Data is in his quarters, looking into a tripod mirror and working on his imitation of the human sneeze. The Enterprise-D has traveled to the vicinity of Omicron Theta, the planet of Data’s origin. Twenty-six years earlier, the android was found by the crew of the Hokule’a-class starship U.S.S. Tripoli, lying dormant in underground isolation. More than four hundred Earth colonists, who were engaged in agricultural and scientific work, mysteriously vanished from the planet two years prior to Data’s “birth.” Captain Jean-Luc Picard sends an away team, led by Commander William Riker, to search for clues that might shed light on the enigmatic disappearance and its possible connection to Data’s unknown “pre-history.”
The Tripoli landing party discovered the sentient android when he was reactivated by a “signal device” that detected their presence. Data knows very little about his origins beyond the fact that he holds the deceased colonists’ accumulated knowledge in saved database files and “memory remnants” in his brain.
Lt. Tasha Yar, played by Denise Crosby, ascertains through sensor readings that all life on Omicron Theta, including vegeta- tion, has been destroyed. The Enterprise-D away team materializes in a barren area on the planet’s surface. The impoverished soil shows traces of having been fertile two or three decades ago. Commander Riker, Lt. Commander Data and the others enter a winding tunnel and succession of corridors that lead to an abandoned scientific facility packed with sophisticated equipment. This is the clandestine laboratory where Dr. Noonien Soong, “Earth’s foremost robotics scientist,” and his wife Dr. Juliana O’Donnell Soong, constructed and tested Data. Hanging on the wall are children’s drawings of people fleeing in fear from a gigantic crystal-like object. Riker touches a control of the lab’s main workbench, causing the table to open and reveal a hidden compartment. Inside the desk drawer, then in a larger storage area, the Enterprise-D officers behold the disassembled body parts of another android. Its expressionless face appears identical to that of Data. Its shoulder and half-head mold fits him exactly.
A team of medical and engineering specialists, supervised by Dr. Beverly Crusher and Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Argyle, played by Biff Yeager, reassembles the Artificial Life-form in sick bay, and then anxiously awaits its regaining of consciousness. To complete the last details of the reconstruction, the team studies Data’s “anatomical” micro-circuitry, with the Operations Officer lying on an operating table under a sensor hood, for comparison. Data discloses to Dr. Crusher the secret of a particular spot on his back that operates like an on-off switch. After the new android awakens, he explains that he is Data’s twin brother Lore.
Lore, also played by Brent Spiner, claims that he was built by Dr. Soong on the Omicron Theta world as a replacement for Data after the colonists “found [Data] to be imperfect.” Lore has a more human-like personality than Data. He has superior “natural language” fluency in his syntax and use of verbal contractions. He has a more intuitive understanding of humor, and ingratiates himself more easily in social interaction with the majority of Enterprise-D crew members.
Lore reports to Captain Picard that the Omicron Theta colonists were killed by a ravenous spacefaring Crystalline Entity which feeds on “life energy,” and is capable of stripping an entire planet of all life.
Data begins to suspect that all is not right with Lore after the newcomer android admits that he initially lied when he said that Data was constructed before him. In the revised version told by Lore, Data was made as a replacement for him after the colonists, who envied and despised the emotionally endowed android for his “perfection,” petitioned Soong to have him deactivated. Also contributing to Data’s growing distrust is the fact that Lore speaks contemptuously of Data’s loyalty to Starfleet, of their “beloved father” Dr. Soong (whom Lore refers to as “good old Often-Wrong Soong”), and of humans in general. Lore strangely conceals the prodigious amount of knowledge that he possesses in his conversations with the crew, although he is extremely eager to please them. Some of his comments expose his jealously towards Data’s successful career and established life among humans. Lore seems to be motivated by self-hatred, and resentment at the “predicament” of his own existence. What finally emerges is the gravest danger lurking within Lore: his immense ambition and megalomania. The twisted android believes that he is vastly superior to humans, and has a maniacal dream of acquiring infinite knowledge, “the knowledge of hundreds of millions of life-forms of every kind.”
Left alone in Data’s quarters, Lore absorbs information about the starship from a computer terminal at such a rapid pace that the screen images become blurred. He obtains a bottle of champagne and two glasses, and waits for Data to return to the private rooms. Lore proposes that they drink a toast to honor the occasion of their mutual discovery. But the devious older brother has slipped a potent chemical substance into Data’s glass. After taking a sip, the android Starfleet officer is knocked out cold and falls to the floor. Lore switches uniforms with the unconscious Data. He goes to the bridge and “impersonates” him. Wesley Crusher becomes skeptical regarding the authenticity of this “Data,” based on what he observes of the android’s behavior, especially the enthusiastic way that the latter greets the approach of the slowly spinning Crystal Thing (whom Lore has summoned with a subspace channel communication). Wesley tries to convey his concern to Captain Picard, but the adolescent boy is not taken seriously. The Captain reacts with annoyance, reprimanding the “Acting Ensign” for his bad manners.
It was Lore who conspired with the predatory Crystalline Entity to annihilate the Omicron Theta colonists twenty-eight years ago. The immense snowflake-like being destroyed all life on the planet. Lore was never able to handle the emotional capabilities that Dr. Soong gave him. He was consumed by lust for power. Making contact again with the voracious, life-draining creature, Lore offers to serve up for its sastisfaction this time the tasty meal of the more than four hundred humanoid life-forms aboard the Enterprise-D. After that, a galaxy of densely populated planets awaits.
Data is roused in the nick of time by Wesley and Dr. Crusher, who resets the switch in his back to the “on” position. The duplicate brothers go after each other in an all-out android brawl in Cargo Transporter Room Three. Their amazing strength and super-speed is on display. They gravitate towards the transporter mechanism, and Data maneuvers Lore onto the platform. Wesley finds the control panel and beams Lore into Deep Space, using a wide-dispersal teleportation beam. The shimmering Crystalline Entity moves away from the starship. Lore will drift in space for nearly two years before being rescued by a passing Pakled trade ship.
