| The Next Generation | |
| 74 | |
| The Best of Both Worlds | |
| 43989.1 | |
The standard away team beams down to a planet. To make a change, they actually test to see whether it is safe before going down there. That's what you call progress. The problem is, the colony is missing. Not just the people, the entire thing. Gone - just a big whole in the ground. This is extremely careless behaviour and if the Federation want to maintain any sort of edge in the universe they are going to have to pick up their act a bit. There are uneasy overtones as it is suspected that the Borg may have had something to do with it.
Enter a new character. Lt Cmd Shelby. Shelby is female, blonde, assertive and a tactical officer. She looks just perfect for Riker. Riker it seems has been offered yet another captaincy - his third, and he looks like he's going to turn it down again. The lucky ship is the Melbourne, which amazingly Picard pronounces correctly as "MEL-bn"!
Riker increases his sleeze stakes with a predictable attempt at Shelby. Not this little black duck it seems. She is grooming herself as his replacement when he leaves. Not even Riker's amazing beard powers can save him now, and finally that smug grin has gone away.
Shelby takes the initiative (something Riker has been looking for for ages) and beams down onto the planet with Data for some early reconnaissance, much to Riker's displeasure. I think Riker used to be indecisive, but now he's not sure...
It is the Borg, and they are hailing Picard by name. There terms are really simple. Either Picard surrenders, or they will blow the Enterprise up. A last ditch assertive move by the captain sees the Enterprise attack the Borg ship with all weapons, which not surprisingly have almost no effect. There goes the battle-wagon theory. Only when Shelby suggests they modulate the phasor frequencies do they manage to destroy the tractor beam and escape. The modulated phasors change colour and look excellent!
Running away tail between their legs is something the Enterprise has not had much experience at, so they go and sulk in a Nebula. This does seems to hide them from the Borg for a while, but it doesn't look good for the guys and gals on NCC-1701D.
Shelby finally confronts Riker and says that he is past it and should have left ages ago - this is true. What she probably doesn't know is that Riker has a penchant for phasoring attractive women, so she had better be a little more careful in the future, lest he go overboard again. Picard mopes into 10-Forward and has all but given up. He likens the battle to Nelson at the impending Trafalgar, but Nelson didn't survive that encounter... The Borg finally manage to find the Enterprise in the Nebula and they have to flee once again.
Now that they are in clear space, the Borg start their assault on the Enterprise and Picard personally. Having these guys beaming in in their drab grey and metallic really spoils the otherwise awful colour coordination of the bridge. Worf phasors a couple of them, but they manage to block it, and his attempts at the Klingon bear hug are just as futile. The get the captain and head for sector 001 - Earth!
Picard it seems is to be integrated into Borg society and will be their mouthpiece in their conquering of humanity, at least they can't have him as their hairpiece. Scary stuff, but if he retains anything of his original personality he won't be able to get assertive and the Borg will certainly fail!
Riker wants to lead an away team to rescue the captain, but this time Troi overrules him, and Shelby leads it instead. This is certainly not one of his better days. They beam over, and as before, the Borg ignore them. Having found Picard's uniform they get annoyed and start blowing up energy distribution points. This at least gets a reponse. Just as they are being outnumbered and forced to return to the Enterprise, they see Picard, and he has been Borgified!
Riker now has one of the most important decisions of his career to make. He can either attack the Borg now, and almost certainly destroy them, but in doing so, kill the captain; or he can let them go with the hope of rescuing the captain, but then threaten the survival of Earth. "Mr Worf, fire!"
