- 30-second episode preview (AVI, 2Mb)
- Crosis talks to his leader, Lore, about Data.

Synopsis:

Picard, Troi and Geordi are held prisoner by Data, who has joined his evil brother Lore in assuming leadership of the Borg.

In the aftermath of Data's desertion to join the Borg, Beverly commands a skeleton crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise while most of the ship's crew, led by Picard, search a remote planet for their comrade. Upon sighting the Borg ship, Beverly retrieves as many crew members as she can and escapes, leaving Riker and Worf behind to search for Picard's group. Meanwhile, Picard, Troi, and Geordi are held prisoner by Data's evil brother, Lore, who assumed leadership of a group of Borg that includes Hugh, the young Borg who spent time on the Enterprise. Lore took charge of the Borg on Hugh's vessel after Hugh's new sense of individuality nearly destroyed his shipmates by disrupting their sense of shared identity. Lore says he provides the Borg with leadership, while the Borg regard Lore and Data as superior beings because they are fully artificial life forms. Picard attempts to communicate with Data, but his former crewmate barely acknowledges him and instead imprisons them in a cell. Troi points out that the only emotions Data feels are anger and hate, but Data is unmoved by her concern, and instead takes away Geordi's VISOR.

Later, Lore tells Data of his plan to conduct dangerous, possibly deadly experiments on Geordi. Meanwhile, Geordi, Picard, and Troi converse quietly in their cell, where Geordi theorizes that Lore is controlling Data by transmitting the negative part of his emotional program to his brother. He also believes Data's ethical program has been dismantled, and that if he can find a way to generate a kedion pulse, that program might be reactivated. Riker and Worf, still trying to locate the others, are captured by a group of Borg, and are surprised to see that Hugh is among them.

Hugh is bitter and angry. He blames the Enterprise crew for destroying the Borg, but does not support Lore. The only warm feelings he has are for Geordi, who befriended him on the Enterprise. Riker tells him he thinks Geordi has been captured, and Hugh agrees to show them into the compound. Inside, Data subjects Geordi to the deadly neurological experiments.

While this goes on, Picard and Troi steal part of a transceiver and, when a groggy Geordi returns, they modify it to emit a kedion pulse, restoring Data's ethics. Data tells Lore that he feels conflicted about hurting his friends, and Lore responds by cutting down on the flow of emotions to Data's brain. Like an addict, Data begs for more, and Lore responds by flooding him with negative feelings. As Data walks off, Lore tells his Borg henchman, Crosis, that he no longer trusts his brother.

Lore announces ominously that Picard is about to take part in an important "ceremony." Lore also announces that Data must prove his loyalty by killing Picard. Data refuses, and Lore sadly tells Data that he must then die as well. But at the moment he is about to murder his brother, Hugh steps forward from the crowd of Borg and knocks Lore's weapon away. Riker and Worf arrive at the same time with phasers blasting. Data follows Lore, who tries to escape to the lab, and Data is ultimately forced to fire on, and then deactivate, his brother. Later, Data reunites with his friends and they prepare to leave, while Hugh assumes the position of leader of this Borg group.

Timothy Lynch's Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode Reviews

WARNING: This article contains large amounts of spoiler information for 
TNG's seventh-season premiere, "Descent, Part II." Those not wishing to be 
unduly exposed to those spoilers should back away, slowly. A short 
spoiler-free comment is ahead, to be followed by 30 blank lines and a second 
Ctrl-L.

Briefly: A good deal better than either of the last two season premieres, 
but still far weaker than the setup. A few moments of glory, but also a lot 
of signs that the technobabble level is increasing beyond the limits of all 
decency.































That should be ample room. As a reminder to old readers and an education for 
those new to the net: Hi there. :-) The pattern these reviews fall into is 
one of a synopsis, followed by commentary on whatever parts of the episode 
seem to catch my attention for good or ill. [In response to a host of 
requests last year, there will be a line of ten dashes following the synopsis 
that you can use as a flag if you would like to skip over the synop.]

