star trek tng lore soong

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘picard’ star brent spiner appreciates complicated soong story that foreshadows lore’s wickedness in ‘tng’.

The 'Star Trek' icon reveals his contract for season two specifically stipulated that he would not reprise Data, whose story seemingly concluded on the Paramount+ series at the end of season one.

By Ryan Parker

Ryan Parker

Former Senior Reporter

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for Star Trek: Picard episode “Two of One.”]

Brent Spiner is elated Star Trek: Picard is offering greater insight into Data and Lore by delving deeper into their creator’s family tree. The iconic (essentially good and evil, respectively) humanoid androids were introduced in the Next Generation series.

The award-winning actor pulled double duty in the first season of Picard as Data and Altan Inigo Soong, the son of Noonian Soong (also played by Spiner on TNG ) who created Data and Lore, among other androids. This season, Spiner is portraying 21st century geneticist Dr. Adam Soong, who appears to be far more sinister than the desperate father he was portrayed as in last week’s episode, “Fly Me to the Moon.”

Related Stories

'star trek: picard' showrunner terry matalas tackling remake of 1980s sci-fi movie 'enemy mine' (exclusive), dark horse, marc bernardin tackling comic adaptation of neil gaiman's 'anansi boys' (exclusive).

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter prior to the premiere of this week’s “One of Two,” Spiner discussed his “fascinating” return to the sci-fi franchise — specifically not as Data, per his contract — where he and fans are gaining better insight into the brilliant, but complicated, Soong family.

“He is much more complex than he would lead us to believe,” Spiner tells THR , being careful not to reveal too much after the dramatic events of this week’s episode. “Adam is in a lot of denial about who he is, which is a classic narcissist. And I think it is his DNA that made its way to the dark side of the Soong family, all the way to Lore. There is a light side to the family with Noonian. Data is the light side.”

Lore was introduced during the first season of TNG in the episode “Datalore.” The malevolent “brother” of Data believed himself superior to humans, and thus posed a grave danger on a number of occasions.

Spiner notes his contract for this season stipulated he would not play Data, who had a sublime goodbye last season. “Everyone agreed on it. The writers knew early on where this season was going.”

In addition to titular star Patrick Stewart , Spiner found himself once again playing in the Star Trek sandbox with pals and TNG colleagues Jonathan Frakes, who directed “Fly Me to the Moon” and “One of Two,” and John de Lancie, who is back as the dastardly Q.

“Jonathan is a fantastic director, and everyone loves working with him,” Spiner explains. “He knows what he’s doing, and he brings so much joy to the set. That’s infectious, the cast and crew feel it. De Lancie is so focused and serious about the work, which makes it fun because there is no struggle to find common ground with someone of his caliber.”

Just prior to this week’s episode of Picard dropping, news broke that Spiner, along with TNG stars Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis, would appear in the third and final season of Picard . “It is really rewarding for all of us,” Spiner says of the group working together once more. “Here we are still doing it — together, which has just been a blast.”

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Eric dane says he was “let go” from ‘grey’s anatomy’ because he “wasn’t the same guy” they hired, martin mull, funnyman and ‘fernwood 2 night’ star, dies at 80, ‘the bear’ star lionel boyce on marcus’ eulogy scene, season 3 cliffhanger, and whether anyone on the show is ok, ariana madix on intense ‘love island usa’ season 6 drama: “i hope to host this show forever”, will forte boards tina fey’s ‘four seasons’ series at netflix, tv ratings: biden-trump debate draws 51m viewers, way below 2020.

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Discovery and Prodigy , the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG , Star Trek: Infinite and Star Trek Online , as well as other post-57th Anniversary publications such as the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} OR {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

• Memory Beta articles sourced from novels
• Memory Beta articles sourced from short stories
• Memory Beta articles sourced from novelizations
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• 2364 deaths

Lore was the name used by two Soong-type androids in the 24th century . ( TNG episode : " Datalore "; TNG short story : " I Am Become Death ")

• 1 Original Lore
• 2.1 Specifications
• 2.2.1 As Data
• 2.2.2 As Lore
• 2.2.3 Daystrom Android M-5-10
• 3.1 Appearances
• 3.2 Other references
• 4 External link

Original Lore [ ]

After deactivating and dismantling Lore, Soong set about constructing his brother Data , an android without destabilizing emotions. Lore's positronic net differed from Data's in that it had a Type-"L" phase discriminator , compared to Data's Type-"R". ( TNG episode : " Time's Arrow "). Afterwards Soong intended to construct and program just one more android learn where he had gone wrong with Lore, even though Lore's mother "Juliana" was at first vehemently opposed to creating any more androids. ( TNG episode : " Brothers ")

Lore was rediscovered in 2364 by the crew of USS Enterprise -D . Chief engineer Argyle and Dr. Beverly Crusher reassembled and reactivated the android, who then attempted to steal Data's identity in order to summon the Crystalline Entity to the Enterprise . One noticeable malfunction upon re-activation was a persistent twitch he corrected using the left side of Data's face. In Data 's quarters, he privately asked him to consider the implications. Their Isaac Asimov -inspired technology "could reflect 1000s, or millions... of lifeforms of every kind". He was stopped by Data, who beamed Lore out into space . ( TNG episode : " Datalore ")

While in the void of space, Lore deactivated himself, fusing the matrix in his positronic brain . A version of Data from the 44th century , who had taken control of a Pakled vessel, eventually discovered Lore's body. Exchanging clothing with Lore, the alternate Data vaporized the body in front of the Pakleds in an elaborate ruse to take over Lore's place and prevent the rise of the Children of Soong . ( TNG short story : " I Am Become Death ")

Second Lore [ ]

Specifications [ ].

At some point over the centuries, Lore had improved himself with various new internal devices. This includes a subspace beacon for initiating transport , when standard combadges were unavailable to lock on. ( TNG episode : " Brothers ") It could also function as a transmitter link between himself and any other Soong -type android. ( TNG episode : " Descent ")

Biography [ ]

As data [ ].

Lore's history separates itself from Data's in 2367 , when Data hijacked the USS Enterprise -D under control of Noonien Soong. With the original Lore dead, these events led to Data receiving his emotion chip and the death of Willie Potts .

After many years of loyal service, Data left starship duty to become an academic. Over the next few centuries, the deaths of his close friends ( Jean-Luc Picard , Deanna Troi , Worf ), his wife Tana , and many other crewmates and friends overwhelmed Data's emotion chip to the point that he routinely turned it off.

Eventually, he removed his emotion chip, only to discover after many more centuries that he grew emotions independent of the chip. Discovering he was now nearly human, Data began to despise humanity and retired to Omicron Theta to live amongst the Children of Soong .

Beginning in the 32nd century , Data was kept under the watchful eye of Jaris on Omicron Theta. He escaped in the 44th century to commit suicide at the old Starfleet Headquarters , but was prevented by versions of Jaris and Damia from the 54th century .

In his brief encounter with Jaris and Damia, Data learned of humanity's fate and, after disposing of the two androids and losing an arm in the battle, used their timeship to travel to the year 24th century and revive Lore. Data believed that the continued existence of Lore would prevent the birth of the Children of Soong and the death of humanity.

Arriving in 2364 , Data immediately took control of a Pakled ship and ordered them to search for Lore's body, helping them out along the way. After two years , the Pakleds discovered Lore's body and brought it onboard. When Data discovered that the original Lore is destroyed beyond repair, he developed a ruse where he convinced the Pakleds that he was Lore and he had "killed" Data. He replaced his destroyed arm and loyally served with the Pakleds as "Lore." ( TNG short story : " I Am Become Death ")

As Lore [ ]

In 2367 , Lore answered the homing signal intended to draw Data to Soong's new laboratory on Terlina III . There, Lore posed as Data, took the emotion chip Soong had designed for his brother, and fatally injured the doctor. ( TNG episode : " Brothers ")

In 2369 , Lore encountered a group of Borg disconnected from the Collective as a result of Hugh 's sense of individuality. Lore established himself as their leader, ("the One", as he was referred to, unaware that the Collective hierarchy was composed of myriad Borg Queens ), and directed them to attack Federation targets. This brought the Enterprise-D and Data to investigate, and Lore attempted to manipulate his brother by broadcasting emotions from the stolen chip. Data, with the help of Geordi La Forge , was able to overcome this influence, shoot and deactivate Lore. ( TNG episode & novelization : Descent )

Data brought Lore to the Enterprise -D and disconnected his positronic brain. He kept it in a vault in his lab, isolated from his body, and designed the vault to self-destruct if it was ever tampered with. In 2371 , when the Enterprise -D crashed on Veridian III , the vault containing his brain was damaged; the self-destruct system activated, and the brain was destroyed. The rest of Lore's body was unharmed, and as of 2374 was being kept in Data's lab on the USS Enterprise -E . ( TNG novel : Immortal Coil )

Daystrom Android M-5-10 [ ]

Prior to his death, Doctor Altan Soong had obtained a copy of Lore's memories and personalities and loaded it into an android he described as a totality, along with the personalities and memories of B4, Data, Lal, and himself. Soong built a partition into the android so that Lore could not overwhelm the other personalities in the android. After Altan died Starfleet took possession of Soong's work, taking the android - which they called Daystrom Android M-5-10 - to act as the security system for the Daystrom station.

The android was taken on board the USS Titan by Worf , Riker , and Raffi . LaForge removed the partition seperating the personalities. While it at first appeared that Lore was about to overwhelm and delete the Data personality permanently, Data gave Lore all his memories, giving Data the means to decompile and integrate Lore's personality into his own. As a result Data was resurrected in Daystrom Android M-5-10 while having the memories of B4, Altan, Lal, and Lore combined into his new personality. Following that, the android became known as Data. ( PIC episode : " Surrender ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ], other references [ ], external link [ ].

• Lore article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Lore article at the Star Trek Timelines Wiki .
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 USS Voyager (NCC-74656-A)
• 3 Lamarr class

The Best Data Episodes Of Star Trek: The Next Generation

You can't really talk about  Star Trek: The Next Generation  ( TNG ) without talking about Data. Played by Brent Spiner , this sentient android appeared in all seven seasons of the series, has a recurring role in  Star Trek: Picard , and showed up in all four  TNG  films. Data proved to quickly be one of the most popular  TNG  characters, as fans enjoyed following the synthetic officer's struggles to understand humanity and grow closer to it. 

As for his backstory, Data is discovered before the events of the series on the otherwise lifeless Omicron Theta colony. About halfway through the first season of TNG , in "Datalore," we learn most of the colony was wiped out by a powerful spacefaring being known only as the Crystalline Entity (take Galactus, but make him look like a giant snowflake). Fortunately, the android is rescued by Starfleet, which heavily influences his choice to join the organization. On board the  Enterprise , Data regularly proves to be one of the crew's best assets, though occasionally his android origins allow villains to turn him into a crippling liability. 

