Datalore

TNG Season 1 Episode 13
Air Date: January 18th, 1988

Plot

The Enterprise arrives at Omicron Theta, the planet where Data was discovered 20 years prior. The planet is found completely devoid of life, even bacterial. They learn that Dr. Noonien Soong was Data's creator but they also find a second android, Data's brother Lore. Lore starts playing a more emotional but generally nice android but we learn that he had teamed up with a crystalline entity that lives in space and consumes organic matter. In a final conflict, Data is able to beat Lore and transport him into space.

Commentary

This is the first episode that focuses on Data and both his quest of being more human and his past. At first we see Data dealing with the discovery of his brother as a child that learns that he has a brother. While Data cannot experience emotion, it was hard to tell that he wasn't happy. It also showed that Data's emotionless demeanor is a design choice and not due technical abilities. The excuse Lore gave for making Data was that the colonist felt that Lore was too realistic and that they wanted an android that was more like a machine.

This episode introduces Data's On/Off switch that at this point only Doctor Crusher, Wesley and Riker knows about. There are a lot of awkward scenes in the episode since there are now two androids that look the same. Picard even had to put it forward that human's are a kind of machine too and that it shouldn't be awkward.

This isn't the first time, but I find it odd that Doctor Crusher has been as involved in maintaining learning about how Data works more then any engineer. In earlier episodes when Data needs to be checked, it is Doctor Crusher who does the exam and she is involved in helping to put Lore together.

In the scene that Data fought Lore, there were clips where you could see the face of the stunt double. Much like the original series, they probably relied on the lower quality of TVs at the time to make it hard to tell.

Quotes

"Dr. Soong made me perfect in his first attempt. But he made me so completely human, the colonists became envious of me." - Lore
"You lived with the colonists?" - Data
"Until they petitioned Soong to make a more comfortable, less perfect android. In other words, you, Brother." - Lore

"You'll feel uncomfortable about aspects of your duplicate, Data. We feel uncomfortable too, and for no logical reason. If it feels awkward to be reminded that Data is a machine, just remember that we are merely a different variety of machine, in our case, electro-chemical in nature." - Picard

"Sir, I know this may finish me as an acting ensign, but" - Wesley
"Shut up, Wesley!" - Picard
"Shut up, Wesley?" - Doctor Crusher
"Doctor." - Picard
"And since I am finished here, sir, may I point out that" - Wesley
"Shut up, Wesley!" - Doctor Crusher
"that everything that I have said would have been listened to if it came from an adult officer." - Wesley

"Number One, have you ever considered whether Data is more human or less human than we want?" - Picard
"I only wish we were all as well-balanced, sir." - Riker
"Agreed!" - Picard