monkee reviews 'Borderland'
First Impression: Excellent. The episode feels like a new beginning to the series, and Spiner is wonderful!
The Ignominy of Defeat! A Klingon battle cruiser intercepts a small shuttle with two humans on board. They tractor it, and prepare to take the humans, two young men, captive. Remarkably, however, the two agile and unnaturally strong humans are able to defeat the entire crew. They eject the Klingon bodies into space, and steal the vessel. The Klingon High Council is not happy, and prepares to declare all out war on humanity. The Klingon Empire bested by mere humans? It's like the playground bully being beaten by a girl! They won't stand for it!
No Rest for the Weary: Genetically enhanced DNA taken from the victim's bodies reveals that the two humans are augments, born from embryos stolen two decades earlier, which were remnants from the infamous Eugenics Wars. The man who stole them, but never revealed what happened to them, was Dr. Arik Soong, who is currently serving a prison sentence for the crime. Enterprise is Starfleet's fastest ship, and its crew is Starfleet's most experienced, so Archer is tagged for the mission to recover the augments. He takes Soong along to negotiate. He will also be able to help Enterprise navigate the borderland between Klingon and Orion Syndicate space, a volatile region.
Arik Soong: This Dr. Soong bears only physical resemblance to his future great grandson, Noonien Soong, the brilliant but kindly eccentric who will create Data. We can see immediately, thanks to Brent Spiner's performance, that this is the most dangerous kind of adversary, a disturbed genius who sees absolutely nothing wrong with redesigning his species. Spiner is wonderful from his first moment on screen, and from his first snide comment to Archer has a terrific rapport with Scott Bakula. I have to admit that my fear of an over the top 'evil' performance by Spiner was unfounded. (In my own defense, though, the last thing I saw him in was 'Master of Disguise,' and if you haven't seen that movie, take my advice – don't, unless you're under ten.)
Soong struck me as a dark counterpoint to DS9's Benny Russell, the 50's sci-fi writer (really a vision of Sisko's), who wrote his optimistic tale of an African-American space station commander on the walls of his room in the mental institution when he was denied paper. Soong is denied electronic recording devices (which he also uses for escape attempts) instead, but he continues to design DNA sequences to improve the human race, writing them out on paper that will just be vaporized by prison personnel. Soong, of course, lacks Russell's righteousness and nobility, but I'm sure he feels just as tragically misunderstood. He agrees to help Archer because he has no choice, but he can't disguise the excitement in his eyes, which is both intellectual and paternal. He wants to see what's become of the augment children he was forced to leave behind a decade ago.
You know, I've only just noticed something. Noonien Soong: Data's creator. Khan Noonien Singh: absolute ruler of over a quarter of Earth between 1992 and 1996. Interesting.
Superior Intellect Breeds Superior Ambition: The lesson that humanity learned from Khan and the Eugenics Wars was that you couldn't breed superior strength and intelligence into a human without also breeding an outrageous ego. I guess they haven't been able to locate the genes responsible for moderation and compassion. The augment children that Soong left behind when they were ten have apparently had a 'Lord of the Flies' sort of existence, and now they're a gang of young adult supermen and women fighting amongst themselves for leadership. Raakin is the acknowledged leader, but Malik, who thinks Raakin has gone soft, is the one who orchestrated the attack on the Klingon vessel. The most dangerous one of them all might well be Raakin's lover, Persis, who is playing the two men against each other.
I have to admit that I had a difficult time caring about any of these people. Neither Raakin nor Malik had Khan's incredible presence. I found the love triangle (Malik wants Persis, too) tedious and predictable, and what was up with those clothes? If they've had such a hard scrabble existence, why do they have clothes at all? And why would their clothes be only black and have tiny two-inch rips evenly spaced all over them? The augment's clothes are going to have to go right onto our long list of things to ponder!
There are other things to ponder, though. If the augments are so smart, why are Raakin and Malik so easily manipulated by Persis? She's just using her body against them – it's the oldest trick in the book. And wouldn't you think they'd have learned from the example set by their ancestors that subtlety might be a better approach to galactic domination than a full-scale frontal attack on a Klingon battle cruiser? (Well, maybe it'll work. The jury's still out on that one...) And why are they all so fiercely loyal to Soong, a regular human without any genetic enhancements at all? Was he really that much of a father figure to them? I'm having a hard time picturing him reigning in a bunch of super-toddlers.
