TNG Rewatch: 7x01 - "Descent, Part II"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by Trekker4747, Sep 24, 2015.

  1. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    [​IMG]

    We pick up where we left off at the end of the previous season. Data has been corrupted by Lore, using emotions, and he has now joined his brother along with a group of "defected" Borg (part of the cube that included Hugh, who was given individuality where it was assumed it'd act as a corruptive programing to bring-down The Borg.) Lore has installed himself as a leader which helped to organize these Borg who were otherwise lost and directionless without operating as a single thought process. Lore intends to use them in order to, pretty much, eradicate intelligent biological life and replace it with artificial life using a combination of Borg technology and Song-Type Android technology.

    Picard, Troi and Geordi are being held captive by Lore and a "brainwashed" Data; Riker and Worf are on the planet's surface along with a very large search party trying to find Data, the Borg and now Picard and co. Crusher is commanding the Enterprise with a skeleton crew with instructions to eventually recover the landing parties and take the ship back to Federation space, presumably to gather reinforcements from Starfleet.

    As Data places Picard and co. in the holding cell he confiscates Geordi's VISOR and leaves, Geordi presumes it's because his VISOR saw a signal Lore was transmitting. He figures Lore has found a way to transmit the emotions into Data in order to manipulate him and has also somehow disabled Data's ethical programing, which is why Data is behaving so abnormally. He thinks there may be a way to "reboot" Data's ethical program.

    Data eventually returns to collect Geordi, planning to experiment on him to find a way to make Lore's process of replacing biological brain matter with an artificial one. Geordi tries to connect with Data by talking about old memories, but Data is unmoved.

    In orbit, Crusher works to recover all of the away team members but her attempts are cut short by the Borg ship sharing orbit with them, forcing her to flee. She refuses to abandon the remaining crew members and launches a buoy through the conduit, hoping Starfleet will get it and send in reinforcements. Her and some junior bridge officers work on a way to recover the remaining crew members while avoiding the Borg ship. They end up being successful and recovering the rest of the away teams (save the entire senior staff minus her) but the ship's warp-drive is damaged in an attack. Not being able to fight or out-run the Borg ship she uses the "metaphasic shielding" to shelter the ship in the corona of the system's star, where the Borg cannot go, but the ship remains close by.

    Eventually the shielding begins to get taxed so they must escape, a junior officer comes up with a plan to create a solar-flare that'll destroy the Borg ship, allowing the Enterprise to escape and return to the planet.

    On the surface, Riker and Worf are able to trace the path Picard and co. took and find the Borg compound but they're ambushed and taken hostage by another group of Borg; these being defectors from Lore's group hiding underground with Hugh. Hugh is bitter over what's happened and how he was "used" by the Enterprise but is willing to help Riker and co. to recover his friend Geordi and the others, though he will not go with them.

    Picard, Geordi and Troi are able to recover a piece of one of the Borg and are able to use it to hopefully trigger Data's ethical programming. Lore continues to try and manipulate Data, but soon realizes he's at an impasse when Data refuses to kill Picard (his ethical programming having finally reasserted itself.) Lore, instead, opts to kill Data. Hugh -having changed his mind- shows up and begins an attack on Lore and the other Borg. Lore attempts to flee and has a final confrontation with Data where he, again, begins trying to manipulate Data into letting him go. He's able to trigger another emotional twitch in Data which he tries to exploit to attack Data; but Data is a little faster and shoots Lore. Lore is disabled, and Data begins to shut-down Lore, before being deactivated Lore says he loves Data.

    Hugh is uncertain what will become of him and the others since they're without a leader again, but Riker isn't so sure, implying Hugh could take-on the leadership role.

    Everyone is back on the ship safe-and-sound, Geordi is recovering from the experiments performed on him by Data and Lore has been dismantled. Before sending Lore's "remains" to Starfleet Data recovered the emotion chip (which was damaged in the attack) and plans to destroy it as it almost caused him to kill Geordi and Data is unsure if he could live with himself if his emotions ever caused him to harm those he cares for. Geordi, stops Data from doing this, saying he couldn't live with himself if he allowed Data to give up on his dreams, maybe someday Data will be ready for the chip. I dunno, maybe in a movie or something?

