EPISODE: "Regeneration" PROD#: ENT049 TRAN#: 2.23 RATING: PG-V AIRDATE: wed-7-may-2003-20:00 EPDATE: Several days prior to and including 1-mar-2153 OFFICIAL: startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128643.asp FROM: Phillip Thorne, thorne@underbase.org POST-TO: rec.arts.startrek.tech, rec.arts.sf.tv REVIEW#: 40.0 FORMAT#: 5.0 URL: underbase.org/dept/trek/ent223_regeneration.txt I. INTRODUCTION This technical overview is intended to support discussion of the current episode, and to later serve as a reference: it contains PLOT SPOILERS; CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Whenever possible, it indicates who did/claimed/knew what. Spellings of technobabble and alien nouns are usually obtained from TV closed-captioning ("CC") -- but not this time; fortunately, the new terms were few. In the Synopsis, I sometimes condense or reorder scenes, for clarity. If you have corrections or clarifications, please contact me, and I'll eventually make corrections. "Star Trek" and all related indicia are copyrights of Paramount Pictures, while this overview is (c)2003 Phillip Thorne. Some details provided by _The Star Trek Encyclopedia_, 1st ed., 1994. Feel free to use this document as a reference, but please give credit where due. Abbreviations commonly used: -(m/f/?) name belongs to mel/fem/unclear, (os) on [viewer] screen, (vo) voiceover, -(?) quote is uncertain, -(sp?) spelling is unclear; VDB Vulcan database, VHC Vulcan High Command; series: TOS TAS TNG DS9 VGR ENT. Although CC uses "Launch Bay", "Sick Bay", and "shuttle pod", I often condense those terms to single words. II. TERMINOLOGY Note: CC was not used this time. TECHNICAL, ENTERPRISE: decon chamber, maintenance shaft, plasma regulator, Maintenance Shaft C - Junction 12, plasma network, C-deck, E-deck starboard forequarter TECHNICAL, BORG: proton burst, nanoprobe, cybernetic, tubule, enhance, [nanoprobe] intramolecular processor TECHNICAL, OTHER: antimatter residue, deuterium residue BIOLOGICAL: genetic analysis, biometric data, parietal lobe, synaptic processor, autonomic nervous system, renal gland, modified retrovirus, Adosian slug, Vulcan sandworm, omicron particle [therapy] LOCATIONS, POLITIES and ORGANIZATIONS: Arctic One, Alpha Team, A6 Excavation Team, [Earth?] Science Council, Beta Magellan, Bynars CULTURAL: Tarkalean freighter, Tarkalea, angelhair pasta, coffee with cream NAME-DROPPING: Chef, Cwn.Cunningham III. ANALYSIS 1. What we get: "Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated", "Delta Quadrant". A date. A new warp-capable transport, its Borgified shape, a Tarkalean freighter, Tarkalean physiognomy, "Tarkalea", Starfleet HQ, some evidence of contemporary developments in prosthetics and nanotech. 2. What we don't get: "The Borg", names for the Tarkaleans, names (in dialogue) for the scientists besides Drake. 3. The biobed monitors used by the A6 Team use the standard ENT GUI. They have four tracks, labeled (visible in freezeframe), from top to bottom: "Pulse", "Resp", "Cell Batt"(?), and "EEG". 4. If Earth is at the border of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, and 30,000 Ly from the galaxy's center, then the Borg message might have 60,000 Ly to travel; at 200 years, that's a velocity of 300 c. This contradicts the TNG-TM's assertion that subspace messages decay to realspace within 20 Ly. It doesn't necessarily contradict ENT's realtime(?) comm from 150 Ly with Earth, because ENT has the "Echo" series of comm relays. 5. The events of 2153 don't necessarily contradict the Ent-D's first encounter at System J-25 in 2365(?) in TNG:"Q Who?". After 200 years of more immediate threats, the cybernetic aliens might've been relegated to an appendix in the Academy curriculum, and Q might've wiped relevant data from Ent-D's LCARS (in addition to whatever half-truths he told). Anyway, the LCARS doesn't volunteer info, and nobody thought to do a keyword search on "resistance is futile". Afterward, if any historians checked, the 2153 records might not have been useful. Even a warning such as "cybernetic beings will attack from the future, and be defeated from the future" couldn't be reasonably attached to any specific Starfleet operation -- and a "General Order 134: be prepared to travel in time, because history tells us we did," wouldn't help. 6. The Borg have previously assimilated parts of the Ent-E ("First Contact") and _Voyager_ (VGR:"Scorpion" etc.), but this is our first close look at the process. Given the instantaneous growth of the Borg modules, the nanoprobes don't seem to be merely shuffling atoms, Drexler-style; they're acting at the speed of M/E replicators. Or perhaps the first task undertaken by the Tarkaleans (not shown) was the (slow) creation of a central replicator (Ent lacks a pre-existing replicator system to subvert), which then assisted in further modifications? 