So, on with the show:

Lore boasts to his captives about his new followers (the Borg) and about the 
emotional awareness he's managed to give to Data in return for loyalty. He 
says that after finding these Borg wrecked by their new individuality, "I 
know now why I was created." He plans to make them completely artificial 
life-forms, much as he and Data are, to complete the Borg's sense of purpose. 
"The age of biological life-forms is coming to an end. You, Picard, and 
those like you -- are obsolete."

Meanwhile, Dr. Crusher commands a skeleton crew on board the Enterprise. 
Riker reports that the ground teams have lost track of Picard's group after 
Picard reported the existence of the Borg "castle". A search from orbit 
proves no more fruitful, and then Ensign Taitt, currently at tactical, spots 
the arrival of the Borg ship. Crusher begins beaming up as many personnel as 
possible, but both Riker and Worf insist on remaining below. At the last 
second, the Enterprise raises shields and flees -- without pursuit, but also 
with 47 of its crew still on the planet.

Back on the planet, Data leads Picard, Troi and Geordi to their cell. 
Telling them that "my life aboard the Enterprise was a waste," and that the 
actions Lore is taking will involve "sacrifices" for the greater good, he 
takes their communicators and Geordi's VISOR. When asked if he's felt any 
emotions beyond anger and hatred, he responds brutally, "There are no other 
emotions..."

The Enterprise reaches the transwarp conduit established by the Borg, but 
only sends a buoy through with emergency information, with Bev instead 
deciding to return to the planet. Taitt is relieved by Lt. Barnaby at 
Tactical, but remains at a science station to help. To gain enough time to 
potentially beam up all remaining away team members, Barnaby suggests staying 
in warp until the last possible second. Despite the dangers of such a move, 
voiced strongly by Taitt, Bev orders it done.

Lore receives the VISOR from Data and suggests that Geordi might make an 
excellent test subject for his experiments. Data demurs slightly, noting 
that the tests have caused brain damage on most of the Borg tested, and that 
it might well kill Geordi. Lore, however, comforts him by pointing out that 
the test may prevent future Borg deaths. As Data agrees to this, Lore speaks 
to a Borg who had severed his link to Crosis, Lore's aide-de-camp. Lore 
tells this Borg that his doubts could be overwhelming him, and that he should 
stay connected to Crosis and the others to let their strength ease the 
burden. 

In the cell, Geordi notes that before the VISOR was taken, he saw that Lore 
was using a carrier wave to manipulate Data. The feeding of negative 
emotions cannot easily be stopped, but it might be possible to reactivate 
Data's ethical program and give him a line of defense. A "phased cadion 
pulse" would do the trick -- now, the real trick is simply to find a way of 
making one. Before they can do more than give it a moment's thought, 
however, Data arrives to take Geordi away.

Riker and Worf, having tracked Picard's team, finally see the Borg castle, 
but are quickly captured by a group of Borg on patrol. They are led to an 
underground catacomb, where they find this group's leader -- Hugh. "Why are 
you here, Commander Riker? Hasn't the crew of the Enterprise done enough 
damage already?"

Hugh tells Riker and Worf angrily that it was his encounter with the 
Enterprise that left the Borg vulnerable to Lore's manipulations. Wracked by 
doubt and confusion after becoming individuals, they would listen to _anyone_ 
who came and promised change. At first, they followed Lore's promises of a 
glorious future gladly -- but then, when Lore had no way of fulfilling his 
promises, he talked of sacrifice instead. Hugh leads them to the result -- 
brain-damaged, pitiable Borg quivering on the floor of the shelter. Despite 
his continued friendship with Geordi, Hugh nevertheless refuses to help them 
rescue him -- but he does consent to show them a way into the compound.

