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Data’s double: revisiting lore from ‘star trek: the next generation’.

If you’re even a little familiar with Old Trek , then you’ll know about Lt. Commander Data ( Brent Spiner ), the android officer who served under Picard on the Enterprise . But what about his brother, Lore (also Brent Spiner)? Data was supposed to be the only one of his kind, so the arrival of a secret brother came as a surprise, and though Lore was in comparatively few episodes, his impact on the Star Trek universe was significant. Here’s everything you need to know about the character some consider to be Data’s evil twin.

Who is Lore?

Like Data, Lore was created by Doctors Noonian and Juliana Soong at the Omicron Theta Colony. The fourth of their android children, Lore was the first to have a fully functional positronic brain and function with greater-than-human intelligence. However, unlike Data, Lore was created with the ability to feel the full range of human emotions—something that turned out to be a disaster. Possessed of superhuman abilities but with none of the empathy, ethics, and emotional regulation that organic beings develop over their childhood, Lore was the equivalent of a super-powered toddler, and convinced of his own superiority to all other beings.

The destruction of the colony

Considering him a threat, the other colonists pressured Soong into shutting Lore down. Knowing what was coming, Lore managed to summon the Crystalline Entity , a being that consumes all organic life it encounters, hoping it would arrive and wipe out the colony before Soong capitulated—and content that if it didn’t, then at least he would have his revenge on the community that murdered him. Soong did have enough time to dismantle Lore and put him into storage with the hope of being able to fix him later, as well as finish constructing Data before the entity arrived—leaving the brothers alone and offline on an empty world.

Lore’s discovery

Data was found by the initial Federation team investigating the destruction of the colony because he was laid out in the open and ready to be switched on, but Lore was overlooked because his body had been left in storage. It was only when the Enterprise returned to the colony years later that Lore was discovered by Data and reawakened by the ship’s Chief Engineer, Lt. Commander Argyle, and Dr. Crusher. This only served to increase Lore’s resentment; not only had his father created a replacement, but that replacement had been rescued while he’d been left to languish in a box on an empty world.

Antagonistic relationship with the federation

After a failed attempt at passing himself off as another benign, human-positive android, Lore first tried to steal Data’s identity, and when that didn’t work, he summoned the Crystalline Entity again in an attempt to kill the crew of the Enterprise. While this failed and left Lore stranded and floating in space for several years, it marked the beginning of a hostile relationship with the Federation and a complicated one with his brother.

The emotion chip

Lore’s reappearance (and the reveal that he was no longer trapped in the vacuum of space) came about when Dr. Soong, who had escaped the destruction of the colony and set up on Terlina III, attempted to summon Data via a homing beacon. The beacon was also visible to Lore, and he arrived along with Data to discover their father dying. Though distraught by this news, Lore’s anger took over once again when he learned that Soong had only intended to summon Data—because he’d decided Data was ready to experience emotions without turning out like Lore, and had designed an emotions chip to enable him to do so. Furious that their father was once again favoring Data, Lore stole the chip and killed Soong, only for his mental state to deteriorate further after installing it because it wasn’t designed for his brain.

Later, Lore was able to use the chip to remotely project emotions into Data after somehow switching off his ethical subroutines—the aspects of his programming that would have prevented him from becoming like Lore once given the ability to feel emotions. Filling him with anger and hatred, Lore’s plan briefly worked, and the two of them joined forces before the Enterprise was able to reverse what he’d done.

Lore was able to take over a rogue Borg cell that had broken away from the hive. First encouraging their newfound individuality, he began conducting experiments on their brains, replacing organic sections with positronic parts and making them more violent in the process. Then he began pointing them at the Federation, trying to provoke a confrontation with the Enterprise so he could get his hands on Data, and causing a lot of death and destruction in the process.

His relationship with data

All of this might make it seem like Lore hated Data, but their relationship was more complicated than that. Initially feeling anger and resentment towards him, seeing him as their father’s golden child and the being who would replace him, Lore began to long for a brotherly relationship with Data—or perhaps he had all along. The purpose behind everything Lore did with the Borg and the emotion chip wasn’t for revenge against Data; it was to have Data by his side as his brother, transformed into a person who could understand him, and who he was finally able to understand in return. Even after Data finally shot Lore, shutting him down permanently, Lore’s final words before he went offline were, “I love you, brother.”

(featured image: Paramount)

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Lore's Entire Backstory Explained

Every "Star Trek" series seems to have its own version of Spock, someone who doesn't understand (or cannot feel) emotions in the traditional sense. On "Star Trek: The Next Generation," that character is the beloved synthetic human Data (Brent Spiner), though Data also has elements of another famous "Star Trek" character. According to producer Robert H. Justman (via " The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next Twenty Five Years "), Data was envisioned as "an android programmed by Starfleet Command with all of the familiar abilities and characteristics of Spock fused with the leadership and humanistic qualities of Captain Kirk."

For seven seasons, Data played a major part in the show's explorations of selfhood, intelligence, and emotion. One plan to explore these feelings was to give Data a love interest . Her job was supposed to be repairing the ship in dangerous situations. Instead, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry decided to go down the evil twin route, and so the Lore that we know — also played by Spiner — was born. He's clever, mean, quirky, and very funny to watch, but with a lurking malevolence that's impossible to ignore. Let's take a look at his backstory.

The story of Data and Lore begins on the Omicron Theta colony, where Doctor Noonian Soong and his wife Juliana built a series of androids: Two basic prototypes, the simplistic model B-4, Lore, and Data. These were the first true fully functioning "positronic brains," which is the show's explanation for artificial intelligence in android form, and which is politicized, in various ways, throughout the canon.

The four Omicron Theta creations are known as "Soong-type" androids, because they are made in Dr. Soong's image (Dr. Soong, of course, is also played by Brent Spiner). Soong and Juliana considered all four of them their children, and Data and his fellow Soong-types are often referred to and behave as brothers. The Soongs also have a biological son, Altan Inigo Soong, graced with the same brilliance as his parents and brothers. He is introduced much later in the "Star Trek: Picard" series.

Thanks to Data's fame as the first android in Starfleet, Soong's research is further developed by Dr. Bruce Maddox, who goes into hiding after synthetics attempt to conquer Mars and synthetic life is subsequently banned. He and Agnes Jurati work with Noonian's son to create a whole community of organic androids based on Data's positronic neurons.

Creating Lore

When we first meet Lore on Omicron Theta, he claims to be an improvement on Data, but that turns out to be a lie: He is Data's older brother, not younger. Lore was born extremely advanced, with great strength and speed and high intelligence. He was also, unfortunately, unstable from the jump and he developed a serious superiority complex.

Later, Lore would claim he was rejected for being "too perfect," but the truth is that he's flawed in many ways. The people of the colony demanded that Noonian shut Lore down because he was creeping everybody out. In response, Lore secretly contacted a planet-killing space creature called the Crystalline Entity to come and destroy all life on the planet — excluding himself, of course.

Noonian eventually gave in to the demands of his fellow colonists and deactivated Lore. He stored Lore away and started work on Data instead. Since Lore's emotions were the core of his terrible behavior, Noonian decided Data would be created without all that mess — and he promised himself he would come back and fix Lore later. Noonian later came to feel bad about leaving Data's emotions out and created an "emotion chip" for him, but it took a long time for Data to actually receive and initiate it.

