Star Trek: Datalore

Episode: "Datalore"
Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 1, Episode 13
Original Air Date: January 18, 1988

via Memory Alpha

Data gets an origin story and a brother.  The Enterprise visits Omicron Theta, the planet where Data was first found by Starfleet.  In a hidden lab, the away team discovers a disassembled android essentially identical to our friend.  They bring him back to the ship and put him together.  He is just like Data, except evil...

The idea of an evil twin was actually Brent Spiner's.  The initial plan was a female android who would become his love interest, an idea which would be reworked as Data's child in "Offspring,"  The Lore concept is fun, sort of a "Mirror, Mirror" story for a single character.  However, much as with Q and Lwaxanna Troi, I find the character grating - a bit of a theme with Season 1 and recurring characters thus far.  It's fun to watch Spiner switch back and forth between the two brothers and the camera and editing work are effective in generating a believable double.  The scene where Data finds his own face mold is genuinely goosebump-inducing.  Even so, I can't help wishing Lore was permanently removed from the saga as promised.  Future Lore stories will be better.  I know that.

We've gotta talk about the contraction thing.  Much is made in both this episode and Season 3's "Offspring" of the fact that Data cannot use contractions such as you're, we'll, I'm, etc.  Both Lore and Lal (from "Offspring") can which is meant to establish them as more advanced androids.  The thing is, Data uses contractions all the time.  He even does so in this episode.  It's the sort of character wrinkle that could have been really cool if they'd been consistent with it.  But they weren't.  Writing staff fail.

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Biff Yeager makes the second of two TNG appearances in "Datalore" as Lt. Cmdr. Argyle, the chief engineer who oversees the reassembly of Lore.  Other television appearances include The Wonder Years, Scrubs, Seinfeld and Gilmore Girls.  Film credits include Repo Man, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Edward Scissorhands.