Oh, I just rewatched "Descent" pt 1. I'd have rescued him a lot earlier. The main downer is, go figure, the incidental muzak - most of which is entirely inappropriate for the episode. Thankfully there's not much, and when there is - sometimes it works so it's not all bad. But the bad bits, which weren't great back then, stick out far worse now. But, again, those interludes are few and there's rather a great build-up and adventure to be had, with the mystery of Data. (But I'd have Crosis figuring out Data
before Data kills the drone, though it's not beyond possibility that Lore was already controlling him behind the scenes, so it works...) Had Ron Jones scored this episode, that alone would have elevated it to season 3-level panache. Actually, any of the big three (Jones, Chattaway, McCarthy) would have done this episode justice with the season 1-4 style, as they were all around since the beginning and the edict for 5-7 is what really sent a sour note onto so many stories and seemingly needlessly so... (Sorry for the pun...)
Crosis is simply marvelous as a character with this splinter group of the Borg.
The plotline started with hairy Hugh in "I, Borg" has a great payoff for "Descent" pt1, though everyone is oh-so-certain that Geordi's equivalent of an Escher painting would wipe out the Borg with ease -- and chances are more than high that, had they used the Escher trope, the Borg would have been completely unfazed, and I like the idea that a group of Borg detached from the Collective and became a bunch of psychos. (I say it's a "splinter" , the episode is a little vague, but it makes far more sense for them to have splintered off, redefined their technology, then go around randomly slaughtering people brutally.
Remember what Picard said early on:
PICARD: Ohniaka Three? There's no strategic value to that outpost. Were they able to identify the attackers?
When the Away teams beams down, Riker's line at the start is a giveaway - a pre-revealing of the Borg as it's a by-the-numbers reversal of the edit accorded the Borg in previous stories:
RIKER: There's not much damage. It doesn't look like they were interested in the station, just the people.
Maybe if it was done like:
RIKER: As expected, the station looks intact. So what is so special about these people if the base isn't of any value?
(followed by closet door opening with dramatic dun-dunnn-dunnnnnnn reveal, which is still quite a shocker, even if the ginormous vessel is still "screaming 'Yo, I'm the Borg' all hidden in plain sight, just like the pink elephant in the room". )
And not since Tasha Yar's has seeing any pointless deaths lead to a properly scary foe.
Of course, "Why is a Borg just standing there all the doo-dah-day?" Because he's part of the trap, transmitting to Data the emotional manipulation routine Lore had created. The story's build-up with all this is rather quite good...
But if the Borg are not interested in technology or acquisition of materials any more, they must have figured out replication technology (
thanks, Q from "Q-Who"!) to really soup up their ship... Incidentally, the new ship design is a true feast for the eyes, in color and geometric layout. For a bunch of psychopaths, it's quite gorgeous and the Borg should have taken up art classes instead? But how many artists in human history ended up being psychopaths in one form or another? There is perhaps a collective theme...
It's far,
far more formidable in HD:
https://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/season-6/6x26/descent-part1-hd-085.jpg
Loved the Stephen Hawking cameo as well. Terrific little scene to start the season 6 finale with...