Raakin's Violent Demise: Malik achieves augment domination by brutally murdering his 'brother,' Raakin. It's kind of shame, too. When well-meaning scientists debate the merits of genetic enhancements, he's probably close to what they have in mind for a superior human. He rejects the ideals of his 'father,' Soong, and just tries to help his people survive and 'live out their lives in peace.' Unfortunately for him, they'd much rather live out their lives in constant conflict.
(monkee bites her tongue after typing that last sentence, refusing to draw any comparisons to the recent presidential elections, then pats her knee-jerk liberal self on the back for her admirable self-restraint.)
;)
A New Beginning: Meanwhile, back on Enterprise...the crew reunites, and the ship launches ahead of schedule and heads out on their new mission. Archer exchanges a nicely meaningful glance with each member of the bridge crew before giving the order to leave dry dock. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic (again), but the shot of the ship breaking its dry dock bonds and warping past the moon made my heart soar. It felt like a new beginning to the series to me. I'm looking forward to the continuing missions of the Starship Enterprise!
Seeing the crew in their civilian clothes during the pre-launch briefing was kind of nice, by the way. They reminded me of the TOS crew in 'The Voyage Home.' Of course they were all in uniform when they launched. All except T'Pol, that is, but more on that later.
A Breath of Fresh TNG Air: It was a lot of fun to see Spiner tromping around on Enterprise. Soong shakes up the ship; needling and annoying just about everyone in his path. Trip dislikes him on sight, and Soong somehow manages to discover that he's a bit sensitive about T'Pol. And he tells Reed, "I've heard of you, but I don't recognize your face. You aren't getting your fair share of publicity." Hahaha! Spiner might just as well be saying that to Dominic Keating! He tells Archer that his crew really needs a sense of humor, and darn it, he's right! The Xindi arc was so heavy; it's time to get back to the FUN of Star Trek! Anyway, the only crewmember who is able to get to Soong is Phlox. Soong respects Phlox professionally, and is disappointed when the Denobulan rejects his work on ethical grounds. They have an interesting conversation/debate in sickbay while Soong is definitively identifying the DNA samples.
Spirited Away: Before Enterprise can locate the augments, they encounter some Orion Interceptors, who promptly beam nine crewmembers, including T'Pol, off the ship and warp away. Doh! Bummer. Poor Archer just can't win for trying, can he? Soong 'tsk-tsks' sympathetically, and tells Archer that his people are probably being brought to an Orion processing station on a nearby planet to be sold as slaves. He says he can at least get Archer past the security and onto the station, so they set a course.
Big Show at the Slave Market: If you've read my reviews from the start, you know how I am. I like my strange new worlds to be beautiful, with lots of moons. I prefer sweetness and light! Well, there's none of that at the processing facility, but even I have to admit it was a cool set – dark, with plenty of atmosphere. The place is full of cages containing screaming, distressed captives. In the center, there's an elevated, circular podium where potential slaves are auctioned off. The bidding is done electronically (or the Orion equivalent of electronically), with bids entered into padds. No one knows who the highest bidder is until the buzzer sounds.
T'Pol has a restraint implanted in her neck and is hurled into a cage where she finds Ensign Pierce, who just signed on to Enterprise and is well beyond stressed out, and sheesh – who can blame the poor kid? She tries to calm him down, but has to go to the podium for bidding.
The auctioneer is an enormous Orion played, I think, by wrestling star Big Show. He holds her up like a rag doll, and, once she's sold, gleefully tells her that she went for even more than his last wife. She doesn't seem all that honored. Hee.
If the WWF disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't shed a tear, but Big Show was a good match for his role. I liked him. And I liked him even more later, when T'Pol finally gets to demonstrate her martial arts prowess and kick him in the...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Green Orion Slave Girls! Yes, indeed. Green Orion slave girls, and it's not even sweeps month yet! Our cup runneth over! One goes up on the block for bidding. According to Soong, they have 'extreme appetites and innate skills.' Captain Pike, from TOS, was once told that no human male could resist them. Archer does, of course, but then he got some only recently.