Meeting Lore

Unfortunately, Lore's deactivation doesn't take place soon enough for the colony to avoid the consequences of his actions, and the Crystalline Entity destroys all life on Omicron Theta. Data is discovered by the crew of the USS Tripoli years after the disaster, while Lore remained in Noonian's lab. An away team including Dr. Beverly Crusher comes from the USS Enterprise-D, and they are able to reactivate him.

Lore plays the part of a kind brother to Data at first, sharing stories about Soong, although we see in a few tics and quirks that indicate he's not entirely stable. We soon learn that he's lying about being created after Data rather than before. He isn't a more advanced model, as he would have people believe. That truth is that Soong saw some of his features were broken and resolved to work on him later, then designed the somewhat simpler Data.

Lore's true nature soon comes to the surface — he steals Data's uniform and knocks him out, planning to sacrifice the Enterprise crew to his old friend, the Crystalline Entity. Wesley Crusher is the only person who can tell the difference between the brothers, and he is frustratingly persecuted for his attempts to expose the interloper. Eventually, the ruse is discovered, and during a battle with Data and Wesley, Lore is transported into space.

The good doctor

The Enterprise is working at a Federation colony when the Crystalline Entity reappears, destroying another planet. Data and Riker are able to save almost the entire group they're working with by hiding in caves made up of a certain kind of stone. In an attempt to capture or speak to the Crystalline Entity (and in the hope of getting it to stop killing everything it comes across), an expert xenologist named Dr. Kila Marr is summoned. She seems intensely interested in the Entity, and even more so in Data.

Kila's not an android-hater: She knows Data's relationship to Lore, and Lore's relationship to the Crystalline Entity, and she thinks there's some connection between these things and the group's survival. Isn't it likely, she wonders, that the Entity would overlook the caves if they contained an ally? Were the colonists spared because Data was with them? In the end, it's revealed that Dr. Marr's son was killed in an attack by the Crystalline Entity, and she uses the Enterprise's attempts to communicate with the Entity to first torture and then destroy it. The crew is horrified by this waste of life, and Dr. Marr herself seems to go completely off the rails.

Lore's niece

Did you know that Lore once had a niece? After attending a cybernetics conference, an excited Data returns to the Enterprise to build a Soong-type android child of his own: Lal, which means "beloved" in Sanskrit. At first, the child is genderless and faceless, throwing off Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge entirely. But the child is intelligent and clearly alive — or at least sentient — in the same sense as Data himself. Lal refers to Data as "father," just as Data and Lore do with Dr. Noonian Soong. Data creates Lal knowing all the things that can go wrong, and he's determined to improve on Soong's failures with Lore.

Eventually, Lal chooses a form: Human female. The crew easily goes along with her choice of gender and race, just as they are okay with Data's claims to fatherhood. After a few attempts at schooling, in which she mostly unnerves the other children, Lal takes up a job in Ten Forward under Guinan's guidance and begins learning the ins and outs of social behavior. After a Starfleet Admiral arrives to take her away, Lal's fear response kicks in and causes a cascade failure in her neural net. Ultimately, Data is unable to save his daughter, and they say goodbye.

The emotion chip

Lore drifts in outer space for almost two years before his rescue by a Pakled trade ship. Soon after, Noonian — alive, but dying — sends out a homing signal to summon Data to his new lab on Terlina III. It also summons Lore, who arrives with much resentment, but shows genuine concern when Noonian reveals that he is dying.

However, this family intimacy only lasts for so long. It all goes out of the window when Lore finds out why Noonian sent out the beacon in the first place: He has created an implantable chip that will allow Data to feel human emotion. Lore is, of course, unable to comprehend that Data's makeup and background make him more ethically sophisticated, and therefore able to deal with having emotions without going unstable like Lore.

Lore gets jealous about this, even when Noonian explains that Lore didn't get a chip because he thought he was still deactivated. This isn't a great excuse, since it leads back to the fact that he was deactivated in the first place. He takes the chip for himself by impersonating Data, but Soong explains that the chip was made specifically for Data and that the chip is just going to make him even more unstable, which it does — he eventually kills Noonian because of it, disappearing into the cosmos.

Hugh the Borg

While Lore is gone and presumed dead — or at least no longer a problem — the Enterprise-D discovers a gravely injured Borg drone at a crash site in the Argolis Cluster. Beverly Crusher fights for his life and they bring the Borg back to the Enterprise for care and study. It's the right thing to do, but Geordi La Forge understandably doesn't trust the Borg, named Third of Five. He treats the patient like a machine and keeps his guard up. Soon enough, the Borg starts showing signs of individuality and ego, necessary for a personality to form.

The Borg are a cybernetic race of former humans (and others) who have been assimilated into a vast hive-mind collective, ruled by a Queen. They operate as a group, and can hear each other's thoughts at all times. Beverly and even Geordi come to care for their subject, giving him a human name: Hugh. Captain Jean-Luc Picard suggests they send Hugh back to the collective as a kind of Trojan Horse, hoping his individuality will infect his brethren like a virus. But what does all this have to do with Lore?

Lore's Borg army

One year later, we learn the results of the Hugh gamble. The Borg ship that retrieves Hugh from the Argolis crash site does indeed become more individualist — an effect that causes them great consternation, as they are used to operating as a unit, without personal thoughts. They are adrift and disconnected from the collective when Lore comes across them, ripe for control, and assumes leadership of the group.

Lore gives the Borg individual names but restricts their freedoms — his rule is a totalitarian one. The Borg become his fanatical followers, shouting slogans and threatening violence. They don't even bother assimilating people into the collective anymore, they just kill. Lore is now the leader of a fascist movement made up of formerly mindless drones.

Eventually, he starts experimenting on them, trying to replace their once-human, organic brains with positronic brains like he and Data have. These experiments do not go well, resulting in mutilation and death. What Lore really wants to do is experiment on human subjects, and he plans on using Data to acquire them.

Lore's death

Lore's Borg army begins an attack in Federation space, luring Data in. Lore can now use his emotion chip to moderate Data's own emotions and perceptions — when Data kills a Borg, he feels a perverse pleasure afterward, an alien sensation to him. Lore decides to deactivate Data's ethical subroutines, and Data deserts the Enterprise to follow his brother.

Geordi and Picard are captured, and Data does experiments on Geordi, putting his crewmate through a terrible ordeal. Between bouts of torture at Data's hands, Geordi is able to teach Picard how to modify a Borg interlink transceiver to reboot Data's ethical programs. This won't decrease Lore's power over his emotions, but he'll at least have the option of acting on them.

Lore continues to manipulate Data for some time, fighting against the ethics rising in his subroutines, but eventually Data recoils from the cruelty and futility of their experimentation. The Borg on whom Lore has been experimenting all die horribly, and this is what pushes Data over the edge. He attacks, deactivates, and dismantles Lore, whose last words are: "I love you, brother."

Lore's mother is also an android

Data meets and becomes close with Dr. Juliana Tainer — formerly Juliana Soong, Data and Lore's "mother" — and they play music together. After an accident it becomes apparent that Juliana is also a Soong-type android. She's more developed than both of them, which bodes well for Lore in terms of potential future appearances.

Juliana comes with a holographic chip of Noonian, which Data activates on the holodeck and learns that it's a message directly to him. Soong's hologram explains that the original, organic Juliana was injured in the Crystalline Entity's attack on Omicron Theta, and by the time Soong made it to Terlina III, she was in a coma. Soong built her a positronic matrix and loaded her mind into it, creating a special shutdown loop in case she ever discovered she was an android.