Throughout the series, most of the crew's   senior officers were the focus of at least a couple of episodes, but Data's struggles and adventures proved compelling enough to fans that the Enterprise 's own Pinocchio could rightly be accused of hogging the spotlight. And today, we're going to look at the episodes where Data shined the brightest. Here are our picks for the best Data episodes of  Star Trek: The Next Generation .  

'Phantasms' is one of Data's weirdest and funniest episodes

In 1968, Philip K. Dick penned one of his best-known novels, one where the title poses an interesting question: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Well, after watching the 1993  TNG  episode "Phantasms," we can't tell you if androids dream of electric sheep, but we  can  report they occasionally dream of cakes made of out of crew members.

In season six's "Birthright," Data discovers a program that allows him to dream. And in the following season's "Phantasms," Data's dreams haunt him to the point where he appears to be losing his positronic marbles. His dreams are filled with absolutely bizarre images. For example, in one, he finds in a party on Ten Forward in which Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) is a cake whom his crew members are devouring. We eventually learn the weird dreams are actually giving Data the key to save the  Enterprise . After the ship takes on a brand new warp core, invisible parasites start feeding on the crew. Data unconsciously detects the creatures, and the strange imagery of his dreams is actually designed to alert him of the danger.

"Phantasms" goes into weird  Twin Peaks  territory that no one ever expected from  Star Trek , and for that alone, it deserves a spot on this list. But the episode also proves to be one of the funniest  TNG stories, particularly with some uncharacteristic off-color humor that begins to surface after Data discusses his dreams with a holographic version of Sigmund Freud (who had a reputation for linking most neuroses to sex) .

'Descent' puts Data against two of Star Trek's best villains

Two of TNG 's most compelling bad guys form something of an alliance in the two-parter "Descent." And this terrifying union starts early in part one, when Data surprises us by getting murderously enraged when attacked by Borg drones — to the point that he continues to beat on an already dead drone when he should be helping out his crew members. 

Data is puzzled by the spontaneous burst of emotion and concerned with his homicidal urges, and we eventually learn he's being manipulated by his brother Lore, a predecessor to Data who's programmed with emotions but suffers mental instability. Lore is gathering Borg drones detached from the Borg Collective and recruiting them into a cult committed to the rise of cybernetic beings over organic life. To this end, Lore is behind Data's murderous emotions, and he manipulates him to the point where he's almost willing to kill his best friend, Geordi (Levar Burton).

Bookending the penultimate and final seasons of  TNG , "Descent" not only gives us another chance to see the Borg, but it also marks the return of the free-thinking Borg Hugh (Jonathan Del Arco) who first appeared in "I, Borg." It also proves to be the final confrontation between Data and his twisted brother Lore. It's as sad as it is satisfying when Data deactivates his wayward sibling, whose final profession of love before his death is almost certainly a lie. 

'Hero Worship' explores the pros to being an android

When you first discover how badly Data wants to be a human, it's natural to at least briefly wonder why he would want to be something that — in so many ways — is inferior. That's part of what occurs to the young Timothy (Joshua Harris) in the season five episode "Hero Worship." Timothy is the sole survivor of the wrecked ship  Vico , and it's Data who saves him. Traumatized by so much death, Timothy takes comfort in pretending to be an android. Counselor Troi encourages Data to help Timothy find shelter in this temporary fantasy, and he teaches the boy what it's like to be a synthetic person, including finding Timothy appropriate clothes and combing his hair to look more like Data.

Data's time with Timothy is touching and bittersweet. We can tell from the beginning that Data enjoys the company of someone who wants to be more like him and that he'll miss Timothy when, inevitably, he emerges from the fantasy. Regardless, the exercise helps the boy open up to his rescuers. Timothy initially tells the  Enterprise  crew that his ship was attacked by aliens, but by the end, it comes out Timothy wrongly blames himself. Moments before the ship's destruction, Timothy fell and hit a console, and he erroneously believes that whatever he hit on the console is what destroyed  Vico . But in a nice twist, it's Timothy's memory of the  Vico 's final moments that gives Data the clues he needs to save the  Enterprise  from the Vico 's actual fate.

'The Quality of Life' asks some heavy questions

"The Quality of Life" is unique in that it puts Data at odds with his shipmates, but it's not because any villain infiltrates his positronic net. Instead, Data refuses the orders of a superior officer on his own free will.

Early in "The Quality of Life," we meet Dr. Farallon (Ellen Bry), the head of a project she hopes will be approved by the Federation. To help with her work, Farallon creates small, mobile, problem-solving machines called exocomps. After one of the exocomps refuses to perform a task, Data — while everyone else assumes the exocomp is malfunctioning — determines the machine is self-aware. Toward the end of the episode, Data locks horns with Riker over using the exocomps to save Picard ( Patrick Stewart ) and Geordi from an accident but in a manner that would destroy the machines. Riker solves the problem by suggesting that Data ask the exocomps to help rather than ordering them. The machines agree to help, and they find an alternative means of saving Picard and Geordi, though sadly one of them chooses to sacrifice itself for the sake of the others. 

"The Quality of Life" is an episode that challenges its audience. It doesn't take much to feel sympathy for Data. He may be a machine, but he looks like a person and is being played by a flesh-and-blood human. It's quite another thing to root for Data when he's treating the rights of three drone-like machines as inviolate enough to risk the lives of beloved regular characters. 

'Elementary, Dear Data' is The Next Generation having a whole lot of fun

Picard loves his Dixon Hill, and Data loves Sherlock Holmes. And in "Elementary, Dear Data," we get to see Data indulge in his love for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective, while Geordi LaForge plays his loyal companion, Watson. 

It begins, as most holodeck-gone-wrong episodes do, with the heroes just having a bit of fun. Geordi gets frustrated when Data, rather than going through an entire Holmes mystery, ends the story early by revealing the killer. Only instead of using deduction, Data knows who committed the crime simply by having read the story already. Dr. Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) gets involved when she overhears the two in Ten Forward, and she challenges Data to solve an original Holmesian mystery. That challenge inadvertently leads Geordi to give the holodeck a command that makes the holographic version of Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty, sentient. And soon enough, the classic bad guy becomes aware he's a hologram on a space ship. 

Once the challenge gets interesting, Data and Geordi throw themselves into their roles, and their enthusiasm is infectious. But what makes the episode one of the  TNG 's most memorable is Daniel Davis' portrayal of Moriarty. Picard is forced to get involved after Moriarty figures out a way to briefly take control of the  Enterprise.  However, Moriarty's evolution makes him much more than a villain, and his portrayal is surprisingly affecting. When Moriarty tells Picard, "What I have seen, what I have learned, fascinates me — I do not want to die," it takes you off guard. Against all odds, you actually care about this holographic recreation of a Victorian-era villain. 

Brent Spiner shows off his acting chops in 'Brothers'

When Data's twin brother Lore threatens the  Enterprise , Brent Spiner does double-duty by playing both androids. But in the fourth season episode "Brothers," Spiner does  triple  duty as Data, Lore, and their enigmatic creator, Dr. Noonian Soong .

In "Brothers," Dr. Soong activates a homing device that summons both Data and Lore to his workshop deep in the jungle of an otherwise seemingly unpopulated planet. Soong is dying, and before his passing, he wants to give Data a chip he's developed that will give Data human emotions but without the flaws that lead to Lore's instability. Before Lore's predictable betrayal and Soong's death, we learn much of what Lore told us in the earlier episode "Datalore" was untrue. In particular, while Lore claims to be a perfected version of Data, Soong reveals Lore was built first and was deactivated because humans feared him. Data seems genuinely stunned to learn he isn't inferior to Lore, so much so that he repeats the revelation "I am not less perfect than Lore" out loud, much to his brother's aggravation. 

Spiner's performances in all three roles genuinely feels like a troubled family reunion. Data and Lore come off like two feuding brothers under the tutelage of an impatient father, including in the perfectly touching and funny moment when Soong orders them through clenched teeth to both sit down. "Brothers" is a testament to Spiner's acting abilities, and the episode is an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding Data.

'Data's Day' lets us look through the android's eyes

The plot of season four's "Data's Day" isn't particularly memorable. Data prepares for the wedding of Chief O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and Keiko (Rosalind Chao), while the  Enterprise  heads for the Romulan Neutral Zone with a Vulcan ambassador in tow. Really, "Data's Day" is pretty much a meat-and-potatoes TNG episode, but it's elevated by being told completely through Data's adorably hopeless point of view

"Data's Day" references the episode "The Measure of a Man," with Data writing a letter to Bruce Maddox, the same cyberneticist who caused the android so much trouble in the earlier story. Data writes his letter as a log entry, explaining everything that's happening, what he believes will resolve each situation, and inevitably how laughably wrong he proves to be. For example, Data tries and fails to understand the drama between O'Brien and Keiko when the latter gets cold feet and cancels their wedding. And the eventual betrayal by the Vulcan ambassador, who proves to be a Romulan incognito, seems almost unnecessary compared to the fun of Data learning to dance while wearing a Joker-like smile that is the stuff of nightmares.

"Data's Day" is equally sweet, sad, and funny in showing us Data's attempts to understand human behavior. One interesting aspect of the episode is when he describes Worf (Michael Dorn) as a "kindred spirit." With both often finding themselves confused by humans, the connection makes sense. Still, with both taking vastly different approaches to most situations, it's a surprising revelation. 

'In Theory' is a heartbreaking Star Trek episode

In the early first season episode "The Naked Now," Data famously gets intimate with Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby). After that, Data doesn't have a lot of chance at romance until the fourth season's "In Theory." 

As Data's friend Jenna (Michele Scarabelli) is getting over a break-up with an on-again/off-again boyfriend, it suddenly occurs to her that her synthetic buddy might just be her best new candidate for romance. As Jenna's interest gradually becomes clear to Data, he goes to each of his  Enterprise  friends in turn, asking their advice. He decides to move forward with the relationship and creates a program for it. Slowly, Jenna begins to realize that having a romantic relationship with an emotionless android means ... having a romantic relationship with an emotionless android. Data never knows how to react to what Jenna does, whether it's what to do when she brings him a gift or when he abruptly initiates a lovers' quarrel simply because he thinks that's what Jenna wants. 

The episode's final scene is gut-punching. Once Jenna tells Data their relationship is over, he responds emotionlessly with, "Then I will delete the appropriate program." Jenna is crushed while Data seems perfectly fine, as untroubled by the break-up as if it'd never happened. Most Data episodes end with some kind of sentiment hinting towards Data being more human than he appears. "In Theory" swerves hard in the other direction, letting you viscerally feel the impact Data's lack of humanity can have on those around him. 

Data goes looking for his father in 'Birthright, Part I'

As far as  TNG  two-parters go, season six's "Birthright" is a little different than most. "Birthright, Part I" is maybe 60 percent Data and 40 percent Worf, with the Klingon officer dealing with the reveal that his father Mogh — long presumed dead — may still be alive. In the meantime, Data is gifted with a strange dream-like vision of his father, Dr. Soong, after an accident involving Geordi, Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) of  Deep Space Nine , and a mysterious device found in the Gamma Quadrant. 