I got a big kick out of the slave girl. It's outrageous, but I love having Enterprise tie in with something outrageous from TOS's original pilot. And the actress did a great job with the whole smoldering sensuality thing. A thumbs up from the monkee on the Green Orion slave girl! The review will be in green this week in her honor.
Rescue Mission: Soong and Archer cruise the processing center, doing reconnaissance. In one of my favorite little moments, a female crewmember stands up when she sees Archer, relieved. He puts up a hand, and she sits back down, understanding that she needs to play it cool. They find all nine crewmembers, but discover that some of them have already been sold. They buy Pierce (and get a good price for him, too!), and bribe a guard to deactivate the restraint but leave it on. Once he's beamed back to the ship, Phlox is able to remove it. Trip figures out how to disable all of them, though Archer will need to input information into a control panel.
Before they can get to the panel, they have to disable a guard, and this was a wonderfully amusing little Spiner/Bakula scene. Soong hypos the guard, and they both have to wait and watch while he sways for a LONG time before falling. Hee. The look on Spiner's face was perfect!
So Archer succeeds, and many of the captives escape, throwing the place into confusion and turmoil. Soong temporarily escapes Archer, and accesses a panel. T'Pol is caught by the auctioneer, who leers and says he might just keep her for himself. "I'm not for sale," she informs him, after kicking him hard (it looks like someone FINALLY remembered that T'Pol is a Vulcan martial arts expert) and rendering him a soprano. Ha! That'll learn him. Let's see how much fun he has with the slave girls tonight! Anyway, T'Pol and the remaining kidnapped crewmembers all are beamed back to Enterprise. Archer sticks around to recapture Soong.
This was also rather amusing. First Archer activated Soong's wrist restraints, then, when Soong was using the connected restraints to scale a fence, he deactivated them, causing Soong to fall. Ha. Clever Archer.
No Longer Relevant: The Orion Interceptors pursue Enterprise and are about to destroy it when a Klingon vessel appears and gets Enterprise out of the jam. The Klingons request permission to dock, only of course it's not the Klingons, it's the augments. Did Archer know it was them? He had to, surely. They have sensors, and anyone could have put two and two together in that situation. So it boggles the mind that Archer grants them permission to dock. I mean, DUH! Malik comes on board and demands Soong. Archer refuses, instead asserting that the augments are going to have to come with him back to Earth to avert a war with the Klingons. But Malik and his augment friends don't care about Earth. He quotes Nietzsche, and says humanity is no longer relevant now that the augments have surpassed them. Then, despite the presence of Reed and a MACO, he takes Archer hostage. The other augments board Enterprise after a fight, and are reunited with their 'father,' Soong, whom they free from the brig.
Same Old, Same Old: Sigh. It's déjà vu all over again! How could Archer be so stupid? He HAD to know the augments were on board that Klingon ship, so why would he blithely let them dock with his ship, and then let one into his ready room? They had already easily defeated a Klingon crew. And did he really expect them to care about Earth? As Malik says, it's a world that opposes their very existence. The entire mission seems misguided, or at least poorly planned. Even if they had Soong's help, they should have been ready for a lack of cooperation from the augments. Plans, people! Contingencies! Let's hope future Starship Captains will be a little more on top of things!
Ominous Words: Soong tells the augments to release Enterprise, Archer and his crew. The augments have the Klingon ship, and Enterprise is heavily damaged and will be unable to pursue them. Perhaps Soong wanted to spare his fellow non-augments, but I'm surprised Malik agreed to it. As the episode ends, they are on their way to build a New World. There's something they have to do first, though. "Thousands of your brothers and sisters are waiting to be born," Soong tells his 'children,' "Let's go get them..."
