Descent (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

"Descent" is a two-part episode from the sixth/seventh season of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Plot summary

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 him breaking the neck of the drone he was fighting.

Note: In the Star Trek Voyager episode Descent Seven of Nine pulls up a schematic of a Borg weapon, a multikinetic neutronic mine with a five million isoton yield which she offers to adapt with Voyagers nanobots to fight Species 8472, the design on the schematic being the Borg ship in this episode leading to the speculation that the Borg Ship was a modified Borg mine.

In orbit, an unidentified ship fires on the Enterprise, causing the crew to return fire. 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 can't 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 planets 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 reacts and is instantly killed. Lore, Data's brother, appears and tells Picard that he and Data will fight the Federation. Lore has found a way to give Data emotions, and Data has turned on 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 close to the sun, closer than the Borg can go. They then 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 experiments on Geordi's brain which may kill him. Geordi tries pleading with Data, but he ignores this and follows Lore's orders. 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 enact the experiment that runs a 60% chance of killing Geordi. Geordi pleads with Data, asking him to check his conscience. Data falters, and claims that there are anomalies in the experiment and postpones it.

Lore begins to doubt Data's devotion, and attempts to exercise more control over him with the threat of removing the emotions he had provided. Lore orders Data to kill Picard to prove his loyalty. 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, Worf, Hugh and some of Hugh's rebel Borg arrive and throw the scene into confusion. Lore flees but Data follows him and, with a phaser blast deactivates him.

Back on the Enterprise, Data reports that Lore has been disassembled and that the emotion chip should be destroyed as it is too dangerous. However Geordi advises him to keep the chip until he is ready. The Enterprise then returns to Federation space.

Stephen Hawking

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."

External links

• Descent, Part I at Memory Alpha
• Descent, Part II at Memory Alpha
• Template:StarTrek.com link (Part 1)
• Template:StarTrek.com link (Part 2)