Datalore

Q. What do you think Star Trek should mostly be?

A. Challenging situations solved by thoughtful people B. People doing gosh-wow things in a spaceship

This episode has one amazing strength: Brent Spiner, who is such a talented actor, we can almost watch this.

But not quite: stupid premise, stupid events, annoying scripting -- it's not even worth going into detail. The Data character is already a stretch too far, made enjoyable by Spiner's talents; stretching it further was never a good idea, and this episode falls into the realm of Bollywood plot (which would at least be enlivened by dancing and songs).

Instead, "Datalore" completes a trifecta of terrible TNG (along with "The Big Goodbye" and "Angel One"): a terrible misstep that should have been left behind ... but this is TNG, so they returned to the same premise in later seasons. An insult to Star Trek fans, but a great episode for Spiner.

How can such an advanced human race, and a superior intellect android, make such ridiculously terrible decisions with a shipload of lives in the balance? Every part of this episode is riddled with idiotic decisions made with absolutely no regard for protocol or safety. It's as though they started with the outcome and then wrote the episode in order to arrive at that outcome, regardless of the quantity of bad choices necessary to do so. I guess Starfleet is actually even more stupid than humans currently are. I'm sure the fanboys love this episode, but I doubt if any of them realize what it really represents.

The Enterprise visits the remote scientific colony where Data was found only to discover the planet is now a lifeless wasteland. They also recover another android that resembles Data but his brother Lore is nothing like the Data we know and love.

Credit to Spiner for pulling double duty on this episode, which wasn't as good as I remembered. Another crystalline entity feels a bit disappointing but the episode has plenty of jeopardy, danger and bad stunt doubles. A good introduction for what would become a recurring character in TNG but one that fails to establish the character's true motivations.

This episode is an example of the extreme ineptitude of the entire senior staff. The premise is interesting but it just digresses into utter idiocy on the crews part. Being carefree with an unknown person and ignoring any signs of trouble or malicious intent.

This is an intense episode. We find out about Dr. Soon (Data's creator), Lore (his evil "brother), and the crystalline entity which, like the Borg, will make its presence known again. In this one, a trip to a planet that was once a center of agricultural is explored. It has become dead and rocky. This is the birthplace of Commander Data and upon investigation, a nearly perfect copy of Data is found. Upon resurrecting this fellow, it turns out that it is Lore, who somehow has developed an evil streak. He is probably responsible for the destruction of an entire civilization. He has hooked up with a beautiful space traveler, the crystalline entity. This thing, when it comes in contact with living creatures, destroys them. Through deception, once back on his feet, Lore disables Data and begins his plan to feed the Enterprise to the entity. Wesley Crusher has suspicions, but no one will listen to him. While there are a lot of plot holes, it is a really important part of the oeuvre. Data is really featured here and it sets up some wonderful possibilities for the future.