Picard decides to make a quick stop at Omicron Theta, the planet where Data was first found, to explore the mysterious origins of Data. Data, however, is just as interested in learning to sneeze as he is about investigating his potential home world. The 'away team' finds very few signs of life on the planet, but Geordi notices a hidden door that leads to a secret cybernetics lab.
The main twist of "Datalore" (Episode 12, Season 1, Air Date 01/18/88, Star-date 41242.4) concerns the discovery of Data's evil twin android or 'brother', named Lore, found in the lab where Data was made. Then it nicely weaves together Lore's future plans and his immediate desire to feed the Enterprise crew to a giant crystalline entity.
Lore dismisses Data's climb as an officer and history at Star Fleet Academy as 'a system designed to compensate for limited human ability' and as a sign of Data's sheepish commitment to think like a mere human.
In contrast Lore mentions his ultimate goal of assimilating the knowledge of 'thousands or millions of humans' or the knowledge of 'hundreds of millions of lifeforms of every kind' into his positronic brain. He wants to maximize his potential! His quest is just like the goal of the Borg, so this could be argued to be the first 'Borg'-themed episode (though no Borg are in it).
Lore knocks out Data with a devious trick in order to call the crystalline entity into action against the Enterprise. Lore then pretends to be Data, but Wesley seems to notice and Picard notices too when Lore fails to understand Picard's recurring phrase 'make it so'. There were other signs too, such as "Lore" (acting as Data) accidentally blabbing about the existence of android 'shut off' switches -- which is supposed to be a secret.
Here are more of my favorite gems:
(1) I love the initial exploration of Dr. Noonien Soong's cybernetics lab. We get an excellent back story to Soong and it sets a cool 'lab experiment' ambiance throughout the episode. Soong is close to a mad scientist type character, which is fully true in the failed creation of Lore (the rejected first successful attempt at making a positronic brain). Lore is not to be trusted and seems sarcastic as he comments about the colonists fear of his all-too-human characteristics, but perhaps the colonists actually saw him exhibiting some of the enjoyably devilish human qualities like deceit!
Soong had failed several times to make a 'positronic brain', a term coined by Isaac Asimov (explicitly referred to in the episode, and it's true). Lore's nickname for him is 'often wrong' (a joke Data fails to get). Dr. Soong had promised many advancements on the positronic brain, but he failed to deliver most of them. Most in the scientific community thought he gave up on the possibility of its success. But Soong went to a far off colony (Omicron Theta) to continue his work in a secret underground lab.
This back story seems like something right out of a Michael Crichton novel, with the exception of scale. Crichton's novel 'Jurassic Park' gave the private and elusive scientists many more resources through business backing. The episode seems to underestimate the scale of resources needed to create an android, and it fails to comment on the specialization of technical skills. It also has the chief engineer of Enterprise put Lore back together again, but perhaps it's simple to figure out such connections by comparison and contrast to Data.
And on re-watching parts of the episode, I wondered whether the colonizers could have helped Dr. Soong create Lore/Data. Data says the 'principle interest' of the colony was 'science'.
(2) Picard and his crew discuss the possible reasons behind the creation of androids: to make humans feel more comfortable around machines and to allow scientists to prove they could create a machine that wasn't pathetically clumsy.
(3) Picard assures his officers that it's fine to openly discuss the awkward machine nature of Data/Lore. Picard makes the argument that humans are a kind of electrochemical machine, so it's acceptable to refer to Data/Lore as machines of a different sort. This comes back in a major way in Season 2's 'Measure of a Man' episode.
(4) We hear that Data was given the memories of 411 fellow colonists. But Data only has their knowledge. He lacks certain types of experiences and other 'basic human information', such as using contractions, understanding sneezing and emotions (such as knowing how the word 'sweet' applies in the phrase 'home sweet home'), whistling ('Encounter at Farpoint'), succeeding with humor (especially in 'Code of Honor'), defeating finger traps ('The Last Outpost'), or understanding social interactions and petty bickering (especially in 'Haven').
(5) Lore bests Data in many human traits. Lore can use contractions and he understands humor. Yes, he is much more 'human' in the broad range of human qualities than poor Data, who worries if there's even a chance he might be interpreted as boasting ('The Naked Now').
For example, Lore (a) engages in deception to make humans feel comfortable around him (pretending to not quite remember a simple deduction from the Pythagorean theorem, and lying about being built first), (b) he masters sinister backstabbing and conspiracy for mass murder (communicating with the crystalline entity to help entice it consume all the colonists on Omicron Theta in revenge for their rejection of him), and (c) he has grand goals for assimilating massive amounts of knowledge (like the Borg).
I think Data is one of the greatest of all Star Trek creations (right there with Kirk/Picard, the Vulcans, the Klingons, and the Borg), and he constantly gives this series fertile creative material. Brent Spiner's acting (as Data/Lore) was top notch in every way. That guy has an extreme devotion to the character. It never ceases to amaze me how faithful he tries to remain to the character's android heritage!