    ---------

    As I said last time, this is probably my least-favorite of the TNG Season End/Start two-parters, but I do think the second part is a slight improvement. I liked much of the action on the ship with Crusher in command and dealing with the "junior" officers. Good action scenes and the remastered/redone effects with the stuff in the star as such look good here.

    But the overall story still feels a bit lacking and it still seems like Data was very easily corrupted and manipulated by Lore.

    I'm guessing there's a lot of "gray areas" when it comes to how Starfleet/The Federation deals with the stopping and handling of a "criminal" like Lore. I guess we could argue that his ambitions, motives, and plans could make him a "high enough" criminal that he's not due any kid of rights or respect since it seems Data thinks he can just shut Lore off and take him apart without a trial or anything like that. And since Data is considered an individual lifeform with rights, it'd make sense that Lore would be too. But do his crimes negate him his rights?

    It probably would have been interesting if we had a "Most Toys" type situation when it seems what happened is more than what Data lets on. We see him shoot and deactivate Lore, and then when he returns to Picard and co. he says that lethally shooting Lore was unavoidable since Lore went in for an attack. Chalk it up to Data's "ethical program" having not fully asserted itself so Data was still in the gray-area that, arguably, everyone lives in. But instead he just shuts off Lore and says he's going to be taken apart. Which, again, is really the only thing that could be done with him but it still seems Lore is due some of his "rights" as a living being.

    The good location shooting continues here and to Spiner's credit he plays off himself very well really giving Lore and Data different personalities, if one didn't know better you'd swear these are two different actors who're twins acting with one another and not the same person.

    A meh episode but in hindsight probably one of the "better" ones of S7 which, granted, isn't saying a whole lot.

    So here we are, just 25 more episodes to go and we've a rocky road ahead of us, folks.
     
  2. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In many an episode, our heroes go against villains like a cop would go against a robber. But deep down, these people are still soldiers: their duty is to kill the enemy and negate the threat, not to enforce the law (even though it does very much seem as if they are the only force in the UFP even remotely comparable to the police!).

    Laws, with rights built in, also exist as a form of negating threats (to the greater good in the currently fashionable ideal, to the ruling and therefore lawmaking class in the more conventional form). But they only work in a specific context, one where the parties subject to the laws and rights are part of the same society and stand to gain or lose within it.

    What benefit would there be in giving Lore rights? He's not a fellow human, or even a fellow humanoid - he's fundamentally different from the young man who fights for the opposite political view and for that reason tries to kill you, a man possibly swayed by mercy (towards him or others like him). He doesn't represent a species or a way of life other than that between his ears. And "Measure of a Man" already established that whatever happens to a Soongian android is unlikely to become a legal precedent.

    OTOH, from the formal point of view, why would Lore be subject to UFP laws in the punitive sense? His actions have not been directed against the UFP or been conducted in UFP turf - he has only acted against those from the UFP foolish enough to loiter outside its jurisdiction. It's Data's or Picard's own damn fault if they choose to be killed, tortured or mocked in deep space.

    Labeling Lore as a criminal sounds a bit past the mark. He's a threat force, but the threat he represents is not the toppling of the house of cards called "respecting the law". It's a simpler threat altogether.

    Arguably, there are 24th century rules to warfare, too. But when those are mentioned in "Chain of Command", it is also made clear that they have a very narrow area of applicability and are easily circumvented or otherwise rendered irrelevant. Even when some of the players might wish for something more refined than "might makes right", it's not in their power to arrange for it to happen.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  3. JesterFace

    JesterFace Fleet Captain Commodore

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    It weird that Data can be controlled so strongly by emotions... Lore just presses a button and he's ready to kill his shipmates, one of which is basically his best friend, Geordi and from all the prisoners, Data starts his experiment with him...

    Think I must copy/paste this from Descent part 1 thread...

