• Stephen Hawking Playing Poker
• Stephen Hawking Poem
• Stephen Hawking Potential

(Of note, Isaac Newton, Hawking and Data's holographic poker-mate, held the position from 1669 to 1702.) I was lucky enough to be in high school just when Hawking's book A Brief History of Time was making waves. The episode features a scene in which the character Data, back to the camera, participates in a poker game with a group of brilliant scientific figures consisting of Hawking, Einstein, and Newton. The late science icon played poker with Einstein, Isaac Newton and Data. So it was that Stephen Hawking became the first person ever to play himself on a Trek show when he was cast in the 1993. On the holodeck, Lt. Commander Data plays a game of poker with holographic representations of Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. Answering a question from Newton, Data explains that the game is an experiment for understanding 'how three of history's greatest minds would interact' in such a setting.

'Descent' is the 26th episode of the sixth season and the first episode of the seventh season of the American science fiction television seriesStar Trek: The Next Generation, the 152nd and 153rd episodes overall.

Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode they once again encounter the Borg aliens.

The episode, which was aired on television in 1993, features a guest appearance by astrophysicistStephen Hawking. He appears in the show's opening on the holodeck in a card game with android Data, as a holographic version of himself.

Plot[edit]

Part I[edit]

On the holodeck, Lt. Commander Data plays a game of poker with holographic representations of Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. Answering a question from Newton, Data explains that the game is an experiment for understanding 'how three of history's greatest minds would interact' in such a setting. Just as Hawking wins another hand, a red alert is issued by Riker and Data suspends the program.

The Enterprise responds to a distress call from a Starfleet outpost. On arrival, an away team consisting of Riker, Worf, Data and a security guard, they find the entire crew of the outpost dead. Suddenly they are attacked by a group of Borg. During the course of the fire fight, Riker observes that the Borg are acting differently than in previous encounters. For starters, each of them is armed with energy weapons and they refer to each other as individuals. Whilst fighting a drone, Data feels the emotion — anger — resulting in breaking the neck of the drone.

Meanwhile in orbit, an unidentified ship fires on the Enterprise and the crew returns fire. On the surface, during the firefight, one Borg begins talking to himself about the nature of the away team members, when he sees and mentions Data, he appears to signal a withdrawal. The alien ship beams up the remaining Borg from the outpost and flees with the Enterprise in pursuit. Suddenly the ship enters some kind of vortex and disappears without a trace. Back on the outpost, Riker asks Data what happened, but Data cannot explain it; he just felt angry. Admiral Nechayev arrives to take command of the situation. She reprimands Picard for not destroying the Borg when he had the chance ('I, Borg') and orders him to do so if another opportunity should present itself. Meanwhile, Data is trying to understand what caused his behavior on the outpost. He tries to experience emotion again through simulations of the event, but does not succeed.

The Borg ship reappears and attacks another outpost. Again, the Enterprise is the nearest ship, which makes Picard suspicious, given that there are now several Starfleet vessels patrolling the area. The Borg ship reenters the vortex and disappears when the Enterprise intercepts; however, this time the Enterprise is caught in its wake and follows. Once on the other side, the Borg attack, beaming drones on to the bridge. After a brief fire fight, one drone is killed and another wounded, but the distraction allows the Borg ship to escape, which again is unusual Borg behavior in that they always reclaim their drones, whether alive or dead.

The crew discover that the vortex they entered is a form of conduit allowing them to travel from one star system to another almost instantaneously. However they have yet to work out how it is activated which means, for the moment, they are unable to return to Federation space. Data is sent to speak with the Borg whom the Enterprise has captured in an attempt to gather intelligence, but the drone is able to manipulate Data into releasing him. They escape the ship in a shuttlecraft. Before the Enterprise can catch the shuttle it disappears into a conduit. However, the crew have learned how the conduits are activated. They give chase and track the shuttlecraft to a planet. An away team finds no trace of Data or the Borg and something in the planet's atmosphere is blocking their sensors, so Picard decides to conduct a ground search utilising nearly the whole crew of the Enterprise. Only a skeleton crew now remain on board under the command of Dr. Crusher.

Searching the planet, Picard, Troi, a security officer and La Forge enter a building and are surrounded by noisy Borg. Their leader, appearing on a platform, resembles Data but Troi recognizes that it is Data's brother Lore. Data then appears alongside Lore and announces that together they will destroy the Federation.