Data begins his experiments, implanting fibers into Geordi's brain that 
should mimic neural function -- if it works after the existing brain cells 
are destroyed, then it should replace the brain. Geordi tries to reason with 
Data, but cannot. Troi and Picard, meanwhile, trick a Borg guard into 
entering their cell. They then incapacitate the Borg and prepare to flee, 
only to be caught by Data as he brings back Geordi. Picard, however, managed 
to keep a small piece of the Borg he disabled, which Geordi says can be 
modified to make a cadion pulse. Picard begins working under Geordi's 
guidance.

The Enterprise, meanwhile, drops out of warp virtually into orbit and gets 
everyone back from the planet that they can find (not, unfortunately, 
including Picard's or Riker's teams). However, the Borg get in one 
successful hit before shields go back up, and warp drive is lost. They evade 
on full impulse, and with nowhere else to turn, head for the sun and prepare 
to implement a "metaphasic shield" technique that Geordi had been putting 
together. Although it's untested on this ship and untried beyond the basic 
theory, they try it -- and it works. The Enterprise hides in the sun's 
corona, with the Borg lying in wait outside.

Picard finally gets the cadion pulse ready and activates it in the cell's 
forcescreen. Data, preparing to destroy Geordi's brain, claims anomalous 
readings and postpones the test. He lies to Lore about the encounter, and 
then expresses some regret over what has happened, saying that he has 
betrayed his crewmates. Lore maintains Data's loyalty for the time being by 
threatening to cut off Data's supply of emotions, but worries publicly to 
Crosis that Data may not want to join them on their great journey.

Back in the sun, the Enterprise's shields are failing. With only a few 
minutes left, Taitt suggests inducing a solar prominence to engulf and 
destroy the Borg ship. Despite the dangers of such a move, voiced strongly 
by Barnaby, Bev orders it done. It works, and the Borg ship is destroyed. 
The Enterprise heads back to the planet.

Data returns to the cell, but this time takes Picard with him rather than 
Geordi. Picard attempts to argue with him about wrong actions leading to an 
alleged "greater good", but Lore appears in the audience chamber before he 
can get very far beyond convincing Data to access his ethical program. As 
Riker and Worf prepare their attack, Lore tells Data to "close the door on 
the past" and prove his loyalty by killing Picard. Data prepares to, then 
refuses.

Lore says, sadly, that he didn't think Data would be able to do it, after so 
many years among humans. He addresses the assembled Borg, including a 
secretly-arrived Hugh. He tells them that although he has asked sacrifices 
of them, he too will make a great sacrifice -- that of his own, "dear 
brother." Hugh, however, shouts defiance and prevents Lore from firing. An 
all-out battle commences between Lore's Borg, some of Hugh's Borg, and Riker 
and Worf. Lore flees, with Data in pursuit.

Data finds Lore planning an escape. Lore offers to forgive and forget, and 
take Data with him -- "just the two of us." He even offers Data the emotion 
chip Soong made, but it quickly is revealed as a ruse, as Lore removes all 
emotions from Data. Lore tries to pounce as Data reacts, but Data reacts 
faster and shoots Lore down. 

Dispassionately, Data proceeds. "Lore, I must deactivate you now." 

"Without me, you will never feel emotion again."

"I know -- but you leave me no other choice." Data begins deactivating Lore, 
who says only "I ... *love* you ... brother." Data responds with a simple 
"Goodbye, Lore."

In the aftermath of the battle, Geordi and Troi are returned to the 
Enterprise, and after Data reports on Lore's fate, Hugh wonders what will 
become of them. "We can't go back to the Borg collective -- and we no longer 
have a leader here." Picard, however, is not so sure, and wishes them well.

A long time later, the Enterprise is back in Federation space. Geordi, still 
recovering, goes to see Data, who is examining the emotion chip.

"Does it work?"

"No. I am pleased to say it was damaged when I was forced to fire on Lore."

Geordi is surprised. "Pleased? Data, you've wanted emotions your whole 
life." 

