Star Trek TNG Descent part 2

Descent part 2 welcomed us to the seventh and final season of Star Trek The Next Generation. It would start a trend throughout the season of putting extraneous characters to bed. Even though there was no definite end and they planned to extend TNG into films, they were afforded the opportunity to wrap up the series as a series and episodes like these were all a part of giving the audience a sense of closure. I'm a big fan of closure and I think it was really good of them to clean house like this. Dotting i's and crossing t's. And it was a great episode to boot.

It starts with Lore and Data descending to talk to Picard's team directly. Lore brags about all he'd accomplished with this group of Borg and they ask him if he'd given them individuality. He rightfully places blame on them for that and explains that when he found Hugh and others that he'd infected struggling with their newfound individuality, he finally found his purpose in life - to lead them as they wipe out all biological life in the universe. He claims that he and Data now represent the perfection these Borg had been trying to attain and that other life is obsolete. This is a smart and an entirely believable fall out from the episode I Borg. When a group of enslaved people are blindsided with sudden freedom, many would choose to find a new master than be faced with taking care of themselves. Troi can sense emotions from Data and Lore tells them that he still has the emotion program that Dr. Soong had written for Data. Now they understand how Lore is controlling him. Picard tries to plead with Data personally, asking him if he remembered how he was when Hugh was on board the first time. But Lore blocks Data from answering which Picard also points out in effort to reach him. But he appears to be completely brainwashed by Lore's way of thinking and takes them to holding cell at Lore's command.  Back on the Enterprise Beverly is in charge and she's not timid at all about it. She's up there with a skeleton crew that has a lot of junior officers on board. She welcomes a young tactical officer named Taitt who is fresh out of the academy and calms her nerves with the personal attention. It's not long before the familiar Borg ship appears though. She starts beaming up away teams and waits until the last minute to raise the shields. The Borg damages the shields, but Beverly isn't happy about not getting all the people up. Riker contacts her and reminds her to get back to Federation space without risking anyone else. He notes that they haven't been able to contact Picard's team yet, and he and Worf stay on the surface to try and find them.

Picard and the others continue to discuss Data's new emotions on their way to the cell. They discover that the only emotions he's felt so far are hate and anger. When Troi tries to convince him that Lore is feeding him only bad emotions, he throws her own words back in her face about emotions not being good or bad. Lore has convinced him that his quest to become human was foolish and he now sees things as they should be. He demands Geordi's VISOR and threatens to take it by force, so Geordi complies and hands it over. On the Enterprise Beverly relieves Taitt from tactical and orders a course back to the conduit. After ordering their logs to be sent through she explains of her intention to go back and rescue the rest of the away team members. Taitt didn't do well at tactical during the first skirmish, but Beverly keeps Taitt on at a science station while her replacement, a man called Barnaby, suggest going back quickly and dropping out of warp at the last second. The uncertainty and tension between these two junior officers and Beverly's ability to deal with it makes up a small subplot. Taitt expresses doubt about Barnaby's plan, but Crusher approves so they set out. In the building, Data gives Lore Geordi's visor and asks why he wants it. We can see that the old Data is not entirely lost as his need for rational explanations still remains in tact. He also doesn't understand the joke when Lore raises it to his own face as a sight gag. It confirms that he is not feeding Data any healthy emotions like humor or anything that feels good. Lore wants to experiment on the VISOR to avoid any more Borg deaths in the experiments that he'd been conducting up until now. That gives him the idea to begin experimenting on Geordi himself but he's interrupted by Crosis bringing in another Borg to be reprimanded for not allowing Crosis to hear his thought. So we see they're not really free under Lore's leadership but still functioning as a collective with only certain individuals allowed to have privacy. That's how he keeps their doubts about their mission in check. In the cell Geordi speculates about the wave length that Lore is transmitting emotions to Data. He suggests that his ethical program has been disabled but could be rebooted with a kedion pulse. They have to stop talking when Data arrives to take Geordi away. He takes him with no explanation and doesn't stop to respond to their questions. Outside, Riker and Worf stumble into a group of Borg who take them into a cave where they discover Hugh.

