Datalore (TNG)

            I said before (I think) that one of TNG’s failings was its inability to give Picard a strong arch-nemesis, a recurring antagonist we could really hate – Sisko had Dukat, Janeway had Seska, even Captain Kirk had Khan and to a lesser extent Harry Mudd. Picard has Q, but he quickly becomes more absurd than sinister, and then there’s a whole host of ineffective attempts at menacing –Sela, Tomilek, and Daimon Bok all come to mind, but we’ll get to all of them in good time. The point I want to make now is that TNG does have good recurring villains – just not for Picard himself. Lore is a great foil for Data, and when he shows up it means a well-paced action plot with enough depth to make us remember we’ve watching Science Fiction.

            Lore is Data’s evil twin – a prototype built by his creator, Dr. Soong. We still don’t know the whole truth of why Soong decided to start over with a “less perfect” creation. If we believe Lore’s story, then his emotions were too real, and he made the colonists uncomfortable. But its also possible that his murderous, psychopathic tendencies had already begun to display themselves and Soong shut him down out of fear. If we believe this version of events, then its likely he left out the emotions when he built Data because it was the only way he could be sure of leaving out the Machiaviellian level of ambition or the sense of superiority.

            It’s interesting that while he has emotion, what Lore lacks is empathy. He sees himself as an

Alas, Poor Data.

“upgrade” of humanity, and he doesn’t see any reason to keep the earlier version around. Lore is all of our fears about artificial intelligence personified. Brent Spiner isn’t afraid to ham in up in his dual role, but in spite of all the scenery chewing he still brings a believability to Lore that makes him all the creepier. Or perhaps the creepiness comes from seeing what Data, who we’ve already come to see as the most incorruptible member of the crew, could be capable of with just a slightly different outlook. Data and Lore are both detached, but in completely different ways.

            The structure of the episode is excellent. The teaser reminds us of Data, who he is and what he might want badly enough to betray his comrades. The scene on the planet sets up a mystery and a creepy tone. We meet Lore, gradually realize he’s untrustworthy, and once he replaced Data the plot steamrollers on to a climax. The philosophical discussions between the two are just enough substance, but they don’t bog down the episode enough to break the tension. It all flows so organically that even the over hashed “no one trusts Wesley but he’s actually right” plotline doesn’t feel as contrived as it usually does.

Ah, Motherhood.

            Wesley is fine in this episode. He’s annoying, but just in a kind of generalized way, and the fact that he saves the ship by realizing something that’s obvious to the audience rather than coming up with some techno-miracle makes his self-righteousness a little more palatable. Dr. Crusher doesn’t do a whole lot in this episode, but her interactions with Data are cute and she’s trying to be good mom and a good officer and that’s awkward given what’s going on. On the whole, I like how the ensemble is used effectively here without taking the focus off of Data and his struggle.

            I don’t know if the writers beamed Lore into space because they wanted to use him again, but it’s a great way to kill off a villain without actually killing him off. And the great thing about Lore is they didn’t have to wonder if they’d be able to get the actor back or not.

Random Observations:

There is a lot of unintentional innuendo here, but my favorite is Riker’s “Does he have all your parts?”

Troi does not appear, again. This time no excuse is given.

It’s interesting to think that Data’s “flaws” might actually be measures intentionally implemented to keep him from being evil.

 

And now I want to play Starfox.

The Crystaline entity looks great, given the constraints of 1988 CGI. It does kind of make me think I’m playing an old video game or watching Babylon 5, though.

Minor Character Watch: Chief Engineer Argyle is back. I totally didn’t remember that he was in more than one episode.