6x26 Descent (1)

[7.6/10] The first part of “Descent” draws a contrast between two of the show’s most important characters. Data did the wrong thing -- he took a life in anger, and he enjoyed it, and it worries him. Picard did the right thing -- he preserved an individual’s rights, and it may have caused harm to thousands, and it worries him. The best thing you can say about the episode is that it dives into the fraught territory of the place where psychology meets morality and how our emotions track with our choices.

The worst thing you can say about “Descent pt. 1” is that it’s a lot of setup that leaves the good stuff for the other half of the episode. Don’t get me wrong. I like Data worrying about his sudden flash of anger and what it means for his quest to be human. And I like Picard being on edge after he’s dressed down by an admiral for his decisions in “I, Borg.” But this episode races from some solid philosophical examinations of the self to some clunky plot business that can’t quite match the depth of those two characters’ introspection.

We basically go from “Everyone’s antsy about these new Borg; Picard has a short fuse, and Data is dealing with his first emotion” to “Data’s a bad guy now, and he’s teaming up with Lore, and the Borg are with him!” in no time flat. The last quarter of the episode is a lot of Treknobabble about tracking Data’s ship, and the whole final reel seems to build to the admittedly cool moment of the Lore reveal without really earning it.

Still, the episode thrives on what it does when it’s not trying to advance that plot. The foundation of the episode is Data experiencing a moment of anger and spending the rest of the runtime questioning what it means for who he is. As Mrs. Bloom pointed out, that’s more of a Star Wars vibe than a Star Trek one, but it works for Data. He has always had a conception of himself as a moral individual, one who wants to be human. But when you get a taste of humanity in the form of emotion, and it’s one of anger and pleasure at killing, it’d be more than enough to rattle your sense of self.

The problem is that “Descent pt. 1” overplays its hand on that front. For the first three-fourths of the episode, it’s Data experimenting and self-questioning, and it plays really well. But in the last quarter, we friggin’ see the Borg activate a little beacon thing right before Data gets angry. And then, Data goes from “troubled but reasonable android” to “the Soong brothers have joined forces and will destroy the Federation” too quickly for it to feel like anything but false jeopardy.

Still, up to that point, the episode is pretty darn good. In particular, I like seeing the normally unflappable Picard at something less than his best here, having been a bit rattled himself by the Admiral’s admonition. I myself had issues with Picard’s decision to return Hugh to the Borg unscathed, even if I understood it as a vindication of the ethos of Star Trek. But I also appreciate the way this captain, who is so used to feeling justified and right in his pursuit of the moral good, is now second-guessing himself, being short with his colleagues, and all out wondering if he did the right thing.

It’s also natural that he would be a little more unraveled, a little less sure of himself, when it comes to the Borg. Stories past and present explore the way this is a particular point of rawness for him, where he’s both scarred by his personal experience with these foes, but also justifiably worried about the threat that they pose and the hand he might have had in enhancing them to their current state.

That’s the best thing I can say about the more plot-heavy parts of “Descent pt. 1” -- it’s intriguing to see a cadre of Borg who try to kill rather than assimilate, who act with seeming emotion rather than unfeeling consumption, and who treat one another as individuals. It helps sell Picard’s “What have I done?” reaction to the latest Borg threat that he worries was spurred by Hugh, and adds a new wrinkle to an enemy whom we’ve seen our heroes face and defeat already.

But the episode also adds wrinkles to Data. Even if the cause of his newfound emotion feels a little too obvious by the end, the experience of self-doubt he goes through is superb. Data goes to his places of emotional support -- Troi and Geordi -- to try to figure out what this experience says about him, and who he might become in the future if this development is allowed to bloom further.

It’s a particularly great outing for Brent Spiner in the role. Spiner always does a nice job at conveying subtle changes in sentiment in an emotionally reserved character. But here, he truly shines in communicating the way that Data is not only struggling with his one, disturbing experience with emotion, but also the way that the Borg’s anger beam or whatever slowly overtakes him. It’d be easy to devolve into Data being a serial villain, but the way his concern curdles into a touch of malevolence when the Borg baddie is manipulating him is nigh-masterful.

It touches on the most potent theme of this episode -- can negative emotions, and emotion in general, be a good thing -- or does it keep us from achieving the best result? Picard is worried that his empathy for a fellow sentient being may have put other lives at risk and worsened the Borg threat. Data is worried that his quest to be human has sent him down a path that might lead to hatred and murder.

Sometimes “Descent pt. 1” plays these moments for cheap, pulpy thrills. But in others, it plays them for the same sort of self-doubt and self-recrimination that any of us feel when things go wrong. There’s a deceptively deep exploration of what it is to feel a negative emotion and whether that can be productive, as well as whether even the idea of empathy can go too far and get in the way of practicality.

This is Star Trek, so we can be reasonably sure that Data will return to the side of the angels and that Picard will reaffirm his moral compass at some point. Still, in the interim, it’s intriguing to see the two paragons of virtue in the series struggle with whether they’re doing, or feeling, the right thing.