UNCUT - Brothers (TNG S4E3) | Star Trek Journey 184

Star Trek, the Next Generation. Starring: Brent Spiner Co-Starring: Brent Spiner And special guest star: Brent Spiner I'll give this 3 S's for three Spiners!

The the boy in quarantine story was the B-plot. 1) It provided continuity with the title "brothers" and misleads the audience into initially thinking that the story would be about those brothers, when in fact it's about Data and his brother. Lore is supposed to be a "reveal" to the audience despite the teaser spoiling it somewhat. 2) The brothers subplot provided a sense of urgency for why the crew needed to regain control of the Enterprise quickly. The kid was going to die unless they got control of the ship in the next few hours. They could only save him by finding Data fast (because of that impossible computer lockout code). It also reinforces that while Data wasn't necessarily a threat to the ship, he could at anytime be at anytime. His priority of getting back to Soong was higher than life of a dying child. 3) The conclusion of the episode where Lore reestablishes himself as a villain/antagonist gives Data a new conflict as he now has to reconcile Lore being a threat with him being his brother. The last line of the episode from Crusher is "brothers forgive", referencing the two boys having regained their friendship after their conflict. Can Data ever reconcile with his brother the way these children have?

Your reactions are very fun to watch but the discussions are GOLDEN.

Alien Romulus I like but the third act was a letdown

great points about how scary Data can be. It's a good thing he also happens to be one of the kindest souls we've ever seen. Amazing character.

Rick Berman was absolutely in charge of the golden age of Trek but maybe read a bit more about the guy as you give him the kudos you are giving him.

you guys should watch Spiner's mini web series "Fresh Hell" where he plays a fictional version of himself

Imagine Data finishes putting in that insanely long code and in response he gets... Computer "Your password strength is medium. Please include at least 1 special symbol or character" Ok so full disclosure, I thought the prank took place on the Enterprise and it had me wondering why they left parasite laden, deadly fruit where children could reach it. On a planet makes way more sense, but it makes LESS sense to blame the kid. Like seriously, "I'm very disappointed in you. How have you not memorized every single one of the tens of thousands of deadly plants and animals on every one of the hundreds of planets we've visited? And then you had the audacity to not predict your brother would randomly go and eat one such plant over a prank. You're 9 years old and I expect better than that". Like others have said, the B plot was just there as a ticking clock. When you guys were talking about the quarantine field, they had already reached the bridge, meaning they got through the forcefields. They used all but the minimal power needed for quarantine to short out the forcefields, and after that the quarantine played no role in them getting the ship back. It was all about the code. Like Josh, Data is my favourite as well, though Picard is basically tied for that spot IMO. Spiner did an amazing job with so many varied performances here. I like that Soong genuinely cared about Lore and wanted to do right by him despite everything he had done. Despite some great work from Brent however, and despite being a very well crafted episode, this one for me isn't quite in the top tier eps(I rated it B tier) is that I view it largely as connective tissue. It's the same reason Empire is my least favourite original trilogy SW movie. ANH stands on it's own, ROTJ would leave you with a lot of questions if it was the first you saw, but it's a complete story with a resolution. ESB starts you in the middle and ends there. I suppose it was great that Data got a chance to meet his "father" one last time, and they definitively wrapped up Soong's story. The emotion chip presents some interesting possibilities for Data, but that's not paid off. Lore shows up largely as a cameo in that story, and he's just out there somewhere at the end. Data doesn't get emotions. Aside from Soong dying(which we though he already had), nothing really changes. For that reason it won't rate as high for me as MoaM of Q Who or Sarek. Doesn't mean it's bad, but to be an A or S, I need the story to be at least mostly complete, not just a step along the way.

Think of Rick Berman as the successor to Gene Rodenberry. He was in charge of Star Trek as a whole after Gene.

I don't think that the B plot was just about having a reason that they couldn't reset everything. I think it was more about providing a sense of urgency to the episode. The ship needs to get to the starbase before this kid dies and the A plot is putting that in jeopardy.

"Gigabyte" as the name of Data's dinosaur brother is tooooo fuckin funny.

Agree about Alien: Romulus... it should have been called Alien: Crystal Lake.

"Datalore" suffers from the first season's issues with awkward dialogue, and also part of the problem there is we (and the show) just didn't know Data that well yet.

About the protocol patron take.. ahhh so that’s what that shot was showing? I didn’t realize Data was supposed to be in the emergency turbo. I thought he was nodding to Capt and No 1 that he would stay on the bridge since he doesn’t need air.

Fun fact: not sure you came across this in the Patron takes, but originally Brent Spiner was not going to play Dr. Noonian Soong. They were going to cast an older Asian actor, most likely Keye Luke (look him up - he's been in nearly everything, including TOS - Whom Gods Destroy), but I think Luke was not in good health at the time and so Brent offered to play Soong.

I think they crafted the situation with the little boys for the payoff line by Dr. Crusher at the end ... and for the reason Alex mentioned about not being able to regain control of the ship too quickly.

I don't think the B-story was intended to provide an excuse for why they couldn't regain control of the ship (they mention that they can't divert power from the quarantine field, but then they immediately get around that by just leaving minimal power for the quarantine). But I do think the B-story was mostly there just to give a sense of urgency with a ticking clock.

