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A sexy Orion slave girl played by Bobbi Sue Luther is featured in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Gotta love ratings gimmicks. And when Star Trek needs a little boost, what better way than to bring in one of the actors from another Trek series that was much more popular.
“Borderland” is the first in a trilogy of episodes that feature Brent Spiner, the infamous actor who portrayed Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Although I was never really a fan of the character, I think his first appearance on the show brought a little bit of life to Enterprise, which is still recovering from a rocky fourth season start.
The concept here is that Spiner portrays Dr. Arik Soong, the grandfather (or is it great-grandfather?) to Noonian Soong, the man who created Data. And while that scientist was interested in building a better android, this earlier scientist is obsessed with building a better human through the illegal technology of genetic engineering.
Jailed for stealing 19 embryos saved from the Eugenics Wars on Earth that lead to the death of some 30 million people, Archer and crew need his help when it is learn that those 19 – now grown into adulthood – have attacked and killed a Klingon crew. But Soong leads the crew into the heart of Orion Syndicate territory, where members of the crew are kidnapped to be sold into slavery.
Archer, with Soong’s help, rescues his crew, but Soong is soon liberated by his “children”, who attack Enterprise.
The highlight of this episode is without a doubt the return of the Orions, who have been mentioned occasionally in The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but hadn’t been seen on screen since Star Trek: The Original Series. Here we’re treated to several green-skinned men, but most notably, a very attractive and busty green-skinned female.
Woo-hoo!
The introduction of the genetically engineered men and women, called “Augments”, is probably some of the best choreographed fighting in any Trek series. The “teaser” for the show featured two of them getting caught by the Klingons in a bird of prey, only to show those two Augments quickly kick ass and take names by killing every Klingon on the ship.
I’m not sure I understand why all the Augments are dressed in similar torn clothing, tho. Some of it reminded me of how the genetically engineered characters from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan dressed, but they were struggling on a deserted and virtually destroyed planet. Made sense then. Not sure I understand the reasoning with these characters.
In order to stay on the air, the producers of Star Trek: Enterprise cut the per-episode budget for the series. One of the ways they did this was to switch from film to high-definition digital cameras. And while the look of the show seemed to remain virtually the same in the first three episodes, the digital really came out with this episode. Especially during one scene where the Augment leader was with Archer in his “ready room”.
As the camera panned around, you could see a pixilated blur that looked really terrible. Perhaps it was the way this particular scene was lit, but the film-look was lost. It’s also visible during some of the sequences in the Orion slave trade, but the blurring effect is not as noticeable.
Still, the episode was fun and exciting, and had more Trek energy than the first two episodes of the series.
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