Review of Silicon Avatar

The Crystalline Entity is a mass murderer. It attacks planets, absorbing every bit of life (both flora and fauna) and leaves the planets wastelands. Riker has a brief talk with a young woman and as they are about to continue some research on the planet, this horror from space comes down and begins to do what it does. The people run for a cave, but the young woman is killed as she attempts to save an old man who has fallen. The rest make it to a cave to wait things out. They hear the horrible rumblings above them and then silence. Soon, they are surprised by the Enterprise away team, coming to the rescue. When they arrive at the surface, they find that earth-like planet has been reduced to a desert. Back on the Enterprise, the crew awaits the arrival of Dr. Kila Marr, an expert on the Entity. She is amazed that for the first time there are survivors of the thing. She immediately suspects Data of being responsible for the events because his "brother" Lore was responsible for leading a mass of people to their deaths. She is a complex person who chose this endeavor when the Entity killed her son as it wiped out another planet. She is beset by guilt. She eventually makes peace with Data, but her self-disappointment stays beneath the surface.

One thing I need to mention. Picard seems to feel that even though the Crystalline Entity has killed tens of thousands, it may well be a sentient creature, to be negotiated with. Hitler was a sentient creature. Joseph Stalin was a sentient creature. I know that Picard is an explorer, but I would be hard pressed to give up my life for something so murderous I found some of the dialogue pontificating and hard to accept.