Data and Worf's narratives come together when Data tells the Klingon about this experience, and Worf sees the event as a powerful vision. Taking Worf's advice, Data does everything he can to interpret his vision. At first, he tries to read his dream through art and is inspired enough to create dozens of paintings, many of which include images that Data didn't even see in his vision. Eventually, he recruits Geordi and Bashir to help recreate the accident that caused it in the first place so he can experience the vision in its entirety. 

The result is a powerful, tear-jerking reunion with Data's father, albeit not "in the flesh." By recreating the accident, Data unlocks a program that his father had set to be activated when Data reached a specific point in his evolution. As a result, Data not only gets to see and speak to his dead father, but he leaves the experience with the newfound ability to dream. 

'The Measure of a Man' is Star Trek: The Next Generation at its finest

Among the first two seasons of  TNG , few episodes are as impressive as "The Measure of a Man," in which Data finds himself on trial for his life — not for a crime but simply for being.

Starfleet scientist Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) wants to perform experiments on Data, but Data is worried he won't survive them. When Maddox forces the issue, Data tries to resign his commission. Maddox argues Data is Starfleet's property and doesn't have the right to resign his commission, so Picard is forced to face-off against Riker in a legal proceeding to determine whether or not Data has sentience. He famously tells the judge, "Your Honor, Starfleet was founded to seek out new life." Then, pointing to Data, he says, " Well, there it sits ."

Perhaps even more powerful is Data's defense. When Maddox visits Data's quarters in hopes of convincing him to submit to his experiments, Data tells him, "When Doctor Soong created me, he added to the substance of the universe. If, by your experiments, I am destroyed, something unique, something wonderful, will be lost. I cannot permit that." The lines' power comes from the fact that they're spoken by Data. If a human being were to describe themselves as "something unique" or "wonderful" that must be protected, it might come off as sappy or even self-important. Coming from an android without emotion to corrupt his logic, it seems like nothing but the wisdom it is. 

'The Offspring' is definitely Data's saddest episode

If "The Offspring" doesn't make your eyes sweaty, nothing will. The emotions all start when Data builds an android that he names Lal (Hallie Todd). As Picard predicts, Lal's creation attracts all the wrong kind of attention. Starfleet Admiral Haftel (Nicolas Coster) makes it clear he wants Lal to be supervised by Starfleet scientists, while Data is adamant that he will keep his daughter with him.

Lal's time aboard the  Enterprise  is marked by the same kind of well-intentioned confusion we're used to from her father. Unaware school children are laughing  at  her, Lal determines that because they laugh so much, she must have "mastered" the concept of humor. She then agrees to work in Ten Forward with Guinan (Whoopi Goldberg) in an attempt to learn human behavior. Lal becomes something of a child to the entire crew, making her loss that much tougher to handle. Lal experiences intense emotion at the prospect of being taken away from her father, and it triggers a cascade failure . Data races to save her with such determination that even Admiral Haftel is struck by it, but in the end, Lal can't be saved. She thanks Data for her life and tells her father, since he can't feel love, that she will love for them both. 

Having transferred Lal's memories into himself, Data assures the heartbroken crew, "She is here ," and then points to his head. Unwilling to allow her fade into oblivion, Data keeps her memories in his positronic net so she'll always be with him. That right there is a truly tear-jerking Star Trek moment , and if you're not weeping, then you're probably an android.

An Episode of Star Trek: TOS Inspired One of The Next Generation's Best Villains

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

• Many of Star Trek: The Next Generation's Season 1 episodes were updates of The Original Series.
• A similar premise to "The Enemy Within" provided The Next Generation with one of its greatest recurring villains.
• Lore could have been a one-off antagonist, but an android with Data’s strength and intelligence minus his morality was a villain too tempting to not use over again.

As a long-running franchise, Star Trek has created many excellent villains. From god-like alien entities like Q and Trelayne, to the augmented human despot Khan Noonien Singh and even simple con artists like Harry Mudd, Star Trek has shown that evil can be found anywhere in the galaxy. Sometimes, malevolence can even wear a familiar face, causing havoc in the most subversive ways possible.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1, a romantic episode that had been written for Lt. Cmdr. Data was changed to an evil twin story instead. Taking inspiration from a Season 1 episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , the writers created Data's evil opposite twin brother Lore. What no one could have foreseen at the time was how enduring this new antagonist would be, or how much he would evolve beyond the episode that inspired his creation.

TNG's 'Datalore' Inverted The Original Series Episode 'The Enemy Within'

Why star trek ships' maintenance corridors are called jefferies tubes.

A ubiquitous feature of Star Trek starships are the service corridors known as Jefferies Tubes - which are named after a real crew member.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation 's first season , the series' writers crafted an episode about Data finding love with a female android whose job was to fix the ship under the most hazardous conditions. The episode was scrapped, however, when it turned out to be too costly to make, so series creator Gene Roddenberry proposed an 'evil twin' story that would be less expensive to replace it. With a limited shooting schedule, rewrites had to happen fast, and the story that was created bore a striking resemblance to Star Trek: The Original Series , Season 1, Episode 4, "The Enemy Within."

In The Original Series , the Enterprise's transporter malfunctions and splits Captain Kirk into two people, each representing a different aspect of his psyche: the good and bad. Star Trek: The Next Generation , Season 1, Episode 13, "Datalore," turned out to be an updated version of the classic episode. With the premise that Data's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong, had constructed another android before him, the The Next Generation story was able to delve deeper into the android officer's origin while simultaneously telling an entertaining evil twin tale. While "Datalore" was able to update the story of "The Enemy Within" with improved special effects and a more complex look at the nature of human emotions, it also covered a lot of the same territory as The Original Series episode.

Evil Kirk Had a Few Things In Common With the Sinister Android Lore

Gene roddenberry created star trek, but who is the woman behind the franchise.

Fans laud Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, but he didn't do it alone, with Dorothy D.C. Fontana being a very important woman in franchise history.

Though the explanations for Star Trek 's evil doubles between The Original Series and The Next Generation were completely different, the Season 1 doppelgänger episodes of both series had many similarities. When Captain Kirk's dark half attempted to force himself onto Yeoman Janice Rand, he received three deep scratches on his left cheek, visibly distinguishing him from the original Kirk. The Next Generation replaced the scratches with a more active visual distinction for Data's brother. Shortly after being reassembled and reactivated in the Enterprise-D's sickbay, Lore demonstrated a facial tick on his left cheek to differentiate him from Data.

Later in each episode, the evil doubles marked their twins with the same peculiarities and disguised their own. Evil Kirk applied makeup before scratching his opposite's face, while Lore used a tool to correct his twitch and then created one on Data's cheek. They each also rendered their doubles unconscious in order to be free. Yet, "Datalore" was hardly a complete retread of "The Enemy Within," as the evil versions of Data and Kirk had very different motivations and personalities. When Kirk's darker self materialized in the Enterprise's transporter room , he was disoriented and filled with dark impulses, but he was still James T. Kirk.

All of Kirk's memories were the same, even if his impulses were entirely self-motivated. Lore, on the other hand, was a distinctly different android from Lt. Cmdr. Data. Evil Kirk was chiefly interested in his own survival and maintaining command of the Enterprise, while Lore had aided a deadly and powerful alien entity in destroying the colony he'd been living on and planned to do the same to the galaxy class Enterprise. Further, while Captain Kirk used the transporter to reintegrate both his good and bad selves into the more complex man audiences were just getting to know, Data used his ship's transporter to rid the Enterprise of his double. The solution turned out to be impermanent as Lore would later return to make life difficult for his brother again.

Data's Evil Brother Returned to Star Trek as a Threat to the Federation

Star trek directors don't get enough credit for how they shape the shows.

Star Trek fans love behind-the-scenes stories from writers, producers and actors, but the directors don't get enough credit for their contributions.

While its many similarities to "The Enemy Within" could make "Datalore" seem a little uninspired, Brent Spiner's performance as his own evil twin made the prospect of Lore's return far too tempting for The Next Generation 's producers and writers. Thus, when a homing beacon summoned him and Data reunited with his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong , in Season 4, Episode 3, "Brothers," the return of his unstable brother was as big a thrill for fans as it was a shock for Starfleet's only android officer.

It didn't take long for Lore to return to his malevolent and duplicitous ways, overpowering Data and tricking and thrashing their terminally ill father out of jealousy for his favoring the younger android. Lore made his escape before the away team that had gone to collect Data arrived, carrying in his system the emotion chip that had been meant for his brother. Lore's actions in that episode teased the high probability that he would return once more, and much like recurring Star Trek villain Khan, the crew of the Enterprise would come to know his wrath. Just like Captain Kirk's two disparate versions in "The Enemy Within," Lore had complicated feelings regarding his emotionless little brother.

While he resented Data and felt the younger android was inferior, Lore couldn't help but want to have some kind of relationship with him. As such, in his final appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation , in Season 6, Episode 22 and Season 7, Episode 1, "Descent, Parts I and II," it wasn't enough for Lore to try to destroy the Federation using a ship full of Borg who'd been disconnected from the Collective; he had to manipulate Data into joining him. When Data finally came to his senses and defeated and disassembled Lore, it seemed that was the end of the commander's twin brother, but Star Trek has a history of resurrecting popular characters .

Lore returned for what may have been the last time in Star Trek: Picard , Season 3, as part of a new artificial lifeform comprised of the minds of Data, their less-advanced predecessor B4, Altan Noonien Soong and himself. Unwilling to share the new body, Lore tried to destroy Data, only to be outwitted by his brother. Like Kirk with his evil self before him, Data embraced Lore at the end, deleting his malignant personality while retaining his knowledge and memories. It seems likely that audiences have seen the last of Lore, though with new Star Trek series under consideration , a return in some form isn't out of the question. One thing is certain, however: if Kirk had never faced "The Enemy Within" in The Original Series , The Next Generation would have missed out on one of its most enduring villains.

The Star Trek universe encompasses multiple series, each offering a unique lens through which to experience the wonders and perils of space travel. Join Captain Kirk and his crew on the Original Series' voyages of discovery, encounter the utopian vision of the Federation in The Next Generation, or delve into the darker corners of galactic politics in Deep Space Nine. No matter your preference, there's a Star Trek adventure waiting to ignite your imagination.

Den of Geek

Revisiting Star Trek TNG: Brothers

This week's Star Trek TNG look-back is a Brent Spiner special. Enter Data, Dr Soong and Lore...

• Share on Facebook (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in a new tab)
• Share on Linkedin (opens in a new tab)
• Share on email (opens in a new tab)

This review contains spoilers.

4.3 Brothers

The Enterprise is diverted to a Starbase due to a medical emergency, involving loveable scamp Willie Potts (never met him before) who has been infected by parasites he ate while unsupervised after an altercation with his brother Jake. Riker and Troi discipline Jake the only way Starfleet knows how – a severe talking to in a conference room – before asking Data to take him to sickbay to see his brother. But mid-trip, Data flips out and begins acting automatically to seize control of the Enterprise.

