TOS - Tomorrow is Yesterday

This episode has a very interesting premise. However, it is not a good as it could have been. Tomorrow is Yesterday involves the first use of time travel in Star Trek as a major plot device. However, once the location of the Enterprise is revealed in both space and time and Captain Christopher is beamed aboard, the characters spend large amounts of time arguing about whether Christopher should be returned or not, and then rehashing that same argument. Also, Kirk’s computer problems, although meant to be funny, are simply annoying, nothing more than a stupid, completely irrelevant tangent, which does not fit in with the rather serious nature of this episode. Many of the scenes that take place in the army base are enjoyable, especially Kirk’s and Sulu’s information recovery mission and Kirk’s subsequent interrogation and rescue, which are appropriately serious, while at the same time incorporating humor into the storyline. This episode also includes a shot of the ship other than those 12 shots used over and over again through the run of the show. Most of them are actually quite good for the original series, except for one toward the end of the episode in which the Enterprise is shown leaving Earth orbit with part of its nacelle missing. There are also many continuity errors in this episode. First, when the Enterprise engages its warp drive at warp 3, it takes about 10 times longer to reach the sun then it should have. It is possible that Kirk could have ordered the ship to proceed at impulse to the vicinity of the sun before engaging warp drive, and this is simply not shown in the episode. However, it also takes the Enterprise far too long to exit our solar system, while moving at speeds in excess of warp 8. This could be explained as the effect of temporal distortion due to the fact the Enterprise was moving forward in time as well as space at the time. Also, the transporter seems to have no operational limits in this episode, given the extreme distances Captain Christopher is beamed, as well as the army patrol officer. However, this as well could be attributed to distortion in the space-time continuum due to time travel. Also unusual is the fact that the Enterprise is moving at incredibly warp when it commences transport, a very risky action, so much so that in the Voyager episode Maneuvers, B’elanna almost was prohibited from performing it by Captain Janeway. And even then she had to synchronize the angular confinement beam with the frequency at which the warp core was operating. Therefore, this could also be attributed to distortion in the space-time continuum due to time travel. Appropriate modifications to the transporter could have been made, but if they were, that fact was not included in the episode. Aside from the annoying continuity errors, computer problems, and sometimes repetitive dialog, much of this episode is actually reasonably good.

The Borg Queen

There are, of course, no individuals in the Borg Collective, except for the Borg Queen, who rules over all of the other drones. Her existence seems practically self- contradictory, as the Borg seem to hold their lack of individuality in high regard. Yet, for some reason they created a position of leadership for the entire collective, and then filled it with an individual, two actions which are seemingly in complete violation of the Borg ethos. Therefore, either the Borg Queen was a part of the design of the original collective, or was created by the collective for some reason at a later date. We know the Borg have been in existence for thousands of years, and because things rarely stay the same over such a long period of time, the Borg Queen could be a vestige of a time in which the Borg were not a collective at all, but instead were merely trying to perfect themselves. The Borg may have acquired their collective nature when they decided later that it would add to their perfection. However, if that is the case, then why wouldn’t the position of the Borg Queen have been abolished when the Borg actually became a collective? Also, there is no evidence to support that the Borg were ever individuals from the time when the Borg first decided to integrate their bodies with cybernetic devices. The second theory is much more plausible. The Borg is a collective conscience, concerned only with adding to its perfection in the most efficient way possible. The Borg also apparently do not understand why individuals resist assimilation. Locutus stated something to this effect to Worf in the Best of Both Worlds - Part II: the fact that Locutus was created by the Borg may also offer insight into why the Borg Queen was brought into existence, although it was revealed in First Contact that this may simply have been because the Borg Queen wanted to turn Picard into Locutus. At any rate, at least part of the reason why Picard was abducted for the sole purpose of being partially assimilated into Locutus of Borg, was to act as a liaison between the Borg and humanity, an assimilation facilitator, created in the hope of decreasing the amount of resistance humanity offered. It stands to reason that the Borg may have created the Queen for a similar purpose, making the Borg’s dealings with individual species proceed more efficiently. Since the Borg do not understand why alien species do not want to be assimilated, they may, in an attempt to decrease the amount of resistance that prospects of assimilation put up, have created an individual with the ability to override the will of the collective mind. The Borg Queen existed in order to insure that the Borg as a whole always took the most efficient course of action with regard to individuals. In light of the Borg’s obsession with efficiency, this would plausibly explain the existence of the Borg Queen, as a self-contradictory result of the collective’s need to be a efficient and thereby perfect as possible.

ENT - In a Mirror Darkly Part I

These two episodes are my favorite episode of Enterprise, which is sort of sad considering that they are not technically Enterprise, but instead as we have come to expect for the mirror universe, practically the exact opposite. In other mirror universe episodes I liked the characters for the normal universe. However, in “In a Mirror Darkly” I actually like the evil alternates of the Enterprise characters more. They were much more interesting than the regular crew of Enterprise. In a Mirror Darkly Part One opens with what I consider to be the second best trek moment ever. The episode takes my favorite star trek scene – first contact between Vulcans and Humans – and flips it on its ear in a very effective manner. And then it makes use of a modified opening, which again, I actually prefer to the normal Enterprise opening and theme. The plot line of the episode is riveting, and as I have previously stated, so are the characters. The recreation of the Defiant, both the interior and exterior, is exceptional, as is the the Tholian, which we finally get to see in its entirety for the first time. I like Enterprise. But I find the mirror universe version of the show to be better than the genuine article.