"Descent"

[DGCatAniSiri]

Well 'Power Play,' where Data gets possessed by the Ux-Mal criminal, is one of my favorite episodes. Getting to see Spiner out of his usual box is interesting, but... Ultimately, Lore doesn't do much more than 'mua-ha-ha' over his plot to destroy the Federation in both Datalore and Descent. He got a bit of depth through Brothers, but that's one appearance out of three, and in the other two, he's nothing more than a shallow cliche.

I like seeing Spiner stretch himself beyond Data's normal role. But Lore is a cliche evil twin who wants to destroy the Federation for a vague and unclearly defined reason.

 

[Eddie Roth]

Indeed. It has always been my conviction (and it's entirely plausible,too) that Futurama's Flexo (Bender's evil twin) was modeled closely on Lore.

And I think I have now realized, thanks to DGCatAniSiri's post, why I ultimately felt let down by the two-parter: They try to make us believe that this is the big return of the Borg threat, which it is in fact in Part 1, only to then throw Lore in the mix and the Borg immediately become his expendable henchmen in Part 2. That's not what we signed up for.

 

[Alrik]

....They try to make us believe that this is the big return of the Borg threat, which it is in fact in Part 1, only to then throw Lore in the mix and the Borg immediately become his expendable henchmen in Part 2. That's not what we signed up for.

Interesting take on it. The way I saw it was yes, this was the return of the Borg, but the hints were there that there had been a major change. They now had names, their ship wasn't a Cube, etc, etc. Had the entire collective been altered by Hugh's return? Then by the end of Part I, there stands Lore and you're left going 'WTF?'.

But I guess we dissagree on Part II. Sure you are left to wonder why the Borg would be following Lore at first, but as it turns out it makes perfect sense. With Hugh's exposure to 'self' being localized to the one Cube and it no longer being part of the Collective, there would have been utter chaos. As a matter of fact, Hugh so much as says so. But in times like that, it isn't uncommon for a powerful, savy individual to take the reins. The only thing truly 'iffy' about Descent is how did Lore just so happen to be in the right place at the right time to encounter these 'lost sheep' Borg? But then again, we have no idea what he had been up to since Brothers anyway. Over all, I enjoyed both Parts I & II.

 

[Anwar]

So, no one here had any problems with how they managed to destroy the Borg Cruiser, right?

 

[Alrik]

So, no one here had any problems with how they managed to destroy the Borg Cruiser, right?

Not really. Metaphasic shielding was considered impossible in Suspiscions until Beverly proved Rayga correct. The Borg (even the collective itself, not to mention a disconected band of 'lost sheep') would have absolutely no knowledge of what it was or how it worked. It was a brand new technology that Beverly had knowledge of and used. I find this outing a lot more plausible than the beggining of Redemption Part II when Kurn orders his BoP into a stars corona and even approached it's photosphere (with it's aft shields gone none the less) only to turn and go to warp, pulling a fireball along with it that destroys the pursuing BoPs.

 

[SchwEnt]

I remember Part 1's SEASON FINALE preview had a voice-over line that said "ON THE EVE OF AN INCREDIBLE BREAKTHROUGH"....um there was no plot point like that in the episode lol

The incredible breakthrough is Data suddenly gaining emotions. Yes?

 

[Willieck]

Having just watched this again I still think the best part was the poker game at the beginning with Data, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.