Hugh is unhappy to see them. He blames them for Lore's ascendance to power over them and proceeds to give the long version of my summary above: they were confused when they suddenly became individuals and had differing opinions on how to proceed. They happily latched onto Lore's promises to bring them clarity and a future. But they soon noticed that he had no idea what he was doing. He started conducting experiments on them to remake the Borg in his own image. Hugh shows Riker and Worf the sad results in a few permanently disabled Borg. He asks after Geordi and tells them how to get into the building but he refuses to help them with further back up since he blames them for the predicament they're in. Data, meanwhile, attempts humor by imitating Picard's voice while Geordi is strapped to a table. The person who he thinks is Picard is talking about getting him out of there, but it turns out that it's just Data. So we see that his understanding of humor has only progressed to a cruel sort of tortuous humor. He explains the experiment to Geordi in his usual emotionless tone while Geordi tries to tell him how Lore is controlling him. He makes no response to any of Geordi's claims but continues to describe how he will be replacing some of his cognitive abilities with an artificial neural network that has a sixty percent mortality rate. Geordi stops trying to talk to him when he realizes that he will remain unaffected by reason. Picard and Troi cook up a plan to steal a needed component to reboot Data's ethical program from the Borg. Troi calls to a Borg guard to help with Picard who appears to be unconscious on the floor. She convinces him by telling him that Lore will blame him if he dies. When he gets close enough Picard attacks and steals a transistor from his body armor while he's knocked silly as Troi watches at the door with his gun. Data brings Geordi back at that moment. He assumes that they were trying to escape and threatens to break Geordi's neck if they don't release the Borg and his gun. They comply and Data and the Borg leave, unaware that Picard has taken anything from him. Geordi is disoriented, but he still has his senses and is able to guide Picard into modifying the transmitter. Up on the ship, Beverly manages to rescue everyone but the main crew and the dead security officer before the Borg ship returns. She raises the shields, but this time their hit does damage to the warp engines so she can't go back to the transwarp conduit. She orders that the Enterprise be taken into the corona of the nearby sun which stuns the bridge crew, but we all know what she's got in mind.

Once they get to the star, Crusher orders the metaphasic shielding to be activated. Even though it's still in its experimental state, it works beautifully and the Enterprise moves into the corona where there is too much interference for the Borg to attack them. However, they decide to park nearby and wait for them to come out. And Crusher knows the shielding won't hold out indefinitely. In the cell Picard and Troi are alone since Data has taken Geordi away again. Picard finishes the modification and gently pushes the transmitter into the forcefield so that it will be activated. He doesn't think Data will notice the change right away and he doesn't as he continues to run tests on Geordi. Geordi starts to talk to Data about old times to get him to remember some of the things they'd been through together. He warns him that if he ever goes back to the way he was, he may not be able to forgive himself for what he's about to do. Data is becoming hesitant now and makes up an excuse about anomalies in the equipment to discontinue the experiments at this time. He goes to Lore to try to digest the facts that if his friends die that he is responsible for their deaths. Lore taunts him by suggesting that he's not ready for all of the emotions he's sending him and manipulates the chip to affect Data as one who is addicted to drugs. Data begs for Lore not to stop the flow of emotions and goes back to eradicate all of  Geordi's brain cells, but Lore isn't taking any chances. He calls Crosis over an orders him to keep an eye on Data. On the ship they're running out of time so Taitt comes up with a plan to cause a solar eruption that would destroy the Borg ship. Of course, one miscalculation would destroy the Enterprise too as Barnaby points out and she dismisses his doubts in the same cocky way he'd dismissed her earlier. Crusher takes a chance on her calculations since she majored in solar dynamics at the academy and they give it a shot. It works and Barnaby is impressed. There's a sense of boy vs. girl with these two, but it's not overbearing and one isn't forced to see it that way. Barnaby is the more experienced officer and his objections to Taitt also have some validity in that regard. The girl wins; well, both girls, since Beverly has masterminded the defeat of the Borg ship and managed to stay close enough to help rescue Picard and the others. Data takes Geori back to the cell and he's in such bad shape now that he can barely walk. Picard begs him not to do more since he's killing him but Data said that he's come for him this time. As he's leading him back to the meeting hall, Picard continues to speak to him logically about his ethical program and encourages him to embrace the new truths he's sensing about how wrong all of this is and this time you can see the conflict in Data's face instead of cold indifference. Riker and Worf use the environmental piping to get into the building as Hugh showed them and when they arrive at the holding cell Troi tells them that Data had taken Picard away. In the meeting hall, Lore welcomes Picard and Data to a ceremony for Data to prove his loyalty by killing Picard.

