Watched Brothers recently. First time seeing the whole thing, and I was quite disappointed in it. It wasn't awful but disappointing.
First, the plotholes and lazy writing:
1. Why would Dr. Soong, a man who's supposed to be peaceful and respect life, program the homing beacon to bring Data to him at any cost, even if it's putting one or more in danger? Wouldn't he program it to avoid that? Why deactivate Data's communicator? Why did he need to take over Data at all? Why not just make Data aware of the homing so he could come of his own accord?
2. How'd Soong escape the planet? He said he had an escape plan, but he never explains what the hell that was and why he didn't take others with him. Comes off like the writer couldn't come up with a good reason and so left it unanswered.
3. Why has he kept his survival secret, especially from Data? Did he just not want to be bothered? Again, never explained.
4. Did Soong die from his wounds from Lore? If not and he was just going to die later from his illness or natural causes, couldn't Data come by to see him at least one more time? If he died soon after Data left, did Data come back for Soong's stuff? Wouldn't Soogn have had paperwork describing how he made the emotion chip that Data could maybe replicate?
5. Couldn't Soong have used the homing device to bring Lore back or have told Data how to? Did Lore deactivate that or destroy the machine at Soong's place that activated it? If so to either or both, couldn't that have been mentioned to plug up that plot hole?
6. If imitating the captain's voice can allow so much access to and control over the ship, why isn't there a code required that only the captain knows (they use that later for the ship self-destruct and priority messages)? Seems like a huge oversight.
There are just too many questions left unanswered and too many holes in the story.
Anyway, onto the Data, Lore, and Soong stuff. It's so much nothing. We get some nice moments, but the story needed way more time and way more to say. Data takes a third of the episode to get to Soong, and Lore takes even longer. By the time they're all together the episode is almost two-thirds done. And when they do get to all talk, not much is accomplished. Some stuff is explained and some nice moments are had. But they could've done so much more with this story.
Also the parallel between Data and Lore and the two little kids on the Enterprise is pointless in the end since nothing is done with it.
I will say I liked giving Lore more depth. He's still evil, but he seemed to care about Soong dying soon and to anguish over why Soong didn't fix him.
Finally, I REALLY wish Data had gotten the chip. Would've been great to introduce a new element to his character and given him plots and moments where he learns about his new emotions throughout the rest of the show. But, no, we can't possibly change the status quo. *aggravated sigh.*
There's so much that could've been done with this, and they wasted that potential with lazy scripting and a whole episode that seemed only there to show Lore lives and to establish the emotion chip.
Anyway, what do others think of this episode?
First, the plotholes and lazy writing:
1. Why would Dr. Soong, a man who's supposed to be peaceful and respect life, program the homing beacon to bring Data to him at any cost, even if it's putting one or more in danger? Wouldn't he program it to avoid that? Why deactivate Data's communicator? Why did he need to take over Data at all? Why not just make Data aware of the homing so he could come of his own accord?
2. How'd Soong escape the planet? He said he had an escape plan, but he never explains what the hell that was and why he didn't take others with him. Comes off like the writer couldn't come up with a good reason and so left it unanswered.
3. Why has he kept his survival secret, especially from Data? Did he just not want to be bothered? Again, never explained.
4. Did Soong die from his wounds from Lore? If not and he was just going to die later from his illness or natural causes, couldn't Data come by to see him at least one more time? If he died soon after Data left, did Data come back for Soong's stuff? Wouldn't Soogn have had paperwork describing how he made the emotion chip that Data could maybe replicate?
5. Couldn't Soong have used the homing device to bring Lore back or have told Data how to? Did Lore deactivate that or destroy the machine at Soong's place that activated it? If so to either or both, couldn't that have been mentioned to plug up that plot hole?
6. If imitating the captain's voice can allow so much access to and control over the ship, why isn't there a code required that only the captain knows (they use that later for the ship self-destruct and priority messages)? Seems like a huge oversight.
There are just too many questions left unanswered and too many holes in the story.
Anyway, onto the Data, Lore, and Soong stuff. It's so much nothing. We get some nice moments, but the story needed way more time and way more to say. Data takes a third of the episode to get to Soong, and Lore takes even longer. By the time they're all together the episode is almost two-thirds done. And when they do get to all talk, not much is accomplished. Some stuff is explained and some nice moments are had. But they could've done so much more with this story.
Also the parallel between Data and Lore and the two little kids on the Enterprise is pointless in the end since nothing is done with it.
I will say I liked giving Lore more depth. He's still evil, but he seemed to care about Soong dying soon and to anguish over why Soong didn't fix him.
Finally, I REALLY wish Data had gotten the chip. Would've been great to introduce a new element to his character and given him plots and moments where he learns about his new emotions throughout the rest of the show. But, no, we can't possibly change the status quo. *aggravated sigh.*
There's so much that could've been done with this, and they wasted that potential with lazy scripting and a whole episode that seemed only there to show Lore lives and to establish the emotion chip.
Anyway, what do others think of this episode?
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