Datalore

"Datalore"
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Data, and his brother Lore
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 13
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Teleplay by	Robert Lewin Gene Roddenberry
Story by	Robert Lewin Maurice Hurley
Featured music	Ron Jones
Production code	114
Original air date	January 18, 1988 (1988-01-18)
Guest stars
Biff Yeager – Argyle
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Big Goodbye" Next → "Angel One"
List of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes

"Datalore" is the 13th episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Overview

The Enterprise crew discover and reassemble Data's "brother," Lore, who is in league with the entity that destroyed the colony on his home world.

Plot

On stardate 41242.4, the USS Enterprise stops by the planet Omicron Theta while on her way to Starbase Armus IX for computer maintenance. The site of a vanished farming colony, the planet was where the Tripoli originally found the android Data. On the planet, an away team finds that what was reported as farmland now looks like barren rock with no trace of life in the soil. Amid other indicators that something terrible has happened to the colony, the team also finds the lab in which Dr. Noonien Soong, a formerly prominent robotics designer, built Data. Data finds various android parts and takes them back to the Enterprise.

As the course to Armus is resumed, Data's "brother" is reactivated in sickbay. Referring to himself as "Lore", he first tells others that Data was built first and he himself is the more perfect model. Later, in private, he tells Data that it was actually the reverse order, and that colonists became envious of his own perfection. He also explains that a crystalline space entity capable of stripping away all life force from a world was responsible for the colony's demise. Lore then incapacitates Data, revealing that he plans to offer the ship's crew to the Crystalline entity. When a signal transmission is detected from Data's quarters, Wesley arrives to investigate. He finds Lore (now impersonating Data) who explains that he had to incapacitate his brother after being attacked. Wesley is doubtful, but pretends to accept the explanation.

Soon after, the same crystalline entity that had attacked the colony approaches the ship. Lore, still pretending to be Data, enters the bridge as the object hovers before the Enterprise and explains that he used a shut off switch to incapacitate his brother, causing Beverly to be suspicious, since Data was careful about who knew of his off switch. Lore then explains that he can communicate with the crystalline entity and suggests that Picard show a demonstration of force by beaming an object toward the crystal and then destroying it with a phaser.

Lore's attempts to imitate Data are imperfect, arousing Picard's suspicion. Although Picard sends a security detachment to tail him, Lore disables Worf and evades pursuit. Meanwhile, the suspicious Beverly and Wesley reactivate the unconscious android and discover it is, indeed, Data. The three race to the cargo hold to find Lore telling the entity that the shields will drop momentarily when the transporter is activated. When Lore discovers them, he threatens Wesley with his phaser and orders Dr. Crusher to leave. Although she complies, he shoots at her anyway but fails to kill her. Data quickly rushes Lore and a brawl ensues. Data manages to knock Lore onto the transporter pad, and Wesley activates it and sends Lore into space. With Lore gone, the crystalline entity flies away.

Notes

• This episode establishes Data's backstory, with Data finding out who created him (Dr. Noonien Soong) and discovering his evil brother, Lore, and the Crystalline Entity.

• The Crystaline Entity would reappear in the fifth season episode Silicon Avatar.

• After the events of this episode, Lore is thought to have been lost forever until he appears in the fourth season episode Brothers where he recounts what had happened to him.

References

• Star Trek The Next Generation DVD set, volume 1, disc 4, selection 1.

External links

• Datalore at the Internet Movie Database
• "Datalore" at TV.com
• Datalore at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Datalore at StarTrek.com
• Datalore reviewed by Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher)
• Datalore rewatch by Keith R.A. DeCandido