TNG: Brothers

            While having Brent Spiner as both Data and Lore has been compelling, having him play three characters at once is apparently too much. Especially with the terrible aging makeup that put on him for Dr. Soong that make him look more like an alien than an old person. Also Data taking over the ship and risking all their lives (not just the one sick kid) raises all sorts of questions about the security of command on a Starfleet vessel. It kinda seems like maybe they should have different controls in place if one person, even a person such as Data, can so easily take over all command functions. 
            The episode begins with kids so you know it isn't going to be great. One kid pranked his brother by pretending to be killed in a laser tag game and the younger brother ran off and ate a fruit that gave him deadly parasites that was just there waiting to be eaten for some reason. This whole episode seems like maybe it is time to review procedures on the ship. While Data is taking the offending child to go apologize he starts twitching and stops talking. He then goes straight to the bridge and changes course on the ship before shutting down life support on the bridge. You would think it would be easier if he did it the other way around, but whatever. He seals them all out and takes the ship somewhere. He even programs it so that after he leaves even Picard can't easily fix things by faking Picards voice and setting a long numeric pass code. 
            Data evades their attempts to keep him from transporting and beams to the surface of a planet. He finds himself in the presence of Dr. Noonian Soong, his creator. Dr. Soong doesn't seem to give a damn about the havoc he has raised and only wants to hang out with Data and be cool. This goes great until Lore shows up and things get tense. Dr. Soong tells them he is dying and that he made an emotion chip for Data so he can be more like Lore. But Lore tricks him into installing it into him instead and then flees. Data is left to explain his behavior and I guess they save the kid.

            Review: Not the best written episode and having Dr. Soong give so little care for the safety of the Enterprise is kinda shocking really. Data has such I high regard for life it is actually unclear where he got it from. Not an awful episode, but much weaker than the ones that came before this season.

4 out of 10