The main twist of "Datalore" (Episode 12, Season 1, Air Date 01/18/88, Star-date 41242.4) concerns the discovery of Data's evil twin android or 'brother', named Lore, found in the lab where Data was made. Then it nicely weaves together Lore's future plans and his immediate desire to feed the Enterprise crew to a giant crystalline entity.
Lore dismisses Data's climb as an officer and history at Star Fleet Academy as 'a system designed to compensate for limited human ability' and as a sign of Data's sheepish commitment to think like a mere human.
In contrast Lore mentions his ultimate goal of assimilating the knowledge of 'thousands or millions of humans' or the knowledge of 'hundreds of millions of lifeforms of every kind' into his positronic brain. He wants to maximize his potential! His quest is just like the goal of the Borg, so this could be argued to be the first 'Borg'-themed episode (though no Borg are in it).
Lore knocks out Data with a devious trick in order to call the crystalline entity into action against the Enterprise. Lore then pretends to be Data, but Wesley seems to notice and Picard notices too when Lore fails to understand Picard's recurring phrase 'make it so'. There were other signs too, such as "Lore" (acting as Data) accidentally blabbing about the existence of android 'shut off' switches -- which is supposed to be a secret.
Here are more of my favorite gems:
(1) I love the initial exploration of Dr. Noonien Soong's cybernetics lab. We get an excellent back story to Soong and it sets a cool 'lab experiment' ambiance throughout the episode. Soong is close to a mad scientist type character, which is fully true in the failed creation of Lore (the rejected first successful attempt at making a positronic brain). Lore is not to be trusted and seems sarcastic as he comments about the colonists fear of his all-too-human characteristics, but perhaps the colonists actually saw him exhibiting some of the enjoyably devilish human qualities like deceit!
Soong had failed several times to make a 'positronic brain', a term coined by Isaac Asimov (explicitly referred to in the episode, and it's true). Lore's nickname for him is 'often wrong' (a joke Data fails to get). Dr. Soong had promised many advancements on the positronic brain, but he failed to deliver most of them. Most in the scientific community thought he gave up on the possibility of its success. But Soong went to a far off colony (Omicron Theta) to continue his work in a secret underground lab.
This back story seems like something right out of a Michael Crichton novel, with the exception of scale. Crichton's novel 'Jurassic Park' gave the private and elusive scientists many more resources through business backing. The episode seems to underestimate the scale of resources needed to create an android, and it fails to comment on the specialization of technical skills. It also has the chief engineer of Enterprise put Lore back together again, but perhaps it's simple to figure out such connections by comparison and contrast to Data.
And on re-watching parts of the episode, I wondered whether the colonizers could have helped Dr. Soong create Lore/Data. Data says the 'principle interest' of the colony was 'science'.
(2) Picard and his crew discuss the possible reasons behind the creation of androids: to make humans feel more comfortable around machines and to allow scientists to prove they could create a machine that wasn't pathetically clumsy.
(3) Picard assures his officers that it's fine to openly discuss the awkward machine nature of Data/Lore. Picard makes the argument that humans are a kind of electrochemical machine, so it's acceptable to refer to Data/Lore as machines of a different sort. This comes back in a major way in Season 2's 'Measure of a Man' episode.
(4) We hear that Data was given the memories of 411 fellow colonists. But Data only has their knowledge. He lacks certain types of experiences and other 'basic human information', such as using contractions, understanding sneezing and emotions (such as knowing how the word 'sweet' applies in the phrase 'home sweet home'), whistling ('Encounter at Farpoint'), succeeding with humor (especially in 'Code of Honor'), defeating finger traps ('The Last Outpost'), or understanding social interactions and petty bickering (especially in 'Haven').
(5) Lore bests Data in many human traits. Lore can use contractions and he understands humor. Yes, he is much more 'human' in the broad range of human qualities than poor Data, who worries if there's even a chance he might be interpreted as boasting ('The Naked Now').
For example, Lore (a) engages in deception to make humans feel comfortable around him (pretending to not quite remember a simple deduction from the Pythagorean theorem, and lying about being built first), (b) he masters sinister backstabbing and conspiracy for mass murder (communicating with the crystalline entity to help entice it consume all the colonists on Omicron Theta in revenge for their rejection of him), and (c) he has grand goals for assimilating massive amounts of knowledge (like the Borg).
I think Data is one of the greatest of all Star Trek creations (right there with Kirk/Picard, the Vulcans, the Klingons, and the Borg), and he constantly gives this series fertile creative material. Brent Spiner's acting (as Data/Lore) was top notch in every way. That guy has an extreme devotion to the character. It never ceases to amaze me how faithful he tries to remain to the character's android heritage!