    COPY/PASTE
    The thing that annoys me, is that Picard is ready to sacrifice his ship, it's crew and everybody on board, including families with children, just to hunt down Data. Maybe some other ship could have done the "wormhole thing" and all that... Was it worth to risk 1000 lives just to find one malfunctioning robot...

    And... then there is the metaphasic shielding thing.
    The episode where the metaphasic shielding is introduced, 'Suspicions', is kind of weak in my opinion... So I skip that... and then the shieldthing doesn't make much sense here... Beverly just happens to know this new shieldthing if you haven't watched 'Suspicions'.

    Descent 1&2 as a whole is entertaining, but these things kind of ruin them for me.
    COPY/PASTE

    Descent 1&2 were fun to watch until I dug too deep into them...
     
  4. suarezguy

    suarezguy Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I think this episode is the worst of TNG in terms of excessive technobabble and overly-advanced/magical technology, McFadden and the other actors do alright but both plots are way too dependent on and driven by technology. The episode seemed a pretty big waste of both Lore and the Borg although it was an interesting concept, with OK execution, that as individuals the Borg could also be pretty bad and turn to evil just to have leadership.
    The best scene was definitely the last one between La Forge and Data.
     
  5. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Marsden is very sad.
    I'm not sure what you mean by Lore not having rights. So he was taken into custody and disassembled. He's very dangerous and this insures he can't escape. It's not as if the disassembling killed him, he wasn't alive to begin with, but he was disassembled when they found him in Datalore and if anything they are putting him back the way he was. And while never stated, who is to say that he wasn't reassembled in a penal colony and is in therapy so he can be a good robot.
     
  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    If Data has rights as an individual, it'd follow Lore would have the same rights considering he also is an android/artificial life-form like Data. So, you'd think he'd have a "right to trial" and to "life" like Data, unless exception is made due to the heinousness of Lore's actions.
     
  7. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Marsden is very sad.
    I know it wasn't during the episode, but why are you assuming he didn't get a trial?
     
  8. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    Data said he was deactivating Lore, and I believe even implied Lore was disassembled. This all was stated in a short of time, the deactivation coming right after Lore was incapacitated by Data's phaser shot. Seems to me Lore wasn't likely given a trial. Though, it's again likely The Federation has in place rules that allow for such "punishments" for particularly heinous actions, though that seems sort of uncharacteristic of them.
     
  9. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Too bad Dwight Schultz was unavailable and/or too expensive. Barclay manning the tactical station would have been awesome. :lol:
     
  10. TheSubCommander

    TheSubCommander Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, we know based on Generations, the emotion chip was removed from Lore. Perhaps Lore's dis-assembly is a correct assumption.

    Maybe because of the fact that Lore never went through a trial that established his sentience like Data did, from a legal standpoint, Lore wasn't considered a person, like Data was. Therefore, there was no need for a trial, and this allowed Data or Picard to have Lore disassembled.
     
  11. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    We know from *this episode* the emotion chip was removed.
     
  12. Marsden

    Marsden Commodore Commodore

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    Marsden is very sad.
    I believe you are correct, about them just disassembling Lore and not ever putting him back together, but I still think this wouldn't prevent a trial be reassembling him and having the trial then.

    I wonder, where then did they store Lore?

    And they find BeeFore disassembled, I guess it could have been Lore. Although that movie is not really on this topic.
     
  13. JesterFace

    JesterFace Fleet Captain Commodore

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    These two Descents were fun when I was 20... now at 32, not so much...
     
  14. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    I'm going with Daystrom Inst. ;)
     
  15. The Old Mixer

    The Old Mixer Mih ssim, mih ssim, nam, daed si Xim. Moderator

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    Maddox probably had to change his pants after he got that package....
     
  16. JediKnightButler

    JediKnightButler Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I personally liked these episodes though I saw them long before I was more familiar with the series and the backstory of Lore and other characters. Lore was a very sick puppy that needed to be put down for the good of the galaxy- yet, at times, he also comes off as a somewhat tragic character because there is a sense that he is possibly victim to defects in his creation and/or nurturing (or lack thereof) from his "father", Dr. Soong. In some ways, Dr. Soong did too good of a job when creating him and that he is actually very "human-like".