Data wrestles with the decision of whether or not to tell her about her true nature. Eventually, he opts to leave her be, telling Juliana that she was the love of Soong's life, despite the fact that he was sometimes cold toward her — he could never quite get over the fact that she was a replacement for his real wife. They agree to meet again on Atrea and Data calls her "mother" in a touching moment.

Data and Lore's other brother makes an appearance

Lore's now-damaged emotion chip is back in Data's hands, but he's wary of using it due to the instability and actions of his brother. It will be years before he installs the chip, causing a lot of drama during the movie "Star Trek Generations," but not going haywire like Lore would. For the remainder of his appearances, Data possesses emotions, and his arc becomes one about learning to control them, which he eventually does.

In "Star Trek: Nemesis," the tenth film in the series, Data comes up against another older brother, B-4. While Lore's appearances always stage him as being on par with (or perhaps even more capable than) Data, in this case, the roles are reversed — B-4 is a much simpler machine. However, a lot of the same hijinks ultimately ensue, with Data and B-4 impersonating each other and B-4 eventually betraying the crew.

In order to save the Enterprise, Data valiantly offers his own life to destroy a Reman Warbird, and Jean-Luc Picard ends the film discussing Data and his sacrifice with a repaired but still confused and unsophisticated B-4.

Lore is coming back for the final season of Star Trek: Picard

This slide contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard."

In the first season finale of "Star Trek: Picard," the titular character briefly visits with Data in hologram form after downloading the remains of his consciousness from B-4. Positronic brains and neural nets, Dr. Maddox discovers, are capable of "fractal neuronic cloning," using just a single positronic neuron to recreate the whole of the consciousness. This is part of an arc that saw the fifth Soong brother — the biological son of Noonian and Juliana — create a planet of Soong-type androids, including two off-world sleeper agents, sisters who may not even know they're androids. These Soong-types are highly advanced, with all of Lore's abilities and none of his problems, and it's exciting to think about what artificial life could look like in the future of the show.

In 2022, it was revealed that Brent Spiner is set to reprise the role of Lore in the third and final season of "Star Trek: Picard." Fans already knew that Spiner was going to be involved, but his return as Lore wasn't confirmed until New York Comic Con, where a new trailer was released . One thread of the series has been Picard's grief and acceptance of Data's death, so Lore's appearance is likely to stir a lot of emotions in the titular character. There was another big Lore reveal at NYCC : The character will be part of a new comic book series called "Star Trek: Defiant." The comic is set before "Star Trek: Nemesis" and sees Lore join the crew of the Defiant, led by Worf. Lore already has a fascinating backstory, and it is set to be filled out even more in the near future.

The Life And Legacy Of Dr. Soong, The Creator Of Star Trek's Data

Early in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the android Data ( Brent Spiner ) explained his backstory to his new crewmates on the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. He knew that his creator was a man named Dr. Noonien Soong, and that he was discovered on a distant colony that had been destroyed. Data had no memory of his life on the colony. Later in the series, Data would learn he was not unique, as Soong also made an earlier model named Lore (also played by Spiner). Data had no emotions, but Lore did. Lore was also able to shake off his ethical subroutines and lives his life as a villain. He would recur throughout "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and would be up to no good in every appearance. Lore remembered Dr. Soong and the colony, but, being a devious liar, was coy about the actual details.

In the fourth season episode "Brothers" (October 8, 1990), Data and Lore were remotely "activated" to return to a secret laboratory deep in the galaxy. There, they found Dr. Soong (also Spiner) still alive and very, very old. It was in this episode where a lot of the Soong backstory and philosophy would be filled in, and Trekkies would take furious notes on the new canonical details about Data. 

Dr. Soong explains a few important things about himself in "Brothers." For one, he explained that making an android as advanced as Data is a careful and difficult affair. No cyberneticist has been able to recreate Data, and even Soong himself would have trouble perfecting the model (Lore's antisocial behavior was proof of his troubles). He also lays out, in plain language, why he wanted to make android clones of himself: By making offspring, Dr. Soong feels he can brush against immortality.

Dr. Soong's background

We eventually learn Soong was the result of a multi-generational obsession with constructing a "perfect human." The Soong family was long obsessed with eugenics, and when that failed, got into building androids. Dr. Noonien Soong was a curmudgeon and an eccentric. His ancestors were largely all supervillains. Perhaps Lore's propensity for evil was an unintentionally inherited trait that Noonien programmed into his brain without thinking about it. 

Some additional backstory: Dr. Soong once worked with a man called Ira Graves (W. Morgan Sheppard), who claims to have taught Noonien everything he knew. When Ira met Data in the episode "The Schizoid Man" (January 23, 1989), he described himself as Data's grandfather. It seems Dr. Graves merely wanted to shunt his consciousness into Data's body. After Dr. Graves and Dr. Soong split up, the latter moved to the above-mentioned colony. The colony was attacked from space by a massive intelligent crystal that consumed living matter, and Dr. Soong was assumed dead in the attack. Lore also escaped destruction by allying with the Crystalline Entity. As punishment, he was disassembled and locked in a blast-proof bunker. (Data later found and reassembled him.)

Dr. Soong was only able to chat with Data for a day before his death at Lore's hands. Dr. Soong aimed to give Data an emotions chip, a widget that would allow the android to feel for the first time. The chip was also meant to fill in Data's missing memories, allowing him to recall life on the colony prior to the Crystalline Entity attack. But Lore stole the chip and escaped. A lot of Data, then, remained a mystery. 

Other quirks of Data's brain

In later episodes, some of those mysteries were revealed. In the episode "Birthright Part I" (February 22, 1993), Data was zapped by a bolt of electricity, fell unconscious, and began hallucinating. It seems Dr. Soong programmed Data with the ability to dream. This was part of his "evolution," as Dr. Soong knew that Data would learn and grow and become more human over time. Dreaming was sort of like Data "leveling up." 

Dr. Soong was also married — in secret — to a woman named Juliana Tainer ( Fionnula Flanagan ). Data met her in the episode "Inheritance" (November 22, 1993). She died, but Dr. Soong was able to replicate an android clone of her, effectively making her Data's android mother. But she doesn't know she's an android, and her mechanical system is designed to trick medical scanners. In "Inheritance," it was also announced that Juliana had an aging program that would give her gray hair and wrinkles over time ... and that Data had a similar program. Dr. Soong, then, wanted his androids to look elderly over time. This was a handy way to incorporate actor Spiner's natural aging into a character that was ostensibly immortal. 

Oh yes, and in "Star Trek: Nemesis," it was revealed that Data also had a prototype older brother named B-4. His brain didn't work well. 

In recent "Star Trek" shows, ancestors of Dr. Soong began to emerge. The mystery of Data's creator was solved by a long-running intergenerational obsession that actually stemmed from unsavory motivations. Soongs of the past were miffed by humanity's imperfections and wanted to start tinkering with genes as a result. 

The other Soongs

Note: "Star Trek: Enterprise" takes place about a century prior to "Star Trek."

In a three-part episode of "Star Trek: Enterprise" — "Borderland," "Cold Station 12," and "The Augments," which aired in early November 2004 — audiences were introduced to Dr. Arik Soong (Spiner), a mad geneticist who had been altering and "enhancing" humanoid DNA. Because he was banned from his eugenics programs on Earth (eugenics are a big no-no in the world of "Star Trek"), he was forced to implant Klingons with enhanced human DNA. This is why the Klingons from the original "Star Trek" looked more human from the Klingons in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." There was finally a canonical reason, and it was because of a Soong. At the end of the three-part episode, after Arik is arrested for his genetic shenanigans, he announces that gene manipulation isn't the right path. Perhaps he'd try cybernetics instead. Of course, it would take several generations to perfect ... 

In the first season of "Star Trek: Picard," set several decades after "Next Generation," audiences found that Noonien Soong, in addition to building robot "children," also had a biological child. This was Dr. Altan Soong (yet again played by Spiner), who was still building androids, even though doing so was deemed illegal. He lived in hiding on a hidden planet with a secret colony of android children. In a very Gene Roddenberry fashion, the androids all wore diaphanous robes. They also all had emotions. Just like with Dr. Noonien Soong, however, the color eventually came under threat from a massive, destructive space deity. Altan would shunt the consciousness of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) into an android body. Picard and Data now have that in common.

There was at least one additional Soong besides.

In the second season of "Star Trek: Picard," the timeline reached back even further. In a time-travel story set in the year 2024, audiences met  Dr. Adam Soong (you guessed it: Spiner), who was already growing clones and tinkering with genes. He had already grown an adult daughter (Isa Briones), but she was only the latest in a long line of short-lived meat-bots. 

When a character from the future tells Adam that his genetic research was about to be halted by the show's protagonists — because eugenics is icky — Adam immediately began doing villainous things to them. He ran over Admiral Picard with a car. Eventually, Adam's villainy would be stopped by his latest cloned daughter. As she fled, she trashed Adam's lab. Later, out of the rubble, Adam Soong would extract a folder marked "Khan Project." It seems that Data's distant ancestor would be responsible for creating Khan, the villain from "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." 

The above-mentioned Altan would return in a recorded message in the third season of "Picard," explaining he had scooped up the android brains of Data, Lore, B-4, and a few Soongs and shoved them all into a composite body (also Spiner) that looks like it's in its early 70s. That was how Data, who had died twice in the past, was able to return for the series. It's a little farfetched, but Spiner seems to be enjoying himself playing all his characters at once. 

So Dr. Noonien Soong may have been initially presented as a benevolent (if a little self-obsessed) engineer who wanted to build children and push the limits of mechanical consciousness. As "Trek" has progressed, however, he became part of a dark legacy. 

Brent Spiner

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• Trivia He is one of two actors, the other being Patrick Stewart Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) regular to share scenes with all three original Star Trek (1966) series cast members who appeared on that series: DeForest Kelley , Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan .
• Quotes [on his action figure of Lt. Commander Data] At first, I was reluctant. But then I figured, if it's good enough for Alec Guinness , then it's good enough for me.
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Published Apr 21, 2019

Becoming Mr. Data

Cosplayer Eric Hall takes us step-by-step through his process of finding his inner android.

StarTrek.com

I love Mr. Data. And, to the surprise of some, I also love his evil brother Lore.

As a nerdy kid in the 1980s when Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted, I immediately identified with Data's quest to better understand humanity. I admired his positive attitude, his sense of duty, and his willingness to collaborate with those completely unlike him for the benefit of the greater good.

I also happened to look a lot like my favorite robot already. There were times when I would be out and about in jeans and a t-shirt, and a random grocery store cashier or gas station attendant would approach out of the blue and say,  “Y'know' you look like that robot guy from Star Trek ." Friends at work told me that I looked like Data as well, possibly due to my dependably slicked back hair — much like Data himself. And so in 1992, I took the cosplay plunge, starting with a licensed gold TNG Ops uniform Halloween costume from Rubies, with some black pants. I wore my new costume to work that Halloween, with some white crème Halloween makeup on my face and my hair slicked back as usual. It was a big hit!

That same year, I began attending Star Trek conventions in the Seattle area where I lived. Back in the day, Seattle was the top ratings market for TNG, Deep Space Nine and Voyager , and there were conventions in Seattle, Portland, and nearby Vancouver, Canada, just about every four months. During one convention trip to Vancouver I picked up a nicer and more accurate TNG Ops uniform and used that as I attended conventions going forward.

After a job transfer to Salt Lake City, Utah, I was within an easy six-hour drive to Las Vegas for the annual convention there, and I’ve attended each year since. During my first trip to the Las Vegas convention in 2002,  I was on my way to the convention hall when a woman at the other end of the room saw me, and yelled out, “DATA!” I was used to being asked to pose for photos and she looked so excited to see me, so I headed over to grab whatever selfie might result. When we were finally toe to toe, she looked me in the eyes, and a wave of disappointment washed over her face.

“Oh… you don’t have his eyes,” she said, before walking away. I decided right there to get some yellow contact lenses when I returned home so that I could take my cosplay to the next level.

My secrets and tips for being the best version of Data I can possibly be are listed below:

• My hair is a dishwater blond, and Data’s hair is a darker brown. I use brown hairspray dye after I have slicked my hair back to darken my hair to match his, and to even out my hairline to android-like precision.
• I keep my sideburns somewhat long so that I can trim them to a triangular Starfleet point before applying makeup.
• The makeup I use depends on what I will be doing. If I’ll be cosplaying Data all day long, going outside into the heat, dancing or otherwise moving around a lot, I use professional stage makeup. Mehron Clown White greasepaint is a great option. For shorter time frames of just a few hours, I use Ben Nye Crème Foundation P-1 White makeup. Both  can be found at theatrical supply stores, or through online retailers.
• After I have applied the makeup, I use a powder brush with regular baby powder to set my face. While there are professional powders available used to set makeup, most I’ve seen have a pink or tan cast to them. Using powder keeps foundation from smearing and sweating off, and helps to reduce the sheen and reflective glare in photos so that I appear to have pale artificial skin. I keep a small container of foundation with me so I can touch up my lips if needed after eating or drinking
• I use white gloves (actually glove liners I bought at a military surplus store) so that my hands match the color of my face. That way, I can navigate conventions and events without leaving behind makeup from my fingers.
• You can purchase and thrift your costumes! My main TNG uniform, as well as my First Contact duty uniform and dress uniform, were all purchased. But for many of my Data variations, I've ventured out to thrift stores to complete the look. You'd be amazed at what you can find with some hunting — not to mention the money you can save.
• Props are a great addition to any cosplay. For regular TNG Data, I have a mechanical toy cat that moves, meows and purrs that I carry as his pet cat Spot, as well as my original Playmates phaser and tricorder toys that light up and make sounds from the series. I also enjoy the challenge of re-creating props on a budget from thrift store finds.
• I have the complete set of TNG DVDs and I watch episodes on Hulu as well. I’ve memorized a few lines that Data is known for, and I try to imitate his voice. For example, when people come up to me and ask me how I am, I respond by saying “I am functioning within established parameters,” without cracking a smile.

Hopefully, the next time you run into me at a convention I'll have rounded out some of the cosplays on my Data wishlist. I'm looking forward to getting not only Lore’s gold engineering jumpsuit from “ Datalore ," but Data’s British Royal Navy holodeck uniform from Star Trek Generations and his prisoner jumpsuit from “ The Most Toys .” This android's work is never done!

Eric Allan Hall has been costuming since 1987. A lifelong Star Trek fan, he's  been featured in his Borg costume in the documentaries Trek Nation , by Rod Roddenberry, and in William Shatner’s Get A Life . Transplanted to Utah from the Seattle area in 2001, Eric has attended about 80 conventions since he first started cosplaying – often with his family.

