Brothers (⭑⭑⭑)

A number of questionable plot issues lurk around the perimeter of this episode, but the encounter between the three characters (all played by the same actor) at its core is pretty great—and some fun is had along the way, too. Interestingly, this was the second consecutive episode to feature an encounter between two brothers who don’t get along, and it also has in common with “Family” the fact that its story is rich with thought-provoking ideas, yet also a bit narratively lacking. Still, Data meeting his creator, the return of Lore, and the debut of the emotion chip that will become important for Data’s development down the road all make this a memorable and classic episode.

It’s also sort of the first “normal” episode of season four—a season that, rather than introducing any new tweaks or refinements to the show like each of the prior two seasons had done, was instead able to build wonderfully upon the foundation of what the show had become during its third season. Larry Nemecek, in the TNG Companion, calls this “the sequel season,” emphasizing the many returning guest characters and the large number of episodes (including both of the first two post-premier ones) with themes about family. But of course, in the context of an episodic TV show that aspired, in its limited and product-of-its-time way, to transcend its story-of-the-week structure and present a consistent universe with characters that grow and change over time, another word for “sequels” is continuity. And as “Brothers” illustrates (and as would be illustrated again two episodes later), the show was not afraid to reach back even into the dubious legacy of its dismal first season for worthwhile story threads that it might revisit and do right by, now that its writers actually knew what they were doing. (The fact that this was the first time TNG started a new season without significant turnover on its writing staff doubtless played a role here.) Also, I’ll just say this: I don’t have a single “favorite” season of TNG, but if I were to consider arguments in favor of various contenders, season four would earn some serious points for being the season with the fewest overtly bad episodes in the show’s entire run.

So, anyway: “Brothers.” The opening scene of this episode is well-written, conveying basic exposition in a character-focused way and making Riker seem basically decent and reasonable despite the context of him having to sternly lecture a young child—but does the setup behind the whole scenario with the two brothers really make sense? Okay, Jake Potts played a cruel prank on his little brother; bad him. But the causal relationship between this event and Willie eating some weird fruit that gave him a potentially fatal illness seems very weak. Much more concerning, surely, is the fact that these two young kids are allowed to roam the ship unsupervised, and that things as dangerous as the weird fruit are easily accessible! In short, the medical emergency that ensues is definitely the fault of the adults, not Jake. (Also, are we really meant to understand that these kids are without a guardian of any kind while their parents are “on sabbatical”?) Broadening out from here, is it clever, or kind of cheesy, that the episode uses this instance of brotherly conflict both to create urgency and tension around the need to regain control of the ship after Data takes it over, and as a parallel to the encounter between Data and his “brother” in the A story? Honestly, I’ve never fully decided. Then, of course, there’s the whole issue of Data, under the influence of his activated homing beacon, having his normal consciousness overridden and going a bit berserk (taking over the ship). It’s exciting and fun to watch this happening, but it also raises questions that the episode doesn’t seem very interested in addressing. Does anyone, afterwards, subject Data to thorough diagnostics in an effort to ensure that there are no other latent triggers that might cause him to go rogue again in the future? How do we weigh the danger of something like this suddenly turning Data from his solid, reliable self into a terrifying security liability, against the kinds of emotional liabilities that might make ordinary people unreliable at times, but from which Data is immune? And then, too, there’s the recurrence of the silliness of someone being able to override the ship’s security protocols simply by electronically reproducing its captain’s voice—something that we saw Wesley do way back in “The Naked Now,” and that I would have been happy never to see again.

Okay, so what of the actual encounter between Data, Soong, and Lore? First, it has to be said that while the old man makeup used to turn Brent Spiner into the dying Dr. Soong is not great, Spiner’s performance is pretty great. The conceit that Dr. Soong literally crafted his androids in his own image (“I always loved that face!”) is fun, too. As in “Datalore,” the actual back story around the two androids’ origins remains a bit muddled; how, exactly, did Lore conspire with the crystalline entity and betray the colony, to the doom of its (organic) inhabitants, if he had been deactivated and replaced by Data due the colonists’ fear of him? And yet, this episode builds on the relationship between the two androids in a fun way; Data’s epiphany upon learning that he is not, after all, “less perfect” than Lore, is affecting, even if it pushes the line of his alleged non-emotionality. Lore, too, is deftly characterized, losing none of his selfishness and villainy, yet still becoming more sympathetic as we see the bitterness and jealousy that fuels it, and also realize that he genuinely loves, and craves love from, Soong. Before Lore turns up, the exchanges between Soong and Data are well-written, well-acted, and not without merit on a food-for-thought level, but the content strikes me as ultimately a bit obvious: of course Soong created Data for reasons that combine an artist’s need to create with a parent’s striving for the vicarious sense of immortality provided by having offspring. It’s well-expressed, but there’s nothing eye-opening or character-changing here. (And finally, returning to the ways in which this episode raises incidental plot questions: So, at the end of “Datalore,” Lore was beamed out into space and just left to drift out there!? At the time, I was under the impression that he had been “killed”—de-materialized and never re-materialized—which raises its own questions, admittedly. But why would our heroes beam him into space to extricate themselves from the immediate crisis…and then just leave him out there? Seems very weird.)

I have to take a moment here, too, to comment on just how odd an egg Dr. Soong turns out to be. His remark about never liking to live anywhere without having a prearranged escape ready is just…bizarre. It’s there, of course, to explain how it is that he is even still alive, but there have to have been other ways to rationalize that! So, the weirdness that it attributes to Soong seems like a deliberate choice on the part of the writers. The implied paranoia is…interesting, and the equally implied relative indifference to the fate of the rest of the colonists when he made good his escape is outright disturbing. Does Lore take after his father? Is it possible that the colonists were not only afraid of Lore, but of Dr. Soong as well? Soong’s cavalier activation of Data’s homing beacon seems to fit with this trait of prioritizing his interests above others’ well-being, too. And of course, he’s this bizarre recluse who is content to live in isolation for decades and let the world believe him dead. And yet, he chides Data (Data!) for not being sufficiently trusting (!?), shortly before naively allowing Lore to deceive and take advantage of him. All of this is sort of intriguing, but receives so little direct attention that one can almost overlook how weird it all is. Also, what would really have been interesting would have been to get a sense of what Data makes of his creator’s peculiarities and possible amorality—but alas, the episode doesn’t really go there.

In fact, probably my biggest complaint about “Brothers” overall is that Data (the “real” Data, not the automaton who seizes control of the ship at the beginning) is too passive an agent in the story. He has an interesting encounter with both his creator and his “evil twin,” but he doesn’t really make any decisions that drive the story, or draw any apparent conclusions from his second encounter with Lore, who resorts to the exact same trick here as in their first encounter, overpowering and then impersonating him in order to get what he wants—in this case, making off with the emotion chip that was meant for Data. Even the fact of Data’s loss of agency in being externally induced to take over the ship, which obviously conflicts with his ordinary values and goals, is passed over pretty lightly. For that matter, the background conflict between the two young human brothers similarly resolves without either of them taking any direct action to reconcile; they just get over it and start playing together again once the younger one’s life is no longer in danger. This is perfectly plausible, particularly for children of their age—but it doesn’t make for a very compelling story. And maybe that, in itself, would be okay; after all, they’re just the backdrop, not the main story. But when Dr. Crusher delivers the episode’s final stinger, observing to Data that “brothers forgive”—what does Data take away from this? That, to me, is perhaps the biggest thing missing from the episode.

I started writing this review with the idea that I would award “Brothers” four stars, but as I’ve written, I’ve talked myself down to only three. I want to like this one, I guess, a bit more than I actually do like it.