Part II[edit]

Lore has discovered a way to give Data emotions and turned him against the Federation. Lore plans to lead these breakaway Borg to destroy all organic life; they believe that Lore and Data are perfect life forms. Picard, Troi, and La Forge are taken captive. Geordi's VISOR allows him to see a carrier wave being beamed from Lore to Data and they hypothesize that this is the source of Data's emotions and Lore's control over Data. For this reason Lore orders Geordi's VISOR removed. In orbit, the Borg ship is detected and Beverly orders the away teams on the planet to be beamed back aboard. However, there isn't enough time to get them all and 47 away team members still remain on the planet. Riker orders Dr. Crusher to leave the planet and come back only when it's safe to do so since the rogue Borg vessel has detected the Enterprise. Rather than leave the system, Beverly orders the crew to take the ship into the sun. Using the technology developed by Ferengi scientist Dr. Reyga, they modify the shields to allow them to get closer to the sun than the Borg can go. They use the ship's phasers to trigger an eruption on the sun's surface which engulfs the Borg ship, destroying it.

On the planet, Lore orders Data to perform an experiment on Geordi's brain – an irreversible procedure with a '60% chance' of being lethal. Geordi tries pleading with Data, who ignores him and continues setting up the process. In their prison cell, the away team constructs a device which they believe will reactivate Data's moralsubroutines, in the hopes that he will question his unethical actions, as well as the intentions of Lore.

Meanwhile, Riker and Worf encounter Hugh, who tells them that Lore is the leader of this Borg group. He says that at one time Lore's help was necessary, but that he has since destroyed many Borg through brutal experimentation. Hugh's group are 'rebel' Borg, wanting to remove Lore from power.

The away team manages to reactivate Data's ethical programming just as Data is about to start the irreversible part of the experiment. Geordi pleads with Data, asking him to check his conscience. Data falters, claims that there are anomalies in the experiment and postpones it.

Lore begins to doubt Data's devotion, and attempts to strengthen control by threatening to remove the emotions he has provided. Data appears to be subservient, but Lore remains suspicious, and orders Data to prove his loyalty by killing Picard. Data refuses, as the rebooting of his morality subroutines is complete. Two Borg seize Data and Lore is about to execute Data, when Riker and Worf arrive, accompanied by Hugh and some of his rebel Borg. A battle commences and in the ensuing confusion, Lore flees, pursued by Data. In their ensuing confrontation, Lore attempts to talk Data into escaping with him. Unswayed, Data shoots him with a phaser then deactivates him.

In the aftermath, Hugh becomes leader of the Borg group.

The Enterprise returns to Federation space. Data reports that Lore is to be disassembled permanently and he also intends to destroy the emotion chip, as it is 'too dangerous', citing the harm he has inflicted under its influence. However Geordi intervenes, and advises him to keep the chip until he is ready. (The chip would eventually be implanted into Data during the course of the film Star Trek Generations.)

Production[edit]

At a screening for the 1991 documentary film A Brief History of Time, which was based on the book of the same name by British theoretical physicistStephen Hawking, Hawking was introduced to the audience by veteran Trek actor Leonard Nimoy. A Brief History executive producer Gordon Freedman told Nimoy that Hawking was an avid Star Trek fan. It was subsequently arranged for Hawking to visit the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which included an opportunity for him to sit in the captain's chair. Freedman told the show's executive producer, Rick Berman, that Hawking would appear on the show if asked. Hawking accepted the ensuing offer, marking the first time a guest star played himself on an episode of any Star Trek series. After he was sent the script, he made some modifications to it, including improving a humorous line of dialogue to make it funnier, which Berman called 'delightful'.^[1]

Later, when actor Brent Spiner, who appeared in the scene with Hawking, first read the script and saw that Hawking was a character in it, he imagined that he might be asked to play the scientist, as he had played multiple roles in episodes before. Spiner was excited, however, to learn that Hawking had agreed to play himself, leading Spiner to remark, 'But I still think the guy cost me an Emmy'. Filming of the scene drew a crowd of staffpersons, including some who screenwriter Ronald D. Moore said were not working on the scene but pretended to have a work-related reason to be there. Between camera setups, Hawking was placed in a closet-sized room at his request, because such solitude allowed him to think without distractions. Berman related that of all the notable people he had met through the course of his career, including presidents and business magnates, the visitor who stood out above the rest was Hawking.^[1]

This episode is the only episode to have the episode title and opening credits listed during the cold open, before the title sequence. Normally, the episode title and all guest stars, producers/director are listed after the opening title sequence.

Novel[edit]

A novelization of this episode was published by Pocket Books. It was one of five novelizations to be made of The Next Generation episodes, along with 'Encounter at Farpoint', 'Unification', 'Relics', and 'All Good Things...'.^[2]

Reception[edit]

In 2017, Den of Geek ranked Jonathan Del Arco as one of the top ten guest star roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[3] He also appears in the role of Third of Five (i.e. Hugh), in 'I, Borg' and 'Descent, Part II',^[3] and reprised the role in the series Star Trek: Picard.