After changing the course, gunning the throttle and disabling life support to the bridge, Data proceeds to give himself total control over the ship while the rest of the senior staff collect in Engineering looking helpless and throwing around desperate plans. “Prepare to separate the saucer section,” says Picard, perhaps forgetting that the saucer section – which he plans to leave under the control of a crazed robot – is home to hundreds of innocent families and Sickbay, which is where the kid they’re trying to save is.

Ad – content continues below

Although they attempt to outwit Data, his pocket-calculator brain is too smart for them and the ship is taken way off course, leaving poor Willie Potts in danger from death by parasite. The ship arrives at its new destination, and Data automatically beams down to the planet where he encounters a mad Professor that looks just like he would, if he was wearing a prosthetic old-age face over his real face.

The madman breaks Data out of his trance and reveals that he’s Dr. Soong, Data’s creator. It was he who called Data through the use of a special homing pigeon device that no-one has ever noticed before. Good job Data didn’t walk past any magnets on the way, really.

On the ship, Jake and Willie refuse to reconcile, while the crew attempts to figure out how they’re going to stop the younger sibling from dying of the brain worms. Picard is very irritated now, presumably because of how everything has gone right back to normal after a Borg invasion and he’s secretly got PTSD.

As Soong and Data discuss the reason for his existence (vanity, basically) who should arrive, but Lore. Last seen floating in space, Lore’s pigeon-signal had also activated. Soong, excited to see his evil son, reactivates him while ignoring Data’s pleas for sanity, insisting that Lore is a good boy really. Lore immediately starts arguing with everyone, and just before his robo-son storms off Soong reveals that he’s close to death. He’s called Data there to give him an emotion chip. Unfortunately, because he didn’t know Lore had been rebuilt, he doesn’t have anything for him. No wonder Lore’s so angry all the time.

The next morning, Lore does exactly what he always does. Steals Data’s clothes and pretends to be him. Soong unwittingly installs the emotion chip in Lore and having double emotions sends him even crazier. He fatally wounds Soong and flees into the night. Worf and Riker arrive, having regained partial control of the ship, and Soong explains how to unlock Data’s repressed memories of the ship’s password so that they can all go home. Then he dies. Good job he did that after telling them the password secret, really.

Back on the ship, Data restores command of the ship to Picard and they make it to Starbase 416 so that Willie can have his parasites removed. No-one gets upset at Data for endangering them all (again) and even Jake and Willie are happy together. Data notes this, and Crusher tells him that “brothers forgive”, as Data pauses to consider whether this mantra applies in his situation. Probably not, to be honest.

TNG WTF: Dr. Soong has a Tyrannosaurus skull in his lab. Why!? Though perhaps more importantly, why not?

Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!

It seems like it probably shouldn’t be that easy to lock down the Enterprise. I get that Data is near-unique in being able to synthesise Picard’s voice and have massive familiarity with the Enterprise’s systems, but surely there’s an override in there somewhere?

TNG LOL: Picard tells Riker and Worf to head to Deck 2 and see if they can break through Data’s security. You know, to the deck with no life support. Yeah, that’ll go well. I guess if Riker won’t take a new job, Picard will have to find new, more inventive ways to get rid of him.

To Boldly Go: The Enterprise is diverted to Starbase 416 after cutting short a 2-day liberty on Ogus II. In naval terms, a liberty is a day off work where you technically remain on-duty. So just to keep that straight, after the attempted Borg invasion, the Enterprise crew took shore leave on Earth then raced to Ogus II so that they could have the weekend off.

Who’s That Face?: This episode doesn’t bother with guest stars, not when Brent Spiner can play everyone. Lore, Dr. Soong, Data – and if go back and check, you’ll find that Worf, Wesley and Troi are also being played by Brent Spiner in this episode.

Time Until Meeting: 30:35. Uncommonly late, probably because they spend the first half hour of the episode trying to figure out how to override the lock on the conference room doors.

Captain’s Log: It covers relatively similar ground to the previous episode, but to be fair, a return for Lore was overdue and it was enjoyable to see Dr. Soong in the flesh –partly because it gives Data a few answers about his existence, but mainly because we get to see him really throw his acting around. Of the three characters, it’s Lore who he realises the best. The way he turns arrogance into helpless denial when Soong reveals that he’s dying – while retaining the character of Lore – is a great turn.

That said, the B-plot doesn’t quite come together properly. It’s thematically on point and it gives the crew a greater reason to be worried that Data has flipped his lid (again) but the resolution is rushed in the extreme (Lore kills Soong, escapes unharmed, Jake and Willie are cured and reconcile offscreen) and the final point – “Brothers forgive” – is trite at best. What, exactly, are we supposed to ruminate upon there? Especially given that Lore won’t appear again for another 3 years.

Still, one thing this episode does do is remind you that Lore could be a great Trek villain – something that wasn’t quite realised in his last appearance, and will be absolutely realised in his next one. In his first appearance he was cartoonishly evil. This time around he gets a more rounded portrayal as a version of Data who’s essentially unable to control his extreme emotional reactions, and as a counterpoint to the innocent, emotionless android we’re familiar with, it works brilliantly. I’m sort of thinking that Lore should’ve been the villain in at least one movie, instead of the chancers we ended up with.

Read James’ look-back at the previous episode, Family, here .

Follow our  Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here . And be our  Facebook chum here .

TNG Season 1 Established 5 Important Star Trek Histories

• TNG season 1 established the backstories of the main characters, providing insight and depth to their histories and families.
• Captain Picard's past is revealed in episode 9, as he relives a battle from his previous command assignment and encounters a plot for revenge.
• Deanna Troi's mother, Lwaxana, introduces depth to her character and her relationship with Commander Riker becomes one of Star Trek's best love stories.

The much-maligned Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 laid the groundwork for the seasons that followed by establishing the backstories of many of the main characters. Following the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D, TNG began in 1987 with a rocky first season that nevertheless contained glimpses of the greatness to come. Several episodes in TNG season 1 delve into the histories of the crew members of the Enterprise-D, providing insight and depth into these now iconic characters.

Despite mostly telling episodic stories, TNG showed the growth and development of many of its characters over the course of its seven seasons. While Star Trek: The Original Series only occasionally revealed anything about its characters' pasts, TNG provided many main character backstories early in the show's run. In TNG season 1, episode 9, "The Battle," Captain Picard became the first character to receive an episode dedicated to exploring his past. Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn), Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) would also get episodes that delved into their history and families.

Captain Picard's Past Revealed In TNG Season 1

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 , episode 9, "The Battle," Captain Picard revisits his previous command assignment aboard the USS Stargazer. When a Ferengi ship shows up with the now derelict Stargazer in tow, they offer it as a gift to Captain Picard. The Enterprise crew can find nothing amiss aboard the older ship, so they accept the gift and Picard visits the bridge and his former quarters. Picard begins experiencing increasingly severe headaches, and eventually finds himself reliving a battle aboard the Stargazer from years ago.

To the Ferengi, the battle has become known as the Battle of Maxia, when Picard was forced to destroy a Ferengi vessel that fired on the Stargazer without provocation. Picard created a new Captain's tactic known as Picard Maneuver in which his ship appeared to be in two places at once. The Ferengi's "gift" is soon revealed to be a plot by DaiMon Bok (Frank Corsentino) to get revenge for his son, who was killed when the Stargazer destroyed the Ferengi vessel.

Counselor Troi's Mother Lwaxana Introduced

Deanna Troi receives more depth as a character when her mother, Lwaxana Troi (Majel Barrett), stops by the Enterprise to visit. Lwaxana became one of TNG's best guest stars , and her arrival here offers insight into the Betazoids as a species and Troi's upbringing on Betazed. When she was younger, Troi was promised to a young man named Wyatt Miller (Robert Knepper) as part of an arranged marriage. Lwaxana arrives on the Enterprise with Wyatt and his parents to discuss the details of the wedding.

As Deanna and Wyatt try to get to know one another, Deanna confesses that she still has feelings for Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes), whom she had previously dated. The romance between Deanna and Will becomes one of Star Trek's best love stories and culminates with their marriage in Star Trek: Nemesis . As a character, Deanna may not have been the most well-developed of TNG's cast, but the introduction of her mother, Lwaxana, leads to some great TNG moments.

Data's Brother Lore & Creator Soong Revealed

Data proved to be one of TNG's most popular characters from the beginning, and he gets some great moments in TNG season 1. In TNG season 1, episode 13, "Datalore," Data discovers that he has an evil brother named Lore and also learns more about his creator, Dr. Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner). When the Enterprise visits the planet where Data was originally found, they find the disassembled parts of Data's brother, Lore.

After he is reactivated, Lore immediately declares himself to be more perfect than Data, the first clue that he may be hiding something. Lore eventually reveals that he has been working with the crystalline entity that destroyed the colony where Data and Lore were created. Data's encounter with Lore has a profound effect on him and the plot elements introduced in this episode would inform almost every part of Data's story moving forward.

Worf Is Set Up As A Major TNG Character

Although Worf ends up becoming one of Star Trek's most popular characters, he does not get a lot to do in the first half of TNG season 1. But that changes in TNG season 1, episode 20, "Heart of Glory," when the Enterprise rescues three Klingons from a damaged ship. After one of the rescued Klingons dies from previously sustained injuries, the other two attempt to take over the Enterprise. Despite their pleas for Worf to join them as "true Klingons," he remains loyal to Starfleet.

Related: Star Trek DS9 Made Worf A Captain, Not TNG TNG season 1, episode 20 reveals that Worf's parents were killed when Romulans attacked his homeworld and he was raised by the Starfleet officer who rescued him. Throughout his time on TNG and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Worf sometimes struggled to reconcile his Klingon heritage with his duties as a Starfleet officer. The contrast between these two halves of Worf's life would be a major part of his character moving forward.

Enterprise-D Crew Histories TNG Season 1 Set Up

While the other characters may not receive entire episodes dedicated to their history in TNG season 1, the season still includes small insights into their pasts. It's established in TNG season 1, episode 3, "The Naked Now," that Captain Picard and Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) share a mutual attraction. The two also have a somewhat complicated history, as Beverly's late husband Jack was killed on a mission while serving under Captain Picard aboard the USS Stargazer.

Although Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) would not live to see TNG season 2, several episodes reveal elements of her tragic backstory. When the Enterprise gets thrown to the far reaches of the galaxy in TNG season 1, episode 6, "Where No One Has Gone Before," Yar experiences flashbacks to her time living on the streets as a child. She recalls having to run and hide from gangs before she was able to escape her planet at age 15. The characters have always been the true heart of Star Trek , and Star Trek: The Next Generation cemented its Enterprise-D crew as one of the best by delving into their backstories early in season 1.

Screen Rant

Star trek: every android brent spiner played (& what happened to them).

