4x04 Borderland (1)

[8.3/10] Holy cow -- continuity nod overload! Continuity nod overload! We’ve got a connection to Data’s creator’s ancestor, to Khan, to the Orions, to the Klingons, to the Eugenics wars, to the Augments, and my DS9 is a little rusty, but I think also to Julian Bashir. This is, to be sure, a massive dose of fan service, but I am embarrassed to admit that I am 100% here for it.

It’s just too much fun. This episode still tries to be a little grave and severe like season 3 of the show was at times, but for the most part, the tone is lighter, the situations are more over the top, even silly, in a way that’s enjoyable. There’s moments when it becomes too much for me, like the Orion slaver who totters over when Archer and Soong blast him. But other bits, like a green-skinned Big Show lifting and shaking a totally deadpan T’Pol, are the kind of outsized irreverence that had me in stitches. (I didn’t realize that Big Show followed in The Rock’s footsteps by making the jump from WWE to Star Trek)

Much of that comes from Brent Spiner himself, who is just so much fun playing a Hannibal Lecter-esque bad guy. There’s something very tongue-in-cheek, and more than a little meta, when Spiner’s Soong tells Archer that his crew needs a better sense of humor. Spiner is a delight in that department here, with cutting, oft-sarcastic asides to Archer and others that just make him a joy to watch. It’s easy to default to The Next Generation with comparisons, but in a lot of ways Soong feels like a similar presence to Q here, obviously less in terms of power, but much more in terms of taking the stuffing out of this collection of stuffed shirts.

What’s neat is that Soong isn’t just comic relief here. He is a mad scientist, a sharp-minded escape artist, and in a weird way, an idealist. The show doesn't get into it too deeply, but Soong makes for a solid devil’s advocate on the genetic engineering front. His pitch to Archer that the techniques he pioneered could help enhance humanity and reduce suffering in the world is a superficially compelling one. And when Archer notes that the augments and the Eugenics Wars caused untold suffering (and as Star Trek fans know, would cause more trouble in the future), Soong responds, not unreasonably, that splitting the atom lead to untold death at first, but also powered man’s journeys into space.

His idea that early stumbles shouldn’t keep scientists from pushing for progress makes for an interesting contrast with Archer, who famously has had his own clashes with the Vulcans limiting humanity’s to advance. Soong brings that home to Archer by noting that his controversial techniques could possibly have cured the disease that killed Archer’s dad. In all honesty, most of these discussions are window dressing rather than seriously-addressed topics, but the ideas and arguments, and Spiner’s delivery of them, are all interesting enough to carry the day and feel part and parcel with the sort of ethical debates that are the bread and butter of Star Trek.

That ethical debate becomes a little more relevant when the results of Soong’s experiments have grown up and are out causing a ruckus. Much of the episode focuses on a power struggle among the augments who’ve taken over a Klingon ship. It turns out to be the weakest part of the episode, as none of the augments really know how to act, and the whole Lady MacBeth routine with Persis pitting Malik and Raakin against one another feels pretty cheesy, albeit more like a true Original Series throwback than almost anything else in the series so far.

Still, their schtick is enjoyable enough on its own terms. While the augment crew doing parkour and kung fu to take down Klingons comes off a little hokey, it’s buoyed by the excitement over the fact that they basically look like a troupe of mini-Khans. At the same time, there’s some genuine pathos and even heart to them wanting to rescue and reunite with their “father.” Granted, the show tries to use them to gesture toward how Soong’s line of thinking can easily lead to pernicious ubermensch philosophy, which is particularly dangerous in the hands of genetic supermen, but it’s all too bombastic to take seriously.

What’s kind of odd is that despite the presence of Soong, the misadventures of the augments, and the political implications of the Klingon entanglement, “Borderland” isn’t really about any of those things. At most, it kind of introduces those notions which are likely to take flight later. Instead, it’s mostly focused on the Enterprise going to the titular no-man’s-land between intergalactic territories, and having to rescue the nine members of the crew who get kidnapped by the Orions.

Despite that, sending the unlikely team of Archer and Soong to go rescue them makes for a really fun setpiece. Major kudos owe to the show’s production and costuming team, as the Orion auction house is the sort of grimy, visually diverse milieu we haven’t gotten enough of when exploring “strange new worlds and new civilizations.” The Orions themselves have particularly neat costuming (save the gratuitous but sadly canonical barely-dressed slave girl). There’s an otherness to the Orions, achieved both by casting large guys like Big Show to play them, but also through coming up with unique, almost bondage-themed costumes that are eye-catching and visually signify that we’re not dealing with business as usual here.

The jailbreak and chase that results is also a hell of a fun setpiece. Beyond the raw chaos of these bumpy-headed aliens running around in a panic, you have Soong making a run for it, Archer cleverly thwarting him, and the sort of spills and subterfuge that make this sort of rescue mission a thrill. Add in the fact that the Enterprise is about to be roasted by the Orion ships only to have the augments save the day, and you have another dose of the rolicking, lighter side of action-y Trek I like more than its bland action movie equivalent.

Of course, the end result is a reunion between Soong and his creations, and an escape with more adventures surely in the offing. Spiner is so much fun to watch as Soong because he gets to be the bad guy, and flexes those more colorful acting impulses we almost exclusively got to see in Lore on The Next Generation. But Spiner also imbues him with some truer humanity: his affection for his “children,” his unwillingness to destroy the Enterprise, his seemingly genuine commitment to his perceived altruism in his ideas.

Mixing all of that with a grab bag of continuity connections and species from the franchise’s past makes for an absolute blast of an episode. There’s a certain amount of pandering to all of this, but I’d be lying if I said it did anything than reel me in hook line and sinker.