Star Trek: The Next Generation — 7x01 — Descent, Part II

Aired 1993-09-20

SpaceOpera.com rating:3

Average reader rating:4.46

Synopsis

Picard, Troi and Geordi are held prisoner by Data.

Remarkable scenes

Crusher in command of the Enterprise.
Data trying to be funny amidst the torture.
Beverly executing her tricky warp speed exit to get people off the planet.
Beverly using metaphasic shielding to enter the sun's corona. Excellent continuity with TNG: Suspicions.
Taitt destroying the Borg ship.
Data's announcement that the emotion chip was damaged when Data fired on Lore.
Data almost phasering the emotion chip.
LaForge: "Maybe some day. When you're ready."

Review

This episode provides the expected explanation for the Borg's seemingly silly behavior in the previous episode, along with Data's emotions. Lore, who believes himself perfect, happened to be in the right place at the right time when Picard returned Hugh to the Borg in TNG: I, Borg. Lore takes over the confused Borg and uses them to assemble an army. Also as expected, Dr. Crusher gets the nice screen time she deserves. She does an excellent job commanding the Enterprise. Unfortunately, despite these details, while the premise sets itself up weakly, the conclusion finishes the episode off even weaker than before. The only redeeming qualities are Beverly's performance commanding the ship and Data's final scenes with Geordi at the end. Beyond that, a disappointing plot.

5 reader comments

Whith the Borg powerful once again under Lore, what do they have to show for it? They have only one ship protecting thier leader, which gets fried by the sun. On the ground, they have a large gang of Borg living inside a building. Where is the army of Borg that assimilate whole planets?
by Orion Pimpdaddy | 06/06/2006 at 1:46 am

One thing that bothered me about the premise is, if the Borg assimilate individuals, every one of those individuals lived a whole life as an individual with a sense of self. So why would Hugh developing a sense of self for a few days be so disruptive to the collective or even to a single cube?
by TashaFan | 10/31/2008 at 7:41 am

How can Data feel the urge to develop emotions if he doesn't already have emotions? How can he show signs of withdrawal without emotions? He doesn't have unpleasant feelings so what's the problem? Physical symptoms? Again, why would he even bother if these symptoms don't lead to negative emotions? Why would he want to befriend anyone without emotions? How can a character as badly written as Data be part of a TV show? A lot of questions and no good answers. ^^
by Zaphod | 04/14/2011 at 12:59 pm

Problem: When Geordi is strapped down to the table, you see him move his hand almost completely out of the restraint with ease. He slips it back in as if nothing happened.
A decent episode. It's good to see Hugh return, and I've always liked the Lore episodes.
by ElGuapo | 11/30/2011 at 9:30 pm

I loved this episode (both parts). It might not have been the deepest plot, but it was exciting in a way few Trek episodes are. Great continuity with Hugh, and Dr. Crusher using the metaphasic shield. The scenes with Geordi and Data were quite intense. Also loved seeing Data take out Lore one and for all.
by Dan | 04/20/2012 at 4:07 am