Regeneration

Bike Insurance!

Oh, boy!

Bike insurance!

Allison’s over, at the minute, on the phone to her insurance company.

Rampdale Insurance don’t half sound like they’ve made a cock-up.

Or possibly the Post Office has, from what she tells me; somewhere along the line, the second postal order she sent to Rampdale, hasn’t been cashed …

I know it’s costing her a fortune in phone calls!

•••••

I do know, though, that while she was off, having her physiotherapy, Virgin One showed an old episode of “Enterprise”, called “Regeneration”.

Which is about the only episode of the whole series to feature the Borg …

Yeah, the Borg …

The opening few minutes of the episode deal with a archaeological team in Earth’s Arctic Circle who find a crashed Borg ship.

The one that crashed as part of the plot of “First Contact”.

Nicely referential, i think …

Not that the team think so, as they are assimilated …

So when Star Fleet find out about the missing team — and the team’s equally missing shuttle — they send Archer and the rest of the Enterprise crew to investigate*.

Phew!

Which is where things go horribly pear-shaped.

After all, we know we’re watching Archer’s crew being by the Borg; possibly one of the nastier villains the latter-day episodes have produced …

Which is my point …

WE know we’re watching the NX-01 dealing with the Borg …

The crew of this version of Enterprise don’t.

Which I’m thinking adds to the grim feel of this particular episode …

Something I think makes “Regeneration” all the stronger …

* You know, I’m very tempted to add “With Hilarious Results,” but I’ll try and avoid it …

An Enterprise …

You know, I’ve got to confess to having had a very long day, today.

For various reasons.   And it doesn’t help — from a blogging viewpoint — that the less time I have, the less opportunity I have to write constructively.

But — if nothing else — I can at least do something …

Or, at least, tell you what I was watching on television.

Now I’ve had a Freeview box for a few years, now, and I’ve found it something of a mixed blessing; tons of free stuff often is.

And Freeview — the UK’s free to air digital TV platform — has tons of free stuff.   And like the open source software scene, there’s usually tons of stuff to wade through, before you find something you like.

Or want to watch, in this case.

One of the gems — I think — is something of an oldish favourite; “Star Trek: Enterprise”, the most recent entry in the franchise, and one that Virgin 1, now available 24-7 on Freeview, has been showing for the past few months.

I’ve got to confess, I’ve been enjoying catching up with the series.

You see, I first caught it, a few years ago, when its UK broadcaster, Channel Five, showed it.   And, working shifts the way I have for the past few years, I, inevitably, missed the odd episode.

Saying that, tonights episode, “E²” is one that I’ve seen before.

And thoroughly enjoyed.

Mostly for those emotional tones that US science fiction has generally done a touch better than its UK equivalent.   Granted, there’s been a sparsity of UK genre TV, over the past … oooohh …decade and a half or so, and that “Doctor Who”, under Russell T. Davies’ captaincy, has rapidly closed up the gap, but …

Not that “E²” is one of the better episodes in that regard.

But the plot — showing us what happens when an alternative timeline NX-01 Enterprise — meets the ‘real’ one, does show us how the crew react to meeting their children and grandchildren.   And is a nicely scripted and directed episode.

Plaudits to director, Roxanne Dawson, there, I think, and to Jolene Blalock, as T’Pol, as well, I think; nicely turned out performance.   And to John Billingsley, as Doctor Phlox.

Now there was an underused, character, I think; certainly in this episode.

You can never have too much Phlox.

But “E²” is a good episode to watch, if you’ve nothing else else on.   It’s not the work of genius that “Genesis of the Daleks”, “Talons of Weng Chiang”, or “Next Generation” episodes “Sarek”, or “Darmok”.

But it is a competently entertaining one to watch.

And speaking personally, I think it’s a shame that “Star Trek: Enterprise” ended when it did; I always thought it had a few more years in it …