[Nate the Great]

September 24th, 1990, "The Best of Both Worlds Part Two"

The Episode

RIKER: As we anticipated, the blast burned out our main navigational deflector. We also have damage to our shields and our reactor core.
LAFORGE: We should be back up in eight to twelve hours, Admiral.

The saucer has its own deflector, but I imagine that it's not powerful enough to protect the entire ship OR be active at warp.

HANSON [on monitor]: Your engagements have given us valuable time. We've mobilised a fleet of forty starships at Wolf three five nine, and that's just for starters.

Only forty ships. Following the Dominion War that comes off as positively adorable.

HANSON [on monitor]: Lieutenant a few years ago, I watched a freshman cadet pass four upper classman on the last hill of the forty kilometre run on Danula Two. The damndest thing I ever saw. The only freshman to ever win the Academy marathon.

Picard will reference his running in "The First Duty", but I still don't think that he has the physique required for champion marathoner.

RIKER: Mister Crusher suggests we might design a chip that would automatically retune the phasers to a random setting after each discharge. Engineering.
WORF: That would be a great advantage.

You'd think Shelby would've started on that months ago. I also think that Data should be able to invent such a chip in a matter of hours.

SHELBY: What about the heavy graviton beam we were talking about?
LAFORGE: I've gone over it four times. The local field distortion just wouldn't be strong enough to incapacitate them.

I'll buy that drones can handle higher g-forces than humans, but they'd eventually succumb. That's the problem with cyborgs: their organic components will always be obvious weak points.

DATA: Doctor Crusher and I have been working on an interesting premise.
CRUSHER: With our recent experience in nanotechnology, we might be able to introduce a destructive breed of nanites into the Borg.

The most obvious use for such nanites would be to disrupt the connection between the flesh and the machinery.

RIKER: I'm sure Captain Picard would have something meaningful and inspirational to say right now. To tell you the truth, I wish he were here, because I'd like to hear it too.

A nine moment.

GUINAN: I've heard a lot of people talking down in Ten Forward. They expect to be dead in the next day or so. They trust you. They like you. But they don't believe anyone can save them.
RIKER: I'm not sure anyone can.
GUINAN: When a man is convinced he's going to die tomorrow, he'll probably find a way to make it happen.

A good point, if a bit macabre.

GUINAN: Did he ever tell you why we're so close?
RIKER: No.
GUINAN: Well, then let me just our relationship is beyond friendship, beyond family. And I will let him go.

"You wouldn't believe the real story anyway. He was in an awful Indiana Jones cosplay and was fighting interphasic aliens while I argued with Mark Twain."

I'll have plenty to say about Time's Arrow when we get to it next year. I still don't quite understand the beyond friendship, beyond family part. That smacks of soulmates, which is a little icky.

SHELBY: The Tolstoy, the Kyushu, the Melbourne.

The Tolstoy was Rigel-class. We have no clue what they look like. One of the books says it had six decks and a crew of 65.

The Kyshu was New Orleans class, a kitbash of Galaxy class parts.

What's weird about the Melbourne is that there were two ships of that name at Wolf 359, one Excelsior class and one Nebula class. They weren't meant to be in service at the same time, but the Excelsior class was ordered back into service for the battle. The Nebula class was the one offered to Riker.

RIKER: Then trust me now. Meet to discuss terms.
PICARD [on viewscreen]: Discussion is irrelevant. There are no terms. You will disarm all your weapons and escort us to Sector zero zero one where we will begin assimilating your culture and technology.

Those sure sound like terms to me. Assimilate their culture? Is assimilation a one-off or commonplace at this time?

RIKER: We would like time to prepare our people for assimilation.
PICARD [on viewscreen]: Preparation is irrelevant.

Okay, we don't have autoassimilation nanoprobes yet, it's microsurgery. I'm not sure how you "prepare" for that.

SHELBY: Acknowledged. Fire antimatter spread.

How they can spit out antimatter from the saucer is beyond me. The number of antimatter pods in the saucer itself is quite minimal as well. Why the saucer has any antimatter outside of torpedoes is beyond me.

CRUSHER: There is extensive infiltration of microcircuit fibers into the surrounding tissue. His DNA is being rewritten.

I'm okay with microcircuit fibers, but rewritting DNA is just weird.

PICARD:: A futile manoeuvre. Incorrect strategy, Number One. To risk your ship and crew to retrieve only one man. Picard would never have approved.

No, he wouldn't've.

PICARD: Worf. Klingon species. A warrior race. You too will be assimilated.
WORF: The Klingon Empire will never yield.
PICARD: Why do you resist? We only wish to raise quality of life for all species.

Quality of life? How can he say that with a straight face?

DATA: Mister O'Brien is ready to process the Borg signal through the transport pattern buffer.

We'll cover why O'Brien is here instead of LaForge in the Memory Alpha part, but this is just silly. Borg communications are along a unique subspace domain, and transporter signals don't.

RIKER: Mister Crusher, ready a collision course with the Borg ship. You heard me. A collision course.
WESLEY: Yes, sir.
RIKER: Mister La Forge, prepare to go to warp power.
LAFORGE [OC]: Aye, sir.

Once you go to warp you're in subspace, you can't collide with ships still in normal space. What should be happening is Riker ordering a preparation for maximum possible impulse, a speed that will damage the ship and introduce time dilation. After all, "full impulse=quarter life speed" exists as a compromise between time dilation and speed, there's no particular reason why higher sublight speeds woudn't be possible, even if they damage the engines more.

DATA: I am attempting to penetrate the Borg regenerative subcommand path. It is a low priority system and may be accessible.

This seems like an odd choice for a low priority system. A Borg ship must have an important balance between active and regenerating drones. We're going to have to assume that this is just a sign that the Borg don't have sufficient imagination to foresee this.

Oh, and once again Data saves the Federation. I'll be Bruce Maddox will be thrilled to learn that he almost caused the destruction of the human race.

TROI: How do you feel?
PICARD: Almost human. With just a bit of a headache.

He's remarkably calm for someone who is half machine. I get upset when I have one needle in my arm for an IV, hundreds of them would have me screaming nonstop!

RIKER: Earth Station McKinley has advised they're ready to begin refitting the Enterprise.
PICARD: Have they estimated time for repairs?
RIKER: Five or six weeks.

I wonder if the E-D is more damaged than the original Enterprise after Khan. I can just hear Scotty say "but you don't have five or six weeks, so I'll have it done for you in two."

PICARD: Permission granted. They've picked a fine officer for the task force, Commander.
SHELBY: We'll have the fleet back up in less than a year.

Extremely doubtful. I expect that the fleet was at pre-Wolf 359 levels just in time for the Dominion War. And aren't we still at war with the Cardassians?