"Yes -- but emotions are responsible for what I did to you. I would never 
risk letting that happen again. My friendship with you is too important to 
me."

Data prepares to fire on the chip, but Geordi stops him. "Data, I wouldn't 
be very much of a friend if I let you give up on a lifelong dream, now would 
I? Maybe ... someday, when you're ready..."

And as the remainder of the thought goes unspoken, the Enterprise heads for 
home.

----------

There, so much for that. Whew -- it's been three months since I've had to do 
any summarizing. Now, on with the commentary.

"Descent, Part II" displayed a lot of what there is to like about TNG's last 
year or so, and a lot of what there is to _dislike_ about it as well. It 
made for a pretty frustrating package.

One thing it wasn't was predictable, or at least predictable based on part 1. 
I reread the predictions I'd made back in June on the subject shortly before 
part 2 of "Descent" aired. While some of the very broad strokes of what I 
expected did in fact come to pass (Data's "perversion" to Lore's side would 
be blocked from outside and Hugh would be revealed as still a good guy, more 
or less), the details were wholly different from what I expected. "Descent, 
Part II", if nothing else, managed to surprise me several times -- and I'm 
just jaded enough to think that that's a good thing in and of itself.

There were certainly other things to like about "Descent, Part II" as well. 
One of the top draws can be summarized in two words, those being "Brent" and 
"Spiner". Spiner had more of a challenge than usual this time, even for the 
times he's played both Data and Lore. This time, since Data was corrupted, 
he had to play Data as being much closer to Lore than usual, and _still_ keep 
the two very distinguishable.

And he did. Boy, did he ever. Lore was a fully realized human for the first 
time with Soong's added emotional package, and Data, although nasty and 
vindictive, was somehow a great deal more formal and dutiful about it than 
Lore was. Lore, no matter what he was doing, was _relaxed_ about it -- and 
that's something we almost never see Data as being, no matter what the 
circumstances. Seeing the contrast between these two has always been a treat 
(particularly in "Brothers"), and this was no different. I think the 
Data/Lore end of the show was easily the strongest part of the episode, and 
represents a lot of what makes TNG a good show.

Another thing that's a bit rarer for TNG was a side effect of the "Bev in 
command" subplot. While the subplot itself was fairly mixed, it did give us 
a chance to see more of the regular crewfolk on the Enterprise. Both Taitt 
and Barnaby were fairly well realized characters, though Taitt was better 
done (by design, I suspect). With Taitt, in particular, we saw someone on 
her first posting who was nervous, but still professional, and more than 
capable of contributing her own significant talents to help in a crisis. 
That was a welcome change of pace. I wonder if Taitt is supposed to be a 
recurring character this year -- I certainly wouldn't mind.

I had somewhat mixed feelings about the re-use of metaphasic shielding, but 
much of it was positive. Beyond giving "Suspicions" some vague reason for 
existence (something which it did not have on its own merits), it also showed 
the return of important technology. All too often, Trek debuts some advance 
that should have significant implications and then ignores them for all 
future shows to come. Given the constraints of the plot, I'm very glad they 
decided to go with a previously noted and working technology rather than 
invent something new.

On the other hand, the use of the metaphasic shields was one part of 
something I spoke out against last year and didn't like at all here. In 
short, the technobabble level appears to be increasing to still higher 
levels, and it's being used as a substitute for any sort of drama.

To be blunt, I was utterly unaffected by the technological solutions we saw, 
particularly on the planet. On the ship, it was somewhat reasonable -- when 
you're overmatched, sometimes you need technical wizardry to get what you 
need. On the planet, however, the drama came from the moral conflict between 
Lore and Picard's group, with Data in the middle. Having a quick-fix "cure" 
make everything all better suggests that Data learned nothing, and that that 
everything is simply back where it started. That's a cheat.

