7x01 Descent (2)

[6.3/10] “Descent pt. 2” bites off way more than it can chew. There’s the germ of a good idea here, involving the friction between individuality and the need for collective action, and in the fraught territory of dealing with emotions. But the episode gets completely overstuffed in trying to dramatize those ideas, make Lore a supervillain, and gives Dr. Crusher and the B-team on the Enterprise something cool to do at the same time.

That’s a shame because, honestly, Dr. Crusher’s chunk of the episode was my favorite part. There’s not much to it -- it’s just a usual dose of Enterprise-based problem-solving. And yet, for one thing, it’s cool to get to see Beverly as the steely commanding officer, making the tough decisions with coolness and confidence. And it’s also nice to see her recognizing young talent in the form of Ensign Taitt.

The pursuing Borg ship poses the expected problems, but it causes Crusher to take measured risks, and for Taitt to rise to the challenge and buck the expectations of the skeptical senior officer to win the day. It’s a page out of the usual TNG playbook, but it’s an enjoyable page.

The problem is that the episode doesn't really have the real estate for this story, and it feels like everything else here doesn't have enough time to breathe. “Descent pt. 2” connects the goings on aboard the Enterprise with the larger proceedings by having Crusher and company evacuate the away teams and neutralize the Borg ship. But for the most part, it’s just a separate adventure that has some nice beats, while the philosophically meatier portions of the episode rush through everything in the limited time available.

Nothing is more breezed through than Hugh’s arc here. Despite this being the return of a major guest characters, Hugh only has about three scenes, most of which are exposition, and none of which are sufficient to really dramatize the transition between being a drone and being an individual. The episode is also trying to pay off Picard’s arc from the first half of the duology, where he wonders if he made the right choice by freeing Hugh, but even that gets the short shrift.

Instead, “Descent pt. 2” deals glancingly with the notion that a set of individuals needing to act as a group can be overwhelming. Hugh gives a fine but mostly expository speech about how hard that shift was, and we get a lot of talk from him and others about Lore providing them a purpose. That gives the audience much more “tell” than “show.” The difficulty of knowing what to do without an authority telling you what to pursue is, in fairness, an internal challenge that can be hard to dramatize, but suffice it to say, this episode is not up to the challenge.

So Hugh gets mad at Commander Riker for a scene (whom Hugh’s never even interacted with before!), then can’t stand idly by when a life is threatened for a scene, and then spends a short scene reflecting on how “maybe we do have a leader.” That’s it! One of the most intriguing loose threads in the show’s history gets picked up with minimal conviction or effort. It’s just a “this sucked,” “no wait, I’m still good,” and “I guess we still have some work to do” progression with no development or connective tissue.

Theoretically, that should all go to the Data story, which takes up the bulk of the episode, but even that feels like a rush job. For one thing, none of Data’s moral choices here have any weight because we know that he’s just being physically manipulated by Lore. The fact that Lore just basically flips Data’s “evil” switch means his subsequent transformation lacks any force, given that we know he’ll change back by the end of the episode, and because it doesn't reflect the Data we know and love.

At the same time, there’s tons of intriguing ideas here that are just underdeveloped. Is Data addicted to emotion? His exchange with Lore seems to suggest that, to where it manifests as a physical need when Lore shuts it off. But that’s never introduced nor returned to outside of that one moment. How does Data’s ethical programming interact with his newfound anger? We don’t really see that -- just his inability to kill Captain Picard and maybe show some restraint with Geordi.

It’s a shame, because there’s a lot of meat there, the same way there is in the Borg turning to Lore when they’re lost and in search of a purpose. The best thing “Descent pt. 2” does (outside of the Crusher sequences) is play into the idea that when people are out of sorts, a demagogue peddling easy answers and, more than that, a direction to follow, can be dangerously appealing. That notion certainly has a lot of resonance in 2020. But it’s lost in a sea of Bond villain monologues and undermotivated choices.

There’s still some cool factor at play here. There’s still something neat and a little scary about seeing the Borg assert themselves and get into scuffles (and something particularly unsettling about the ones who’ve been experimented on). There’s power to seeing Data be on the side of the baddies for once, even if the episode squanders it by making it basically the result of Lore pushing a button we know is going to be unpushed. And there’s some weight from past interactions to Data torturing Geordi and having to more or less kill Lore, a death he can take no pleasure in.

The problem is that there’s just too much in the episode for any of these moments to develop or land. An escape from an enemy ship, a swift reintroduction and resolution for an old friend, and another “I’m a real boy” story for Data each rumble through their major plot points and leave everything feeling more like an appetizer than a main course.

What’s disappointing about that is the wasted potential. Seeing Dr. Crusher command the Enterprise could be a whole episode that delves into her character and rising to the challenge, not a C-story in an episode that doesn't need one. Hugh struggling with the outrageous freedom that individuality entails and the hardship of balancing individual wants could be a great thread to follow after “I, Borg”, but “Descent” reduces it to a side dish. And Data grappling with anger and emotion could be a compelling challenge for our favorite human in training (see: Star Trek Generations), but this one reduces it to a cheap villain plot.

The core ideas at play in “Descent pt. 2”, but the execution falls far short of the perfection that Lore, the Borg, and in its own way the Federation, all aspire to.