7. On their second encounter, T'Pol notes that the Transport has "increased in mass by 3%". How? Did it stop at a cometary body for trace minerals? Is it collecting and transmuting interstellar hydrogen? Is it linked to a secret Borg low-throughput Transwarp Micro-Conduit Feedstock Net? 8. A ... TNT releases ... MJ of energy. [Appendix to _Warstrider_, by William H. Keith Jr.] IV. NITS 1. The impromptu terminology adopted by the 22cen characters exactly matches that of their 24cen successors -- "cybernetically enhanced", "tubules", "nanoprobes", "technology asserts itself". Maybe both are using terms introduced in theoretical literature even earlier, but it *sounds* bad to be so similar to VGR. 2. Why did the A6 team use a warp-capable vehicle to deliver them to the Arctic? Did the Science Council get a bulk discount? 3. What's the point of a vehicle limited to warp 1.4? Is it meant only for speedy intrasystem travel (perhaps out to cometary bodies of the Kuiper or Oort), not interstellar? 4. In the midst of a blizzard, why didn't the team wear goggles and mouth-protection? V. THIRD-PARTY COMMENTS ZAM KARMEN wonders why the A6 team could detect the wrecked sphere's warp signature, whereas the Vulcans and Ent-E in "FC" didn't. GRAHAM KENNEDY suggests that (a) the researchers were closer and (b) the intact sphere may've damped its emissions. TIMO SALONIEMI adds that (c) perhaps any signature ceased when the sphere was destroyed, and resumed only after self-repair, or (d) ice blocks warp signatures. Timo wonders how the debris field was detected in the first place -- satellite photos after it thawed? Locals or tourists? Uncovered century-old records? Graham suggests it was simply "number 12,356 on their list of Things To Investigate." Graham grumps that the transport, at warp 3.9, reached Ent's vicinity (100 Ly from Earth?) in no more than a few days; MIKE DICENSO interprets it as (a) "another refutation of the Okuda-Sternbach speed formulas", or (b) evidence of good navigation data. (I add: either the "warp highways" concept -- or perhaps "warp back roads" -- or 22cen starships are forced to swerve around, or move slowly to detect, numerous navigational hazards.) Regarding history, KEITH MORRISON notes that (a) 200 years is long enough for information to be misplaced (especially if classified) and (b) these Borg were fairly easily defeated. DARREN MERCER comments on possible cover-ups: (a) Starfleet wishes to downplay Earth's vulnerability to time-travel, as implied by Cochrane's previously-discounted ravings, (b) assistance from the future discounts Earth's achievement of First Warp, and (c) the possibility of remaining Borg on Earth, if known, could cause panic; and (d) speculates on future involvement by Temporal Investigations or Section 31. TIMO suggests that the warp ship was supplied for unsound personal reasons. Mike Dicenso notes that a 600-m diameter for the sphere concurs with its apparent size relative to the cube (in "FC"), and the 28-km3 measurement given in VGR:"Dark Frontier". Mike Dicenso notes that the Starfleet HQ shuttle (ordered by Adm.Forrest) has blue livery, instead of Ent's red. Mike Dicenso notes that the Tarkaleans have been previously cited, per "Tarkalean tea". Mike Dicenso notes that Ent's trasporter apparently works through the ship's polarized hull plating. On weapons: Mike and Graham notes that the phase-pistol output/capacity cited by Reed is consistent with numbers in TNG:"The Mind's Eye". They further interpret the discovery of "antimatter residue" on the hull not as a warp breach (as the scientists due) but as evidence that AM is indeed carried by quantum torpedoes. Graham examines subspace radio speed, and uses numbers similar to mine. VI. EPISODE SYNOPSIS TEASER: Earth, the Arctic Circle, during a blizzard... a TRANSPORT [warp-capable, we later learn] lands on skids next to a debris field. Three scientists (ALPHA TEAM, two male, one female), each clad in a hooded grey parka (with insignia on the right shoulder, but sans goggles), prowl amid the I-beams and other wreckage, led by bulky beeping hand-scanners. The woman [Rooney?] locates a body, beneath the snow and embedded in ice, and calls over the other two... It's a Borg drone. ACT 1: "Definitely humanoid, but I don't recognize the species," comments their leader, DRAKE, who opens his communicator. "Drake to Arctic One... get Alpha Team started," he calls, and orders a base camp setup, and that CDR.WILLIAMS at Starfleet be contacted. The woman picks up "EM traces a few dozen meters under the glacier", follows them, and finds