It was also incredibly contrived on several occasions. I find it a little 
implausible that they could trick the Borg guard so easily (though that's 
more an objection about the Borg throughout this show than a plausibility 
point). I find it somewhat implausible that Data and the guards wouldn't 
make sure nobody had grabbed anything potentially useful -- but since Lore 
wasn't there, that might be justifiable. However, there is *no* 
justification whatsoever for setting things up so that the tiny little scrap 
of Borg material Picard grabbed just happened to be the exact thing that 
could be used to free Data from Lore's control. As a friend suggested later, 
the odds are better that Picard could have used it to suddenly make a nearby 
garage door close. What we were getting with this part wasn't drama, it was 
MacGyver-esque sleight of hand -- and I for one wasn't buying into it in the 
least.

However, lest I seem too annoyed at that, there were a lot of things in the 
freeing-Data subplot that made up for it. Although the chip-as-miracle-cure 
idea was pretty bad, the fact that it *wasn't* a complete cure helped a great 
deal. Data didn't suddenly turn good -- what that chip managed to do was 
bring the moral dilemma he faced into sharper focus. I wish that could have 
been accomplished without the technical mumbo-jumbo, but the effect it did 
have was just fine. The Data/Geordi scenes were the "good" counterpart to 
the Data/Lore scenes, and were just as powerful. (Data imitating Picard as a 
joke on Geordi was rather shocking, actually. Brrrrr.) The final scene of 
the show, in particular, went a long way towards making up for the magic chip.

However, there were also two implausibilities in the shipboard plot, one of 
them major. I had no objections in part 1 when Bev was left in command, 
because I figured she'd have enough warning time to get people back if an 
attack was looming. That was true. It is, however, incredibly stupid to 
leave her in command during the attack. She should have flat-out *ordered* 
Riker or Worf (either would do) to take charge once the Borg ship arrived, 
and one of them should have agreed to go on the spot. Yes, I realize that 
then we couldn't have had the dramatic evidence that "look, Bev really _can_ 
be a forceful and strong character when necessary", just as Troi had it in 
"Face of the Enemy", but it didn't make any sense. Along similar lines, if 
only 47 people were left behind I have some difficulty believing there were 
no more qualified people on board. That, however, is a much lesser point, as 
there was a fairly experienced tactical officer there being used.

The last angle of "Descent, Part II" that I suppose should be mentioned is 
the way Hugh was handled, and in a broader context what this all meant for 
the Borg. Well, I liked the surprising way in which we met Hugh, but not the 
implications for the Borg as a whole.

The way we met Hugh was surprising, at least to me, because I was expecting 
to see him as the leader of a rival faction, not of a broken underground. It 
was established that there was only _one_ group of Borg that severed from the 
collective, and that Hugh himself followed Lore for a short time. That came 
as a big surprise, and not a wholly unwelcome one. In addition, Jonathan Del 
Arco did a good job as Hugh again, so I certainly had no problems on that 
score.

However, all this did was strengthen my feeling that, in terms of the effect 
on the Borg, "Descent" was a significant mistake. As I said back in June, 
everything that made the Borg menacing or frightening as an enemy is now 
gone. Here, there was no real intelligence, no relentlessness, no 
adaptation, no seeming invulnerability (except perhaps on the ship) -- 
they're just badasses with guns. There's more than enough of that, thanks 
all the same. After every Borg show up to this one, I've been left feeling 
there was more about the Borg I'd like to see, and was waiting for another 
chance at a Borg show. I have to say that now, I'm not interested in them, 
really. They've had their time, and they're done.

In addition, the whole ethical question of "was what Picard did right?" was 
dropped flat in part 2 of "Descent". Given that that was an interesting 
point and one I was very interested in seeing the "answer" to, I'm more than 
a bit put off by that.

I think that pretty much does it. As a Data and Lore story, this was a very 
good piece which could have been better without the tech. As a Borg story, 
it wasn't nearly as strong. However, except for the really tech-heavy bits 
it was quite entertaining, and everyone did a good job with the material, 
especially Spiner. Not bad for a season opener, but not even a shadow of 
its predecessor.

