Star Trek: The Next Generation 1.12

Datalore

The Enterprise visits Omicron Theta, the world where Data was found over 20 years earlier. Omicron Theta once had a human colony of over 400 people but it has been abandoned for decades.

An away team consisting of Data, Commander Riker, Lt. Geordi La Forge, Lt. Tasha Yar, and Lt. Worf beams down to the planet. They find the pieces of what looks like an exact duplicate of Data. They bring it back to the Enterprise and Mister Argyle (from engineering) and Doctor Crusher assemble it.

Once Data's duplicate turns on it introduces itself as Lore. Lore explains that it was designed to be more human than Data. Lore knows what happened to the colonists. Lore was in part responsible for their deaths but doesn't share that information with Captain Picard and the others.

Lore tricks Data and shuts him down. Lore changes uniforms with the comatose Data and pretends to be his brother. Lore lured the Crystalline Entity to Omicron Theta that killed the colonists and now lures it to the Enterprise.

Wesley gets wise to the fact that the android pretending to be Data is in fact Lore but no one will listen to him. He manages to convinces his mother who helps him to turn Data back on. Data and Wesley, together, deal with Lore and transport him out into space. The Crystalline entity departs and the Enterprise is saved.

Thoughts

I have seen this episode as least once before, back in 2011. I may have seen it before that, possibly when it first aired in 1988 or soon thereafter.

This episode contains the first mention of Noonien Soong the creator of Data and Lore. This episode features the first appearance of Lore. He appears in 3 subsequent episodes of this series and one of Lower Decks. Both Soong and Lore were played by Brent Spiner.

This episode contains the immortal line of "Shut up, Wesley!" First Captain Picard said it and then Doctor Crusher did.

This episode contains the second and final appearance of Argyle the Engineer.

This is not a great episode. I have some serious reservations with how the Crystalline Entity arrived and departed so quickly. I'm also not crazy about the music. The set where the away team materialized on the surface of Omicron Theta was very sparse and reminiscent of similar sets from the Original Series. This does strike me as an important episode and one that is worth seeing for fans of the the Next Generation or of Data.