6-26, 7-1. Descent.

Data and Lore, united with the Borg against the Federation!

THE PLOT

A distress signal brings the Enterprise to Ochniaka III, a Federation science outpost which has suffered a devastating attack. Riker, Worf, Data, and a redshirt beam down to investigate and discover the Borg. But these Borg are behaving strangely, showing no interest in assimilating individuals or technology. They are simply focused on killing.

After the inevitable happens to the redshirt, Data experiences his first emotion: Anger. He wrestles with one of the Borg and kills it with his bare hands, prompting the others to flee. Back on the ship, Picard and Federation Admiral Nechayev (Natalia Nogulich) prepare for a possible Borg invasion. Meanwhile, Data relieves himself of duty to run diagnostics, concerned at his emotional outburst. Finding nothing wrong, he develops a new concern. What if, much as he has evolved to the point of having dreams, he is now becoming capable of emotion? And what if the only emotions he is capable of having are negative ones?

Also troubling is his revelation to Troi. Anger wasn't the only emotion he experienced on the planet. After killing the Borg, he experienced one other feeling:

Pleasure.


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Admiral Nechayev may manage the impressive feat of being the most unlikable Starfleet admiral in Trek history (yes, including the ones who were villains), but she is an effective devil's advocate for Picard's decision to send Hugh back to the Borg without the virus. With the Borg apparently preparing a new invasion, Picard is left to watch his recordings of Hugh and wonder if his "moral choice" wasn't also the wrong choice, an effective character beat neatly paralleled by his later insistence to Data that doing something morally wrong can never serve a "greater good." Picard's decision is proved out by Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco)'s return as an ally in Part Two, but his doubts make for one of the two-parter's more effective dramatic moments.

Data: Since the series' start, Data has pursued the goal of making himself more human. Now he gets to experience emotions, but only negative ones: anger, hate, a sadistic form of pleasure. He expresses concern to Counselor Troi that, if this means he is becoming like a human, perhaps he is becoming a bad one. When we discover that the emotions are being externally induced by his evil brother, Lore, we also see the effect is like a drug. Data is pushed into craving the emotions, to the point that Lore is able to influence him by threatening to cut him off from his supply. Spiner plays Data's reactions well, from the confusion to the craving for emotion to his struggle against Lore's influence.

Dr. Crusher: With only a skeleton crew left on the Enterprise in Part Two, Dr. Crusher is left in command. She does a surprisingly capable job. Her compassionate nature will not allow her to leave the crew stranded for the time it would take to report in person to the Federation - but she obeys the spirit of her orders to report by leaving a communications buoy to send the report before turning back to retrieve the others. She works with her "second string" command crew to come up with a plan to maximize their ability to beam the rest of the crew back before the Borg can detect and fire upon them, showing a strong ability to prioritize and to coax the best performance possible out of her relatively untried bridge officers.

Lore: This many years later, it's not much of a spoiler to reveal that Lore is behind the altered behavior of both Data and the Borg. It's always fun to see Brent Spiner trot out his sneering villain routine, and Lore presenting himself as the Borg's savior allows him to indulge in some entertaining speechmaking. It is less emotionally-charged, and thus less effective, than his previous appearance in Brothers. Still, Spiner is enormously watchable, and he retains the odd knack of playing so well opposite himself that you forget in the Data/Lore scenes that there aren't actually two actors present.

Borg: The franchise's reduction of the Borg really begins here. Previous episodes have shown them as an indomitable enemy, one that is single-minded (literally) in pursuing its goal of evolution through assimilation. I Borg veered away from this, but did so in a way that was itself highly effective, exploring the ideas of individuality that go along with the Borg's status as a collective hive. Descent changes the formula again... but instead of adding, it reduces. The Borg are now Lore's henchmen, nothing more. As such, they aren't scary in the least. Even before the reveal of Lore at the cliffhanger, these Borg are simply interested in killing. An enemy that will assimilate you into itself, wiping away your identity in the process? That's scary. An enemy that simply wants to kill you? Much less so.


THOUGHTS

Another season's end, another two-part cliffhanger to tie the seasons together. The Season Five to Six transition was marked by Time's Arrow, an entertaining two-parter that nevertheless felt rather expendable. For the series' last ever season cliffhanger, the decision was evidently made to go big. Descent is scripted by two of the series' best writers: Part One, by Ronald D. Moore; Part Two, by Rene Echevarria. It brings back the Borg and Lore, tying together continuity points from both Brothers and I Borg. Part One ends with Data having turned evil, pitting the crew against Data, Lore, and the Borg all at the same time. With all these villains, it's like watching one of the 1990's Batman movies!

And like most of those movies, it's all rather silly. The Borg want to assimilate, and consider most organic life irrelevant, killing largely as a side effect? That's chilling. The Borg are under the control of Lore, who they refer to as "The One" while using their strength specifically to kill? That just turns them into supervillains.

None of which stops this two-parter from being entertaining. The story may be fundamentally silly, but it moves along at a fast pace. As is almost customary with these season-bridging two parters, Part One is slightly better than Part Two, with more momentum as it builds to the cliffhanger. Still, both parts provide solid entertainment, and make good use of the entire ensemble.

