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.

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5-23. I Borg

Hugh of Borg (Jonathan Del Arco)

THE PLOT

The Enterprise is exploring an uncharted system when it receives a repeating signal from a Class M moon. The crew investigates and finds a crashed ship with a single survivor: a Borg!

The lone Borg (Jonathan Del Arco) is beamed up to the ship on Dr. Crusher's insistence. She stabilizes him, and he quickly recovers. Guinan is appalled that Picard would beam a Borg on board, but the captain has a plan. They will implant a virus in him, then return him to the Collective. The virus will spread, and the Borg will be destroyed from within.

It's a sound plan. Atypically ruthless for Picard, but effective and within their abilities to achieve. But as Geordi works with the Borg, whom he and Dr. Crusher dub "Hugh," he starts seeing hints of individuality and personality.  And he begins to wonder if they are truly doing the right thing...

CHARACTERS

Capt. Picard: The instant Riker says the word "Borg" over the intercom, Picard's entire bearing changes. He doesn't become overtly angry. Instead, he grows brittle and distant. He settles on a course of action that will destroy the Borg and shuts out alternatives.  In short, he becomes a lot like the alternate Picard of Yesterday's Enterprise. His actual rage only flares up when Guinan confronts him with the individual Borg also being a person, something Picard is desperate to avoid facing.

Geordi: Initially approaches his work with the Borg as an engineering problem. But as the Borg becomes "Hugh," and Geordi sees hints of the vulnerable individual buried inside the programming, his innate compassion emerges. He doesn't stop the work, but he does express his doubts. At the end, when Hugh is returned to the collective, Geordi insists on staying with him right up to the moment he is beamed away, so that his friend won't have to be alone while he is re-assimilated.

Dr. Crusher: While Geordi's compassion feels genuine and makes him more likable, Dr. Crusher's reaction feels false and strident. If her resistance started after Hugh began showing signs of individuality, then she would come across better.  But because she is arguing against treating the Borg as an enemy from the very first, she just comes across as stubborn and self-righteous.

Worf: "Kill it and make it look like it died in the crash!" I applaud the episode for allowing one of our heroic regulars give voice to this cold-blooded yet obvious solution to finding the Borg. Worf is very much in the background this episode, but his constant vigilance is worth noting. He is extremely careful when letting Geordi into the Borg cell, watching the prisoner's movements like a hawk. He waits until Geordi has left the cell before following, and backs out so that he never takes his eyes off the Borg.

Guinan: Writer Rene Echevarria remembers that Guinan's people were all but destroyed by the Borg, and mines that to good dramatic effect.  Her hard, brittle anger is compelling, becoming the center of every scene she's in.  Whoopi Goldberg's scenes opposite Patrick Stewart are wonderful, two first-rate performers soaring through some good, meaty dialogue.


THOUGHTS

After several subpar throwaways, TNG returns to form with one of the best episodes this season. The idea of revisiting the Borg in the form of a lone unit, cut off from the hive, was a terrific one. If they had just done another "Borg attack" episode, they couldn't possibly have topped the excitement of The Best of Both Worlds, and the threat of the Borg would have been undermined by their inevitable defeat. By taking a completely different approach, I, Borg sidesteps comparisons to Best of Both Worlds even as it builds upon its foundations.

Following up on the experiences of Picard and Guinan gives real dramatic heft to the story. We usually see Picard as thoughtful, able to look at every side of an issue as a matter of course. Guinan listens attentively, and responds to anything put to her with patience, compassion, and humor.

With the Borg, that's turned on its head. Picard was kidnapped, assaulted, made helpless and turned into a weapon by the Borg. Guinan watched as her people were all but exterminated by the Borg. The word "Borg" is itself enough to drive them both to rage. Guinan doesn't even listen to Geordi as he talks about the Borg "like it's some lost child." She lashes out at Picard for bringing it on board, and at Geordi for showing it compassion.

Picard's anger is even more interesting. First because his anger manifests in a way that fits so well with his character. He turns his fine, analytical mind to how the problem of this lone Borg can be used to Starfleet's (and his own) advantage. But even more interesting is how neatly his plan parallels what was done to him. The Borg took him and turned him into a weapon against his own people by assimilating him. Now he has taken a lone Borg, and he plans to turn it into a weapon against the Borg Collective through use of a virus. His revenge is, in effect, to do to the Borg exactly what was done to him.

This is also a good-looking episode. The shots of the Enterprise flying through this uncharted region of space are eye-catching, and the planet sets are well above the series' average. Director Robert Lederman uses close-ups to good effect in the scenes between Picard and Guinan, Geordi and Hugh, and especially Picard and Hugh. He also sometimes allows lines to play off-camera, focusing on the reactions of the person listening rather than on the speaker. This enhances the impact of this thoughtful script, making us really notice how the characters react to what they hear.

An excellent episode overall. Almost enough to wash away the bad taste left by the previous three installments.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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