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Data's Star Trek: Insurrection Story Was Set Up In TNG

• Data's friendships with young children on TNG drive his desire to be more human, setting up his journey in Star Trek: Insurrection.
• Sarjenka and Timothy's connections with Data lay the groundwork for his creation of a daughter named Lal in a later TNG episode.
• Data's capacity for sentiment and emotion is shown through his relationships with children, highlighting his human-like qualities.

Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) befriended a young girl and helped save her people in Star Trek: The Next Generation , setting up his similar Star Trek: Insurrection story. Data spent much of his time on TNG observing and learning from his fellow crew members aboard the USS Enterprise-D. As an android, Data wanted nothing more than to be human, and he learned more about his own inherent humanity as TNG went on. Because of his child-like curiosity and friendly personality, young children often gravitated toward the android, and they, in turn, offered Data insight into what it means to be human.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2, episode 15, "Pen Pals," Data strikes up a correspondence with a young girl named Sarjenka (Nikki Cox) after she sends a plea out into space. Data later learns that Sarjenka's planet, Drema IV, will soon become uninhabitable due to volcanic activity. Although initially reluctant to violate the Prime Directive to save Drema IV, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) eventually relents. In the end, Sarjenka's memories of Data are wiped away, but the android never forgets his connection with this little girl.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast & Character Guide

Data's interest in helping children in tng sets up his star trek: insurrection story, data's friendship with sarjenka laid the groundwork for later stories..

Sarjenka is not the only child who finds a friend in Data throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation and the android's connection with children would go on to play a role in Star Trek: Insurrection . Through his friendship with Sarjenka, Data gets one step closer to being human . Data makes another young friend in TNG season 5, episode 11, "Hero Worship," when he rescues a boy named Timothy (Joshua Harris). As the lone survivor of an alien attack on a Federation research vessel, Timothy begins to mimic Data as a way to mask his own grief and pain.

Data admits that he has often wondered what it would be like to be a child.

Data's friendships with Sarjenka and Timothy plant the seeds for his later friendship with a Ba'ku boy named Artim (Michael Welch) in Insurrection . As the Ba'ku people have rejected technology, Artim is initially frightened of Data, but he later grows curious about the android. As Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-E crew fight to help the Ba'ku people, Artim starts asking Data questions about what it's like being a machine. Data admits that he has often wondered what it would be like to be a child, and Artim reminds Data to "have a little fun every day."

Star Trek: Insurrection was the first film role for child actor Michael Welch, who went on to play Mike Newton in the Twilight films and Mack Thompson in Z Nation .

TNG's "Pen Pals" Also Sets Up Data's Daughter Lal

Data builds an android daughter in tng's "the offspring.".

Data's friendship with Sarjenka in Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Pen Pals" also sets up his eventual decision to create a daughter named Lal (Hallie Todd). In one of Data's best episodes , TNG season 3, episode 16, "The Offspring," Data decides to create another android like himself and raise her as his child. He then creates Lal and teaches her about humans and their behavior. When Starfleet threatens to take Lal away from the Enterprise for further study, Captain Picard fights for Data's right to raise his own daughter. Lal's programming eventually begins to surpass Data's, and she suffers a cascade failure when her new emotions overwhelm her systems.

Data's endearing connections with children on Star Trek: The Next Generation illustrate the android's capacity for sentiment and human-like emotion.

Everyone involved is moved by Data's obvious determination to save Lal, as the android fights just as hard as any parent would to save their child. Although Data is not able to save Lal, he does preserve her memories within his own positronic brain, ensuring that her legacy lives on. Data's friendship with Sarjenka back in TNG's "Pen Pals" gave him a glimpse of what it would be like to care for a child, and he does his best to be a good father to Lal. Data's endearing connections with children on Star Trek: The Next Generation not only set up his Star Trek: Insurrection story, but also illustrate the android's capacity for sentiment and human-like emotion.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is streaming on Paramount+

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Cast Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Jonathan Frakes, Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden

Release Date

Franchise(s)

Showrunner Jeri Taylor, Michael Piller, Rick Berman

Where To Watch Paramount+

Brother (episode)

• View history

After answering a distress signal from the USS Enterprise , the USS Discovery welcomes aboard Captain Christopher Pike and begins a new mission to investigate the meaning behind seven mysterious red signals. Michael Burnham grapples with her past growing up on Vulcan with her foster parents and brother Spock. ( Season premiere )

• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.1 Story and script
• 4.2 Cast and characters
• 4.3 Pre-production
• 4.4 Production
• 4.5 Visual effects
• 4.6 Music and sound
• 4.7 Editing
• 4.8 Continuity
• 4.9 Reception
• 4.10 Apocrypha
• 4.11 Production history
• 4.12 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Guest starring
• 5.3 Co-starring
• 5.4 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.5 Stunt double
• 5.6 Stand-in
• 5.7.1 Christopher Pike personnel file references
• 5.7.2 USS Enterprise file references
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

Early space exploration…

" Space. The final frontier. Above us. Around us. Within us. We have always looked to the stars to discover who we are. A thousand centuries ago in Africa, the /Xam Abathwa tribe gathered to share a story. The tale of a girl who dug her hands in the wood ash and threw it into the sky to create the Milky Way. And hidden there, a secret buried among the eternal stars, was a message. An enormous letter in a bottle made of space and time, visible only to those whose hearts were open enough to receive it. All my life. When I first heard the story of the girl who made the stars, I wasn't ready to understand. I still don't know if I am. "

Following on the heels of Michael Burnham 's mutiny aboard the USS Shenzhou , the death of Captain Philippa Georgiou and the rescue of her mirror universe counterpart , Burnham's service aboard the USS Discovery , the death and revelation of Gabriel Lorca 's true identity, and the conclusion of the Federation-Klingon War , the Discovery is met by the USS Enterprise .

Michael reflects on the history of space exploration, the NASA - Cassini mission to Saturn and its moons, and the /Xam Abathwa legend of the girl who made the stars .

Michael meets Amanda, observed by Spock from above

Amanda and Sarek take Michael to meet her new foster brother

She thinks back to being brought to Sarek and Amanda Grayson 's home on Vulcan for the first time, her first encounter with Amanda, and her introduction to Spock – drawing alone in his room; pondering if she is, even now, ready to understand the story of "the girl who made the stars…." Young Burnham extends a hand of friendship to young Spock, only to have him slam his drawing-room door shut before her and his family.

Snapped back to the present on the bridge of the Discovery , Saru is attempting to determine the condition of the Enterprise . Joann Owosekun , at Ops , reports the Enterprise is completely offline, though Burnham confirms life support is still functioning, with a full crew of 203. Ensign Sylvia Tilly joins to suggest using Morse code , allowing Captain Christopher Pike to request to transport aboard with a science and engineering officer. At the thought of being reunited with Spock so unexpectedly, both Ambassador Sarek and Burnham note to each other they had not expected to encounter Spock ever again.

Act One [ ]

Lieutenant Junior Grade Evan Connolly

As they make their way to the transporter room , Saru notices that Burnham's endocrine system is running very high, which he attributes to her anxiety about meeting Spock again after so long. Burnham heatedly retorts that she is on a mission and in problem-solving mode, and that is what he senses. Saru is unconvinced, but lets it go as they enter the transporter room. Burnham then asks if Saru had any siblings; he mentions his sister, Siranna , remarking that he does not expect to be reunited with her. The transporter energizes, beaming aboard three officers in the newer Starfleet uniforms: Captain Pike, his engineer Commander Nhan , and his science officer – not Spock as Burnham was expecting, but instead Lieutenant Evan Connolly . Pike informs Saru that he has been sent by Starfleet to assume command of Discovery , under Starfleet Regulation 19, Section C . Saru remarks that there are only three contingencies for that regulation – an imminent threat to the Federation, danger to Federation citizens, or no officers available of equal or higher rank to mitigate the threat – and asks for which of them Pike is there for. " All of them " is Pike's reply.