It's also fun to see all the continuity points get used: The emotion chip from Brothers, the state of the Borg in the wake of I Borg. Even the metaphasic shielding from Suspicions gets a nod in a moderately effective game of cat-and-mouse Crusher plays against a Borg ship.

It's all resolved far too easily, and this 2-parter marks the reduction of the Borg from indomitable foes into... Well, thuggish henchmen. Still, while it may be pulp silliness, it's fun to watch, and thus merits a good score.

Still, for all the determination to make this two-parter an "event," it is a bit sad that this really isn't any better than Time's Arrow was.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Episode: Timescape
Next Episode: Liaisons


Season Six Overview


Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: The Next Generation

Season Six Review Index

Season Seven Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

4-03. Brothers

Data and his father.

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is rushing a boy to a nearby Starbase after a practical joke played by his brother goes badly awry, creating a medical emergency. They are less than 24 hours out when Data abruptly changes. He goes silent, and then relentlessly takes control of the ship. All attempts to stop him fail, as he overcomes every action Picard takes with seemingly no effort at all. When he reaches his destination, he uses a series of force fields to block security as he walks to the transporter room (in, incidentally, a genuinely cool scene), and then simply beams down to the planet below.

When Data regains his proper consciousness, he is startled to find himself no long aboard Enterprise, and he has no memory of his actions. Any questions he may have are quickly silenced when he sees where he is: The laboratory of his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong (also played by Brent Spiner). Soong used a homing device to call Data back to him. He is dying, and he has one last gift for his creation: An emotion chip, to allow Data to experience the simple emotions that have so far been denied to him.

But Soong's signal has called someone other than Data to the planet. Lore, Data's evil predecessor, survived being beamed out into space, and has joined the family reunion...


CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: Intently focused on getting the ship back under his control. He responds to the takeover of the Enterprise with speed and determination that would almost certainly have trumped any human hijacker. Despite this, when he sends the Away Team after Data, his instructions - "Bring him home" - make it clear that this incident does not change his view of Data as a member of his crew.

Riker: Continues to be the designated "stern authority" for the ship's general population. Riker is the one who talks to the boy whose practical joke created the medical emergency. He is careful in handling the boy - He's not too harsh, just stern enough to make the point. He is also quite stern with Data when they recover him from the planet, though he does allow Data time with Soong when the android requests it.

Data: This episode is a field day for Brent Spiner, who gets to play three roles - four, if you count the "possessed" Data who takes over the ship at the episode's start. Spiner is terrific, as expected. The first 15 minutes shows us a Data devoid of the usual human warmth. He barely says a word until speech is needed to trick the computer into locking out Picard. He moves quickly and emotionlessly through the ship like an unstoppable force of nature (or technology, as the case may be). The Terminator on a starship, only without the body count. Once Soong re-activates Data, and his more familiar personality emerges, it's really startling just how different Spiner's truly machine-like Data of the beginning was. Spiner remains very good at showing Data as a full character without breaking that character by showing genuine emotion. The final shot of the episode, as Data reacts without reacting to the statement that "Brothers forgive," is a particularly fine nonverbal beat, the perfect one to close out the episode.

Lore: In Datalore, the "evil twin" was almost certainly intended to be a one-shot character. But it was a rare episode and character from the dire first season that actually worked. The creation of the more human, but sociopathic, Lore was genuinely memorable, and brought out a whole new side of Brent Spiner's acting. It was probably inevitable that the opportunity of the character would be picked up down the road, and this episode does that. Writer Rick Berman pares back on the outright "ee-vil" nature of Lore, instead presenting his misdeeds as a reaction to layers of resentment that have built steadily through the years. Lore's genuinely emotional reaction when Soong announces he is dying is a particularly strong moment.


THOUGHTS

After three years acting as a producer for the series, Rick Berman makes his TNG writing debut with Brothers. Not that Berman hadn't had substantial (and steadily growing) input into scripts prior to this point. But Brothers marks the first time that he receives solo credit as a TNG writer. Despite Berman's current (only partially deserved) reputation within Trek fandom, the resulting episode is not just good, but very good.

Attention is captured right away, as we see Data "taken over" just before going into credits. The first third of the episode is dominated by Data's takeover of the Enterprise. A bravura set piece, as we see Picard and his crew attempting every act they can think of to reclaim control of the ship, only for Data to anticipate and outmaneuver them at every turn. It is among the best openings of any Trek episode I can think of.  Credit to not only Berman and Spiner, but also to director Rob Bowman, who keeps this all moving quickly and keeps it all visually dynamic.

The bulk of what follows is very talky, with conversations between Data and Soong and Lore and Soong, but it remains good. Brent Spiner differentiates all three roles with unique acting tics for each character. Lore's distress that his "father" is dying plays as genuine - but is replaced by something crafty (fueled by resentment) when Soong reveals the chip he has created for Data. The interplay between the three characters works and, just as the back-and-forth between Soong and Data begins to get old, Lore is dropped into the mix to add some tension and danger.

The episode ends in a way that begs for a follow-up. Lore's next return will definitely be something I'll be looking forward to.


Overall Rating: 9/10

Previous Episode: Family

Next Episode: Suddenly Human

Search Amazon.com for Star Trek: The Next Generation


Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On Twitter:

Follow @RandomMusings09

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads