Star Trek: The Next Generation 4.03

Brothers

Data takes over the Enterprise in the midst of a medical emergency. He locks everyone out of the bridge and prevents them from taking control of the Enterprise from anywhere else aboard the ship, in part by impersonating Captain Picard's voice.

Data flies the Enterprise to Turlina III where he meets Dr. Noonien Soong, his creator. Soong was believed to be dead. Soong summoned Data who remembers nothing from the time that he received the summons until Soong released him. Dr. Soong explains that he is dying and talks to Data about Data's chosen career path. Soong had hoped that Data would become a scientist. 

Lore also received the summons and shows up not long after Data. Soong didn't realize that Lore was functioning. Lore expresses some anger at Soong for not fixing him and for choosing to deactivate him.

Soong explains that he has a basic emotion chip that he wants to install in Data. Lore pulls a fast one and deactivates Data and changes places with him. Soong installs the chip in the wrong android. He warns Lore that the emotion chip wasn't meant for him but Lore doesn't care. He knocks Soong to the ground and leaves.

Picard and the others have regained limited control of the Enterprise at this point. Riker, La Forge, and Worf beam down to the planet soon after Lore has left. Data wants Dr. Soong to come aboard the Enterprise for medical attention but Soong prefers to stay on Turlina III and die there.

Thoughts

There is a subplot in this story involving two young boys, brothers. I didn't find it to be very compelling or necessary to a summary of the story.

I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I have watched this episode.

Dr. Soong is also played by Brent Spiner but wearing a lot of prosthetics to make him look much older. Soong, according to Memory Alpha, was 99 years old at the time of this story.

I didn't find this episode to be as dramatically interesting as some of the others that I have watched recently. It feels like the middle chapter of a longer story. I know that Lore returns in a future story which I believe will be the conclusion to the Data / Lore arc.

It seemed like Picard and the others almost made it too easy for Data to take control of the Enterprise. They don't question why he is staying on the bridge when everyone else evacuates. Picard even looks at Data before he leaves but doesn't say a word.

Why didn't Data mention Lal when Dr. Soong showed some disappointment with him because he didn't become a scientist? Why is it that sensors are only able to detect life forms and not fixate on something as unique as Data?

This is a good episode, probably a necessary piece of Data's history, but I wouldn't call it a great episode. It didn't feel to me like there was much in the way of dramatic tension.