BROTHERS


This was an... interesting episode.

It's one of those stories which had a great concept, wonderful execution,
the to-be-expected terrific acting by Brent Spiner and... several plot
holes and loose ends.

The episode began on a sour note:  More of those "what the heck are they
doing on a warship??" children getting into trouble.  Moreover, ones that
are on board WITHOUT their parents (say what?).  The scripts were corny,
though the acting of the children surprisingly nearly made the sequence
believable.  Unfortunately, the facet with the younger brother dying,
a plot device to increase the urgency that the Enterprise get on with their 
mission, is as old as last year's unwashed sweat socks.  The sole redeeming
feature of this bit (and I feel dumb for not seeing it coming) was the
parallel drawn between the human brothers and Data and Lore.  It was a good
comparison, but I wish they'd found some better way to make it.

From there we launch into Data hijacking the Enterprise, which of course
conjures up images of Norman hijacking the original TOS ship in "I, Mudd".
This was a bit more believable, though it was still rife with implausibilities:

-  The computer doesn't require a retina scan for high-level command
   functions?  Some designer must have run over budget...
-  The force fields Data used were highly unlikely.  For one thing, where
   were the machines generating them?  What were they there for in the
   beginning?  Riker et. al. acted like they didn't know they existed,
   and yet they MUST have if they were there in the first place!  (Either
   that or Riker's being derelict in his duties!)  One would think there
   would be some manual way of overriding them.
-  The usual bit with the security people WALKING around the ship trying to
   capture Data, as well as not actually being anywhere where it would do
   any good (is Riker an idiot for not thinking that data could re-program
   the transporter for site-to-site transport?  I guess so).  Well, it's
   always good for some comic relief.
-  Picard not anticipating many of Data's actions.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.
   He *knows* Data has the capability to emulate other people's voices.
   As soon as it was realized that Data was behind everything, he should
   have taken steps to stop him, and he did not.  Not really.

There were some nice touches here, too, though, such as the boy's reaction
when they reached the Bridge, hugging up against the wall.  Also, Data's
actions to take over the ship, if you grant the absurdities that had to
occur for them to happen, were nice ideas, though the implications were not
well thought out.  The sequence with him entering a command password was
good.

But once the preliminaries got out of the way, the fun began.  Brent
Spiner acted up a storm, and the scripting was generally excellent.  I
was a tad disappointed in the somewhat flat character of Noonian Soong,
but Spiner's abilities more than made up for it.  Lore's motivations and
actions, and Soong and Data's responses, were right in character, and
usually highly entertaining.  There's really not a lot to say about it,
except that it has to be seen to be enjoyed.

The ending, though, simply left a lot of loose ends.  What if someone else
gets hold of that homing device?  If I were Starfleet I'd be VERY worried
about the ease with which a single individual managed to take over the
the most powerful ship in the fleet, and might give serious thought to
revoking Data's commission until something can be done.  This, like
Picard's reaction to being Borgified and Riker's promotional status, is
something that will have to be dealt with in order for the characters and
Starfleet to retain credibility.  Unless, of course, the creators WANT
to portray Starfleet as inept.

The Lore story will, I presume, be picked up again at a later point, but
what about Dr. Soong's laboratory?  Surely it's chock full of some of the
greatest cybernetic marvels of the 24th century!  The Federation should
move in there almost any time to check it out, and there would probably
be repercussions on Data's life as Soong's erstwhile "son" (and the only
other known sentient being alive to have created a sentient being).  They 
might ask for help, send him regular packets of information to analyze, and
maybe even figure out a way to re-create the emotion circuit that Soong
made.  It will be disappointing if they don't think of things like this.
Any one of them could potentially make a good hour-long episode.  Heck,
the possibilities could keep the show going for a whole season!

On the whole, it was an enjoyable episode, but it had all those nagging
little problems in it.  Good characterization, generally good script,
fine acting, an interesting basic plot (and doubly enjoyable because it
was so simple; it did only what was required to tell the story, and
didn't overreach itself).  It's good enough to say that TNG's fourth
season has started with a bang (two out of three worthwhile stories),
but not enough to call it a classic.

Grade:  B