a second drone in the snow. Inside a lab module, the drones are placed on biobed slabs. Sci#2 shows Drake the amputated arm of Drone#2. Drake comments: he once met a Vulcan scientist with a forearm prosthesis, "pretty sophisticated, but it doesn't compare to this." They look at Drone#1's eyepiece which from its design (#2 says) could "see most of the EM spectrum". "Genetic analysis" shows the two are different species -- Drake suggests transmitting the data to Starfleet; maybe they can find a match. #3 is scanning an upright slab of debris; she can't identify the alloy, but there's "antimatter residue" ("maybe their warp drive overloaded?"), and she's already looked for carbon traces: "this debris's been here for about a hundred years." They're startled when the severed arm briefly activates, its end-thingy spinning. Later, #2 shows Drake an image in the microscope of nanoprobes and spherical cells, which he's found to be repairing both cell membranes and mechanical aprts. "I believe you're looking at a form of nanotechnology," he says. Drake comments that the Denobulans "have experimented with nanotechnology, but nothing like this." #2 suggests moving the bodies to cold storage in Module 3, lest they recover; but Drake fears re-freezing will damage them, and there's no evidence they're hostile. Inside, #4 delivers a flask of hot beverage to #2 (alone while Drake and #3 are out, but armed with a rifle), then leaves. #2 hears a mechanical click from Drone#1. "Feeling better?" he asks. Suddenly the biomonitor starts registering activity, and it inhales. #2 grabs his bulky elliptical scanner, as the drone's right eye opens and left optic lights. Outside, #3 tells Drake that she's examined 22 fragments of outer hull, all with the same curvature: she concludes they formed a sphere, 600 meters in diameter. She detects a "warp signature", and they find a meter-wide device [the sphere's main transwarp coil, per VGR] showing "deuterium residue". "A warp coil?" --but it's too small. They begin to extract it from its housing, then hear a scream and rush back, seeing orange weapons blasts in the lab. They enter, find signs of a struggle. Drone#1 is gone, and #2 is on the floor, his skin discolored [assimilation]. #3 rises to get the medkit and meets Drone#1 and its head-laser. At Starfleet HQ in San Francisco... a yellowstripe-mel aide [Cdr.Williams?] rushes into ADM.FORREST'S office and notifies him of trouble with "A6 Excavation Team": the "Science Council" hasn't heard from it in three days. Forrest orders a shuttle prepped. LATER, they arrive at the base camp. The admiral and three others (two with rifles) enter the lab module... full of snow and empty of people. ACT 2: Around the briefing table, Archer briefs his officers (T'Pol, Tucker, Reed, Mayweather, Sato). Forrest believes the researchers were abducted by the aliens. "We're a long way from the Arctic; what can we do?" asks Reed. Earth's tracking stations spotted the transport leaving orbit, its heading taking them within "half a dozen lightyears" of ENT's current position; they've been ordered to find it -- and it left at warp 3.9 (such transports can't exceed 1.4, Tucker notes in surprise). T'Pol thinks "isolating their warp signature" won't be difficult. Reed asks Phlox for help in evaluating the "biometric data" on the aliens: does the cybernetic arm contain a weapon -- the team was armed, so how were they overpowered? Reed wonders why anyone would replace their body parts this way, and Phlox mentions the people of the "Beta Magellan system", "the Bynars", where upon birth, a surgeon replaces a child's "parietal lobe" with a "synaptic processor"; he witnessed this. They receive a distress call from a "Tarkalean freighter"; it's one hour away (says Mayweather). They arrive to find the Borg-ified transport carving into the freighter with a green beam. Archer transmits a command to stand down; Reed detects a weapon charging (such transports aren't), and they're hit with "some kind of proton burst". T'Pol reads nine bio-signs on the transport. Reed zaps it twice, disabling it; it moves off; T'Pol now finds two bio-signs remaining on the freighter. The two Tarkalean survivors (one male, one female) lie comatose in Sickbay. Phlox explains that "nanoprobes have infiltrated their autonomic nervous systems" and that their "renal glands" have been replaced by devices. (Factoid: according to the scan, the Tarkalean renal gland is about where a human kidney would be.) He says he can't remove the probes surgically, because they're multiplying; but he's attempting to use a "modified retrovirus". T'Pol suggest putting them in the "decon chamber", Phlox doesn't think they're dangerous, and Archer orders the compromise of a guard. LATER, the Tarkaleans groan. Phlox tries to sedate the male, but the female tosses the redstripe-mel guard [Foster?] against the wall, and the male injects Phlox with his injection tubules. The two of them escape up the Sickbay ladder. In Archer's ready room, T'Pol reports that she's contacted "Tarkalea". The captain had looked up an old memory, and found a speech by ZEFRAM COCHRANE: his commencement address at Princeton, 89 years earlier, in which he claimed that at First Contact, "cybernetic creatures from the future were defeated by humans, also from the future." "As I recall," T'Pol responds, "Cochrane was famous for his imaginative stories. He was also frequently intoxicated." ACT 3: In Sickbay, Phlox hears the Borg in his mind, then is awakened by Archer, as Reed wakes the guard; two more crewmen stand by with rifles. Phlox scans himself, realizes he's infected (but not the guard). "One of the aliens injected me; some sort of tubules." Reed's scan indicates their escape route, and Archer orders the "maintenance shafts" sealed off. In Engineering, Tucker shows Archer scans of the modified transport: the "rear plating" hasn't yet been "enhanced"; they could hit the "EPS manifold" and take down "main power". T'Pol(vo) calls, having detected the transport, <2Ly away, at warp 4.4; Archer oders 4.9. "They doubled their top speed in under twelve hours," comments Tucker, worried. Archer exists by the main hatch (guarded by two). The Tarkalean-Borg climb through ENT's guts, opening panels. Reed (with scanner) leads two crewmen (with rifles) in pursuit, and passes a panel with four screens showing Borg GUIs. Ahead, the female finishes with one panel, then opens a second. She fires her tubules, and instantly new Borg tech modules grow in place, wires growing across the gaps. Reed finds her, and when she refuses to desist, fires his phase-pistol -- she staggers. He fires again -- and a shield manifests. He orders max power for all three, and still she resists. They fall back, are accosted by the male, and Reed clubs him across the neck. Reed calls the Bridge, IDs their position as "Maintenance Shaft C, Junction 12" -- "plasma regulators," adds T'Pol. "They're equipped with some kind of energy shielding," he adds. Mayweather reports the warp field destabilizing. Archer orders Reed out of the section, a drop from warp, then open the outer hatch. The two are blown out into space. T'Pol registers success, and recognize's the captain's agony at having to kill them. In Sickbay, Sato arrives with "rootleaf lettuce" for Phlox's "Adosian slugs", "Vulcan sandworms" for his bat, and "Chef's angelhair pasta" for him. He refuses: eating could accelerate his cellular metabolism and hence the nanoprobes. Despite the phase-pistol she carries, he'd prefer she not be nearby: "the technology could assert itself at any time." After all the doctor's done for her, however, she refuses to leave; she feeds the bat in its cage. It squeaks. Reed and Tucker examine the Borg modifications. "It could take days to get all this junk out," the engineer gripes; and they almost overloaded the plasma regulators. Reed theorizes weapons upgrades: "if I cross-polarize the power cells, that might increase the particle yield." Archer enters the Mess to find T'Pol with a mug. He orders "coffee with cream" from the dispenser; she mentions that CWN.CUNNINGHAM is in the galley. He still plans to rescue the humans, the 29 "lifeforms" on the transport; but T'Pol flatly recommends destroying it. Phlox(vo) calls; Archer answers with the doorside intercom. "I'm not ready to declare them a lost cause." In Sickbay, Phlox's hand shakes as he reports his condition: the nanoprobes are having trouble with his immune system, "but they'll adapt". He's discovered that their "intramolecular processors" are vulnerable to "omicron particles". To get them all (and avoid a relapse), he'll have to program an "excessive dose" of therapy; he hands Archer a hypo of "neural toxin" that will kill him in "a matter of seconds" if he fails. In the Armory, Reed (at monitor) and a crewman (with control padd) test a phase-pistol. They boost from an extra 5 MJ to 10, whereupon the beam blasts through the test plating. "Let's start modifying as many as we can," Reed orders, and they reach for the rifles first. They approach the transport. T'Pol reports its mass up 3%; Reed its defenses increased; Mayweather that it's accelerating to warp 4.98. ENT shakes as it pursues. They hit its aft vulnerability, and it drops out of warp; ENT follows. Sato detects an "activation sequence" being transmitted -- and the Borg circuitry comes to life, disrupting ENT's "plasma network". It hails them, audio