The only real problem with this episode is that it resolves pretty much how one would have predicted. Data figure out what he is doing is wrong (with some help from the captain) and kills Lore to save his friends. The part I didn't remember was the pretty cool sequence with Dr. Crusher in command of the ship successfully evading the Borg with the help of a young science ensign. Their call back to the metaphasic shields she was so excited about last season makes that episode make a little more sense. It never made sense to me why she would have been so excited by a new shield tech, but it pays off in this episode in a pretty big way.
The episode begins just where the last one left off with Data and Lore confronting Picard, Troi and La Forge. They do indeed seem to be united in their mission to save the Borg and create a new race of perfect artificial life forms. Data takes the three of them into a holding cell after they fail to convince him and even takes Geordi's visor. Back on the Enterprise Crusher is in charge, but suddenly the strange Borg ship shows up and she attempts to fend them off long enough to get the landing parties back. She can't get them all though and is forced to flee towards the transwarp conduit. But the Borg don't pursue so she decides to send a beacon with the ships longs through and head back for the rest of the crew still trapped.
Data starts experimenting on Geordi at Lore direction and implants some sort of fibers into his brain. Picard manages to attack one of the Borg and gets an important chip from him which Geordi directs him to modify to try and reactivate Data's ethical subroutines. Meanwhile Riker and Worf are on the trail of Lore but before they find him they encounter Hugh. Hugh isn't happy with what they ended up using him to do to the rest of the Borg collective, but despite his anger about the destruction of the collective he does still care deeply for Geordi. He doesn't agree to attack his fellow Borg with them, but he does agree to give them information. Meanwhile Picard activates the chip to reactivate Data's ethical subroutines just in time to get Data to not fry Geordi's brain, but Data doesn't return to normal either.
Lore realizes something is wrong and literally plays with Data's emotions to get him to do what he wants. Back on the Enterprise Crusher returns to the planet to try and save the rest of the landing party but the Borg are too fast. She does manage to flee into the systems star though and with the metaphasic shield from Suspicions the ship is able to dive much deeper into the star than the Borg. A young ensign suggest they destabilize the star to create a blast of plasma to destroy the Borg and it works! Back on the planet Lore tells Data he must kill Picard to prove his loyalty. Data refuses and so Lore decides to kill Data instead. Just in time Hugh jumps in and saves Data as Riker and Worf open fire. Data pursues Lore as the rest of them fight off the Borg. He finds Lore preparing the escape and blasts him and deactivates him. In the end Data apologizes to Geordi and then prepares to destroy the emotion chip, but Geordi stops him. He can't let his friend give up on his lifelong dream.
Review: Even though this one resolves pretty much how one would image it certainly has its moments. It is also nice to conclude the ongoing Lore situation and also see what happened to the Borg after Hugh. So many TOS episodes end with more questions than answers that it is really nice the see TNG work to resolve at least some of its own questions.
7 out of 10
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