As they make their way to the bridge , Pike explains that over the past twenty-four hours, Federation sensors have detected seven red bursts spread out across more than thirty thousand light years , appearing in perfect synchronization just long enough to be scanned, and then vanishing – all save one. Saru points out the perfect synchronization rules out a natural phenomenon, asking if it was some kind of signal. Pike confirms that's what Starfleet believes; Connolly adds that whenever the Enterprise tried to scan the bursts, the computer went haywire, with Burnham comparing it to a compass at the North Pole . Upon learning her identity, Pike remarks that "he said you were smart", and that they had "someone in common"; Burnham admits she had expected to see Spock when Pike beamed aboard. Saru wonders if the phenomenon is a temporal anomaly or a black hole , both of which cause similar distortions. Connolly replies that neither fit the scale; the single burst stabilized long enough to have its coordinates plotted, and Pike had ordered the Enterprise to intercept when it suffered ship-wide system failure, necessitating his move to the Discovery while the Enterprise is towed back to Spacedock .

On the bridge, Pike has his DNA scanned for verification before he takes command, and his Starfleet file appears on the main viewer. Pike points out his commendations , his diagnosis of childhood asthma , and his failing grade in Astrophysics at Starfleet Academy . He explains that he knows about Lorca, and understands that the crew will have doubts about an outsider as captain, but emphasizes that he is not Lorca. He then explains the mission, and the reason he moved to the Discovery is because the Federation is not willing to wait to see if it's a friendship message or a declaration of malice, and orders Keyla Detmer to plot the coordinates of the remaining signal.

Act Two [ ]

In engineering, Lt. Commander Paul Stamets replays a holomessage from his deceased partner, Dr. Hugh Culber , when he is approached by Tilly, who is overseeing the removal of the spore drive equipment and converting the engine room back to standard. Stamets reveals to Tilly that after the Paris peace summit that ended the Klingon war , he accepted a permanent teaching position at the Vulcan Science Academy . He compares his ordeal during the war to a prima donna in Kasseelian opera , who trains her whole life for a single performance before committing suicide , and admits that he sees Culber everywhere he looks aboard Discovery . Starfleet has accepted Stamets' transfer, albeit postponed due to Pike's mission. Tilly tries to convince him to stay.

In her quarters, Burnham reads Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , hearing Amanda reading it to her, when Sarek visits her. He remarks that he is returning to Vulcan when the ship drops out of warp, and that the Vulcan High Command is assembling an expedition to investigate the signals the Enterprise detected. He has also been in contact with High Chancellor L'Rell , who denies the Klingons are involved. Burnham asks Sarek why he thinks Spock did not come aboard; Sarek replies that perhaps Spock is devoting his time to repairing the Enterprise . Burnham then asks what Sarek expected Spock to learn from her when he brought her into his household. Sarek believes that Burnham would have taught him empathy, needed to interact with Humans, but he doesn't believe Spock ever accepted Burnham. Burnham says that he may have, "for a time". As he leaves, Sarek advises her to look at the problem ahead, rather than behind.

The discovery of the USS Hiawatha

Burnham returns to the bridge just as Discovery drops out of warp in the middle of a massive debris field, and the signal appears to have vanished. A large chunk of debris misses the ship by only seven hundred meters; the point of near-impact was at the exact coordinates of the signal. Saru and Burnham indicate that the object is an interstellar asteroid traveling at five thousand kph , and that it has an atmosphere, clouding sensors with hyper-charged particles. Detmer reports that the ship is caught in a fluctuating gravity well . Burnham suggests using Discovery 's telescopic cameras, used for hull repairs, to scan the surface. As Detmer tries to keep up with the asteroid, Discovery bounces off its gravity well, causing its trajectory to change into a collision course with a pulsar , which will incinerate the rock within five hours. Burnham then reports that there is a Starfleet ship crash-landed on the surface. Saru, with his superior vision, is able to read the registry number, NCC-815 – the USS Hiawatha , a medical frigate believed lost to the Klingons ten months earlier. Pike orders a landing party.

The landing party prepares to launch

On their way to the hangar, Tilly explains that the sensors in engineering picked up mycelial activity they had not seen since they found the tardigrade on the USS Glenn , and asks Burnham to recover a sample of the asteroid. Pike, Burnham, Nhan, and Connolly take the ship's landing pods , which are designed for high-gravity situations, into the debris field. From the bridge, Detmer reports that the gravimetric pressure on the rock inflates the debris to the point of explosion; the remark triggers Saru's threat ganglia . The magnetic distortions interfere with the landing pods' autopilots , forcing them to resort to manual control. Connolly flies ahead of them, despite Burnham's protests that his field of flight is too wide, and refuses Pike's orders to fall back just as a piece of debris smashes into his pod, killing him. The debris damages Pike's pod, and his auto-ejection system fails. Burnham convinces Pike to let her use her own ejection system to stop Pike's free fall. Just before impacting with the asteroid, Detmer remotely activates Burnham's thruster pack . Saru anxiously calls for a report; Burnham reports that they have touched down safely. Relieved, Saru's ganglia retract as he sinks into the captain's chair.

Act Three [ ]

The wreckage of the Hiawatha

Pike, Burnham, and Nhan navigate into the wreckage of the Hiawatha , when they are met with a trio of customized probes made from salvaged Starfleet technology. A voice calls them " kids ", and calls for the landing party to enter the wreck. The voice guides them through an emergency shelter inside the wreck, which has a breathable atmosphere. As they enter sickbay , they find the voice belongs to the ship's chief engineer, Commander Jett Reno , who is working to stabilize members of the crew, most of whom are in stasis. She remarks that she had decided not to vaporize the landing party when she saw their Starfleet insignia, having been expecting "someone with a bat'leth "; Pike and Burnham inform her that the war is over. Reno explains they had been en route to Starbase 36 when they were attacked, and that most of the war wounded were evacuated in escape pods before the crash. She stayed behind to keep the critical cases alive; when Nham points out that she was an engineer, not a surgeon, she replies " the body's just a machine. "

Burnham restores power to the Hiawatha 's transporter room, and has pattern enhancers set up to strengthen the signal, allowing the Discovery to beam out the survivors six at a time. Forced to keep shields down to transport the survivors, Saru orders evasive maneuvers even as the ship takes impact from the debris. As Pike, Nhan, Reno, and the last survivors prepare to beam out, the transporter loses power; Burnham is able to reroute, but is knocked aside by an explosion just as the others beam out. Forced to navigate through the exploding vessel, Burnham returns to the outside just as she is knocked out by a flying piece of debris.

Act Four [ ]

Burnham regains consciousness, a piece of superheated shrapnel stuck in her leg. As she looks up, she sees an angelic figure in the flames… then after a moment, the figure is replaced by Pike, who came back to rescue Burnham, beaming back to Discovery . Burnham grabs onto a sample from the asteroid, but the rock fails to transport with her. An anxious Tilly visits Burnham in sickbay, where Burnham explains what happened with the rock, which means the asteroid is not entirely made of baryonic matter, which could explain the gravitational energy. Burnham shows Tilly a projection of the closest pieces of debris they could capture. Tilly sets up a gravity simulator in the shuttlebay. With his mission complete, Pike turns the bridge over to Saru, who orders Detmer to keep the asteroid fragment in Discovery 's wake. The fragment impacts hard inside the bay, but is captured by the gravity simulator, at which point Saru orders the ship to withdraw.

