Lore (; played by
Brent Spiner) is a prototype android and the "brother" of main character
Data. In
TNG, Lore is characterized as a frighteningly evil version of the android Data that massacres the colonists of their homeworld, Omicron Theta. Throughout the series, Lore is sometimes depicted as being almost charming and friendly and is able to manipulate Data through lies and emotions. Including the film canon, Lore and Data also have another brother,
B-4. However, while Data is advanced and B-4 is primitive, Lore is sophisticated, clever, jealous and self-serving, making him the evil triplet in the group. Lore was introduced in the episode "
Datalore", the episode in which he was activated. He returned in "
Brothers" and in both parts of "
Descent", at the end of which he was deactivated and dismantled. Lore returns in
the third season of
Star Trek: Picard.
Overview Lore was constructed and activated before his brother, Data, on
Omicron Theta. Unlike Data, Lore was programmed with emotions, but became emotionally unstable and developed megalomaniac tendencies. Lore perceived himself as superior to the human colonists and felt that they resented him due to his perceived superiority. His creator, Dr.
Noonien Soong, whom Lore saw as a father figure, would later deactivate and disassemble Lore, constructing what Lore claimed was a "less-perfect android" – Data – without emotions or the capacity to use linguistic contractions. (The part about Data being "less-perfect" was a lie, as Soong later told Data in "Brothers"; the only real difference between the two of them "was some programming". [Lore's positronic net differed from Data's: it had a Type-"L" phase discriminator compared to Data's Type-"R". (TNG: "Time's Arrow")]) Soong planned on repairing Lore after building and testing Data, but before he could do that the colony was destroyed by the
Crystalline Entity and Soong was forced to flee. Lore admits (in "
Datalore") that, unknown to Soong or the colonists at the time, it was Lore himself who lured the Crystalline Entity to the colony. Lore's body parts were discovered in Soong's lab in the episode "Datalore", and he was rebuilt and reactivated. Although Lore initially appeared as inquisitive and harmless as Data, his true nature was gradually revealed during the episode. Lore secretly contacts the Crystalline Entity again, offering it the crew of the
USS Enterprise as sustenance. However, Data foils his plans and transports Lore into space before the Crystalline Entity can attack, saving the ship. In the episode "
Brothers", Soong summons Data to Terlina III to give him an emotion chip. However, the same signal summons Lore, who had been found drifting in space and rescued by a group of
Pakleds. In contrast to Data's stoicism, Lore is sympathetic and distraught upon learning of their "father's" terminal illness, but jealousy over his brother and resentment of his own uncorrected imperfections reassert themselves. Lore incapacitates Data and poses as him while Soong installs the chip. He then fatally wounds Soong before fleeing. In "
Descent, Part II", it is revealed that Lore, after his actions in "Brothers", found a group of
Borg struggling with individuality following the
Enterprise crew's actions in "
I, Borg" and became their leader. Lore uses Soong's emotion chip to control Data until
Geordi La Forge,
Jean-Luc Picard and
Deanna Troi manage to reactivate Data's ethical programming. Data shoots Lore at the end of the episode and then deactivates him, seemingly for good (retrieving his emotion chip afterwards). His final words (in his then-current body) to Data are "
I love you... brother." In the sixth episode of the third season of
Picard, Lore is revealed to have been revived and partially merged with Data, B-4 and Soong's son Altan, inside a new android body, that Starfleet's most advanced weapons lab, the Daystrom Institute, has requisitioned. The new android entity contains valuable information on the lab's research projects, including the object stolen by the antagonists of the season: Picard's original dead body. The android is brought aboard the USS
Titan. Lore's persona is separated from Data's, leading to a fight between the two over the android's control that ensues over the next two episodes, with Lore taking over the ship's systems and allowing the antagonists to seize the bridge. Eventually, Data realizes he cannot overpower Lore, but Lore lacks and envies the compassion and empathy Data developed. He offers his memories to Lore as a battle trophy; though in actuality, they are a
Trojan horse. Data's memories consume Lore, destroying Lore permanently and allowing Data full control of the android body and the
Titan.
Filming Brent Spiner played Lore (and also Soong), except in some instances where a shooting double was necessary. In one scene in "Datalore", Lore puts down a glass of champagne that Data then picks up. This was achieved by the use of a moving
split screen.
Reception Time rated Lore as the sixth best villain of the
Star Trek franchise in 2016. ==Lursa and B'Etor==