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

I Love How Star Trek: The Next Generation Felt Like A Soap Opera In Space

The star trek: tng episode that predicted ds9 & voyager, star trek: tng almost cast the predator as data or geordi.

Brent Spiner, the actor most famous for portraying the android Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation , has actually played a few different versions of the Soong type android. Dr. Noonien Soong - also played by Spiner - the aforementioned creator of Data, actually made a pair of androids before he constructed the Enterprise-D 's beloved operations officer.

The good doctor tweaked the android brains as he went, making them more or less sophisticated based on how the previous version performed. This led to three incredibly distinct performances, despite the fact that all three had Dr. Soong's face. This is a brief history of Data and his android brothers, all played with gusto by Spiner.

Related: Star Trek Theory: Romulan Powers Hint At Why They Hate Androids

Far and away the most prominent Soong type android, Data was actually the last of the three to be created, and Soong considered him to be his greatest success. Data would appear in virtually every episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation - he's missing from exactly one episode, "Family," which takes place largely away from the Enterprise - and all four accompanying movies, and has appeared in dream sequences in the first season of Star Trek: Picard . Data essentially filled the role played by  Spock in Star Trek: The Original Series , the alien who struggles to understand humanity. But whereas Spock rejected his humanity, Data was in desperate search of his, always trying to find new ways to explore his existence and his sense of personhood. As Commander Riker once noted, he was, for all intents and purposes, a sci-fi version of Pinocchio.

Data met his end in Star Trek: Nemesis , the final film to feature the TNG crew. He sacrificed his life to save Captain Picard's, a gesture that would haunt Picard for the next two decades, as we've seen in Star Trek: Picard . Data was one of the richest, most fully realized characters in all of Star Trek , so it's no surprise that Picard would keep Data's influence , even after his death.

Created prior to Data, Lore was in many ways his complete opposite. Whereas Data struggled to grasp human emotion, it came easily to Lore. But Lore's emotions tended toward greed and vanity, seeing himself as superior to humanity. Data encountered Lore on three separate occasions over seven seasons on TNG . He made his debut in "Datalore," where he was seen to be in league with the crystalline entity, a giant sentient space crystal that wiped out Soong's colony years earlier.

The second meeting happened in "Brothers," when Dr. Soong himself activated homing beacons in both androids, not realizing Lore was still alive. Lore stole an emotion chip Soong had developed Data before murdering his creator. Their final showdown happened in the two part episode "Descent," where Lore had made himself an army of Borg drones who were suffering from the individuality that had been injected into the collective from Hugh in the TNG episode "I, Borg." Data was eventually forced to kill Lore, believing himself to again be alone in the universe.

Related:  Star Trek: Picard's Prophecy Explained - Will Data's Daughter Destroy The Romulans?

In Star Trek: Nemesis , a prototype Soong android - even earlier than Lore - was used by the villainous Shinzon as a lure for Picard, of whom he was a very Tom Hardy looking clone. B-4 was not nearly as sophisticated as Data or Lore, even after Data transferred a copy of all his memories into B-4 's positronic brain. B-4 was left behind on the Enterprise after Data's death, ironically now a poor copy of their old friend.

There was hope that Data could one day emerge from B-4, but that was not to be; in the first episode of Star Trek: Picard , the ban on synthetic life means B-4 currently resides in a storage drawer at the Daystrom Institute. Whether or not B-4 plays a role in some sort of resurrection of Data is yet to be seen, but fans have likely seen the last of B-4 himself in Star Trek .

Next: Star Trek: Picard Reverses One Of Jean-Luc's Famous Personality Traits

• SR Originals
• Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
• Star Trek: Picard (2020)

• Show Spoilers
• Night Vision
• Sticky Header
• Highlight Links

Follow TV Tropes

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E3Brothers

Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E3 "Brothers" » Recap

Original air date: October 8, 1990

The Enterprise is on a medical mission to transport a sick child to a starbase medical lab after a prank from the boy's brother went awry. While escorting the older boy to pay his sick brother a visit, Data begins acting oddly. Without warning, he turns off the life-support systems on the bridge, forcing the rest of the crew to evacuate. He then commandeers the ship by imitating Picard's voice and setting security codes so that only he can control all the crucial systems, then sets a new course to an unknown planet.

Data beams down to the planet and is reactivated to his normal self by an old scientist. Data quickly recognizes the man as Dr. Noonien Soong, his creator, who was thought to be dead. Data showers his creator with questions, such as why he created him in the first place. Soong states that, just as humans wish to have a sense of continuity with the past, they also wish to have a sense of immortality into the future through procreation. However, their conversation is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Lore, who also answered Soong's summons.

On the Enterprise , the crew is scrambling to regain control of the ship. They have only about 24 hours before the sick boy will succumb to his infection. But Data's modifications to the ship leave them without the ability to use the warp drive or transporters. Geordi concocts a plan to jury-rig the transporters, and he sets to work with O'Brien.

The family reunion between the androids and their creator goes fairly poorly. Soong reveals that most of what Lore told Data about each other was a lie, including the claim that Data is a less-perfect copy of Lore. Soong then admits that he is dying and had summoned Data to provide him with a specially designed emotion chip. Lore thinly veils his intense jealousy through a congratulatory veneer. After a night's sleep, Soong installs the emotion chip, but it turns out that he does so in Lore, who has incapacitated Data and taken his place. The chip immediately begins to malfunction, and Lore hurls Soong into some furniture before leaving.

Geordi, Worf and Riker beam down to the planet using their newly modified transporters and discover Soong critically injured and Data deactivated. They reactivate Data, who rushes to Soong's side. Soong refuses to seek medical attention and wishes to remain behind to die. Data assures his creator that he will live on through Data. When Data admits that he cannot mourn for Soong, the scientist tells him that he will, in his own way.

Tropes featured in "Brothers":