Now, some short takes:

-- First, a note about a truly mischievous casting coup. It was an 
incredible conceit to cast James Horan as Barnaby, who implemented the 
metaphasic shields on the Enterprise. Why? Because he *also* played 
Jo'Bril, the Takaran trying to steal that same technology when it debuted in 
"Suspicions" last year. It's a nasty little coup -- but I have to admit, the 
irony works quite well. :-)

-- Credit-watching notes: There's been some promoting and reshuffling in the 
writing and producing echelons. Jeri Taylor has moved up to full Executive 
Producer status, Ron Moore has become a full producer, Brannon Braga has 
moved up from story editor to co-producer, Rene Echevarria is now executive 
story editor, Naren Shankar has become a story editor, and Andre Bormanis has 
joined up as the new science consultant. Congratulations to all, and to 
Andre -- let's avoid another "The Chase", okay? :-)

-- Lore calling Picard "obsolete" was a nice reminder of BOBW2 in some ways. 
As you might recall, Picard-as-Locutus used the same word there, but in 
reference to Data. What goes around comes around...

-- With all the Data/Lore mingling, a contraction goof would have been easy 
to make. I looked, and there is one. When Data stops the escape attempt, he 
tells Troi "I'll break [Geordi's] neck." Whoops -- but more than 
understandable in a show like this.

-- Obligatory talking-back-to-the-screen quote: When Barnaby talked about 
his plan to enter orbit on the far side from the Borg ship, I couldn't 
resist: "The Death Star will be in range in thirty minutes..."

-- I don't know if I was the only one, but I detected a very blatant 
political parallel when Hugh was talking. When Hugh said that they were 
willing to follow anyone promising change, and that after problems started 
the talk turned to sacrifice instead, I at least thought I was picking up a 
not-so-subtle swipe at President Clinton. Now, I may be misinterpreting 
that, but whether I am or not I think things could have been more subtly 
done. (The general idea of what Lore had created, however, was far more like 
a cult than anything else, which certainly does not fit the Clinton analogy.)

-- Nice FX with the space-based scene. We got a wonderful sense of scale 
when the Enterprise fled -- man, but that Borg ship is *big*. Yow.

That should do it. 

Normally here, I'd say "and now, the numbers", and try to give some sort of 
breakdown. However, I've grown very disenchanted with the three-tier 
approach, so I'll just give some comments and then a single rating.

Plot: It relied on too many contrivances and too much technology, but the 
simple Data/Lore issues helped it a lot.
Plot Handling/Direction: Not bad. Alexander Singer made even the contrived
parts a pretty nice ride.
Characterization: This was quite strong, but aside from Data, Bev, and the 
guests on the Enterprise there wasn't all that much to be done.

Overall, I think I'd call this a 6.5. Not what it could have been by any 
means, but not bad.

NEXT WEEK:

Picard is trapped on a planet with a lovesick psychopath. It seems the 
preview staff hasn't improved...

Tim Lynch (Harvard-Westlake School, Science Dept.)
BITNET: tlynch@citjulie
INTERNET: tlynch@juliet.caltech.edu
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!tlynch%juliet.caltech.edu@hamlet.caltech.edu
"There are no other emotions."
--
Copyright 1993, Timothy W. Lynch. All rights reserved, but feel free to ask...
This article is explicitly prohibited from being used in any off-net
compilation without due attribution and *express written consent of the
author*. Walnut Creek and other CD-ROM distributors, take note.

Related Links:

Where to Watch - Local channels and airtimes.
VHS, Laserdisc and DVD availability.

Cast:

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard™
Jonathan Frakes as William Thomas Riker™
Brent Spiner as Data™
LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge™
Michael Dorn as Worf™
Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher™
Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi™

Guest Cast:

Alex Datcher as Taitt
James Horan as Barnaby
Brian Cousins as Crosis
Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh

Creative staff: