By Anonymous on Thursday, March 18, 1999 - 05:53 am:

After Data beamed Lore into space why didn't the Enterprise beam him back onto the ship and place him under arrest? Isn't he a sentient being that deserves a fair trial? Or is his gulag in interstellar space Picard-esque justice?
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By BrianB on Friday, April 9, 1999 - 05:26 am:

Right. Picard had a duty to take Lore into custody and not to leave him to be discovered by, say, THE ROMULANS! Fortunately it was Pakleds who found Lore.
What about Data? The closest he comes to emotionalism is in regards to family. How can Data, in good conscious, abandon his brother? Ask him and he'll probably say "I'm fine".
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By Anonymous on Monday, April 12, 1999 - 10:54 am:

no he will say "I am Fine"
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By BrianB on Monday, April 12, 1999 - 10:57 pm:

Anon, you took me too serious again. Obviously I must follow all my toungue in cheek comments followed by the :) sign.
See Phil's comment to "I'm fine" in CHANGED PREMISES under "Datalore".
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By Chris Thomas on Tuesday, April 13, 1999 - 04:51 am:

Maybe they ejected the wrong android into space? Maybe we've had Lore all this time but nobody knew it? Of course, I'm being facetious, so don't take it seriously Mr Anonymous.
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By Anonymous on Saturday, April 17, 1999 - 11:23 am:

well i geuss we are all taking each other to sierous. i was just playing around when i made my above comment.
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By Anonymous No.2 on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 12:58 am:

And what a shame you can't spell.
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By Keith Alan Morgan on Sunday, April 18, 1999 - 08:56 am:

Data is practicing sneezing, but he doesn't know what a cold is? I should think that if he wanted to do it right, he would look up the causes of sneezing and related actions and discover what a cold was.

When the Tripoli found Data the planet still had farmlands, meaning that the Crystal Entity had not completely stripped the planet of life. So where was the entity?

If the colonists were afraid of being discovered, then why did they leave Data on their doorstep? If Data was left behind because Julianna Soong insisted on leaving him, as 'she' claimed in Inheritance, why not just leave him in the lab? Lore did state that he gave the Crystal Entity the directions to the colonists hidden lair before Soong disassembled him. So did the colonists think that Data's body would act as a scarecrow???

According to this episode, Soong was Earth's foremost robotics experts, but when he failed to create a working positronic brain he left Earth under an assumed name. Was it his pride that caused him to do this or were all of his earlier accomplishments ignored while his fellow scientists ridiculed him?
Anudder explanation iz dat Starfleet had 'loaned' Dr. Soong a lot uv money and hiz failure meant dat he couldn't pay dem back and dey wuz goin' to break hiz legs. (Actually, that could explain why Starfleet feels like it owns all Soong type androids.)

Why was Lores hair fluffier on his disembodied head than when he was reassembled? Static electricity?

Lore's parts on the planet were kept in dry storage, so why were his hands and other parts setting in jars of fluid on the ship?

According to this episode, Dr. Soong's only failure was to make a working positronic brain. So why was he called "Often Wrong Soong?"

They use two 360 degree circles to navigate the ship. I assume the first number is the new direction the ship should face in its current plane and the second number is the angle it should take out of its current plane. So why should the second number ever be greater than 180? If something is approaching the ship from behind, then using a 360 degree vertical circle might make sense, but since the ship only goes forward, then 180 degrees should be all they would need to determine the ship's angle, 0 for straight up, 90 for straight ahead and 180 for straight down. To use more than a half circle would seem to affect the direction that the ship is to travel. For instance the heading "0-3-7 mark 1-8-1" would seem to send the ship opposite the direction 0-3-7. Now I accept the possibility that I could be missing something that is obvious to everyone else, but if so please explain what. I suppose that it is possible that 0 on both circles is straight ahead, but then calling any second number from 0-9-1 to 2-6-9 would seem to reverse the first number.

This episode reveals an unusual motivation for Lore, Knowledge. He asks Data if he is satisfied with the memories of just a few hundred colonists, then says why not thousands, then mentions the memories of other species. Is the Crystal Entity somehow able to transfer a life form's memories to Lore? Perhaps the Crystal Entity was created or altered in a lab and it's intended purpose was to gather information? Data did say that the colony's primary purpose was science.

On page 36 of the NextGen Guide, Phil asked why the shields don't drop when Wesley beams Lore into space. Well, maybe he beamed Lore outside the ship, but inside the shields? The graphic in this and other episodes indicates that there is enough room.

Wesley states that Lore is gone "permanently," which would imply that Lore's atoms had been scattered. Of course it also implies that Wesley is a cold blooded murderer. I think this also explains why it took Wes so long to get into Starfleet Academy. Starfleet was upset that Wesley ruined their chance to experiment on a Soong type android so out of spite they blocked his attempts to attend the Academy for years.

Wow! This episode sure happened fast!
It begins on stardate 41242.4. Log entries follow (including Riker's misread 4124.5- was that meant to be 41242.5? Couldn't really have been...) on stardates 41242.45 and much later in the episode, 41242.5. How long is a point in a stardate?
If this episode is thought about, it implies that each point is about a day! (Which cannot be correct...)
And of course, whilst the first season stardate jumble explains most errors like this, I feel I would be remiss if I did not say that I find Wesley's "finished as acting ensign" thing ridiculous, given that Picard's log entry in "Where No One Has Gone Before" assigned him that rank on stardate 41263.4!
(Hm- let's see now:
Wesley Crusher's Service Record in Chronological Order---
Stardate 41153.7- joined the Enterprise.
41209.2- Nearly destroys it getting drunk and commandeering engineering...
41242.4 or 5 or whatever- is finished as acting ensign temporarily for 'insubordinate remarks' on the bridge.
41263.4- is made an acting ensign for the first time...)

Did anyone else notice that Lore had Seams?

Equipment Oddity: Data tells Dr.Crusher in Unification part 1 that his ears are not removable, that they are "fully integrated components." Yet when they find Lore, his ears are not attached.

Also, Dr.Crusher interrupts the debriefing meeting to say that at that point in reassembling Lore that they "very much needed Mr. Data's help." When Data arrives you see Lore's torso in the background; with no appendages attached, and no head. Data then reluctantly tells Dr.Crusher about his off switch. Was this the kind of help they needed at that time? What good would it have done Dr.Crusher and Chief Engineer Argile to switch on a decapitated quadriplegic torso? =)

Maybe it had a homing beacon that would a bring a swarm of ships to rescue him?

This episode did happen fast. At one moment, there is a chase between the Enterprise and the Crystalline Entity. Immediately there is a commercial break, then suddenly they've stopped chasing each other and meet face to face (or something)!
Did I miss something?

The Crystal Light entity? an interstellar diet drink?

Nit: No Troi again (IMHO)

It seems that "Dork Boy"...(aka the credits person) has returned again. He / she mentions "Mirina Sirtis" in the opening credits, yet she ain't in the episode. What's the point? I mean, when Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) wasn't in the episodes in TOS, they didn't mention her in the credits...so why do it for Marina Sirtis?

Probably because as a regular cast member she has to be listed. I would guess it's a regulation with SAG.

Possibly a Spoiler, although I'd be amazed if anyone didn't already know it

John, you'll also notice (if you haven't already) that Denise Crosby also gets credited to the end of the season even though she isn't in the last few eps.

It seems that "Dork Boy"...(aka the credits person) has returned again. He / she mentions "Mirina Sirtis" in the opening credits, yet she ain't in the episode. What's the point? I mean, when Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) wasn't in the episodes in TOS, they didn't mention her in the credits...so why do it for Marina Sirtis?

KAM It does have to do with contracts and SAG (screen actor's guild) rules. Sirtis is contracted to appear in X number of episodes. Even if the writers don't write her into one of those episode she still gets credit and she still gets paid.

Nichelle Nichols was not a member of the regular cast (contractually), Marina Sirtis was. You'll find lots of examples of this throughout television: Robert Reed remained credited for the last episode of The Brady Bunch, despite his not having appeared in it. Ming-Na remained in the opening credits of E.R. despite not appearing in several consecutive episodes this season. (On the other hand, George Clooney and Eriq LaSalle were taken out of the credits when they first departed).

Exactly, Brian.
Even more importantly, the 'level' of screen credit an actor receives is negotiated long before they ever appear on-screen.

It would've been written into Sirtis' (and Crosby's) contracts from the get-go that they were to be considered series 'co-stars' and credited as such regardless of actual per-show screen time.

Conversely, Nichelle Nichols' lack of credit would likely have been because at that point she had signed on as a 'guest star', or (more likely) 'recurring guest star', and so didn't warrant a permanent credit on the same par as the 'stars'.

DUMB LINE: "I'm fine" by Data. (Thanks Phil, I agree.) The creators spent the ENTIRE EPISODE explaining the difference between Data & Lore is the use of contractions & they blow it.

I must add that the scene where Data & Lore are walking down the hall was flawlessly done.

GREAT LINE: "Shut up, Wesley" Picard & Crusher

Does it bother anyone else that everyone, including YAR, knows who Soong is - except Data?

Someone noted: "Lore's parts on the planet were kept in dry storage, so why were his hands and other parts setting in jars of fluid on the ship?"
A good question...wouldn't electrical equipment emersed in water create some kind of electrical shock when someone touched it? Talk about throwing a plugged in toaster into a dishwasher! WHEW!

This nit may be in the Next Gen guide, but it bothered me when this ep was on the other night, and I will post it here:
The port side door to the Observation Lounge leads to a regular ship's corridor. Being that the observation lounge is at the back end of Deck One, a left turn would lead to deep space. (The set for Sickbay was redressed as the observation lounge for Next Gen's first season. According to the "TMP" DVD, this is the same Sickbay set from the movies.)
Eriq LaSalle and Michael Michelle both departed "E.R." in the middle of the eighth season. They both made brief appearances afterward, and they were both listed in the opening credits of those episodes, even though those appearances were little more than cameos.
Barbara Bosson and Rene Enriquez were in almost every episode of "Hill Street Blues" for the first five seasons, and they were listed in the opening credits of same. Come the sixth season, their roles were greatly reduced, but they were still listed in the openings of each episode they appeared in. Michael Conrad was listed in the opening credits from his death until the time his character was written out.

I'm guessing SAG rules had greatly changed between the 60s and the 90s to favor the actor, Adam.

I miss when the end credits used to list all the actors in an episode and what character they played. Sure made it easier to know who played what.

lots of that stuff comes down to who is paid & for what. For example David Ducavaney (sp) was listed in the opening credits of all X-Files eps he was in even though for the past 2 seasons he was not a series regular, he did not get a credit for any eps those seasons that he was not it. His contract was written that he get that billing because he is such a popular part of the show. Michael Boatman is listed as a special guest star for every ep of Arli$$ that he appears in (& he is in every one of them) because his spin city contract says that he can not be a regular cast member of another TV show while under contract to ABC (but he can guest star on other shows.)

And now that Spin City's been cancelled I guess he can appear on other shows as a regular cast member now.

David Duchovny also did the wrap arounds for the Showtime soft-core series "Red Shoe Diaries" for the first few years of "X-Files". He was always listed last in the opening credits of that. ("And David Duchovny as 'Jake'" is how his credit read.) I even think the dog that was his constant companion there got a credit, albeit at the end.
Jonathan Harris' credit for "Lost In Space" listed him throughout the run of the series as "Special Guest Star." His credit was in the opening, and it was always the last one listed; I think all the above was in his contract.
Luigi - Between the '60's and the '90's, there were two or more actors' strikes, which would account for the changes in credit.
Didn't DeForest Kelley have to fight to be included in "Trek's" opening credits? The rules really have changed.

In Xena, Renee O'Connor was not given "starring" status until the second season, and then it was only "also starring" despite the fact that she had technically appeared in more episodes than Lucy Lawless had (they frequently had "Lucy-Lite" episodes that gave the actress a chance to take a few weeks off). In the fourth season opener (Adventures In the Sin Trade), Renee was completely omitted from the opening credits for two episodes, although her character was frequently mentioned (although not present). Then in the same season there was an episode (Key to the Kingdom) where her character was not only absent, but not even mentioned at all, but she was given full "also starring" status in the opening credits.

I don't get it either.

Occasionally actors will not receive credit in episodes where their appearance is supposed to be a surprise--think Alex Krycek in all those episodes of The X-Files. This is obviously intentional.

It makes sense that Renee was omitted from the credits for "Adventures In the Sin Trade", as she was supposed to be dead. (I loved that episode, BTW, including the soundtrack.)

And what was the deal with Heather Locklear having permanent listing at the end of the opening credits of Melrose Place as "Special Guest Star"? I heard the story somewhere that explained it, but I forgot it.

If I may briefly interject a Datalore observation (which I think may be new):
The Omicron Theta system? Has no one noticed that omicron is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet? And the fifteenth prime number, of course, is . . . anyone?

it's 47.

That's really reaching for one TJFleming

All the easy ones were taken.
Thank you for paying attention, Meg.

I may be counting wrong, but it seems like theta has an interesting prime attached to it...if any of the colonists were superstitious, maybe they woulda left post haste : )

What's wrong with 19?
On the other hand, if we were talking about zeta, then we might be superstitious.

See, I told you I probably counted wrong : )

Just saw this ep. I despise it. Now moving on to later seasons. :-)

The funny thing is, you don't really miss Troi in this episode.

I DO!

I doubt anyone will see this, since this site looks abandoned, but I'll post anyway. In the beginning of this episode, Commander Riker is asked to form an away team to beam down to Data's home world. Riker turns toward the back of the bridge and gestures to 3 people, as if to say..."You...you...& you". Riker does not address Data, who is standing near him, nor does he address Geordie, who is sitting at the helm, although they accompany him to the surface. There should be a total of 6 people to beam down; Riker, Data, Geordie and the three other people Riker points out. However, only 2 more people accompany the rest of the away team; Yar and Worf. Who was the other person that Riker pointed to, and why didn't they beam down to the planet?

Nope, Derrick. Nitcentral hasn't been abandoned. Yet. Someone must've forgotten to leave the lights on for all wandering nitpickers. Who's job is that anyway?

But we're here and surviving. And, by the way....

WELCOME! Feel free to explore the site. There's a variety of topics, so feel free to join in any discussion you like.

Live long and prosper.

ScottN: What's wrong with 19?

What, have you never read the dark tower series?

When did the kids of Data's homeworld get time to draw the Crystaline Entity when it was attacking the colony at the precise moment the colony was under attack?

================================================

If Lore was so unstable, why didn't Soong put a sign on Lore's compartment saying, "Caution: Do not assemble"?

Someone noted: "Lore's parts on the planet were kept in dry storage, so why were his hands and other parts setting in jars of fluid on the ship?"
A good question...wouldn't electrical equipment emersed in water create some kind of electrical shock when someone touched it? Talk about throwing a plugged in toaster into a dishwasher! WHEW!

They never said they were water. There are a lot of liquids that look like water that are electrically insulating. Now whether they are positronically insulating, that is another matter.
Also, I have a theory about Data's use of contractions. As has been pointed out, it would be quite trivial programmatically to give Data the ability to use contractions, Data clearly understands when other people use contractions, and can use contractions when he is quoting something that had a contraction in it, he just cannot use them in his own speech. Given all of Data's processing power, it seems rather silly that he should be unable to master such a simple linguistic construct. So my theory is that Dr. Soong intentionally disabled Data's ability to use contractions, put some little routine somewhere in his program that would stop him if he ever tried to use a contraction and split it up into its component words. He did this so that he would have an easy way of telling Data and Lore apart, since they look exactly the same, he wanted to add some clear marker which would make Data decidedly Data and Lore decidedly Lore. That's certainly the way it worked out in this episode, where Lore nearly slips and says "I've" instead of "I have" and reveals his true identity prematurely. Of course, at the end of the episode, when Data says "I'm fine," this is clearly Lore who finally did slip up and let out a contraction, but no one noticed, and afterwards he got a little better at pretending to be data. Therefore any contractions we occasionally hear Data using through the rest of the series can be explained by it in fact being Lore and he just momentarily slipped up. This explanation is valid up through "Brothers" when it was it is revealed that it was in fact Data who had been picked up by a Pakled ship after floating in space for three years. The first year was the worst. The second year, that was the worst too. The third year he didn't enjoy at all. After that, he went into a bit of a decline where he became very depressed and began to adopt some of Lore's personality traits as a defense mechanism. So when he arrived at Dr. Soong's laboratory, the way he was acting, he was easily mistaken for Lore. However, Dr. Soong shut both androids down to perform maintenance on them, including installing the emotion chip in what he believed to be Data. One of the things he did was to reset both of their personality routines to their standard parameters. So Data started acting like Data again and Lore resumed being Lore. For this reason, Dr. Soong was quite surprised when he reactivated Data and discovered that he was in fact Lore. Lore left with the emotion chip and when the Enterprise crew beamed down, they discovered Data and just assumed it was the same Data they had had all along and took him back with them where he resumed his position as a member of their crew. Lore continued to look back fondly on the days he had spent as a member of the Enterprise crew, and longed to be able to have a command role again. Because of this, when he found a bunch of Borg who had lost contact with the collective and had no idea what they were doing, he saw this as a good opportunity to relive some of his Starfleet officer days by bossing the Borg around and building them up into a crew that he could command.

Whaaaat? You lost me there. If you post here again, could you please use paragraphs?

Thanks.

I had no trouble following the post.

Me neither. It's evil... I hate it... it's brilliant. :-) Clearly we have been watching Lore as Sherlock Holmes all this time- and frankly, it's a surprise that Lore had the self-restraint not to murder Dr. Pulaski- but it all makes sense! :-)

This episode is such a wall banger, Wesley is asked to keep an eye on Lore which he does and when he reports they're not interested (which puts us all in the angry position of siding with Wesley over out heroes).

They just let the crystalline entity (who names those things anyway) aka the planet killer go, they leave Lore floating in space to be picked up by the next Packeld freighter and Data responds with his "I'm fine". Makes you wonder how the franchise kept going after this.

* Yar says that Soong "tried to make Asimov's dream of a positronic brain come true", and Riker replies "A positronic brain... he promised so much."

However, the positronic nature of Asimov's fictional robots was actually an unimportant detail. Asimov just made their brains positronic instead of electronic because the former sounded more futuristic. There is no reason why it would be an advantage for artificial intelligence to use positrons rather than electrons (and given that positrons are a particle of antimatter, there are obvious disadvantages).

The significant, innovative aspect of Asimov's robots was his Three Laws of Robotics (which are clearly not included in either Data or Lore's programming, based on their behavior in this and other episodes).

* Why would Lore want to conceal the fact that he knows the Pythagorean theorem?

Many more nits from this episode:

* Although the colony is stated to be in the Omicron Theta system, no one ever mentions the name of the colony planet. Does it not have one? In both of his log entries, Picard just calls it "Data's home planet".

* Data's reaction when he realizes that Lore has slipped something in his drink, seems rather emotional. He sounds deeply hurt at Lore's betrayal.

* How can an android be drugged?

* Lore tells the incapacitated Data, that before Dr. Soong disassembled him, he earned the gratitude of the crystal entity by "revealing the way to the colonists", and then adds, "Can you imagine its gratitude, when I give it the life on this vessel?" This seems to imply that the entity would be even more grateful to him for leading it to the Enterprise, then it was for leading it to the colony planet. However, the entity had consumed the "life force" of all life on the entire planet, compared to which that of the roughly 1000 humans aboard Enterprise would, presumably, be literally microscopic.

Although, it is indicated earlier that the entity not only extracts energy from organic life, but from machines as well: Riker tells Yar that Data and Lore survived its attack, because they weren't activated. If so, perhaps the entity would actually be interested in feeding on the ship itself.

* Wesley tells "Data" that if "Data" had said "we've" instead of "we have", he "might have suspected" he was Lore. Actually, if that had happened, Wesley should have been certain that "Data" was Lore, since supposedly the real Data can't use contractions at all.

* After Wesley reports back to Picard (offscreen) that "Data" told him he had to deactivate "Lore" after being attacked, shouldn't it have at least occurred to Picard that Lore might have been impersonating Data (even if Wesley didn't mention that "Data" had displayed Lore's distinctive facial twitch)? It's an obvious possibility, and it would have been a simple matter to verify "Data's" identity, by asking him something that Data would know and Lore wouldn't.

* "Data" suggests that as a demonstration, they use the cargo bay transporter to beam out "some living pattern, perhaps a large tree", then blast it with their phasers. Why would it matter that the object they destroy is living?

* How exactly was Lore supposed to create this "large tree"? I didn't see anything in the cargo bay that looked like a giant replicator. And can living things be replicated?

* Why would the crystal entity be impressed by the destruction of a tree?

* During the first instance where Wesley speaks up on the bridge, telling Picard that he shouldn't trust "Data", he never gives any reason. A minute earlier, it appeared from Wesley's reaction that he overheard "Data" when, upon seeing the crystal entity, he said "Isn't it beautiful". So why doesn't Wesley mention that "Data" just used a contraction, or at least specify that he believes "Data" to be Lore?

* Just before Picard tells him to "Make it so", "Data" says "That is correct, Riker", rather than "Commander Riker", but neither Riker or Picard appears to notice this.

* Is it plausible that Lore doesn't understand the meaning of "Make it so"? I'm sure that when most TNG viewers first heard Picard use this phrase, they easily understood that it meant "Do it".

* After "Data" leaves the bridge, Picard tells Yar to "take a good security team and let me know what he does". "Take" implies that she should lead the team herself. But instead she nods to Worf, who immediately departs, the job apparently having been delegated to him. Also, why does Picard specify a "good" security team? Are there bad ones?

* Rather than having a security team tail "Data", wouldn't it make more sense for the team to simply place him in custody until his identity can be verified? If Picard still likes "Data's" plan, it doesn't have to be "Data" that beams out the tree.

* When Lore traps Worf inside the turbolift with him, isn't it likely that the two security men outside would promptly inform the bridge of the situation via communicator? In which case, by the time Lore reached the cargo bay, why hadn't the computer been ordered to lock "Data" out of all ship functions, including subspace transmitters and transporters?

* Shouldn't security personnel have the authority to order a closed door to open? Even if the two security men can't override "Data's" Emergency Close command themselves, about 25 seconds pass while Lore beats up Worf inside the motionless turbolift. That's more than enough time to tap a communicator and say "Security to bridge, require Emergency Close override, Turbolift X".

* Even if Picard hadn't finally become suspicious of "Data" already, wouldn't his subspace transmissions to the entity from the cargo bay, have been noticed on the bridge, as his earlier transmissions from Data's quarters were?

* Where did Dr. Crusher's phaser come from, does she usually carry one around with her?

* Since Wesley is unarmed, why doesn't Dr. Crusher tell him to stay behind when he enters the cargo bay with her and Data? For that matter, wouldn't it have made more sense for her to give her phaser to Data and hang back with Wesley?

* When Data throws the phaser across the cargo bay and it lands on the transporter, it breaks apart. But when Lore picks it up again later, it is intact.

* Why is it Yar, Picard, and Riker who burst into the cargo bay, after the fight is over? There weren't any security personnel between the bridge and cargo bay, who could have gotten there faster? Shouldn't the Enterprise have permanently manned security stations, and/or wandering security patrols, throughout the ship?

Also, would the captain and first officer both leave the bridge, while the standoff with the entity was still ongoing?

* I wonder why a space-faring, energy-consuming organism/construct like the crystal entity wouldn't just feed on energy radiated from stars, which of course is much more plentiful in space than organic life. If it lacks that ability, that seems like highly inefficient evolution/design.

In fact, the "life force" of even a entire planetary biosphere would probably be insufficient to power the entity's interstellar travel capabilities. Based on the entity's size relative to the Enterprise, it probably masses tens of millions of metric tons. The energy required to accelerate that much mass to just 1% of light speed is about 100 times greater than the energy that all life on Earth uses per day (0.03% of the energy that reaches Earth per day from the sun).

* When Yar asks Data how he can hold the memories of all 411 colonists, and whether that means every experience of their entire lives, Data replies that "It means only the knowledge they had accumulated." However, in "Silicon Avatar", it is established that as a result of Dr. Soong scanning the colonists' synaptic patterns, Data does possess some of their personal experiences as well: Not their "minute-to-minute remembrances", but their "more intense recollections".

In fact, although Yar sounds incredulous at the idea of Data holding every memory of every colonist, if the only obstacle were storage space, that actually should be well within Data's capabilities. In "Measure of A Man", Data's storage capacity is said to be 800 quadrillion bits, while estimates of the human brain's storage capacity, assuming one bit per synapse, usually range from 100 trillion to a quadrillion bits. Therefore, Data's memory banks could hold the equivalent of 800-8000 human brains.

* It's never revealed how Lore expects the crystal entity to reward him. However (as KAM noted upthread), a brief exchange between Lore and Data suggests that Lore believes the entity can somehow provide him with the memories of other life forms.

Lore asks Data if he is satisfied with the "knowledge and memory" of a few hundred human colonists, when he could have "the knowledge of hundreds of millions of life forms of every kind". When Data asks him how, Lore replies that they'll discuss it later.

"Hundreds of millions" actually shouldn't be an impressive number in this context, unless Lore means both knowledge and personal memories, since Federation library databases would already contain the collective knowledge of hundreds of billions of diverse life forms. But Lore's data banks probably don't have room for the complete memories of more than a few thousand.

* Shortly after the above exchange, Data tells Lore that he is obligated to report everything Lore has just said to the captain. So after Data does so, does Picard ever ask Lore to explain what he was talking about?

Well, I thought I would put forth my two cents on this show. It was one of the first eps I remember seeing in it's entirety when it originally aired. At the time I was still fairly young so I was not as absorbed in watching the show as I later would be. And as the above poster noted, this ep was chock-full of inconsistencies and continuity errors!

However, I did think that Argyle was the best of the temporary First Season Chief Engineers, if it means anything. He also was in charge of Engineering in the Encounter At Farpoint novelization and undertook the process to "see what this Galaxy-class vessel could do", as ordered by Picard.

Also, at this point, there was no info regarding the prototype androids Noonian Soong had constructed even before Lore (which would be revealed in "Inheritance"), and probably the best thing I can think of about the origin of Soong and his creations, absolutely NO mention of B-4 and all that nonsense popping up many years later like Spock's half-brother or inner eyelid. I still think that was one of the worst things about the disappointing debacle that was Nemesis.

I also wonder, like the above poster did, how an android can be poisoned. However, this was still early in the show's existence and many things that we would later learn about Data and his capabilities/weaknesses had not yet been established. So therefore, I give that one a pass. I did like the instrumental music that played while Lore put the poison in the champagne, though.

As for the Crystaline Entity itself, I have already spoken about how it either did or didn't deserve to be destroyed on the "Silicon Avatar" board, and I do not wish to continue with that discussion. Also, apparently I was misguided in thinking that Lore deserved to be deactiveated and disassembled without a fair trial, even though he was not a member of the Federation and therefore I didnt consider him to be bound by the laws and privledges of them. And I shall not be going back into that discussion ever again, either.

In closing, this was one of the many early "Wesley Saves The Day" epsiodes that are heavily mocked and parodied by many, including Wil Wheaton himself, apparently. And what do I think of that? I think he has every right to make fun of all the stuff he acted in as a kid/teenager. Why not? I would sure want to, if I had ever done it myself.

"Yes, sir. I'm fine." Huh??!! (it's early episode, don't get so worked up about it, things would greatly improve later on) Whew!

* "Data" suggests that as a demonstration, they use the cargo bay transporter to beam out "some living pattern, perhaps a large tree", then blast it with their phasers. Why would it matter that the object they destroy is living?

* How exactly was Lore supposed to create this "large tree"? I didn't see anything in the cargo bay that looked like a giant replicator. And can living things be replicated?

I tended to interpret that as the tree from the entity, blasting a piece of it to show it that they can harm it. As to how they'd get it, perhaps beaming it away from the entity? Who knows.


* Rather than having a security team tail "Data", wouldn't it make more sense for the team to simply place him in custody until his identity can be verified? If Picard still likes "Data's" plan, it doesn't have to be "Data" that beams out the tree.

* When Lore traps Worf inside the turbolift with him, isn't it likely that the two security men outside would promptly inform the bridge of the situation via communicator? In which case, by the time Lore reached the cargo bay, why hadn't the computer been ordered to lock "Data" out of all ship functions, including subspace transmitters and transporters?

* Shouldn't security personnel have the authority to order a closed door to open? Even if the two security men can't override "Data's" Emergency Close command themselves, about 25 seconds pass while Lore beats up Worf inside the motionless turbolift. That's more than enough time to tap a communicator and say "Security to bridge, require Emergency Close override, Turbolift X".

Because doing all that would require the sort of competence one would think someone that made it into and went through Starfleet Academy would have. Maybe these guys got their pips, uniforms and assignments from the same crackjack boxes that a lot of these corrupt admirals did.

"Maybe these guys got their pips, uniforms and assignments from the same crackjack boxes that a lot of these corrupt admirals did." - Chris B.

Wow. I never thought of it that way before, it's certainly a possibility!

I once wondered on another board why Admiral Ross took off his communicator and said "This conversation never happened" to Bashir in "Inter Arma Enim Sima Leges" (or whatever). I wondered if he was "evil and corrupt, like all the admirals in the Bermaga era". I got the response "would you rather he be insane and incompetant, like all the admirals in the Roddenberry era?"

Well, the dude sure had a good point with that one. But the reason Ross did the things he did was because he was part of Section 31, who were notorious for breaking rules and regulations to protect the Federation at all costs and by any means neccessary. So, in his case, it was kind of understandable.

As for ordinary expendable redshirts aboard the Enterprise not being competant and not doing the most logical things? It was quite commonplace throughout the series. In "The High Ground" one of the Ansata terrorists dimensional shifts in front of two redshirts and kills one of them, and the other one just runs away. She didn't even try to fight back, or even tap her combadge and call security for help! This was a genuine threat to the ship and she just runs away like a coward! I always wondered about that one.

Anyway, this was truly one of the most poorly-written episodes of the series. And Gene was the one who co-wrote the teleplay. I agree with what Benn said earlier. That Gene was definetly a great idea man, and had a truly great vision, but when it came to scripts that he wrote for television? Ummm...not so great!

Still more nits...

* Why were children's drawings of the entity posted in the lab? When the away team finds them, Riker suggests that they were posted by "proud parents", but that would be odd, considering they depict colonists fleeing the entity's attack ("Honey, look at this cute picture little Susie drew of the space monster sterilizing our planet!"). Picard later implies in his log that those drawings were the only visual record of the entity found on the colony. Why didn't any of the colonists capture actual images or video of it? Did none of them have a camera?

* How can it be that Riker, Geordi, and Yar have all heard of Dr. Soong, and Data hasn't?

* As Data is watching Lore being reassembled, Dr. Crusher tells him: "Signal from the captain. He wants you at the debriefing." Is Data's communicator not working?

* Riker tells Yar that Data and Lore survived the entity's attack because they weren't assembled at the time. Maybe the machinery in the lab also survived because it was turned off. But the Tripoli found Data on the colony planet while responding to a signal. How did the signal device survive?

* Worf tells Riker: "I show Commander Data transmitting on a subspace channel", and Riker responds that it might be related to research Data has been doing into Soong's background. If Worf assumes it's Data because sending a subspace transmission requires a personal authorization code, this must mean Lore can hack into the ship's computer, since presumably Data would not have given his to him. Also, the monitoring system isn't very effective if it can't show Worf the content of the message.

* Why does Riker send Wesley to Data's quarters to check on Data, rather than Worf or somebody else from security?

* Does anyone ever ask "Data" if he knows anything about those subspace transmissions?

* Why is "Lore" just left lying on the floor in Data's quarters? Shouldn't Picard have security move him to the brig?

* In addition to getting the bridge to authorize Emergency Close override, if the two security guys were too slow to do that before Lore was done beating up Worf and ordered the turbolift to take him to the cargo bay deck, they could also have told the computer to halt the turbolift, trapping Lore inside. If they were too slow to that too, then in addition to locking "Data" out of ship's functions, the computer could have been told to contain "Data" with corridor force field barriers.

* 40 seconds after Lore forces Dr. Crusher to flee the cargo bay (with her coat sleeve on fire), when she re-enters the bay behind Yar, Riker, and Picard, she is carrying a phaser again. Did she happen to have a second phaser in her coat pocket, or did one of the bridge officers bring an extra phaser along and hand it to her when they arrived?

Crusher threatens Lore with a phaser. Why doesn't she just SHOOT HIM instead of warning him. He's threatening the ship and crew, not to mention her Son. That's why phasers have stun settings. If stun doesn't or might not work, then she should have used kill. It sounds cruel but given the situation, I doubt anyone would have blamed her for using lethal force.

It's been ages since I've seen this episode but I have to ask, where was security during all of this? Why didn't they beam in, phasers ready, shooting first and then asking questions? Again, stun setting, that's why they have one.

Maybe they were in the same place the security and MACOS from the NX-01 were during TATV during that infamous scene.

* In addition to getting the bridge to authorize Emergency Close override, if the two security guys were too slow to do that before Lore was done beating up Worf and ordered the turbolift to take him to the cargo bay deck, they could also have told the computer to halt the turbolift, trapping Lore inside. If they were too slow to that too, then in addition to locking "Data" out of ship's functions, the computer could have been told to contain "Data" with corridor force field barriers.

One would think they'd have a code for something like this in a Universe with shapeshifters and all sorts of other things that can impersonate people. They should only have had to say something like "Bridge, code 47." with the computer taking appropriate measures (such as locking down all important areas, turbolifts etc.) and knowing where based on where the signal came from. Lore could still have escaped and/or hacked the system, maybe impersonated Worf's voice etc. in order to escape without the security team looking incompetent.

Crusher threatens Lore with a phaser. Why doesn't she just SHOOT HIM instead of warning him.

And after Lore disarms her, why doesn't he just shoot her, instead of wasting time convincing her to leave by threatening Wesley. If for some reason he doesn't want to kill her, then stun her. Once Lore has the phaser, he should just immediately shoot everyone, so he can get back to dropping the shields before anyone else arrives to stop him.

The fight sequence doesn't really make sense either. Data disarms Lore and tosses the phaser onto the transporter. Wesley makes no attempt to retrieve the phaser, just stands there watching the fight. Then instead of yelling at Wesley to grab the phaser, Data yells "The transporter", and once Wesley is at the controls, throws Lore onto it, next to the phaser. Did Data not realize the phaser was there? Or was has he just counting on Wesley to beam Lore out before he could pick it up and use it (then again, maybe Data saw the phaser break when it landed, and he couldn't have known a localized reality warp would cause it to become whole again).

Forgot to include in my post above- once Data disarms Lore, why does he throw the phaser away?

Still more nits:

* In the second Guide, Phil notes that as the away team beams down to the planet, Riker makes a log entry in which he gives the stardate as 4124.5, presumably dropping a number, since TNG stardates have five digits before the decimal point. Additionally, it appears Riker got the number after the point wrong, because according to Picard's logs they arrived at Omicron Theta at 41242.4, and left the planet at 41242.45.

* Why do the colonists need farmland? Don't they have replicators?

* Riker asks Picard how believable he finds the crystal entity to be, and Picard replies that with so little of the galaxy having been explored, it is "at least possible". What is the reason for Riker's skepticism? The entity is no more strange then some of the life forms they have already encountered, not to mention those in the logs of Kirk's Enterprise.

* In an earlier post, when I noted Lore saying he'd earned the gratitude of the crystal entity by "revealing the way to the colonists", I thought that meant the way to the colony planet. But I notice that KAM took that to mean giving it directions to the colonists' hideout on the planet. If the latter interpretation is correct, then the implication is that the entity does have a preference for feeding on sentient life, since the colonists' total biomass, and presumably "life force", would be miniscule compared to that of the entire planet.

* Lore certainly is placing a lot of trust in the crystal entity. He can't be sure that it won't eat him too. But maybe he's counting on it to spare him because he could be useful to it again.

* Was the crystal entity hanging out around Omicron Theta for 26 years? According to Memory Alpha, the digit following the decimal point in a stardate is generally considered a day counter. If so, then based on Picard's logs, the Enterprise is only a little more than 12 hours from the colony planet when it detects the entity approaching. Even if the Enterprise were traveling at Warp 9.6, it would only have covered 4 light years during that time.

* Although "Data" tells Wesley he'd turned "Lore" off, he subsequently indicates that "Lore" is somehow only temporarily incapacitated, and could revive on his own. When Picard asks "Data" if he can control "Lore" enough to question him, "Data" replies that he will have to examine him to know, and when "Data", Riker, and Wesley enter Data's quarters, "Data" warns them to be careful of "Lore", before observing "Good, he is still unconscious." So, he's telling Riker that he'd left a dangerous android just lying there on the floor, despite a significant chance that he might soon regain consciousness. Riker apparently sees nothing wrong with that.

"Data" then begins speaking to "Lore", surreptitiously jabbing his on/off switch, and pretending to hold him down as he jerks spasmodically in response. After about 10 seconds of this performance (which doesn't look very convincing, but Riker buys it completely), "Data" tells Riker and Wesley that "Lore" senses their presence, and that he can't control him unless they leave. This doesn't make sense: Supposedly, "Lore" attacked him before, and if he can't control him with the others present, why assume he will be able to when they are not? However, not only does Riker agree to leave, he tells "Data" to immediately bring his report to the bridge when he is done questioning "Lore". Which means "Lore" will be alone in Data's quarters once more. Hopefully Riker at least assumes that "Data" will first render "Lore" unconscious again.

* In a post upthread, I wondered why it would matter that the object they beamed out next to the crystal entity was a living thing. I suppose the thinking was that a living thing might be more likely to attract its attention, since that is what it fed on. However, it supposedly also fed on machinery, so they could also have beamed out a probe or something. That seems much more practical given that replicators can't create living things, and presumably the Enterprise doesn't typically carry trees on board.

* Lore drugs Data, causing him to fall to the floor immobilized, then turns him off. Then, probably no more than an hour or so later, Crusher turns him back on, and he immediately awakens, apparently fully functional. So the drug wore off while he was turned off?

* Once Picard sends a security team to tail "Data", why doesn't he also send someone back to Data's quarters to check on "Lore"? If he finally suspects that that "Data" is really Lore, then he should also suspect that "Lore" is really Data, and be concerned for his welfare.

* Why doesn't Dr. Crusher call security or the captain as soon as she and Wesley find the injured Data in his quarters? It appears that the three of them rush off to stop Lore on their own without ever informing anyone (although it's possible that they did so offscreen at some point before reaching the cargo bay).

* When Lore shoots at Dr. Crusher as she is exiting the cargo bay, why does he miss, only grazing her sleeve? An android should easily have been able to hit her from that distance. Maybe he deliberately spared her- and Worf in the turbolift- because he was saving them for the crystal entity? Or perhaps his programing prevents him from harming humanoids directly?

*That seems much more practical given that replicators can't create living things, and presumably the Enterprise doesn't typically carry trees on board.

They might, don't forget about the arboretum.

Why do the colonists need farmland? Don't they have replicators?

Probably not. Replicators consume a lot of energy, and most of the people we see expressing an opinion complain that the food they produce doesn't compare to the real thing.

Probably not. Replicators consume a lot of energy, and most of the people we see expressing an opinion complain that the food they produce doesn't compare to the real thing.

My recollection is that replicated food was said to be the norm on Earth, in which case it couldn't be much more expensive than the natural kind. In "Lonely Among Us" Riker says that all meat is now replicated. Growing crops requires much more time and labor than replication, and the Omicron Theta colonists are mostly scientists, who probably don't have much experience farming and would prefer to spend their time conducting experiments. The Memory Alpha entry on replicators says replicated food tastes the same to most people. So it doesn't seem likely to me that the colonists would have farmlands.

On the Farpoint board, based on the fact that in that episode the Enterprise crew seem amazed by the concept of things appearing when you mention them, I speculated that the writers hadn't yet come up with the idea of replicators. I believe the first time we see a replicator, is when Picard's replicator malfunctions in the second season episode "Contagion", and that the first time the word "replicator" is used, is in the third season episode "The Survivors", when Picard gives a replicator unit to the two surviving colonists on a planet.

By the middle of the first season though, it seems the writers did have a vague idea of using technology similar to the transporter to create things: In "Lonely Among Us", Riker specifically refers to artificial meat as being "inorganically materialized out of patterns used by our transporters".

Earth has essentially unlimited power. A colony is going to be much more on its own.

iirc, replicated stuff isn't energy converted into matter. It's raw material dematerialized and rematerialized into whatever form you desire. In theory, you could change a kilogram of gold into a kilogram of catnip.

Although I'm not sure when the term "replicator" came into canon the use of them seems to reach all the way back to the first season of TOS.

We see more than one example of someone picking a random food(chicken soup), puts in an order at a wall slot--and gets hot food quicker than you can open a can.

Also Chris,I doubt they are doing much element changing-- I'd guess they are taking basic elements(C,N,O,H + otheres) out of storage, and rebuilding them to a set pattern(Joe's chicken soup) and beaming it to a receiverbehind the panel.

Going the other way--various wastes are broken down to their component elements and sent into storage. This is called recycleing.

The problem is--how good is the copy?

From what we see it's quite good--but can be told from the real thing.

This,and the fact of what the food is being made of will cause many people to want "real grown food".

Thus the need for farm land.

Yeah, but in the Trek Universe, certain things cannot be replicated. Latinum, for example. Because it's the basic currency for Ferengi and all the various non-aligned species throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. And the writers figured out that it needed to stay valuable so they confirmed in dialogue from an episode (I forget which one) that it could not be replicated.

As opposed to gold, which in early-mid TNG, was still considered valuable, as in "The Price", that DaiMon was gonna offer a whole lot of it for the rights to the Barzan Wormhole. And we all know how that turned out. I considered the BW to be one of the Major Fails of the galaxy!

But by mid-late DS9, Quark said that gold was now considered relatively worthless, but was of course being used to coat the highly valuable latinum. And remember when Kirk told Korob that basically, the Federation had the technology to manufacture all the precious jewels that were once considered valuable, but they now meant nothing? And that was presumably not by way of replicator. At least not the kind that was commonplace throughout the Federation and beyond in the 24th century. I wonder, just what would have they used in the 23rd to produce the precious jewels, anyway?

But when it comes to the food and drinks that are consumed by organic humanoid beings, it seems that those items are relatively easy to replicate. That is, when the replicators are working properly and are not being compromised by things like nitrium metal parasites, as seen in "Cost Of Living". Also, I think something also happened to them that made the drink containers start melting in "Hollow Pursuits", if memory serves.

And yes, as Francois mentioned, replicators do apparently require a large amount of energy to maintain. I don't know what unit of measurement would be used in this context. Joules, perhaps? And because of this, during most of the Voyager's journey the crew's replicator usage was rationed, which I thought made sense because of the ship needing it's power allocated to other things at times, such as shields, life support, structural integrity, and other more vital systems. And that's why Neelix was given the role of Chef to supplement the crew's diet with fresh foods native to the DQ that they would not have been accustomed to. I thought that was kind of cool, honestly. Especially for the Feddies who would have been more used to replicated food and drinks. As for the Maquis, I'm not sure what they would have had access to. Anything they could get their hands on, probably.

But I did notice that during certain episodes of VGR, it would be considered vital that the ship's power be allocated to the holodecks, presumably to boost crew morale. Or perhaps just simply to supply the plots of badly-written episodes containing lame holonovels and their respective characters. And I know that they are probably amongst the least popular of the show's run.

In any case, replicators would be the technology I would choose if I could have anything from the Trek Universe be real. I think that it was established at some point that the replicators for food/drink and miscellaneous other items were separate from each other. I'd love for them to be real, that's for sure!

Even if they did have replicators some people like farming. Not mention that agriculture is a science.

AMR - I wonder, just what would have they used in the 23rd to produce the precious jewels, anyway?
Probably more advanced versions of what they use today to make man made jewels. Humans have been making laboratory versions of gems for over a century. Most jewels have pretty simple formulas:
Diamonds are pure carbon, the hard part is duplicating the heat and pressure.
Sapphires & Rubies are aluminum oxide (transparent aluminum anyone? ;-)

Oddly enough Tourmaline would probably be the hardest to form because it's formula is (Na,Ca)(Mg,Li,Al,Fe²⁺,Fe³⁺)₃(Al,Mg,Cr)₆(BO₃)₃Si{6}O₁₈(OH,O,F)₄.

Earth has essentially unlimited power. A colony is going to be much more on its own.

In "The Survivors" Picard gives the Uxbridges a portable replicator that he says will provide them with food, clothing, etc. If two colonists living alone on a planet had enough power to replicate food (the episode mentions their home is powered by a small fusion reactor) then presumably 400 colonists could replicate their food too.

But yes, it is possible that the Omicron Theta colonists were growing food for reasons other than necessity.

