Descent (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Descent"
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Stephen Hawking's hologram playing cards
Episode no.	Season 6 & 7 Episode 26 & 1
Directed by	Alexander Singer
Written by	René Echevarria (Part II)
Teleplay by	Ronald D. Moore (Part I)
Story by	Jeri Taylor (Part I)
Featured music	Jay Chattaway
Production code	252 & 253
Original air date	June 21, 1993 (1993-06-21) September 20, 1993 (1993-09-20)
Guest stars
John Neville - Isaac Newton Jim Norton - Albert Einstein Natalija Nogulich - Adm. Alynna Nechayev Brian Cousins - Crosis Stephen Hawking - Himself Richard Gilbert-Hill - Bosus Stephen James Carver - Tayar Jonathan del Arco - Hugh Alex Datcher - Ens. Taitt James Horan as Lt. Barnaby Benito Martinez - Salazar Michael Reilly Burke - Goval
Episode chronology
← Previous "Timescape" Next → "Liaisons"
List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

"Descent" comprises the 152^nd and 153^rd episodes of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, a two-part story where part one is a cliffhanger ending to season 6 and part two begins season 7.

Overview

The crew of the Enterprise discover a group of rogue Borg who, under the leadership of Data's evil twin brother Lore, have begun a new offensive against the Federation.

Plot

Part I

On the holodeck, Lt. Commander Data plays a game of poker with holographic representations of Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. Answering a question from Newton, Data explains that the game is an experiment for understanding "how three of history's greatest minds would interact" in such a setting. Just as Hawking wins another hand, a red alert is issued and Data suspends the program.

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Starfleet outpost. On arrival, they send down an away team consisting of Riker, Worf, Data and another security guard. They find the entire crew of the outpost dead. Suddenly they are attacked by a group of Borg. During the course of the fire fight, Riker observes that the Borg are not acting like the Borg they have encountered previously. For starters, each of them is armed with energy weapons and refer to each other as individuals. In fact, these Borg appear to be fighting more like guerrilla warriors. While fighting a drone, Data feels an emotion—anger—resulting in his breaking the neck of the drone he was fighting.

At the same time, in orbit, an unidentified ship fires on the Enterprise, causing the crew to return fire. On the surface, during the firefight, one borg begins talking to himself about the nature of the away team members, when he sees and mentions Data, he appears to signal a withdraw. The alien ship beams up the remaining Borg from the outpost and flees with the Enterprise in pursuit. Suddenly the ship enters some kind of vortex and disappears without a trace. Back on the outpost, Riker asks Data what happened, but Data cannot explain it; he just felt angry. Admiral Alynna Nechayev arrives to take command of the situation. She reprimands Picard for not destroying the Borg when he had the chance ("I, Borg") and orders him to do so if another opportunity should present itself. Meanwhile, Data is trying to understand what caused his behavior on the outpost. He tries to experience emotion again through simulations of the event, but does not succeed.

The Borg ship reappears and attacks another outpost. Again, the Enterprise is the nearest ship, which makes Picard suspicious, given that there are now several Starfleet vessels patrolling the area. The Borg ship reenters the vortex and disappears when the Enterprise intercepts; however, this time the Enterprise is caught in its wake and follows. Once on the other side, the Borg attack, beaming drones on to the bridge. After a brief fire fight, one drone is killed and another wounded, but the distraction allows the Borg ship to escape, which again is unusual Borg behavior in that they always reclaim their drones, whether alive or dead.

The crew discover that the vortex they entered is a form of conduit allowing them to travel from one star system to another almost instantaneously. However they have yet to work out how it is activated which means, for the moment, they are unable to return to Federation space. Data is sent to speak with the Borg whom the Enterprise has captured in an attempt to gather intelligence, but the drone is able to manipulate Data into releasing him, and escapes the ship in a shuttlecraft. Before the Enterprise can catch the shuttle it disappears into a conduit. However, the crew is able to learn how the conduits are activated and gives chase. They track the shuttlecraft to a planet. An away team finds no trace of Data or the Borg and something in the planet's atmosphere is blocking their sensors, so Picard decides to conduct a ground search utilising nearly the whole crew of the Enterprise. Only a skeleton crew remains on board under the command of Dr. Crusher.

