Product Details

• Actors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden
• Directors: LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, Gabrielle Beaumont, Robert Becker, Cliff Bole
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792148215
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,796 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good ride, but it's not really the borg, October 30, 2000

By 

Jason Rabin (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 152: Descent, Part I [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'll admit this was not one of my favorite episodes. The action was fairly intense, and certainly was more explicit than anything shown in the sparse (but magnificent) Best of Both Worlds. Overall a decent episode, but it lacked the dramatic depth of its predecessor, I Borg and it just wasn't as fun as BOBW. Also keep in mind that this one isn't really about the Borg collective as we know them. It's actually about a splinter of the Borg that are taken under the wing of Data's evil brother Lore. Nothing of what made the Borg so fantastic in previous episodes is present in this one; these borg are much more conventional villains, and most importantly, they're emotional. Though they make lofty claims about destroying the Federation, unlike their big brothers in the collective, they don't appear to have the power to make do on those grandiose schemes, and consequently they come off as rather incompetent. Certainly a good overall effort, but STTNG has done much better.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Data gets emotional over killing a Borg, April 6, 2001

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 152: Descent, Part I [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from an outpost and arrives to find only dead bodies and a group of Borg. During the fight, Data strangles one of the Borg to death in a fit of anger. When the Enterprise chases after the Borg ship, it disappears. La Forge tries to figure out how the Borg managed to escape while Data spends time on the holodeck trying to recreate his emotional experience. When the Borg attack a second colony the Enterprise pursues the Borg ship and follows it into an energy vortex at which point A couple of Borg beam onto the Enterprise bridge. Worf kills one and they capture the other while the Borg ship escapes. When Data visits the Borg in the bridge they have an interesting discussion about the android's emotional experience. The Borg fiddles with a device on this arm and suddenly Data is willing to do anything to feel emotions again. The Borg promises Data that their leader can give Data what he needs, whereupon the android helps the Borg escape in a shuttlecraft. The Enterprise follows them to a planet where Picard, La Forge and Troi discover a large building. Inside they Data, a whole bunch of Borg, and...Lore! It turns out Lore is the leader of these Borg and that Data has joined his brother. Together, the sons of Soong promise to destroy the Federation. (To be continued)

Once again we get the Borg for a season finale as Data's desire to be more human takes a bizarre turn. Data suddenly declares he would be willing to kill La Forge, his best friend, just to experience the anger and pleasure he felt when he killed the Borg. The appearance of Lore at the end is certainly a nice twist, since it means there is a logical explanation for Data's radical personality change. What is not clear is why the Borg, or to be more specific this particular group of Borg, following Lore? For answers, see Part 2 of "Descent."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great Borg episode!, May 19, 2000

By 

Alaria (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Next Generation, Episode 152: Descent, Part I [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This episode has a lot going for it: Lore, Hugh, a guest appearance by Stephen Hawking, and lots of Borgs! It's good for any Data/Lore, or Borg fans. I liked the scene at the beginning with Data playing poker with Einstein, Hawking and Newton. It had nothing to do with the main story line of course, but it was pretty funny. The Borg episodes are nearly always good and Descent is no exception, although it isn't quite up to the standard of 'Best of Both Worlds'.

It was nice to see Hugh again, and Lore of course is always a success. The main story has him controlling brother Data with an emotion chip. When the rest of the Enterprise crew go to find him, they find themselves in the middle of a group of Borg under Lore's command.

The episode is exciting and pretty dramatic, although you will have to buy the second part of Descent as this ends on a real cliff hanger.