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Star Trek: Enterprise digs into the history of the franchise with “Borderland”. It’s an episode that kick starts a trilogy of episodes that focus on the Augmented human of the Eugenics War and the disturbing family history of Noonian Soong. It seems that the new season of Star Trek is going to try to overwhelm the audience with references to the past: is it enough to create interesting stories?
The Wikipedia plot summary of “Borderland”:
In May 2154, a pair of genetically enhanced humans, referred to as “Augments”, leave their home planet and take control of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey warship after killing the crew. Amid threats and protests by the Klingons, Starfleet tasks the newly refurbished Enterprise to stop the culprits. Captain Archer visits disgraced scientist Doctor Arik Soong, imprisoned for stealing augmented embryos, and transfers him from a holding facility. Onboard, Soong soon recognizes his augments are responsible for the actions on board the Klingon vessel, but does not know why. He convinces Archer that he will be able to order his “children” to stand down without a fight.
Enterprise enters an area of space known as the “Borderland” between the territories of the Klingons and Orions. They are attacked by two Orion vessels and several crew members are captured, including T’Pol (newly granted the Starfleet rank of Commander). They are taken to a slave market and Archer is forced to ask for Soong’s assistance to rescue his crew. After entering the market, the ship is able to beam most of the crew back, but when they try to release T’Pol’s restraints, all of the prisoners in the slave market are released and chaos breaks out. Soong also attempts to escape, but Archer quickly returns him to Enterprise, where he demands that Soong take him immediately to the Augments. Soong refuses.
Onboard the Klingon vessel, it is clear that the Augments consider Soong to be their “father”. In a power-play, the Augment leader, Raakin, is tricked by Persis (who had been pretending to be devoted to him) and killed by his “brother” Malik. The Bird-of-Prey approaches Enterprise, saving them from a second Orion attack. The ships dock, and Malik requests the release of Soong from the brig—Archer refuses, but Malik forces him to comply. With Enterprise disabled, Soong announces that they now need to go and retrieve the remaining thousands of Augment embryos.
In this episode of the podcast, Wes and Clay discuss “Borderland” and Star Trek: Enterprise enthusiastically digging into franchise canon. Plus! The guys chat about the acting chops of Brent Spiner, forgetting to augment your acting genes, and the versatility of the Orions.