7.1 — “Descent, Part II”
Plot: Trapped by Lore, his Borg collaborators, and the radio-controlled Data, Picard, Geordi and Troi must figure out a way to escape before Data’s cybernetic experiments prove fatal for Geordi. Meanwhile, Crusher commands the ship through a firefight with a Borg vessel.
Thoughts: This is another episode in which the second part, written by René Echevarria, fails to live up to the first part, written by Ronald D. Moore based on a story by Jeri Taylor. Maybe it’s a case of Echevarria being painted into a corner by his colleagues, but I think it’s fair to blame him for the lazy reliance on technobabble to avoid almost every part of the story which promises to be interesting.
Data’s dark and disturbing emotional awakening? Well, it’s a carrier wave broadcast from Dr. Soong’s emotion chip coupled with disabling Data’s ethical program, which can be rebooted by a phased kedion pulse at the right frequency. Are you wondering how this explains the events of Part One, in which Data experiences emotions on the Enterprise and space station, light years away from Lore’s lair? Don’t, because the authors of that seemingly promising story have left the building.
The redemption of Data could have involved reason, debate, and explorations of ethics and artificial intelligence, but no, Picard is able to broadcast a kedion pulse by reconfiguring a Borg transceiver, so no drama is necessary. Similarly, the tactical situation for Crusher and the enemy starship could have been an opportunity for a classic Trek space battle. This would have required the writer to imagine who is commanding the other ship, and what his or her objectives and motivations are. But why do that when you can just have the ship direct a high-energy particle beam to produce a superfluid gas eruption and erase the problem with a few lines of scribbled nonsense?
Hugh recognized Locutus in “I, Borg,” but none of the other Borg recognize him now, nor does Picard react to being back among the drones, or to the change in Borg psychology. The writer even forgets that Worf and Riker haven’t heard about Lore’s presence yet, because they don’t react when Hugh mentions his name. I did enjoy Hugh’s brief scene–we could have used much more of that, and the plight of the Borg in general. I can’t help but think that a serious science fiction writer of the caliber that Trek used to hire as freelancers could have done more with the premise.
While technobabble continues to be used as a crutch to resolve conflict and wrap up half-baked stories, I will write more negative reviews. I did like some aspects of the episode. While Lore’s whole motivation is underexplained (I take it he wants to wipe out all life that isn’t artificial? Or is he just trying to distract the Borg’s attention with this objective?) Brent Spiner makes a chilling villain in the dual role of Data and Lore. I like a good mad scientist story. They should have just brought it back around to a serious examination of Data’s psychology as an artificial being vulnerable to this kind of manipulation. It feels like Echevarria doesn’t really believe the premise, or doesn’t feel he has the time to go into it, so he tries to hand wave the changes in Data away, instead of explaining and exploring them.
The art department continues to excel. Goval the rebel Borg looks great. And I got a thrill out of seeing Data preserve the emotion chip, so it can make its reappearance in Star Trek: Generations, which was already in the scripting process behind the scenes.
2 of 5 perfectly aimed and instantly fatal superfluid gas eruptions.
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