Picard stands manfully and faces Data and Data ultimately decides that killing Picard is wrong. Lore isn't surprised and has a group of Borg grab a hold of Data. He decides to assure the Borg that he doesn't ask any more of them than he does of himself and he's willing to prove it by sacrificing his own brother. But then we see Hugh's head peering through the crowd. He showed up anyway and rushes forward to stop Lore from firing on Data. Worf and Riker have found a high vantage point at the same time and begin firing as well. The Borg begin to fight each other since there are differing factions - those that follow Lore and those that don't. It becomes a chaotic mess pretty quickly and Lore takes advantage of the situation to leave as always. Data follows him to his escape vessel and tries to hold him there. Lore instantly changes faces again and offers to forgive Data, asking him to come with him because they don't really need anyone else. Data may be innocent, but he's not stupid and he refuses. Lore uses the emotion chip one more time to attempt to gain an advantage. He tells Data that the chip also contains memories that Dr. Soong wanted him to have and pushes at it to cause Data the momentary disorientation that he needs. But he recovers in time to fire at Lore before Lore can fire at him. His shot disables him and he proceeds to open the panel in Lore's head. He tells Lore that he's dismantling him. Lore warns him that without him he'll never feel emotion again. Data knows this but Lore has left him no choice. As Lore shuts down, he says, "I love you brother." It seems like a bittersweet ending, but it's not really since Lore is a sociopath and too selfish to feel love. He wasn't upset enough about Dr. Soong's death to honor his wishes, and he'd just tried to kill Data twice after not being able to have his way with him. Also, Lore never fed Data the emotion of love so Data would have no way of confirming that his last statement is true.

In the meeting hall it appears that Hugh's faction has won out with the help of Riker and Worf no doubt. Riker informs Picard that the Enterprise is in orbit and that Geordi and Troi have already been beamed up. Hugh realizes that his time on the Enterprise shaped him in ways that he'd never considered. He laments their displaced and leaderless state once again, but Picard implies that Hugh could be their leader before they leave. Later, Geordi goes to Data's quarters to let him know that Crusher has cleared him to return to duty. Data has no emotions, but expresses relief that the damage he inflicted on him wasn't permanent and we all know he's sincere. He is holding up a small chip that looks like Pac Man to me. (Lol) Geordi asks what it is and Data tells him it's the emotion chip that Dr. Soong created for him and that it was damage when he fired on Lore. He's pleased that it doesn't work and Geordi doesn't understand why. Data holds the chip responsible for his actions in harming Geordi and he's preparing to destroy it. But Geordi stops him and takes the box he put it in before Data can fire at it. He says he wouldn't be a very good friend if he let Data give up on a lifelong dream and that when he's ready, they could try it again.
This was the better of the two parts. It was necessary to explain how easily Data was corrupted... I'm assuming that when Crosis was captured he disabled Data's ethical program under Lore's instructions. It also sets up a scenario to display just how scary Data could be if he had no such ethical program. It was a good end to Lore. Instead of watching at a distance as he's incinerated or blown to pieces, his body is accounted for since Data shuts him down personally, and presumably takes him apart to be stored away or destroyed. In other words, there's no soap-like chance of the evil twin returning again. It was a good follow up on Hugh because the decisions they made in I Borg would realistically have a long term effect on him. It's one of my favorite Beverly sub plots. There was no need to yammer on about her being a woman in order to show how secure she was in her command; nobody questioning her judgement because she was a woman; no need to prove anything about women in general. She was confident and comfortable taking the lead, not because she was a woman, but because she was a natural leader. Troi was unsure of herself in Disaster, not because she was a woman, but because she wasn't trained to take command. Beverly had been in command of an entire department for a long time to begin with so this really wasn't that big of a deal for her. And she does just as good of a job as Picard in making the high stakes decisions. Yes, this was a good way to kick off the final season. Five Stars.