In the ready room, Pike – now wearing a Starfleet uniform similar to that of the Discovery crew – meets with Burnham, explaining that the Enterprise will require more repairs, and that he and Saru have "joint custody" of the ship. As they walk through the decks, Burnham admits that she is the reason she and Spock do not speak, and says that she would like to go over to the Enterprise to see him. Pike replies that Spock is on leave; Starfleet had ordered the Enterprise to remain on its five-year mission as an instrument of last resort, sitting out the war, which took a toll on Pike and his crew. Pike remarked that Spock had asked where the logic was of staying away if there would be nothing to return to, and was able to show the crew that logic was the beginning of the answer, not the end. A few months earlier, Pike noticed a shift in Spock, as if he had "run into a question he couldn't answer", which he refused to share with Pike or anyone else. As Spock was one of his officers, Pike trusted him implicitly and allowed him to go on leave without asking why. Burnham still wishes to go over to the Enterprise to find out for herself.

Burnham enters Spock's quarters and looks around the room, searching for something. She finds his old drawing table and accesses his latest personal log, in which Spock remarks that he had been plagued by nightmares as a child, which his mother taught him to control by drawing. The nightmares have returned, showing the same vision, and Spock now understood their meaning; he encoded the "vision" within the audio file to be played in the event of his death. Burnham activates the drawing table, showing the map of the seven red bursts, and realizing what Spock had seen.

" There are so many things I wish I'd said to you, so many things I want to say now. I'm too late, aren't I? Oh, Spock. I can only pray I don't lose you again. Brother. "

Log entries [ ]

• " Personal log. As a child, I had what my mother called nightmares. She taught me to control my fear by drawing it, rendering fear powerless. The nightmares have returned. The same vision, again and again. I now understand its meaning and where it must lead me. In the event of my death, I have encoded it within this audio file. This may be my last entry aboard the Enterprise . "

Memorable quotes [ ]

" Forgive me, Captain, your directive is only instituted under three contingencies: when an imminent threat is detected, when the lives of Federation citizens are in danger, or when no other officers of equal or higher rank are present to mitigate this threat. May I ask under which contingency you are here? " " All of them. "

" I see where the Federation puts its pennies. " " Do not covet thy neighbor's starship, commander. Besides, we've got the new uniforms. " " And lovely uniforms, they are. Captain. " " Very colorful. "

" Sometimes it's wise to keep our expectations low, commander. That way, we're never disappointed. "

" I'm Captain Christopher Pike. Up there are my commendations, my diagnosis of childhood asthma, that big red F, that was my failing grade in astrophysics at the Academy. I know this is a hard left turn. You were en route to Vulcan to pick up a new captain. I was briefed on the classified details surrounding your last one . I know he betrayed this crew. If I were you, I'd have my doubts about me as well. But I'm not him. I'm not Lorca. "

" Hit it. "

" Tilly, you are… incandescent. You're going to become a magnificent captain, because you do everything out of love. But I need you to repeat after me. " " Okay. " " 'I will say…' " " I will say… " " '…fewer things.' " " …fewer thi- okay. "

" I was expecting a red thing. Where's my damn red thing? "

" We got debris! " " No shit. "

" Relax. Tellarite blood is rich in hemerythrin. The only place on Earth you'll find anything like it is in marine invertebrates. Evolution's a fickle bitch, am I right? "

" We've been rockin' and rollin' for hours. Can someone tell me what's going on? " " This asteroid is on a collision course with a pulsar. The gravitational field is gonna tear this place apart. " " Oh, what a relief. I thought we were all gonna die. "

" What are you doing here? " " Well that depends. Are you attempting to capture an asteroid, Ensign Tilly? " " Uh, just a little piece. If my theory's correct, we'll be able to interact with dark matter, sir. " " Well I'm offended I wasn't invited to the party. " " Oh my- oh my God, you're so invited! "

" This is the power of math, people! "

" Wherever our mission takes us, we'll try to have a little fun along the way, too, huh? Make a little noise? Ruffle a few feathers."

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• Alex Kurtzman described the genesis of the Cassini archive footage that begins this episode's teaser as a "weird moment of inspiration" that came "out of nowhere, at 2 am." He elaborated, " It was weird. We were sitting in Hearn , right? We were freezing, freezing , and it was the middle of the night, […] and somebody handed me this […] Cassini footage, and I saw it, and it instantly hit me that seeing the future through the lens of the past, and through the satellite that was initially sent out on the same mission as all the Federation ships, which is exploration and understanding of other planets, was such an interesting way to frame this story. I'd just never seen it, and it felt like it suddenly grounded everything in reality, and, in that moment, it was like, 'Wait a minute; we've gotta start with the Cassini probe, and then we have to hear [ Burnham actress Sonequa Martin-Green ] say, 'Space, the final frontier,' and that's how we're going to start,' and that would segue us into this whole thing about Spock . " ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Prior to the young Spock and Burnham appearing in this episode's flashback, Sonequa Martin-Green imagined them together in their childhood. Partly from Burnham's perspective, she commented, " I see him now and go, 'Oh… Spock. I see you running around the house. I see you walking around the house in a very weird way.' It's been fun building memories with him involved. " ( Star Trek Magazine  issue 190 , p. 20)
• The hologram that boyhood Spock makes appear in the teaser flashback was originally intended to be a Le-matya , in reference to TAS : " Yesteryear ". Explaining why this idea was dropped, Alex Kurtzman noted, " The Le-matya design didn't quite work right with the hologram. " ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• According to Alex Kurtzman, the Star Trek: Discovery staff writers knew "for a while" that they wanted to introduce the character of Christopher Pike into the series' second season (as this episode does). This followed naturally on from the idea of bringing the USS Enterprise and Spock into the series, which the writing staff knew they wanted to do in order to answer the question of why Spock hadn't mentioned Burnham in any previous iteration of Star Trek despite the fact they were foster siblings. Since Pike was the captain of the Enterprise at the time the second season would be set, it made logical sense to bring him into the show too. ( TRR : " Brother and New Eden ")

Cast and characters [ ]

