Title: Datalore
Airdate: 1/18/1988
Plot Summary
On their way to get maintenance done at a starbase, the Enterprise takes a detour to Omicron Theta, the place where Data was found by the Tripoli over 20 years ago. The planet is dead, with not even bacteria alive. Geordi is able to see a hidden door in the rock and there the away team finds an abandoned laboratory with clear evidence that Data was created there. Another door finds a duplicate android disassembled.
They return to the ship with the parts and begin the process of reassembly. The Android is activated and reveals his name is Lore. He’s different than Data as he has emotions and ambition to match. He disables Data and disguises himself as him as he and Data look identical. He works to lead them to the Crystalline entity that is the reason why all life was destroyed on Omicron Theta.
Make It So
Picard is only suspicious of “Data” when Lore doesn’t understand what “Make it so” means.
Number 1
Riker leads the away team to find Lore. He also is a dick to Wesley and is easily fooled by Lore making it look like “Lore” was fighting him or something. Riker was a complete retard this episode.
Fully Functional
Data is pretty much the only one who’s suspicious of Lore. I actually kind of liked that. In any other story he would be the one most forgiving as this is a possible link to his past and brother and the rest of the crew would be suspicious. But his unemotional state allows him to be more objective about Lore, calling him out on his lie about who was built first.
Even so, he doesn’t do enough to let everyone know and stupidly allows Lore to poison him.
Today Is A Good Day To Die
Worf seems to be doing security duties, when he goes to check on “Data” he gets caught in the turbolift with him. Lore punches him so hard in the chest, he basically screams in pain for 10 seconds. Poor Worf.
Phase Inducers
Geordi is the one on the planet to find Soong’s laboratory and discovers Lore. So really, this whole episode is his fault.
Counselor Cleavage
Troi is mostly absent.
Dancing Doctor
Dr Crusher gets let in on Data’s secret off switch and is pretty miffed when “Data” reveals it nonchalantly. I know that haters will say it made her suspicious but she did nothing about it so I choose to believe she was just being petty.
Security Chief Dead Meat
Yar doesn’t understand how Data can have all the memories of the colonists in his brain. To be honest, I’m a little fuzzy on that myself.
Shut Up, Wesley
This is the episode that gives us the heading I choose for Wesley. Both Picard and his mother tell him to shut it. He stupidly doesn’t do it. Of course he still saves the day.
Canon Maker
This episode establishes Data’s origins, the crystalline entity, and Dr. Noonien Soong as having created both Data and Lore. More will come along as the series progressed.
This also establishes that Dr Crusher is very much involved with Data’s systems and helps with reconstructing Lore. It’s from here she will be Data’s primary caregiver, though it’s more of a joint partnership with Geordi when he becomes the chief engineer.
When Lore shoots a phaser at Crusher, it sets her jacket on fire. (An admittedly cool stunt.) Why didn’t it disintegrate her? That got me thinking about phasers in the 24th century. In TOS it was either “Stun” or “Kill.” When they killed, vaporized. But in Next Gen and the subsequent series, phasers acted more like blaster, causing damage or killing like a standard firearm of today. I can’t even recall many getting vaporized.
I do know that the hand phasers have a whole myriad of settings, from light stun to insta-kill. My guess is some of the kill settings now do not vaporize anymore. They still could if they wanted but I have a feeling that having a body still might be a good idea. Or a bad one if you’re committing a crime. In any case, I don’t think the way phasers work is a canon breaker, but new canon thanks to advances in technology.
Canon Breaker
Lore gets beamed out to space. And they just leave his ass there. What? I’m pretty sure they would’ve just beamed him back in to the brig and then turned him off, dismantled him and sent him back to Starfleet. Just leave him floating around? Ridiculous.
What in the hell could Lore put in champagne to completely immobilize Data?
A Little Bloody Nose
No one died. Well everyone on Omicron Theta a long time ago thanks to the crystalline entity. Well, maybe not everyone.
Technobabble
Data and Lore have the first fully functional positronic brains. It’s interesting that Data didn’t realize what he was but he will refer to his positronic net a lot as the series moves forward.
Library Computer
It’s no accident that Noonien Soong sounds really similar to Khan Noonien Singh. Roddenberry had a friend during the war named Kim Noonien Singh and loved the name so much, he used it twice. In-universe, an ancestor of Soong would find and raise a group of augments, the same type of humans Khan’s supermen were, to try to tie them together. Perhaps Soong was named after Khan.
I Know That Guy:
No real guest stars here, other than Bill Yeager returning as Chief Engineer Argyle.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Hoo boy. This episode gets a star for introducing Lore into Trek… well.. lore, but it’s a rotten episode. It requires everyone to be dumb instead of Wesley and everyone to be really mean to Wesley when it’s totally obvious he’s right.
The first words out of Lore’s mouth are a lie and it just gets worse from there. He’s so smarmy and the idea that anyone wouldn’t be suspicious immediately doesn’t make a lick of sense. But ok, they are emotional humans and want Data to have a brother. Maybe I could see that.
But not once the specific issues keep piling up. Lore using contractions as Data. Revealing the off switch and Crusher calls him on it and accepts the ridiculous explanation from Lore disguised as Data. When Lore is pretending as Data to question “Data” who’s unconscious on the ground, it’s the most unconvincing thing I’ve ever seen.
When Wesley convinces his mother to activate Data, and it’s clear what’s going on, do they alert security? No the three of them go to the cargo bay themselves. That’s beyond stupid.
The reason why Wesley is convinced that Lore is disguised as Data is when he uses a contraction. But at the end when Lore is beamed out to space, Data is still wearing Lore’s clothes and still has Lore’s tick. So Picard asks him if it’s really Data, if he’s ok. Data replies “I’m fine, sir.” A contraction that Wesley and no one else picks up on. Talk about blowing up the entire episode.
About the only thing I agreed with Lore on is when he asks Data rhetorically, “And you want to be as stupid as them (humans?)” I can’t help but agree, everyone was completely dumb. Even so, what the fuck was Lore’s plan? Why would he want to give people to the crystalline entity? What the heck could it possibly give him? Was it to take over the ship and have his own? Maybe, but he certainly doesn’t ever say so. He just wants to be EEEEEEVVVVIIIILLL!
It’s just a terrible way to introduce a lot of new Trek backstory.