Lor did show a little brotherly love if you think about it. He took the time after disabling Data, to dress him in the Pakled garb. Imagine Worf carrying a naked Data back into Sung's Lad. Horrifying.

There’s one moment early on that I’m eager to see their reaction on, just that alone!!

You guys talked over the part (not knocking you just is what it is) where the enterprise saw a ship take obit and also where Lore said a Paklad ship had picked him up (I'm sure he murdered all those special guys). You guys identified many of the reasons for the B plot...but the biggest reason was to give the crew a sense of urgency in taking back the ship beyond what would normally be there (especially if you don't actually think Data is trying to be directly malicious...because in that case with no urgency just wait Data out).

Lots of officers cans take over the Enterprise if they want to. Geordi could, Riker could, 50/50 on the Chief. Sure Data is a risk because he can be 'reprogrammed', but meatbags can be brainwashed, possessed by malevolent entities, and so on. At the end of the day, you have to just trust your officers. Any Ensign with access to a weapons locker can point at the warp core and blow the ship up.

Probably watched this episode 100 times and I never realised the dinosaurs 🦕 that Data gives to the kids are the ones from Soongs lab

Brent Spiner deserves an Oscar for this episode

Those 'next times' really ruined everything. I was completely spoiled on every plot twist as a kid...

You guys usually make more of a fuss over the prosthetics. That shot where Soong is installing the emotion chip, Data's (well, Lore's) neck was open and you could see depth in the circutrity. I thought that was impressive. And I heard you both react when Lore flips his thumbnail up to expose his escape button.

The B story was in there to give them a reason they really had to hurry up and get control of the ship. The kid would’ve died if they couldn’t get to the starbase.

just like Picard after the borg it hilarious they just let data go back to work after hijacking the enterprise

Brent Spiner is a National Treasure

Banger episode. Brent Spiner hits a Triple Home run. I can't wait to get home to watch it

1:17:58 Lal did not have emotions. It was an "emotional illusion." Her feelings were not real, the perception of having feelings was a manifestation of her dysfunction.

1:12:12 Runtime of the show probably prohibited that sort of thing.

56:45 On the Enterprise, they talked about another ship entering orbit. That was your hint at what was about to happen/who was going to appear.

Is anyone else reminded of Majora's Mask whenever it shows the day with the sound effect?

As I told you in the AMA yesterday, I knew you'd like it. Edit: I predict you won't like the next one.

51:51 Yeah, hopefully Maddox doesn't get a hold of that button to bring Data (and Lore) to him! LOL

When you think about Brent Spiner's acting chops.... THIS is the episode I think of. This is also the "terrifying Data" episode you think of.

That teaser was one of the worst. hahaha

You guys can be rough on those kid actors. They can't all be the cast of Stranger Things. :)

question do you guys need to have the subtitles on? Ah btw here was something in the paper recently about why some might struggle to hear tv dialogue https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13769225/little-known-condition-explain-need-subtitles.html "Common but little-known condition could explain why you need subtitles to watch TV - despite having good hearing"

38:11 Josh is already crying.

Always enjoyed this episode Spiner is wonderful

Did you guys know that Brent Spiner, the actor who portrayed Dr. Noonien Soong, also played the role of Lieutenant Commander Data?

18:10 Exact reaction I expected from you guys!

6:30 Prometheus was awful. Absolutely abysmal.

One of my favorite TNG outtakes comes from this episode with Patrick Stewart joking about how good god Brent Spiner needs more time to read his lines.

Great episode once I got past the plot contrivance of the Enterprise as a daycare. I’m nervous leaving my animals with a sitter when I go on vacation, and they’re not likely to be blown out an airlock…

Brother is a solid episode. One of those episodes where the technical craft is being used almost exclusively for character drama. Think about it, this isn't a big space battle or some weird interdimensional portal or something... It's one guy, playing three distinct characters, in the same room, and the craft is using a myriad of editing tricks to make you believe there are three of him on screen. Whether it's bodies doubles, split screen, over dubbing, over the shoulder. This is a rare example of the direction in TNG actually standing out in a nuanced and clever way.

Family part 2, Data wrangling...

First, obviously, no update to the scoreboard but I have a comment. The practical joke was AWESOME, I mean fantastic. The fact the little kid ate the fruit has nothing to do with the joke. Let me get this straight. the little kid thinks he killed his brother and the first thing he does is chow down on fruit. I say the little kid should die based on Natural Selection. We don't want that kid growing up and having children like him dumbing down the human species.

I like the misdirect of this episode with the title. You think it's about the dumb kids (no offense meant all kids are dumb) then ends up being about Data/Lore. Spiner playing three different characters, great example of just how unstoppable Data can be if he wants to be. Great episode and S tier for me which I do not hand out often.

On break at work. I can't wait to get home for this. Also, I recently rewatched some more of STAR TREK CONTINUES with a HUGE guest actor... I'm adding that series to my personal STAR TREK Canon. It's too good to not watch with TOS. It's downloadable I think, so I'm going to add it to my Plex to have a permanent version... just in case their channel ever vanishes.

I was looking forward to Alien Romulus. I guess I'll pass.