor". He wrote that it had a "deviously clever premise, with the best-executed action of the season," praising the cleverness of the writing. "It's funny precisely because we know what they do not," he says of early responses to the as-yet-unthreatening Borg, expressing amusement as well at T'Pol's comment about Cochrane's drinking problem. To read Jammer's full review and explanation of why he thinks the continuity works, visit his site.

• "'Impressed' is the word," agreed Monkee, who found the timeline relatively logical given the temporal causality loop but warned, "If this series ends with Archer in the shower before the mission begins, I'm going to be one angry monkee." She praised the character interaction between Sato and Phlox and the depiction of Archer as a captain who hates to take life, yet knows when he has to make a tough call. To learn the other reasons that she awarded the episode a 9/10, read the full review here.

• By contrast, over at Television Without Pity, Keckler joked, "We are Berman of Braga. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into not caring about continuity ever, ever again." Complaining that the writers merely rehashed a story that was already boring on Voyager, the review begged for greater creativity. Other than fine acting by John Billingsley and Linda Park, Keckler found little to admire:

  You wore me down, Bermaga, and all I can say is that you suck. You suck for not coming up with something original. You suck for ruining the Borg in the last series and not acknowledging the fact that you ruined them. And you suck for not even getting trying to get Borg facts correct. I mean, what the hell is with the six Borg being downed by the same type of weapon before they adapted?! Did you even bother with an explanation?

  Keckler's full rant and explanation of the grade of B can be found here.

• TrekWeb's O. Deus was ambivalent about "Regeneration", saying there's "nothing precisely wrong with" the episode, but adding that it "ends up regenerating all the cliches resulting in an episode that just doesn't add up to much of anything." One of several reviewers who noted similarities between the start of "Regeneration" and The Thing, Deus noted that the best Borg episodes have transcended cheap horror thrills by exploring the boundary between individualism and collectivism. "It might have been more gripping if Enterprise crewmembers had been on that transport forcing Archer to sacrifice the lives of his own people," Deus wrote, saying that the ending of the episode was "too unbelievably easy." To read more on how "Enterprise assimilates the Borg to add them to its mediocrity", read the. review here.

• "I’m torn on this episode," concurred Paul Pytlik of Lowerdecks.com, praising the quality of the episode while lamenting that it came too early in Enterprise's run. He wondered why we were told that the researchers had sent so much data to Starfleet, thus making the timeline mangling worse than if the researchers were abducted without sharing what they had learned, and protested the slow speed with which these Borg adapted to early phase pistols. He also thought Phlox's assimilation offered no real character development. But Pytlik enjoyed the setup and the effects on the modified transport, awarding the episode a 6.5/10 in the full review here.

• MattD of Trek5.com gave the episode a 4 out of 5 rating, stating that despite manipulations of the timeline, the writers delivered "a thrilling, spooky and riveting hour that made me afraid of the Borg once again." Though he would have preferred that the series introduce the Borg via some sort of Section 31 precursor, the reviewer praised the special effects, the score and the pacing. MattD's complete review can be found at Trek5.com.

• Resistance was not futile for C.J. Carter at ScoopMe, who wrote, "Enterprise needs to stop trying to incorporate marquee aliens from future series. It bungles continuity, and serves up plot devices at the expense of reasonable character growth." Annoyed at the lack of both internal continuity (Archer and Tucker acting as if "Cogenitor" never happened) and franchise continuity (why would Borg connected to a hive mind need to send a subspace communication?), he found the entire episode frustrating. Carter's full analysis is here.

• Michael Hinman wrote at Sy Fy Portal that he believed "Regeneration" maintained continuity, though he was ambivalent about seeing the Borg again after having the writers throw the Klingons, Romulans and other species onscreen in an attempt to lure back fans. Though uninterested in the action, Hinman was impressed by the way First Contact was brought in. To learn why he gave the episode a grade of B-, read the full review.

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