Character Interactions: Most of the action revolved around Soong, and I've already mentioned his best scenes with various crewmembers. Trip and T'Pol had some nice interactions, but I'll go over them below. Archer had a very nice moment with T'Pol. The day they launched was her first official day as a Starfleet Commander, and he gave her a compass from early twentieth century Earth. "It should keep you pointed in the right direction," he tells her. Aww. What a classy gesture!
A Word about T'Pol: According to my official Star Trek Encyclopedia, Spock was the first Vulcan to enlist in the Federation Starfleet. I don't know whether or not that's considered canon. I've been told that it was never actually mentioned on screen. In any case, I suppose I can accept the seeming discrepancy. After all, the Federation doesn't exist yet, so T'Pol is only the first Vulcan in Starfleet, which is not yet Federation Starfleet. Yeah, it's a stretch, but I'll go along with it. I'm having a harder time accepting the catsuit, though. If she's in Starfleet now, she should be wearing a Starfleet uniform. She'd look good in one! Besides, they seem to find enough other reasons to put her in civilian clothes, or no clothes at all.
'shipper Watch: Oh, I'm so glad T'Pol married Koss! Look at the sweet Trip/T'Pol we're getting now! They have a couple of conversations regarding what happened after Trip left Vulcan immediately following T'Pol's wedding. Eventually T'Pol reveals that Vulcan's don't have honeymoons, and that she spent that time meditating on Mt. Seleya. Trip admits that it's none of his business, but T'Pol really seemed to want him to know. Awwww. When she returns from the slave market, his concern for her is touching. I'm enjoying the angst, though of course I'm not getting emotionally invested in this pairing, or any other Trek pairing ever again, thank you very much.
Riiight, monkee. In a pig's eye!
Archer Watch: I loved his interactions with Soong, and his general attitude about the relaunch. I'd still like to see him have some emotional repercussions from the Xindi incident, but now wasn't the time for that. I cannot comprehend, though, how he could have allowed the augments to dock with Enterprise, when ANYONE could see that more caution was needed.
Mayweather Watch: Well, it's back to the usual for Travis. I think poor Anthony Montgomery only had one line this week!
Best Lines:
"On the rare occasion I get stuck on a problem, I find a vigorous escape attempt helps to clear my head." (Soong, to Archer)
"Permission to come aboard, Sir?" (Soong, sarcastically, to Archer)
"I admire your people. We have a similar view on humanity." "What view is that?" "That it could stand some improvement." "I believe that is true of most species." (Soong, T'Pol, Soong, T'Pol)
"We don't have time to go over all the details, just...uh...try not to hit that button." (Trip, to Archer, regarding his new command chair)
"I prefer to let my work speak for itself." "I think it already has." (Soong and Phlox)
"It's your responsibility as a scientist to learn from past mistakes." "What makes you think I haven't?" "I can read." (Phlox, Soong, Phlox)
"I'm picking up an energy surge from one of the Interceptors." "A weapon?" "No..." (T'Pol, Archer, and T'Pol, just as she's beamed away)
"You are now the property of the Orion Syndicate. Break the rules and you will suffer. Follow the rules and you will suffer less." (Big Show Auctioneer, to future slaves)
"You don't like me, do you, Commander Tucker?" "No, I don't." "You probably blame me for what happened to your Vulcan...friend." (Soong, Trip, Soong)
"That's barely enough to cover the expense of processing you." (Big Show Auctioneer, disdainfully, to poor Ensign Pierce)
"Turn the ship around. Go home. Leave them alone." (Soong's advice to Archer)
"To quote one of your philosophers, Nietzsche, mankind is something to be surpassed." (Malik, to Archer)
"I'm about to attack you. You see? Even with a warning, you're not fast enough." (Malik, to Archer, and he doesn't know the half of it!)
"It's been a pleasure, Captain. Take my advice – go home and start learning to speak Klingon." (Soong's parting words to Archer)
THE Best Line:
"Jonathan Archer. What brings you here? They naming the prison after you?" (Soong's first words to Archer)
Rating: 9/10. A solid hour of Trekkie pleasure.
Next Week: More Soong and more augments. Maybe LOTS more augments! And the preview has already given me something for the 'Best Lines' section. "You son of a bitch!" "Actually, mother was a chemist." Hee.
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