Descent, Part II

-I never saw this episode since the begining of the century ,but all i can say about it is how great this episode is ,compared with any episode made since the end of Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise and if you want to see the epilogue of this episode you should watch the TNG movies and the first season of Star Trek Picard which is a pretty decent show and probably the last real Star Trek live show.

So let me get this straight. The Borg perpetuate themselves by assimilating individuals into their collective. But when they assimilate Hugh back into the collective his individuality causes a catastrophic systems failure? Their entire existence is based on the assimilation of individuality, but if a Borg regains individuality and then is assimilated a second time his individuality cannot be processed? Okay that checks out.

The enterprise has a complement of over 1000 people. Let's be generous and assume the skeleton crew aboard the enterpriser consists of 200 people and that another 200 aren't officers (family of officers, children, ect.). That's 600 people on the planet. After 50 seconds of beaming there are 73 people left on the planet. After 15 more seconds there are only 47 people left. Working backwards that's 26 people every 15 seconds which means about 87 people were beamed off the surface during the preceding 50 seconds for a grand total of 113 people pulled off the surface. Plus the 47 left on the surface that's 160 people that were looking for Data and a skeleton crew of 840 left on board the enterprise. Okay good that checks out too.

Lore and Data want to create a race of purely artificial life forms by cobbling together a visor with Borg technology. Oh wait, its because Geordi can see the carrier wave Lore is using to manipulate Data. Got it.

Hey look, there's a chair on the bridge, not the first time I've seen one of those, where are they stored? The Borg ship is massive and unaffected by the Enterprises weapons. The Borg's weapons can knock out warp drive while the shields are up. No special generators are needed for metaphasic shielding, just a computer program. Got it; checks out.

Other thoughts:

Crusher, Tate, and Barneby's efforts to battle the Borg ship are by far the best part of this episode.

Its nice to see Hugh again. I really like "I Borg", but I didn't want or need a follow up. Now that there is a fledgling colony of independent Borg on a remote planet a follow up does seem appropriate, but it never comes.

Finally, I wish I wish I wish Geordi didn't stop data from destroying the emotion chip as this episode is directly responsible for the Data we get in Generations and that Data is the absolute worst.

I want a spin-off series featuring ensign Tate. I imagine she can get any posting she wants with "destroyed a Borg ship" on her service record.

Verdict: Semi-enjoyable, mostly forgettable, bad for canon.

Fun facts:

47 People were left behind after the Borg ship attacks.

The words bouye and buoyancy occur with alarming frequency. Well 3 times but still.

The Sons of Soong is (or was) a band working and recording in Oakland county Michigan. They released an album called "Stillborn and Afterbirth". I know this sounds made up but I assure you it is not. Google it.

There are two issues at work here. The future of the Borg (disconnected) and the futures of Data and Lore. Data has been neutralized and a chip producing negative emotions installed. He has hooked up with Dr. Soon's miscreant throwaway child, Lore, who has become a threat to the Universe by engaging independent Borg (the product of Hugh's leaving the hive). This is mostly about Data and his ability to function (not unlike the Borg with his analytical side butting up against the good side). The problem for Lore is that he is unprincipled and evil and has no redeeming qualities. He destroys everything in his path for power, and because he is so transparent, he alienates those he must enlist in his schemes. Data begins to see the illogic of these actions, and while he longs to experience emotions again and to advance his humanity, there are things within him that block the pathways. Simply stated, he is only partially sure of things and that becomes a dilemma for him. This is a neat episode, even if one is concerned only with the fate of the crew members and Captain PIcard.

Enterprise ground crew searches for Captain Picard, Geordie and Counsellor Troi.

This episode is not as bad as it's made out, but it is an underwhelming finish to the first episode set up.

The show runners admit it didn't turn out as they wanted due to the multitude of themes they included. None of the scenes are particularly bad for me, there just isn't anything particularly interesting happening.

It flits between three plot threads and gives the most promising aspects of the story little screen time. Hugh appears and they do very little with the character.

The scenes with Data are not very inspired. It is a technobabble concept with a technobabble solution and the logic of how he turns evil and back to normal is dubious. However, it ends well with the strong exchanges he has with both Lore and Geordie. I like the idea the writers had relating to cults, leadership and the exploitation of the emotionally vulnerable, but I'm not sure the concept of Lore controlling Data's network lends itself to those themes.

The scenes with Dr Crusher are contrived but well done nonetheless. Gates McFadden acts the part of a temporary commander well.

Brent Spiner makes the best of the material he has, likewise Patrick Stewart and the others.

The writers resort to 2 dimensional comic book characterizations, 19th century plot devices and lapses in logic in this 2 part episode.

Lore is a smirking "Eevyil Genius" with a master plan for elimination of inferior beings and Universal Domination. He has set up silly structure with vaguely fascists looking symbolic elements where a few Borg have become his minions (meaning, of course, they are cannon fodder who can only hit non recurring characters in hand to hand combat, are hard to kill when it isn't important, but extremely vulnerable when being killed moves the plot along.

We know all of this, because, instead of doing what bad critters really do, and just doing their evil deeds, Lore must tell his victims exactly what his plans are, and, also, provide sufficient scenarios in which his victims can concoct escape plans. This results in several 1960s style expositional scenes in which Lore almost produces a "Mha-mha- mha, victory is mine".

The Borg guards fall for a "Captain isn't feeling well" get out of force field ruse because, of course, they have deep wells of empathy for humans.

The day is saved by a "get in touch with your better self" speech in which Data is reminded who his true friends are (with a touch of technobabble and deus ex machina technology to help things along.)

In the end, we have a suitably melancholy ending, with just the right amount of hope, as Data chooses to give up emotion so that he doesn't become a monster, but his one true friend, Geordi, intimates that, maybe, in the future he will be ready.

Hugh the Borg is told to look into himself and find leadership qualities, because all things touched by the Enterprise become "the most important thing of their kind in the Universe."

All in all, writing out of our naive past, without the cheesy charm of brilliant hammy actors.