Monday, July 15, 2013

Regeneration

**** (4 stars out of 5)
Well, everybody's heard about the Berg. The Berg, Berg, Berg, well, the Berg is the Werg. Don't you know about the Berg? Everybody's talking about the Berg!

Taking a page from 'The Thing From Another World', be-overalled human archeologists dig up some frozen mechanical men in the Arctic. They've been chilling there since 2063 or, if you prefer, the movie First Contact. They turn out to be less dead than anyone who hasn't seen a horror film might think. Bullets happen too late to stop the snowball of bad that snatches up anything it finds.

Malcolm Reed offers an opinion I heartily share: "I don't have a problem with [technology]... so long as it stays outside of my skin."

Phlox has met Bynars in the Beta Magellan system, and seen the birth ritual where the babies receive their parietal lobe synaptic processor. He sees nothing INNATELY evil in implanted technology. He doesn't even feel the need to isolate the Borgified. That approach, sadly, was too optimistic. Phlox gets it in the neck.

Archer reviews Cochrane's tall tales. Zefram tried to warn a Princeton graduating class about the possible dangers of cybernetic technology, namely the enslavement of the hive mind. Everyone assumed he was drunk, and he took it all back years later, but it's come back to bite them. Unless Phlox can keep his wits and Reed can deploy his boom-sticks.

"Regeneration" restores much of the creep factor to the Borg without ever naming them. It's a splendid final outing and first outing and it means I keep Enterprise in my collection even when we fight. Keep your eyephones outside your eyes.

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