Medium.com ranked this the 62nd best episode Star Trek: The Next Generation in 2017.^[4]

In 2019, ScreenRant recommended 'Descent' as background on the character Data, for the series Star Trek: Picard.^[5]

Film Daily ranked Stephen Hawking as one of the greatest Star Trek guest stars.^[6]

In 2020, Space.com recommended watching this episode as background for Star Trek: Picard.^[7]

In 2020, Cnet noted 'Descent' for featuring the return of the characters Hugh and Lore, and described it as 'fun' but not as good as 'Best of Both Worlds'.^[8]

Watch guides[edit]

The Nerdist suggested this episode as the conclusion of a story arc of this TV show.^[9] They propose a story arc with the Enterprise 1701-D confronting the Borg, that would include 'Q Who?', 'The Best of Both Worlds', 'I, Borg', and 'Descent'.^[9]

In 2020, Gamespot recommended 'Descent' parts I & II for background on the character of Data.^[10]

See also[edit]

• 'I, Borg', the fifth season episode where Hugh is first encountered.
• 'Suspicions', the sixth season episode where the metaphasic shields were first introduced.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abSpiegel, Danny (June 8, 2015). 'Brilliant Mind Games'. TV Guide. p. 84.
2. ^Ayers 2006, pp. 317-318.
3. ^ ^ab'Star Trek: The Next Generation — 10 Great Guest Performances'. Den of Geek. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
4. ^Andrew (2019-09-21). 'Ranking All The Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes (Part 5)'. Medium. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
5. ^'Star Trek: Data's Most Important Episodes For Picard'. ScreenRant. 2019-12-26. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
6. ^Roberts, Amy (2019-06-12). 'Tom Hardy in space: The greatest 'Star Trek' guest stars ever'. Film Daily. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
7. ^Snowden 2020-01-23T13:39:29Z, Scott. 'A complete guide to what 'Star Trek' to watch before 'Star Trek: Picard''. Space.com. Retrieved 2020-01-23.
8. ^Trenholm, Richard. 'Star Trek: Picard -- the essential Trek episodes to watch before the new show'. CNET. Retrieved 2020-01-24.
9. ^ ^ab'A Guide to Binge Watching 7 Great STAR TREK Arcs'. Nerdist. Retrieved 2019-06-20.
10. ^'Star Trek Picard: 10 Next Generation Episodes That Will Catch You Up On Data'. GameSpot. Retrieved 2020-01-13.

Stephen Hawking Playing Poker

• Ayers, Jeff (2006). Voyages of Imagination. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN978-1-41650349-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links[edit]

• 'Descent, Part I' on IMDb
• 'Descent, Part II' on IMDb
• 'Descent, Part I' at TV.com
• 'Descent, Part II' at TV.com
• Descent, Part I at Memory Alpha (a Star Trekwiki)
• Descent, Part II at Memory Alpha (a Star Trekwiki)
• Descent, Part I at StarTrek.com
• Descent, Part II at StarTrek.com

Stephen Hawking Poem

Stephen Hawking, who sadly passed away on 14 March 2018, was one of the most prolific scientists of our time. Image credit: Getty

AAS: Do you think there was anything before the Big Bang?

SH: In the early Sixties there was a big debate as to whether the universe had a beginning a finite time ago. And so, the obvious question was, what happened before the beginning of the universe? As Saint Augustine [an early philosopher] said, what was God doing before he made the universe? He was preparing for all the people who asked such questions!

Does it require a creator to explain how the universe began, or is the initial state of the universe interpreted by a law of science? To answer how the histories of the universe began, Jim Hartle [a professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara] and I proposed what we called the ‘no-boundary hypothesis’. The problem of what happened at the beginning of time is a bit like the question of what happened at the end of the world when people thought the world was flat. Is the world a flat plate with a sea going over the end? I have tested this experimentally. I have been around the world, and I have not fallen off!

As we know, the problem of what happens at the end of the world was solved when people realised the world was not a flat plate, but a curved surface. One can think of the Earth’s surface as beginning at the South Pole, as you head northwards the size of the circles of latitude increase. According to the no-boundary hypothesis, the history of the universe is like this. The history begins at a single point at the South Pole. To ask what happened before the beginning of the universe would become a meaningless question because there is nothing south of the South Pole. Imaginary time, as measured in degrees of latitude, would have a beginning at the South Pole, but the South Pole is like any other point. The same laws of nature hold at the South Pole as in other places. This would prove the age-old objection to the universe having a beginning and that it would be a place where the normal laws broke down. The beginning of the universe would be governed by the laws of science, such as quantum gravity that merges the theories of quantum mechanics – the science of very small things such as particles – with the theory of gravity, which acts over large distances.