• Acting Unnatural : When the recall signal takes him over, Data ceases to speak unless it's directly related to taking over the ship. Riker and Picard don't miss this, but Data sidesteps the issue by causing a life support failure on the bridge, forcing everyone to evacuate. Curiously, he does make a show of pretending to leave to keep up appearances, even if he doesn't say anything.
• Advancing Wall of Doom : During his trek from the bridge to the transporter room, Data at one point initiates a "scan phase" with the forcefields that causes the one ahead of him to jump ahead by a few inches every few moments, in effect creating a moving wall that forces the security officers attempting to stop him to retreat.
• Amnesia Danger : Much of the drama in the second half revolves around Data not remembering that he locked out the Enterprise while he traveled to meet Soong, being unaware until Riker finally catches up with him, and Soong tells Data to execute an instruction which restores his memory. Had he known this he likely would have immediately returned to the ship, or at least gotten Soong to get their business over with as fast as possible.
• And I Must Scream : Discussed. Lore says he spent two years floating in space after his last encounter with Data and would still be out there if not for a passing Pakled ship (though he doesn't seem to have been affected by the isolation the way a human would).
• Ax-Crazy : The emotion chip makes the already emotionally unstable Lore into a full-blown Giggling Villain psychopath.
• The Bus Came Back : Lore, who had been found by the Pakleds at some point after " Datalore ".
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass : After Data has locked the Enterprise crew out of every system - including the transporter - they network some tricorders together to convince the transporter that it is beaming the last person it transporter - namely Commander Data - to the surface when they beam Worf, Riker, and LaForge to Soong's home. Riker : The computer should think all three of us are Data. I just hope we don't all beam back looking like Data.
• Call-Back : Data still can't whistle "Pop Goes the Weasel."
• Calling the Old Man Out : Lore chews out Dr. Soong for simply casting him aside to make Data instead of improving him. Dr. Soong tries to explain that he needed to use the experience of programming Data to learn how to fix Lore, but Lore isn't having it.
• Crazy-Prepared : Dr. Soong survived the Crystalline Entity because he always has an escape route prepared just in case.
• Cutting the Knot : When he's intercepted at the transporter pad, Data simply has the computer erect a forcefield around the pad and then restores site-to-site transport functionality to get to the planet below.
• Didn't See That Coming : Soong had no idea that Lore had been reassembled and also received the recall signal. Invoked In-Universe by Soong regarding the Crystalline Entity.
• Dramatic Irony : Jake and Willie parallel Lore and Data's relationship of an older brother mistreating the younger brother. Ultimately, though, Jake and Willie make up. Beverly: They're brothers, Data. Brothers forgive.
• Soong doesn't hold the destruction of Omicron Theta against Lore, even after Data tells him what happened. When Lore fatally wounds him and steals the emotion chip, Soong doesn't seem mad, just sad and disappointed.
• Also when Picard and the others learn that Data had basically been forced to hijack the Enterprise by a homing device Soong had installed in him, Data appears to suffer no serious repercussions for his actions.
• Embarrassing Nickname : "Often Wrong" Soong.
• Exploited Immunity : Data vents the atmosphere on the bridge so the crew will be forced to evacuate, then stays behind after everyone leaves. By the time they restore life support, he's erected forcefields at every possible access route to bar them reentry.
• Subverted with life support. There is no way that the bridge life-support systems would fail on their own, as Geordi points out; there are seven independent interlocks to prevent it. Data is the cause of the failure, having engineered it to get everyone else off the bridge.
• Data is able to seize absolute control of the ship's computer by virtue of the fact that, having sophisticated speech capabilities, he can precisely mimic Picard's vocal patterns and fool the voice biometrics authentication that the computer uses. This is in spite of the fact that the computer tracks the location of all members of the crew in real time, and thus must be aware that Picard is not on the bridge even though he's supposedly issuing orders from that location. A simple retinal or facial recognition scan would have foiled or at least seriously hindered Data's efforts. It's really unsettling just how easily one android hijacks the entire Enterprise , and none of the security holes this reveals are ever mentioned following this or shown to be fixed.
• Feet-First Introduction : The camera focuses on Lore's boots as he enters Dr. Soong's lab.
• Following in Their Rescuer's Footsteps : When Soong questions why Data would join Starfleet, he gives the reasons that Starfleet rescued him.
• Genre Blindness : Soong sees no problem in reactivating Lore because Lore has always obeyed him in the past. Yeah, that always works out well for a Mad Scientist .
• I Did What I Had to Do : Lore: You did what you had to do? What kind of answer is that? Soong: The only one I can give you. You were not functioning properly.
• Idiot Ball : For the sake of the plot, none of the security officers, including Worf and Riker, think to stun Data first and then ask questions after they have him restrained, allowing Data a few moments to erect forcefields through verbal commands. Their reluctance is understandable, but Data has also seized control of the ship and presents an unknown risk to its crew.
• Ironic Nursery Rhyme : Doubles as a I Shall Taunt You by Lore. Lore: Often-Wrong's got a broken heart / Can't even tell his boys apart.
• "Just Joking" Justification : Jake let his brother Willie believe he had killed Jake during a game, claiming he just wanted to scare him. Willie, panicked, ran into a forest and ate a poisonous fruit after he got lost.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia : Justified , but not with identity. Data doesn't realize what he has done to get to Dr. Soong. The homing device activated a more dominant program. Only after Dr. Soong tells Data to access a certain program does he get his memory back.
• Luke, I Am Your Father : Dr. Soong reveals to Data that he is his creator, even though Data believed that he was dead.
• Mad Scientist : A benevolent version, but Soong has the same lack of thought over the morals and consequences of his actions. He summons Data against his will, inadvertently endangering a child's life, and reactivates Lore despite Data's repeated warnings.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory : We start at the requisite glass containers full of bubbling chemicals and lightning generators before panning across to the more homely aspects of Soong's hideout.
• Moral Luck : A boy pranks his younger brother, which scares the brother enough for him to run and hide. While hiding the younger brother eats a fruit that leaves him so ill he nearly dies. The older brother is severely scolded by numerous cast members for 'nearly killing' his brother. However, while a little cruel for a prank, there was no reason for the older brother to expect anything worse then his younger brother being frightened for a while because of it. This feels particularly horrible since a child that young would likely already be very guilt-ridden to the point of tears and any competent parent would go out of their way to tell the child that this wasn't his fault, not further scolding or blaming him. Especially as humans in the future are supposedly kinder .
• Jake feels guilty about what happened to his brother and tries to apologize to Willie. Unfortunately, Willie doesn't want to talk to him at all.
• It's subtle, but the look on Data's face when he unlocks his memories of hijacking the Enterprise might be the android version of this.
• Narcissist : Dr. Soong examining Data, created in his own image . "I always loved that face."
• No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup : Dr. Soong's emotion chip for Data. Borders on Forgotten Phlebotinum , since the contents of Soong's lab should have provided a wealth of information about the construction of androids.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome : Lore being recovered by dull-witted Pakleds. The fact that Lore shows up wearing a somewhat ill-fitting Pakled uniform does , however, call into question the fate of those hapless Pakleds—i.e., whether or not there's a pile of Pakled corpses somewhere in Lore's wake.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish" : Subverted. Data creates an insanely long password to keep the crew of the Enterprise from regaining control of the ship. The password is equivalent to a 269-bit key in symmetric cryptography which is impossible to break with current technology, or even 24th century technology. The crew is unable to guess the password or even how long the password is and is stuck until Data returns and unlocks the computers.
• Pet the Dog : Lore is genuinely upset when he hears his 'father' is dying. Subverted later when he accidentally kills him.
• Properly Paranoid : Dr. Soong created his escape route because he wasn't too trusting of the colonists. He admits he never envisioned having to run away from "a giant snowflake."
• Safely Secluded Science Center : Dr Soong has established a secret laboratory on an uninhabited jungle planet where he can continue his cybernetic experiments in seclusion - until he finally summons Data and Lore to his side, of course.
• Sanity Slippage : Lore was always unstable, but using an emotion chip not meant for him sent him to Crazytown.
• Self-Serving Memory : Soong and Data call out Lore on this. Data is not a "less perfect" android, they are both nearly identical in construction, just programmed slightly differently. And the colonists on Omicron Theta were not "jealous" of Lore, they were afraid of him.
• Sibling Rivalry : During their family reunion, Data is deeply affected when Soong asserts that he is not inferior to Lore (as Lore had previously claimed) and that they are in fact almost identical except for some slight differences in programming. Lore feels that he was The Unfavorite given that Dr. Soong decided to move on and build Data rather than focusing on fixing Lore's personality disorders even though Soong insisted he planned on fixing Lore. He tricks Soong into giving him the emotion chip intended for Data by impersonating him.
• Spot the Imposter : "Often Wrong's got a broken heart, can't even tell his boys apart."
• This Cannot Be! : Lore's reaction to Soong's You See, I'm Dying .
• Ticking Clock : The ship needs to get to a starbase to save a dying boy, providing an urgency to the episode.
• To a lesser extent Soong also nearly gets a young child killed because it doesn't occur to him that forcing Data to travel to his location by any means possible even if his morality program would prevent him from deliberately killing anyone wouldn't cause massive problems by hijacking and locking out the flagship of the Federation.
• Unable to Cry : Data: You know that I cannot grieve for you, sir. Soong: You will, in your own way.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom : Dr. Soong obviously had no idea there was a terminally ill boy aboard the Enterprise , who his recall signal to Data put in danger. Likewise, Data wasn't in control of himself, and didn't even remember what happened aboard the ship until Soong told him how to unlock his memory files.
• Wham Shot : Lore being the one to arrive at the lab.
• Whole-Plot Reference : To the story of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau in the Book of Genesis . In short, Isaac was old, blind, and dying, and intended to give a blessing to his rightful heir Esau. But Esau's brother Jacob impersonated him and stole the blessing for himself. Soong even mumbles something about Esau at the very end of the episode.
• Xanatos Speed Chess : Data readjusts his strategy fairly quickly when site-to-site transportation is disabled.
• You See, I'm Dying : Word-for-word when Lore is about to simply walk out of the "family reunion." Soong gets him to stay by pointing out that they'll never have another chance to interact.
• Younger Than They Look : Possibly if what Dr. Ira Graves said about being Soong's mentor was true. Graves, while still old looking, didn't look anywhere as ancient as Soong does. This might be chalked up to makeup artists overdoing it when a younger actor is made up to play an elderly character. note  Or it might have been that Soong had also been injured by the "giant snowflake" - leading to his premature aging.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E2 "Family"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S4E4 "Suddenly Human"

Important Links

• Action Adventure
• Commercials
• Crime & Punishment
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• Animation (Western)
• Music And Sound Effects
• Print Media
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters As Device
• Narrative Devices
• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Derivative Works
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Fate And Prophecy
• Image Fixer
• New Articles
• Edit Reasons
• Isolated Pages
• Images List
• Recent Videos
• Crowner Activity
• Un-typed Pages
• Recent Page Type Changes
• Trope Entry
• Character Sheet
• Playing With
• Creating New Redirects
• Cross Wicking
• Tips for Editing
• Text Formatting Rules
• Handling Spoilers
• Administrivia
• Trope Repair Shop
• Image Pickin'

Advertisement:

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

Brothers (episode)

Data jeopardizes an emergency mission to save an ill child when he receives a signal from his creator, Noonien Soong.

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 1.6 Act Five
• 1.7 Log entries
• 2 Memorable quotes
• 3.1 Production history
• 3.2 Story and script
• 3.3 Production
• 3.4 Continuity
• 3.5 Reception
• 3.6 Video and DVD releases
• 4.1 Starring
• 4.2 Also starring
• 4.3 Guest stars
• 4.4 Co-starring
• 4.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 4.6 Stunt double
• 4.7 Stand-ins and photo doubles
• 4.8.1 Library computer references
• 4.8.2 Deleted references
• 4.9 External links

Summary [ ]

Dr. Crusher is involved in a medical emergency as Willie Potts , a young child of the USS Enterprise -D , is infected by parasites from a cove palm that he ate during shore leave on Ogus II with his brother Jake . Willie ate the parasitic fruit while upset from a practical joke in which Jake pretended Willie had killed him with a toy laser pistol by stuffing a balloon with red pillion dye into his vest. With his health rapidly declining, Willie has to be quarantined to protect the rest of the crew and to be stabilized before he can be transferred to Starbase 416 for immediate medical attention. In the observation lounge , the older Potts recounts the incident to Commander Riker and Counselor Deanna Troi , explaining that he frightened Willie for amusement, but that he did not intend serious harm to come to his brother.

En route to sickbay in the turbolift with Jake Potts, Lieutenant Commander Data begins to reassure Jake when he uncharacteristically stops in the middle of his sentence and redirects the turbolift to the bridge while no longer even acknowledging the boy's presence. Jake clings to the turbolift wall out of sight and lets the door close, unsure of what to do.

Act One [ ]

Data pretending to leave the bridge.

Data quietly returns to the operations station and begins to covertly and silently commandeer the ship by changing the ship's heading and increasing speed. When pressed by Captain Picard as to an explanation, Data doesn't answer. Suddenly, a blue alert sounds, indicating a life support systems failure on the main bridge. Riker orders everyone to evacuate via the two main turbolifts as well as the emergency turbolift , which Data heads for. Picard orders the crew to reassemble in main engineering , which Riker and Data acknowledge with a nod. However, Data stops just short of entering the turbolift and remains on the bridge. He assumes the aft science station and begins rapidly inputting commands, locking out functions by imitating Picard's voice and localizing command functions to the bridge.

In engineering, the crew soon realize Data is orchestrating something. They attempt to regain control from engineering, which include an attempt to regain control of the secondary hull via a saucer separation , and towing the saucer section with a tractor beam. Unsuccessful, Lieutenant Worf , Commander Riker, and crew member Casey reestablish life support on the bridge and attempt to gain access to the bridge from deck 2 until Data activates a perimeter field charge , which then blocks the only access point left. Picard lastly has O'Brien disable the site-to-site transport , anticipating Data's escape.

Meanwhile, in sickbay, Doctor Crusher tends to Willie. She notes to Picard that he's OK now, as the sickbay's force fields are not affected, but won't stay that way.

Act Two [ ]

Counselor Troi and Jake enter to visit Willie, where Crusher is trying to keep up his spirits with conversation, but he refuses to speak to or acknowledge his older sibling. Frustrated, Jake storms out.

The Enterprise reaches the class M planet Terlina III . On the bridge, Data discovers that the crew has managed to disable site-to-site transport, so he programs a series of force fields to enable him to get to the transporter room without interference from security. He enters an extremely long and complex security code , locking out all command functions that were previously transferred to the bridge. He then makes his way to the transporter room, using the most efficient way possible and by the force field series he programmed. Seeing Riker's ambush on the transporter pad, he quickly commands the transporter pad force field activated and re-enables the site-to-site transport, and immediately beams down to his destination.

Once on the surface, Data travels through the thick jungle and enters an old cybernetics lab, where he is greeted by an elderly man, who turns out to be Dr. Noonien Soong , Data's creator who was presumed dead at the Omicron Theta colony .

Act Three [ ]

Soong reveals that it was he who controlled him and brought him to the planet by the use of a homing device implanted in Data's positronic brain . His combadge is not functional, but Soong assures him that his crew will arrive to take him back shortly and performs routine mechanical maintenance on the android . Data is puzzled that his creator is still alive, as he assumed that he had been killed on Omicron Theta by the Crystalline Entity along with the other colonists ; Soong explains that he escaped the powerful entity via, as was his habit, a predetermined strategy, and that he is the sole survivor of the colony. He admits to Data that he did not anticipate fleeing a "giant snowflake " and shrugs. Data is now convinced that this is indeed his creator.

Back on board, Willie Potts still refuses to listen to Jake and on the bridge, the crew are still experiencing difficulty reestablishing control of the Enterprise , although the ship's sensors are functional. Lieutenant Worf is unable to locate Data, but his sensors detect a solitary Human lifeform on the surface of Terlina III. He also locates a vessel in orbit which appears to carry no lifeforms.