Another possible nit related to the mention of farmland tho: When Yar says she detects no life readings, not even vegetation, Picard replies that is strange, because the ship that found Data reported farmland. That seems to imply that most, if not all the vegetation on the planet was on farmland. If so, that would presumably mean that vegetation was imported to the planet by the colonists- and without native plant life, would it have had an Earthlike atmosphere?

But I did notice that during certain episodes of VGR, it would be considered vital that the ship's power be allocated to the holodecks, presumably to boost crew morale.

It is established early in the series (second or third episode) that the holodecks have their own energy supply that is not directly compatible with the ship's main power. They could therefore run the holodecks without depleting the ship's limited energy resources. On the one hand, it makes sense to design the holodecks in that way, but on the other hand it's pretty stupid to make the two energy systems incompatible.

* When Riker says of Dr. Soong, "A positronic brain. He promised so much...", it sounds as though he thinks of a positronic brain as a goal yet to be achieved. Does he not know that Data has one?

Incidentally, I read that Roddenberry wanted Asimov to do a Hawking-like holodeck cameo, possibly in this episode. But unfortunately it didn't happen because of Asimov's health.

* Is "Make it so" a distinctive phrase of Picard's, or a Starfleet custom? If the latter, why didn't Lore read about it when he was scanning the computer files on "this vessel and its customs"?

* In the Guide, Phil quotes LaForge saying he's "picking up a bogey on a 5:00 tangent", noting the oddness of LaForge saying "bogey", and that he didn't use the standard 360/360 means of specifying vertical/horizontal direction, which was described earlier in this episode.

Additionally, LaForge also fails to mention two important details: The crystal entity's distance from the Enterprise, and its speed. Both of those facts would probably be more important than the direction it was approaching from (it would have been helpful to note its size too).

* Just how fast is the entity traveling? The Enterprise long-range sensors have detected ships more than a light year away. At its top safe speed of Warp 9.6, the Enterprise takes about 3 hours to cover 1 light year. And it doesn't appear that more than minutes pass between LaForge detecting the entity, and when we see it facing off with the Enterprise.

* After "Data" tells Picard that he thinks he can talk to the entity, all "Data" does is simply talk to it in English over a normal hailing frequency. Since any of them could have done that, Picard should wonder why "Data" implied he had to do it himself.

* Why doesn't Lore hear the cargo bay doors open when Data, Dr. Crusher, and Wesley sneak in?

* Can phasers actually cause things to catch fire? I don't recall seeing that in any other episode.

* At the end of the episode, Picard tells Wesley to "let the Bridge know that all is well down here". Why not do that himself by communicator?

* Given that Khan Noonien Singh is an infamous historical figure in the Trek universe, why did Dr. Soong's parents give him the first name Noonien? Isn't that like someone whose last name is Hadler, naming their child Adolf?

* Why does Data just stand back and watch while Argyle, Crusher, and others reassemble Lore? Couldn't his advice be helpful?

* After Picard awkwardly questions Data about his loyalties, and Data assures Picard that he is completely loyal to Starfleet, Picard thanks him and says he was certain of that. If so, why did he ask?

* Does the crystal entity have a Universal Translator? If not, how does it understand English converted into subspace signals?

* After Wesley goes to check on Data in his quarters, and finds "Data" there with the unconscious "Lore", "Data" tells Wesley to inform the captain that he will come up the bridge and report on what happened. Why doesn't "Data" inform the captain himself by communicator? By my count, this is now one of at least three times in this episode when a third party is used to deliver a message aboard the ship. Did the writers forget that communicators existed?

Given that Khan Noonien Singh is an infamous historical figure in the Trek universe, why did Dr. Soong's parents give him the first name Noonien? Isn't that like someone whose last name is Hadler, naming their child Adolf?

Just as there are people today who idolize Hitler and Stalin, maybe Noonien's parents idolized Khan.

Possible, but it must have been rough for young Noonien at school. Maybe his parents home schooled him.

Another Soong-related nit: "Brothers" reveals that Data looks like a young version of Noonien Soong. In this episode, Riker, LaForge, and even Yar all know who Soong is (although, weirdly, it seems like Data doesn't). Yet neither they or anyone else ever mentions the resemblance. For that matter, if Soong is so famous, why did nobody ever notice the resemblance during the prior 26 years since Data was found? If they had, the discovery that Soong was his creator shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

*IN REFERENCE TO EVERY POST BY "JONATHAN" ON THIS BOARD*

Dude, enough already. Haven't you been beating this dead horse for long enough?

This episode is TERRIBLE. We all know this. Why in the name of all that is holy are you still continuing to harp on the situation any further?!

I mean, I submitted my contributions and that was it for me. But you....you keep on and on and on and on and on with how much this episode stunk by listing all of it's mistakes and inconsistences. Dont you have anything better to do?!

I mean, I'm all for pointing out all the stupid stuff that happened throughout all Trek...but you sir, are offending even MY base sensibilities when it comes to shameless critisism!

It's called "learning when to quit and call it a day". Learn it. Know it. Do it. Love it!

And you do undertake this technique, you will have my everlasting gratitude. Thank you for your time!

Daniel Phillips from 2010:

"This episode is such a wall banger, Wesley is asked to keep an eye on Lore which he does and when he reports, they're not interested (which puts us all in the angry position of siding with Wesley over our heroes). They just let the crystalline entity (who names those things anyway) aka the planet killer go, they leave Lore floating in space to be picked up by the next Pakled freighter and Data responds with his "I'm fine". Makes you wonder how the franchise kept going after this."

This would have been one of the things I would have told the cast if I could have gotten them all together and confronted them about how truly terrible the series was when it first started. But the truth is, they're just actors. They really don't care. Not like us. Not like me. They got paid to deliver dialogue and they usually dont question it because they are taught from the beginning that if they dont do the job, there are hundreds, maybe thousands that will, for even less money. They're all told that they are all replaceable and expendable. You know, like the crew of the Nostromo in "Alien". And if the finished product receives a bad response from the fans, they really couldn't care less. In the last 20 years or so, I've learned that, and other things, about those in Hollywood who put out substandard schlock like this. They *really* don't care.

That's how I see it, anyway. But then, I have an extremely negative and cynical outlook on life. And I always see and point out the bad in everything! So what do I know? Right?

NANJAO When we see Lore's disassembled body in its storage locker, the lower part of his torso, unlike all the other parts, is positioned facing backward. Since Data's body, and consequently Lore's, is already established to be anatomically correct, the show's creators obviously did this to avoid an "X" rating being put on that episode