Descent 

After an encounter with the Borg, Data feels his first emotion when he gets angry with the Borg. Data then tries to find ways to recreate the situation in order to feel emotions again, ... See full summary »

Director:

Alexander Singer

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (created by), Ronald D. Moore (teleplay by)

Stars:

John Neville, Jim Norton, Natalija Nogulich

Cast

Episode cast overview:
John Neville	...	Isaac Newton
Jim Norton	...	Albert Einstein
Natalija Nogulich	...	Admiral Alynna Nechayev
Brian Cousins	...	Crosis (as Brian J. Cousins)
Stephen Hawking	...	Stephen Hawking (as Professor Stephen Hawking)
Patrick Stewart	...	Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes	...	Cmdr. William Riker
LeVar Burton	...	Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn	...	Lieutenant Worf
Gates McFadden	...	Dr. Beverly Crusher
Marina Sirtis	...	Counselor Deanna Troi
Brent Spiner	...	Lt. Commander Data / Lore
Richard Gilbert-Hill	...	Bosus
Stephen James Carver	...	Tayar

Storyline

After an encounter with the Borg, Data feels his first emotion when he gets angry with the Borg. Data then tries to find ways to recreate the situation in order to feel emotions again, whilst the Enterprise investigates the Borg activity, and are bewildered as to why they feel emotions too.

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Plot Keywords:

photon torpedo | albert einstein character | isaac newton character | masculine voice | doctor | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 June 1993 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

46 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stephen Hawking was on the Paramount lot for the video release of his film A Brief History of Time (1991). He asked the staff "Could you take me out of my chair and put me in the captain's chair?" His request was granted.

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Goofs

Data states to Geordi that he believes he has experienced his "first emotion". This may be interpreted as untrue, because in Star Trek: The Next Generation: Déjà Q, Q gave Data the parting gift of laughter. However, Data was not given an accompanying emotion in this episode, only the sensation of laughter, therefore he did not experience actual emotion until the fight.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Prof. Stephen Hawking: ...But then I said, "In that frame of reference, the perihelion of Mercury would have recessed in the opposite direction."

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Connections

References Star Trek: The Next Generation: I Borg (1992)

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Soundtracks

Star Trek: The Next Generation End Credits
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User Reviews

Putting together 2 of the 3 overdone themes of Next Generation

Q (and other all powerful aliens), Lore and the other Frankenstein stories and the Borg are the 3 overdone themes of the Next Generation. In this (and the following episode), the writers combine the Borg and the Frankenstein themes and make a terrible pair of episodes. Some of the decisions made by Picard are downright bizarre (supposedly leaving only a skeleton crew on board the Enterprise under the command of Dr. Crusher and beaming everyone else in a crew of 1014 personnel to operate in search teams of 4 and only getting 15 search teams). And one of those search teams has the Captain, the Chief Engineer and the Ship's Counsellor in it. And when the Enterprise leaves, it leaves all the senior officers except Dr. Crusher on the planet. The entire plot is absurd.