On Terlina III, Soong expresses disappointment in his son's choice in having entered Starfleet Academy , and inquires as to his reason, to which Data replies that he wanted to repay the people who first discovered him on Omicron Theta with dedication to service. Soong admits he would have preferred that Data follow in his footsteps and go into cybernetics instead. Data decides to ask Soong why he had created him in the first place. Soong rhetorically asks why a painter paints or why a boxer boxes. He then asks Data why Humans are so attached to old things. Data believes it gives Humans a tie to the past and also gives them a sense of continuity in their lives. Soong asks if this continuity runs one way, back into the past. Data responds that it may be a factor in the desire of Humans to procreate. Soong asks Data if he believes that Humans having children gives them a sense of immortality in some way. Data responds that that is a reasonable answer to his query. Suddenly, in the midst of their conversation, Lore enters the laboratory, dressed in Pakled clothing.

Act Four [ ]

Lore was brought to Terlina III via the same homing device as Data. Data insists that Soong not trust his brother, as he betrayed both the colony to which Soong belonged and the Enterprise once before . However, Soong, blinded by his love for his older creation, condones and excuses Lore's deviant behavior, claiming him to be "far from the maniacal android [Data has] made him out to be."

Meanwhile, Captain Picard, Riker, Worf, Crusher, Troi, and Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge conference in the observation lounge about their current predicament. Full control still has not yet been reestablished on board, and Willie Potts' time is running short. Riker asks La Forge if it is possible that Data had devised a way to bring himself back aboard the Enterprise . La Forge admits it is possible, so Riker asks if they can use Data's trace pattern to fool the computer into thinking an away team is multiple Datas. La Forge informs him he will have to access the transporter controller and reset it to a testing mode. The problem is there will be no use of the ship's main computer, but La Forge believes it can be done by networking a few tricorders together. Picard orders that it be tried.

Back on Terlina III, Soong claims Lore's deactivation was necessary, as the android was severely malfunctioning and frightened the colonists. However, Lore is extremely bitter toward Soong and Data for the events prior to and following his deactivation, as he was left inactive for years before Data discovered him on their home planet, and when Data thwarted his scheme to betray the Enterprise , was left drifting through space for nearly two years. Soong apologetically informs Lore that he couldn't understand what went wrong with Lore's programing; that after deactivating Lore the next logical step was to activate Data and that had he known Lore was reassembled, he would have spent time with him and repaired him. In response to a query about Lore's superiority, Soong explains to Data that he and Lore are nearly identical in construction, and that they differ only in programming. To Data's astonishment and Lore's ferment, this invalidates Lore's earlier assertion that Data is the imperfect and flawed model.

Soong shows Data his emotion chip.

Revealing the purpose for Data's summoning, Soong presents to him an emotion chip , designed to allow him to experience a broad palette of emotional feelings as Lore can. Soong explains that the upgrade is intended solely for Data, but decides to rest before attempting the procedure. As he leaves, however, Lore turns to Data and winks.

Act Five [ ]

As Soong rests, Lore incapacitates Data and switches his Starfleet uniform with him. Naturally thinking Lore to be Data, the doctor implants the chip in his older son, who reveals his true identity. Worried, his father warns him that the chip is not compatible with him and insists it needs to be removed, but Lore fatally wounds the elderly Soong and accessing some controls located beneath one of his thumbnails, makes an expedient escape by remotely beaming away.

" Would you mind telling me what's going on here? " " He surprised me. "

An away team consisting of Worf, La Forge, and Riker beams down to Terlina III. Locating the Human lifeform, the group enters Soong's laboratory, now in disarray thanks to Lore's assault. La Forge and Riker discover Soong beneath a pile of lab equipment and debris, dying. Meanwhile, Worf finds an inactive Data behind another room, whom Riker reboots before the four attend to Soong. Data tries to explain what's happened to the other officers, but Riker tells him that he needs to release the Enterprise to get Willie the medical care he urgently needs. Soong tells Data how to clear his blocked memories, giving him the information he needs to restore control of the ship. Riker prepares to head back with Data and Soong, but Soong knows he hasn't got much time left and wants to die where he is most comfortable. Riker and La Forge agree to give Data and Soong a few final moments together alone. Bidding farewell, Data assures his father that as long as he remains active, a part of Soong will be immortalized. He notes that he will be unable to grieve, but Soong is sure that Data will in his own way. The two then say a final goodbye before Soong dies.

Once back on board the Enterprise , Data restores the command functions to the bridge, and the ship rushes back to Starbase 416 in time to restore Willie to full health. Data observes that the Potts brothers seem to have reconciled after their bitter dispute and Crusher tells him that " They're brothers. Brothers forgive ", a comment which Data reflects upon.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), 2367

Memorable quotes [ ]

" What the hell was that? " " He has activated a forcefield, sir. " " Great. Just great. "

" Sir, we have to get this ship to a starbase medical facility. " " It seems, Doctor, that Mr. Data has other plans for the Enterprise right now. "

" The only way we knew we'd come out of warp was by looking out a window. "

" 1 – 7 – 3 – 4 – 6 – 7 – 3 – 2 – 1 – 4 – 7 – 6 – Charlie – 3 – 2 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 7 – 7 – 7 – 6 – 4 – 3 – Tango – 7 – 3 – 2 – Victor – 7 – 3 – 1 – 1 – 7 – 8 – 8 – 8 – 7 – 3 – 2 – 4 – 7 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 7 – 6 – 4 – 3 – 7 – 6 – Lock. "

" I always loved that face… "

" This is your lucky day, Data. You've found your long-lost father and he's alive. "

" I, uh… I never felt too comfortable… living anywhere without a… prearranged route of escape. I admit I, uh, I wouldn't have guessed I'd be running from a giant snowflake. "

" Why does a painter paint? Hmm? Why does a boxer box? You know what Michelangelo used to say? That the sculptures he made were already there before he started, hidden in the marble. All he needed to do was remove the unneeded bits. Wasn't quite that easy with you, Data. But the need to do it, my need to do it, was no different than Michelangelo's need. "

" Looks like we have ourselves a… family reunion. "

" I am not less perfect than Lore. "

" You'd be surprised, Data. Feelings do funny things. You may even learn to… understand your evil brother. "

" The sons of the prophet Were valiant and bold And quite unaccustomed to fear But of all the most reckless Or so I am told Was Abdul Abulbul Amir. "

" Often-Wrong's got a broken heart Can't even tell his boys apart. "

" Where's Data? You didn't fill Data with substandard parts, did you, old man? No. That honor was bestowed upon me. You owe me, old man. Not him. Me. "

" There were brave men aplenty All well known to fame Who served in the ranks of the Czar … "

"Everybody dies Data… well, almost everybody."

" Goodbye, Data… " " Goodbye… father. "

" Brothers forgive. "

Background information [ ]

Production history [ ].

• Final draft script: 13 July 1990 (with revisions up to 6 August 1990 ) [1]
• Filming of rehearsal shots with Brent Spiner 's photo doubles Brian Tomlinson , Guy Vardaman , and Dana Vitatoe : 26 July 1990
• Premiere airdate: 8 October 1990
• First UK airdate: 20 April 1994

Story and script [ ]

Director Rob Bowman instructing Brent Spiner

• Rick Berman 's initial story did not involve Lore . The character was added at Michael Piller 's suggestion, who believed the story needed an additional jeopardy element. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , 2nd ed., p. 141; " Chronicles from the Final Frontier ", TNG Season 4 DVD special feature) Berman found writing the episode was profoundly enjoyable. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 23, No. 6, p. 18)
• Piller recalled, " We were standing around going through Rick's story and my feeling was that after reading his first draft that the idea of Data going back to see Dr. Soong and the story of the child who was hurt in the practical joke were not enough elements to hold up the episode. Once Data goes back to see Dr. Soong, it's basically a chat and without some jeopardy or another event to go on I was afraid it was going to be flat. We talked about what we could do and, ultimately, the obvious thing was that we bring Lore back. I knew from the moment we came up with it that Brent Spiner in three roles was going to make for an unforgettable episode and I think it was. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 209)
• The song which Lore sings to Dr. Soong comes from the poem Abdul Abulbul Amir , written by William Percy French in 1877. That poem has been frequently misquoted and parodied, and the excerpts in this episode are also not accurate to the original text.

Production [ ]

Brent Spiner during the makeup process

• Brent Spiner plays three of the main characters in this episode: Data , Lore , and Doctor Noonien Soong . He received billing for the latter two in the end credits.
• At one point it appeared having Spiner in three distinct roles would not be feasible and several older Asian male actors (including Keye Luke ) were considered for the role of Dr. Soong. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , 2nd ed., p. 141; Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 209)
• This was the final episode to be directed by Rob Bowman , who had been the show's lead director during the first and second seasons .
• Bowman, Spiner and Robert Legato spent three days rehearsing on the Stage 16 set. Producer David Livingston recalled, " They worked out some of the motion control shots and did a lot of preparation in terms of figuring out what to do, because that kind of preparatory time on the stage when everybody is standing around is not a good idea. What we did was we taped out the floor like in a stageplay or a multicamera show, and then actually blocked it out and staged it. I'm glad we did, because it saved us a lot of time. If we hadn't, it would have been really dicey. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 209)
• During filming in Soong's lab, Spiner shot one day as Lore and Data, and the next as Dr. Soong. Spiner recalled, " It was difficult because I had to hear dialogue that I hadn't read yet coming out of somebody else's mouth before I would get to it. [I had] to remember where I was when I was Data, and so on. " To help Spiner, the set was closed during the two and a half days in which the actor performed solo. ( Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion , 2nd ed., p. 141)
• On playing Dr. Soong, Spiner commented, " I didn't have a clue as to who the character was. He was just a generic old man. It wasn't until I saw the makeup on my face that I knew what to do. At least seventy-five percent of that performance was due to Michael Westmore . He put the idea onto my face, and I suddenly understood. " He added, " People started treating me like I was old, even though I had worked with them for three years at that point. Everybody was treating me with so much more respect, because I was a man who had lived a long life. And the older I acted between scenes, the nicer people treated me. It was incredible. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 171)
• Westmore recalled, " The first thing I did in creating Brent's makeup for Dr. Soong was build up his cranial structure to suggest that he had more brain cells than a normal Human being. We then did a full four-hour aging makeup on him. We had special contacts made for his eyes to simulate cataracts. I made an old-looking set of teeth to cover his real teeth. We covered his entire face with a thin layer of appliances. And we made pieces to cover the backs of his hands. " ( Star Trek: The Next Generation 365 , p. 171)
• In April 2007, the Pakled costume worn by Spiner as Lore in this episode was auctioned off in the It's A Wrap! sale and auction and sold for US$2,155.00.
• Comic book artists Jerome K. Moore and Arne Starr met Spiner on set during the filming of this episode. Starr presented Spiner with a caricature of Spiner as Superman , titled "The Man of Shlameel". Written on it was the phrase " It's a bird, it's a plane, no… It's Spinerman! " Spiner reportedly kept the picture on his desk in his office for many years, so Starr was told. [2] ( Additional information provided by Arne Starr )
• The dinosaur skeleton head seen in Dr. Soong's laboratory was rented from the Museum of Natural History. ( James Mees , "Inside Starfleet Archives Year Six – Sets & Props", TNG Season 6 DVD special feature)

Continuity [ ]

• James Lashly (who plays Ensign Kopf in this episode) later plays George Primmin in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes " The Passenger " and " Move Along Home ".
• The interior and components of a combadge are seen for the first time when Dr. Soong adjusts Data's. The top and bottom sections are connected by a hinge on the (wearer's) left side. Among the interior components is a red light.