only. "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." ACT 4: The transport fires bursts at them, and Reed reports the diminution of the hull plating (to 81%... down another 12%...) while Tucker works on the circuits. The transporter is still online, so Archer leaves with Reed. Reed tells him he doubled the phase-pistol output, but they may take a few seconds to recharge between shots. Archer orders the operator to put them near the EPS manifold. They prowl through the ship (with both original features and Borg additions), past three occupied niches. They zap two, one of whom Archer identifies as "one of the researchers" (#3). Three more appear at the end of the corridor, then two more. They zap two. Reed is grabbed by the neck, but Archer punches it and pulls loose a head-cable. The two tackle it and pull out another cable, causing sparks across its body. They find the transwarp coil on a plinth, and shoot three more as Reed places bombs. (Total bodycount: seven zapped, one tackled.) They beam out... Phlox hears voices in his head, and the guard notices his distraction. He climbs onto the bed, which slides into the chamber. Lights flash, and he grimaces. Six Borg beam onto Ent, on C-deck. A trio of guards with phase-pistols zap two, but the next pair manifest shields. On the bridge, Mayweather notes the loss of hull plating, and Sato reports a cutting beam: "E-deck, starboard forequarter". The Borg invasion party beams out, and starts to remove the bombs. ...and appearing on the platform, Reed detonates the bombs, causing a small explosion at the ship's center. "There isn't anyone on that ship we can help anymore," he says sadly. Arriving on the bridge, he orders their warp core targeted, just as Reed notes that its systems are already being restored. "Hit'em with everything we've got." Four torpedoes fragment the ship, and a phaser beam (aft) completes the detonation. "Captain's starlog, March first, 2153..." Repairs are underway, resuming previous heading at low warp, Phlox is recovering. Archer and T'Pol visit Sickbay, where he tells them of the voices: "I believe I was connected with the aliens, possibly through some form of telepathy." T'Pol suggests he imagined it under stress, but he hands over a PADD with a numerical sequence that he believes they were trying to transmit. In his ready room, Archer tells T'Pol the computer analyzed the sequence: "pulsar frequencies with geometric lightyear measurements" -- a map to Earth, transmitted to a point "deep in the Delta Quadrant." T'Pol points out that such a message will take at least 200 years to arrive, if it's received at all. Archer isn't reassured. "It sounds like we've only postponed the invasion until, what, the twenty-fourth century?" VII. SFX SHOTS 1. "Arctic One" transport swoops in to land 2. A tracked snow-dozer moves past the modules of the base camp, clustered near the looming wreckage 3. Dozer and three modules 4. Drake and #3 run towards the modules; orange weapons bursts 5. Starfleet HQ exterior 6. HQ shuttle swoops in for snow landing 7. Ent at warp, dorsal closeup, L2R 8. Ent at warp, ventral, L2R 9. Transport carves into Tarkalean freighter with green-yellow beam 10. Ent approaches 11. Ent zaps transport twice, disabling it 12. Ent at warp, aft-ventral, L2R 13. Tarkaleans blown out of port dorsal hatch 14. Ent at warp, dorsal, R2L 15. Ent follows transport, L2R 16. Transport drops from warp, followed by Ent, L2R 17. Transport prowls towards paralyzed Ent 18. Transport prowls towards, fires bursts 19. Transport fires, causing explosing near starboard docking port 20. Small explosion at center of transport 21. Four torps and phaser beam fragment the transport 22. Ent at warp, surface burns visible, R2L 23. Ent at warp, centerline-ventral, R2L VIII. PRODUCTION REGULAR CAST: Scott Bakula as Cpt. Jonathan Archer Connor Trinneer as LtCdr. Charles Tucker III Jolene Blalock as Sub-commander T'Pol Dominic Keating as Lt. Malcolm Reed Anthony Montgomery as Ens. Travis Mayweather [few lines] Linda Park as Ens. Hoshi Sato [slightly more lines] John Billingsley as Dr. Phlox [No Porthos] GUEST CAST: Chris Wynne as Dr. Moninger [#2] Bonita Friedericy as Rooney [#3] John Short as Drake [#1] Adam Harrington as Researcher [#4?] Vaughn Armstrong as Admiral Forrest Jim Fitzpatrick as Commander Williams Mark Chadwick as Male Tarkalean Nicole Randal as Female Tarkalean Paul Scott as Foster [Phlox's guard?] [Other ENT crewmen] [Other Borg] CREATIVE STAFF: Directed by David Livingston Written by Mike Sussman & Phyllis Strong NEXT WEEK: In 050/224-"First Flight", Archer reminisces to T'Pol about his rivalry with another NX test pilot who has just died. See: http://startrek.com/library/ent_episodes/episodes_ent_detail_128720.asp