During their search of the planet, Picard, Troi, a security officer and La Forge discover a building. Upon entering, they are surrounded by Borg. The security officer panics, prepares to fire, and then is instantly killed by one of the unseen borg surrounding him. Lore, Data's brother, appears and is mistaken for Data by Picard. When Troi guesses Lore's true identity, Lore taunts Picard. Then Data appears, announces that "The sons of Soong have joined together, and together we will destroy the Federation!", as the episode ends.

Part II

Apparently Lore has found a way to give Data emotions, and turned Data against the Federation. Lore plans to lead these breakaway Borg to destroy all organic life; they believe that Lore and Data are perfect life forms. Picard, Troi, and La Forge are taken captive. Geordi's VISOR allows him to see a carrier wave being beamed from Lore to Data and they hypothesize that this is the source of Data's emotions and Lore's control over Data. For this reason Lore orders Geordi's VISOR removed. In orbit, the Borg ship is detected and Beverly orders the away teams on the planet to be beamed back aboard. However there isn't enough time to get them all, so Riker orders Crusher to leave and come back only when it's safe to do so. Rather than leave the system, Beverly orders the crew to take the ship into the sun. Using the technology developed by Dr. Reyga, they modify the shields to allow them to get closer to the sun than the Borg can go. They use the ship's phasers to trigger an eruption on the sun's surface which engulfs the Borg ship, destroying it.

On the planet, Lore orders Data to perform an experiment on Geordi's brain - an irreversible procedure with a "60% chance" of being lethal. Geordi tries pleading with Data, who ignores him and continues setting up the process. In their prison cell, the away team constructs a device which they believe will reactivate Data's moral subroutines, in the hopes that he will question his unethical actions, as well as the intentions of his brother.

Meanwhile, Riker and Worf encounter Hugh, who tells them that Lore is the leader of this Borg group. He says that at one time Lore's help was necessary, but that he has since destroyed many Borg through brutal experimentation. Hugh's group are "rebel" Borg, wanting to remove Lore from power.

The away team manages to reactivate Data's ethical programming just as Data is about to start the irreversible part of the experiment. Geordi pleads with Data, asking him to check his conscience. Data falters, claims that there are anomalies in the experiment and postpones it.

Lore begins to doubt Data's devotion, and attempts to strengthen control by threatening to remove the emotions he has provided. Data appears to have been cowed, but Lore remains suspicious, and orders Data to prove his loyalty... by killing Picard. Data refuses, as the rebooting of his morality subroutines is complete. Two Borg seize Data and Lore is about to execute his "own, dear brother", when Riker and Worf arrive, accompanied by Hugh and some of his rebel Borg. Battle commences and in the ensuing confusion, Lore flees, pursued by Data. In their ensuing confrontation, Lore attempts to talk Data into escaping with him. Unswayed, Data shoots him with a phaser then deactivates him.

In the aftermath, Hugh appears to have become leader of the Borg group.

The Enterprise is seen returning to Federation space. Data reports that Lore has been disassembled and he now intends to destroy the emotion chip, as it is "too dangerous", citing the harm he has inflicted under its influence. However Geordi intervenes, and advises him to keep the chip until he is ready. (The chip would eventually be implanted into Data during the course of the film Star Trek Generations.)

Notes

• In the Star Trek Voyager episode "Scorpion", Seven of Nine displays a schematic of a Borg weapon - "a multikinetic neutronic mine with a five million isoton yield" - which she offers to adapt with Voyager's replicated nanoprobes to fight Species 8472. The design shown on that schematic is the same as the Borg starship in this episode, leading to the speculation that the Borg Ship was a modified Borg mine.^{[citation needed]}

• Stephen Hawking was on the Paramount lot for the video release of the film A Brief History of Time. He was given a tour of the set, and asked "Could you take me out of my chair and put me in the captain's chair?" He also made a remark as he passed by the Warp Core area of the Engineering set: He pointed out the warp core and said "I'm working on that".^{[citation needed]} Hawking played himself at the beginning of the episode, during the poker game with Data.

See also

• I, Borg, the fifth season episode where Hugh is first encountered.
• Suspicions, the sixth season episode where the metaphasic shields were first introduced.

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 6, disc 7, selection 2 & volume 7, disc 1, selection 1.

External links

• Descent, Part I at the Internet Movie Database
• Descent, Part II at the Internet Movie Database
• "Descent, Part I" at TV.com
• "Descent, Part II" at TV.com
• Descent, Part I at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Descent, Part II at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Descent, Part I at StarTrek.com
• Descent, Part II at StarTrek.com