Computer display of Data's lockout code

• The strength of Data's lockout code would potentially require trying 36 52 combinations to break it, or 846,700,936,056,091,894,301,310,586,236,842,935,416,138,248,772,949,513,519,821,268,414,868,295,354,679,296 (8.467 e80 ×10 80 ) combinations – equivalent to cracking a 269-bit key in symmetric cryptography, something that is currently impossible to do.
• The numbers in the seventh and twenty-third positions of his sequence, three and four, respectively, are missing on the computer display. Also the computer has incorrectly inserted a one ahead of the triple eights later in the sequence.
• In a re-use of prop lighting, Dr. Soong turns out to have the exact same model of wall fixture as Kivas Fajo had in his gallery room in " The Most Toys ". The design apparently uses dichroic filters, as we see two pairs of colors and their complements being produced from the upward pointing white light source.
• This is the second episode in a row to deal with crew members and their families. The following episode also deals with the family issues of a guest star.
• It is the first time after the pilot " Encounter at Farpoint " where Data mimics someone's voice, this time Captain Picard's.
• Data whistles the same tune, " Pop Goes the Weasel ", in this episode as he did in the pilot " Encounter at Farpoint ". He still has not mastered the Human act of whistling.
• Lore was first left inactive for years before Data discovered him, and then when Data thwarted Lore's scheme on the Enterprise , he was left drifting in space for two more years. ( TNG : " Datalore ")
• In " Inheritance ", after Data meets his mother, Dr. Juliana Tainer six years later in 2370 , he told her of meeting his father and to her shock, that he was dead, which she was not aware of. He did not mention Lore's involvement, probably because he had already been deactivated and dismantled earlier that year, in " Descent, Part II ".
• The emotion chip stolen by Lore is a major plot device in the TNG two-part episode " Descent " and a minor plot device in the movies Star Trek Generations , Star Trek: First Contact , and Star Trek: Insurrection . It is also referenced in the TNG episode " Inheritance ".
• Data apparently did not have the opportunity to tell Dr. Soong of his own, short-lived android child, Lal . (" The Offspring ")

Reception [ ]

• This is one of Rick Berman's favorite episodes. [3]
• A mission report for this episode, by Patrick Daniel O'Neill, was published in The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine  issue 15 , pp. 9-12.
• This episode was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup for a Series.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 39, 17 February 1992
• As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: The Next Generation - Data Box : 6 November 1995
• As part of the UK VHS collection Star Trek: The Next Generation - 10th Anniversary Collector's Edition , under the "Data" section, 29 September 1997
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, Paramount Home Entertainment ): Volume 4.1, 19 March 2001
• As part of the TNG Season 4 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
• Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr. William Riker

Also starring [ ]

• LeVar Burton as Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge
• Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf
• Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher
• Marina Sirtis as Counselor Deanna Troi
• Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data
• Wil Wheaton as Ensign Wesley Crusher

Guest stars [ ]

• Cory Danziger as Jake Potts
• Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien

Co-starring [ ]

• Adam Ryen as Willie
• James Lashly as Ensign Kopf
• Brent Spiner as Lore / Dr. Soong

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• Rachen Assapiomonwait as Nelson
• Majel Barrett as USS Enterprise -D computer voice
• Joe Baumann as Garvey
• Karin Baxter as operations division ensign
• Michael Braveheart as Martinez
• Debbie David as Russell
• George Colucci as security officer
• Gerard David as operations division ensign
• Jeremy Doyle as operations ensign
• Elliot Durant III as operations division ensign
• Margaret Flores as science division officer
• Carrie Henger as a security officer
• Mark Lentry as science division officer
• Jerry Spicer as security officer
• Noriko Suzuki as operations division ensign
• K. Uchizono as command officer
• Harry Young as science division officer
• Female ops ensign
• Female security officer
• Two security officers

Stunt double [ ]

• Unknown stunt performer as stunt double for Brent Spiner (as Noonien Soong )

Stand-ins and photo doubles [ ]

• Nora Leonhardt – stand-in for Marina Sirtis
• Tim McCormack – stand-in for Brent Spiner
• Lorine Mendell – stand-in for Gates McFadden
• Randy Pflug – stand-in for Colm Meaney
• Richard Sarstedt – stand-in for Jonathan Frakes
• Brian Tomlinson – photo double for Brent Spiner
• Dennis Tracy – stand-in for Patrick Stewart
• Guy Vardaman – stand-in for Wil Wheaton / photo double for Brent Spiner
• Dana Vitatoe as photo double / stand-in for Brent Spiner
• James Washington – stand-in for Michael Dorn

References [ ]

2358 ; 2366 ; 47 ; " Abdul Abulbul Amir "; aft : alternative ; ambition ; android ; answer ; April Fools' Day ; arcade ; arm ; atmosphere conditioning pump ; auto separation sequence ; auxiliary power ; baboon ; balloon ; blackboard ; blue alert ; bogey ; boxer ; boxing ; brain ; broken heart ; brother ; " by comparison "; building ; button ; cadence ; cascade force field sequence ; celebrity ; Chase, Ilka ; chimpanzee ; choice ; church ; circuit ; clock ; command authorization code ; command function ; computer ; conclusion ; console station ; coordinates ; Costain, Thomas B. ; course ; cove palm ; cove palm parasites ; Crystalline Entity ; cyberneticist ; czar ; " damn it "; day ; " dead in the water ": desire ; diagnostic sweep ; digit ; dilithium vector calibration ; dinosaur ; ditty ; dizziness ; docking clamp ; doctor ; door ; Dr. ; Earth ; emotion ; emotion chip ; environmental control sequencer ; explanation ; face ; fame ; family reunion ; father ; fear ; feeling ; file address ; " follow in your footsteps "; force field ; forest ; friend ; fruit ; Fūjin ; funny ; Galaxy -class decks ; gorilla ; guest ; Handy, Tom ; heading ; heart ; homing device ; homing circuitry ; homing signal ; hour ; house ; Human ; Human Freedom ; idea ; immortality ; impulse engine ; impulse propulsion power system ; In Bed We Cry ; input ; inquiry ; instruction ; instruction 5155 ; interface terminal ; intersection ; interstellar space ( space ); isolinear subprocessor ; laboratory ; laser duel ; laser pistol ; lateral sensor array system ; liberty ; lie ; lifeform ; life support ; lie ; location ; Lore's ship ; main computer ; marble ; meaning ; medical emergency ; medical facility ; memory block ; memory file ; meter ; Michelangelo ; microwave power distribution network ; mistake ; money ; mortal ; navigation ; navigational sensor array system ; navigational subsystem ; Noophians ; number one ; Ogus II ; old man ; Omicron Theta colony inhabitants ; Omicron Theta colony ; orangutan ; order ; " out of the woods "; override (aka command function override ); painter ; Pakleds ; Pakled trade ship ; panel J14-Baker ; party ; passageway ; path ; perimeter field charge ; phase coil ; plan ; " Pop Goes the Weasel "; port ; postmortem ; Potts family ; practical joke ; primary sensor array ; priority clearance ; procreation ; programming ; prophet ; quarantine ; quarantine anteroom ; quarantine field ; question ; rag ; reaction control thruster system ; recall loop ; red pillion dye ; rhyme ; ricochet ; risk ; route of escape ; ruins ; sabbatical ; safety interlock ; saucer separation ; saucer module ; scan phase ; school ; Science Station 2 ; scientist ; sculpture ; second ; section 8J ; section 9K ; section 12T ; security code ; security team ; service crawlway ; shelf ; shrine ; Silver Chalice, The ; sincerity ; site-to-site transport ; site-to-site transport interlock ; sleight-of-hand ; snowflake ; son ; Soong's dwelling ; speed ; star system ; Starbase 416 ; Starbase 416 planet ; Starfleet ; station 6-02 ; story ; subspace channel ; subspace communication ; surface ; survivor ; table ; tactical station ; Terlina III ; Terlina system ; term ; testing mode ; thing ; trace imprint ; tractor beam ; transport controller ; Transporter Room 1 ; treatment ; tree ; Triceratops ; tricorder ; trick ; turbolift ; turboshaft ; Tyrannosaurus rex ; umbilical ; velocity ; vest ; village ; vocation ; wall ; warp engine ; warp propulsion control system ; water ; " what the hell "; whistling ; window ; Wonders and Workers ; year ; " your lucky day "

Library computer references [ ]

• Starfleet Operations – Sectors 21166-23079 : Ajax , USS ; Alpha Laputa IV ; Apollo -class ; Aries , USS ; Berlin , USS ; Beta Mahoga system ; Bradbury , USS ; Bradbury -class ; Charleston , USS ; Constellation -class ; Epsilon Ashanti III ; Excelsior -class ; Fearless , USS ; Goddard , USS ; Hood , USS ; Korolev -class ; Merrimac , USS ; Monitor , USS ; Nebula -class ; New Orleans -class ; pulsar ; Renaissance -class ; Repulse , USS ; Rigel -class ; Romulan Neutral Zone ; sector ; Sector 21166 ; Sector 21502 ; Sector 21834 ; Sector 22036 ; Sector 22055 ; Sector 23079 ; Starbase 174 ; Starbase 414 ; Thomas Paine , USS ; Trieste , USS ; Victory , USS ; Vulcan Science Academy ; warp drive ; Yosemite -class ; Zhukov , USS

Deleted references [ ]

atmosphere ; communicator ; fluidic equilibrium circuit ; hygrometric level ; land ; Leg ; moisture ; percent ; positronic net ; skin ; sublogic controller

External links [ ]

• " Brothers " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Brothers " at Wikipedia
• " Brothers " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• "Brothers" script  at Star Trek Minutiae
• " Brothers " at the Internet Movie Database
• 1 Daniels (Crewman)

• Make sure URL has a space on both sides of it, or is on its own line.
• Do not use HTML or BBCode tags.
• To find a picture's URL on a website, in most browsers, you can right-click the image and select "Copy image URL".
• From Imgur, copy the link from the url when you are viewing it, or click their Copy button if you are uploading a new image.
• Posting links or pictures is only allowed in certain areas of Figure Realm.