Super Barclay vs. “Reprogrammed” Data (TNG Season 4)

[GotNoRice]

I was re-watching TNG, speficically season 4, and was curious about the similarities between two episodes.
In the episode 4x03, “Brothers” Dr. Soong activates a recall program which causes data to take control of the enterprise and bring it to the planet where Dr. Soong’s Lab is. Data is able to defeat the entire crew’s attempt to stop him.

In the episiode 4x19, “The Nth Degree” Lieutenant Barclay experiences a flash of light by an alien probe which begins to reprogram/enhance his brain and causes him to eventually take control of the enterprise and bring it to the planet where curious aliens want to investigate the enterprise. Barclay is also able to defeat the crew’s attempts to stop him.

Besides the similarities, I often wondered why Barclay and Data where never really paired up in 4x19 at all, either against each other or initially to help each other. Barclay went as far as to re-create a holographic Einstein but didn’t think to maybe discuss any of his theories with data, perhaps the one real person on the ship that might have been able to keep up and perhaps put some of that knowledge to use? And it would seem like data would be their biggest asset in terms of keeping Barclay out of the computer; as they would eventually figure out in First Contact when it took him mere seconds to lock the Borg out for more or less the entire movie using an encryption code.

The only reason I can think of is that they must have figured they had enough “data episodes” by that point, but that didn’t stop them from having more later in the season such as 4x25 where we got to explore Data’s love life with Jenna D'Sora…

If it came down to it, who do you think would have the upper hand?

 

[USS Excelsior]

Barclay hijacked the ship before anyone else realized it.

And had more ingenuity and imagination than even Data.

 

[Huntingdon]

Probably Barclay. After all - Data lost at Stratagema to that Zakdorn, at least initially.

 

[Christopher]

Why specify "reprogrammed" Data? I never got the sense that the reprogramming gave him any special abilities. I figure he could've done all that at any time; he just didn't want to.

 

[GotNoRice]

Why specify "reprogrammed" Data?

I guess it doesn’t necessarily matter, but the way it played out in the episode made Data seem extremely determined and made data seem like he would take steps he wouldn’t otherwise have taken, potentially making him a tougher adversary. I mean there was a dying kid in sickbay and he didn’t care…

Barclay seemed similarly determined, or at least toward the end seemed fairly demeaning toward the crew in the sense that he wouldn’t have hesitated to do something dangerous if he felt it was safe because he thought he was so much smarter than everyone else.

Having them both on such a “determined” course of action, I think, would have made for a more interesting hypothetical confrontation. If it had just been regular old Data, I don’t see him as being willing to violate protocol or put people at risk and thus not really on an even playing field as Barclay in his situation; but who knows.

 

[erastus25]

I really can't decide. On the one hand, Data showed some incredible powers of intellect but Barclay made amazing advances in Federation technology in a matter of hours. That's something Data never seemed to do. However, part of me wonders how much Data was holding back so as not to stand out and be more "human."

 

[Mr. Fergy]

Barclay, he was smarter than even a reprogrammed Data. He even told the ship's computer how to do something.

 

[shatastrophic]

But Barclay was stuck in that chair. Granted his new body, so to speak, was the Enterprise. But if Data were able to evacuate somehow and have a ship of his own then he could hold his own. Who's reaction time would be better though? Even if they were both directly interfacing with the ships systems. Doesn't Data perform a trillion calculations per second? But it does pose an interesting point as to why he was kind of in the background in this episode.