AAS: So how do you personally think the universe began?

SH: The universe must have at its beginning a singularity. A singularity is a place where the [solutions to the] field equations of classical general relativity can’t be found. So classical general relativity cannot predict when the universe began.

This was a conclusion with which Pope John Paul was happy! At a conference on cosmology at the Vatican, the Pope told cosmologists that it was okay to study the universe after it began, but they should not inquire into the beginning itself, because that was the moment of creation and the work of God. I was glad he didn’t realise

I had given a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn’t fancy being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo!

Many modern cosmologists are like Pope John Paul. They are happy to apply the laws of physics to the universe after it actually began, but they evade the actual beginning. But in one sense cosmology has no predictive power over what happened at the beginning of the universe. All it can say is that things are as they are now because things were as they were shortly after the beginning. Although classical general relativity predicts that the beginning of the universe was a singularity, at which the theory breaks down, we know that theory has to be quantised like the theories of all other physical fields. Although we don’t yet have a complete theory of quantum gravity, that is how it all works, we have an approximation that is good for practical purposes.

The prevalent theory is that the universe was born from a singularity. Image credit: NASA

AAS: Has the Big Bang always been the preferred theory?

SH: The prevailing theory used to be that the universe had lasted forever, because something eternal was more perfect, and because that avoided all the questions about the creation. In order to avoid the universe having a beginning, astronomer Fred Hoyle proposed the ‘Steady State’ theory. In this theory, the universe will have existed forever with new matter being continually created as the universe expanded, to keep the density the same. The Steady State theory was never backed up by observation, and had an energy field that was objectionable to particle physicists because it would lead to runaway production of pairs of positive and negative energy particles. But the final nail in the coffin came with the discovery of a faint background of microwaves. These microwaves are the same as those in your microwave oven, but much less powerful – they would heat your pizza only to -271.3 degrees Celsius [-456.34 degrees Fahrenheit]. That’s not much good for defrosting a pizza, let alone cooking it. You can observe this yourself by setting your analogue TV to an empty channel. A few per cent of the ‘snow’ that you see on the screen will be caused by the microwaves.

There was no way the Steady State theory could account for this background. A reasonable interpretation of the background is that the radiation is left over from an early, very hot and dense state – the Big Bang. As the universe expanded, the radiation would have cooled until it was just the faint relic we observe today.

AAS: You have described the universe as a hologram. Could you explain why?

SH: The universe has three spatial dimensions plus time, so it is a four-dimensional object that can therefore be represented as a hologram on a three-dimensional surface. The history of the universe can be represented as a hologram on the boundary of a four-dimensional disc.

As I expect you know, a hologram is a representation of a three-dimensional object on a two-dimensional surface such as a photographic plate. I was supposedly represented as a hologram in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I say supposedly because although I may have appeared three-dimensional on the Starship Enterprise, television sets at the time could not, and still can’t, display three-dimensional holographic images. That will be the next technological revolution. In the episode I was playing poker with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Commander Data [on the Holodeck]. Because the game was interrupted by a red alert on the Enterprise, I couldn’t cash in my winnings of 140 Federation credits. I approached Paramount Studios, but they did not know the exchange rate!

AAS: What can the cosmic microwave background radiation tell us about the universe?

SH: Cosmology became a precision science in 2003 with the first results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, which confirmed our simplest predictions of cosmic inflation. WMAP produced a wonderful map of the temperature of the cosmic microwave background, a snapshot of the universe at about three hundred-thousandths of its present age. The irregularities that we see are predicted by inflation and they mean that some regions of the universe had slightly higher density than others. The gravitational attraction of the extra density slows the expansion of that region and can eventually cause it to collapse and form galaxies and stars. So look carefully at the map of the microwave sky and it is the blueprint for all the structure in the universe. We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. God really does play dice.

Stephen Hawking Potential

There [was] the Planck satellite, with a much higher resolution map of the universe. The analysis of the Planck data is in remarkable agreement with the simplest models of inflation. All the data suggested that [the fluctuations that made the structures we see today] were sufficient and there seemed to be no need to look for [the first ripples in space-time, or gravitational waves]. Planck only announced a number limit of 11 per cent on [a ratio of gravitational waves to density fluctuations]. Personally I have a bet with Neil Turok, director of the Perimeter Institute, that [this] is at least five per cent. If this is confirmed by future observations, it will be quantum gravity written across the sky.

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the relic radiation left after the Big Bang. Image credit: NASA

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Tags: All About Space, Cosmology, galaxies, Hologram, interview, Planets, Star Trek, Stephen Hawking, Universe