• Sonequa Martin-Green passionately believed that the Cassini footage at the start of this episode brought a sense of reality with it. She highly appreciated how this archive footage ended up in the installment and how Alex Kurtzman was "bold enough" to make the choice of inserting it into the episode. " I love that in just this teaser, " she said, " you see that we have this really beautiful return to the spirit of Trek , and the essence of Trek , and the canon itself, you know, in a really major way, but then also, you know, all the uniqueness that we're trying to bring, as well. " Martin-Green also referred to a moment from the teaser, depicting the very first conversation between Amanda Grayson and Michael Burnham, as "one of my favorite moments of the entire show," due to Amanda's "openness" and "warmth of her spirit that's just radiating from her eyes" in the scene, as well as how Amanda says she blesses Burnham and how much the moment conveys regarding backstory. " I thought it was such a poignant moment, " related Martin-Green. She also approved of how emotional the end of the teaser is. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Since Wilson Cruz was added to the DIS main cast for the show's second season, his name appears in the opening credits of this episode.
• Anson Mount appears for the first time in this installment and is credited as a main cast member in the opening credits. With the addition of this episode, Mount became the fourth actor to portray the role of Christopher Pike. Jeffrey Hunter originated the role in TOS : " The Cage ", while Sean Kenney portrayed an older Pike in TOS : " The Menagerie, Part I " and " The Menagerie, Part II ", whereas Bruce Greenwood portrayed his alternate reality counterpart in the films Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness .
• As of this episode, Jason Isaacs is no longer credited as a main cast member. Isaacs left the show following the death of Gabriel Lorca in " What's Past Is Prologue ", even though his name was still listed in the opening credits for the remainder of Season 1 .
• Shazad Latif is not credited as a main cast member and does not appear in this episode.
• The character of Spock is portrayed by Liam Hughes and Ethan Peck for the first time. Leonard Nimoy originated the role in TOS : " The Cage ". Actors Carl Steven , Vadia Potenza , Stephen Manley , and Joe W. Davis portrayed younger versions of the character in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock . Another younger version of Spock, from TAS : " Yesteryear ", was voiced by Billy Simpson . Jacob Kogan portrayed Spock's alternate reality counterpart as a young boy, while Zachary Quinto portrayed alternate Spock as an adult.
• Starting with this episode, actress Hannah Cheesman took over the role of Airiam . Actress Sara Mitich had portrayed Airiam in Season 1. Mitich took the recurring role of Nilsson from this episode onward.
• This episode introduced the recurring role of Jett Reno , played by Tig Notaro . However, the performer struggled with her lines of technobabble in this installment. " It's not that I couldn't remember anything; it's just, it's made-up space stuff, so I couldn't picture what I was saying at all, " she recalled. [1]

Pre-production [ ]

• Alex Kurtzman planned the scenes in this installment meticulously. " Every scene was very designed, so we knew in advance exactly where the shots were, and pretty much the cut points, " he said. " I had a lot of it in my head before we started shooting. " ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• The production design on this episode began while the post-production work was ongoing on " Will You Take My Hand? ". Visual Effects Supervisor Jason Zimmerman commented, " Alex [Kurtzman] started to drop hints about what we were going to be doing, so we all got together and started talking to discuss the different aspects of what the sequences would involve. Then they got busy right away and started to provide concept art that we could all look at and give feedback on, and react to, just to start to hone the world in a little bit and figure out what things were going to look like. " Noted Olatunde Osunsanmi , " There were so many things [to get right] in the first episode: the music, the visual effects themselves, the production design. " [2]
• There was one particular sequence in this episode which took a long time to plan. " Jason [Zimmerman] and I spent about six months prepping the asteroid sequence that's in this, " recalled Alex Kurtzman, " and it was a long, long, long process of working with pixel, storyboards, and doing it again. " [3]

Production [ ]

• There are new animations for the opening titles starting with this episode.
• This was the first episode of Discovery to be released with the aspect ratio of 2.39:1 rather than 2:1. It followed on from the first four episodes of Short Treks being released in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio. [4]
• Alex Kurtzman's method of directing this episode impressed the cast and crew. " You know, we were all so floored by the way he directed this episode, " reflected Sonequa Martin-Green, " because he came in and decided to shoot a movie, and that was just that. And so we said, 'Oh, oh, okay, so you're shooting a movie! Oh, I see.' And, you know, with the [2.39:1] lens […] And so we were just all, the whole time, like, 'What is Alex doing?! This is impossible!' " ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• In turn, Alex Kurtzman found the cast very easy to work with. Regarding Sonequa Martin-Green, he remembered, " The thing that really blew me away one day was we came early in the morning, it was early, and we were blocking the scene […] and Sonequa comes in and is just reading scenes like… I don't know if [she was] reading them for the first time but she's, like, giving it and bringing it before there's even a crew to be shooting it, which is incredible. " ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Filming on this episode began on 16 April 2018 . [5] [6] Shot on that date was A-camera footage of scene #116D, using a forty-millimeter camera lens. At least three takes were filmed of the scene, which was to later be embellished with visual effects. [7] Also shot on the same date was B-camera footage of scene #107E, which was filmed on the Discovery bridge set. [8]
• Amanda and Sarek's home was filmed at Integral House , a mansion located in downtown Toronto. " It was a perfect logic, Vulcan house, " noted Alex Kurtzman. He specifically thought its extreme starkness "felt very Vulcan." ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Actress Mia Kirshner was certain about how she wanted to perform the teaser moment when Amanda verbally blesses Michael Burnham. " She had that in her heart […] She knew from the beginning how she wanted to do that, " commented Alex Kurtzman, an observation which Sonequa Martin-Green agreed with. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Filming the episode's teaser was enjoyable for Alex Kurtzman. " I loved shooting all of this, " he remarked. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Preparing to film the turbolift scene with Linus sneezing turned out to be extremely funny for the cast and crew. " The first time we blocked it, we could not contain ourselves, " commented Sonequa Martin-Green. " I know it looks like we did, but we did not. " Alex Kurtzman added, " I wish we'd been rolling on that. " The scene was filmed very late at the end of one specific filming day, at approximately 3 a.m., so the cast and crew were exhausted. While shooting one particular take of the scene, David Benjamin Tomlinson performed the sneeze but his teeth simultaneously flew out of his mouth, and Martin-Green found the incident hysterically funny. The cast and crew, despite enjoying the shoot, didn't know how they'd manage to sustain their seriousness during the filming. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Having done lots of pre-production work on the asteroid sequence in this episode, Alex Kurtzman and Jason Zimmerman were fully aware, during production, what footage they had to shoot live-action for the sequence. " When we were actually shooting with our cast, and all they were doing is sitting in a chair against the green screen, " said Kurtzman, " we knew exactly how it was going to cut in with the [previz] , to the moment. There was no improv in any of that. " [9]
• The surface of the asteroid on which the Hiawatha crashes was actually shot at Hearn Generating Station . The nighttime incident in which someone handed Alex Kurtzman the Cassini footage happened during this location shoot. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)

Visual effects [ ]

• The scene with Linus sneezing included green snot that Jason Zimmerman digitally inserted into the footage. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)

Music and sound [ ]

• One of the tasks in composing the score for this episode was creating music to reflect the young Spock. " Now, when I was writing for Spock as a boy, " recalled Composer Jeff Russo , " I thought, 'Oh, okay, so I can write something here that's a little deconstructed and not such a big, emotional, 'Oh my God, it's Spock' thing yet, because he's still just a kid and it's a flashback. " [10]
• A few musical cues from this episode were released in the soundtrack collection Star Trek: Discovery - Season 2 . The first, "The Final Frontier", is used in the episode's teaser, accompanying Sonequa Martin-Green's opening voiceover, as well as the flashback to Burnham's youth; the second, "What's Wrong", plays over the segment of the teaser which is set on Discovery 's bridge; the third, "All Of Them", accompanies the transit of a joint Enterprise - Discovery team from the transporter room of the Discovery to the ship's bridge; the fourth, "Captain Pike", is the final musical cue in the episode's first act, audible while Pike introduces himself to the Discovery bridge crew and sends the ship to investigate the red bursts; the fifth, "I'm Coming Back", is audible from the point Burnham bids farewell to Tilly up to the moment when Burnham, Pike, Connolly and Nahn launch in their landing pods ; the sixth, "Lost Communication", can be heard while Pike experiences trouble in his landing pod and is then saved by Burnham; the seventh, "Stuck", begins while Burnham is running through the wreckage of the Hawiatha and plays until she is beamed up to Discovery with Pike, leaving a rock behind; and the eighth and final cue, "Flashback", can be heard when Burnham visits Spock's quarters at the end of the installment.

Editing [ ]

• With the cut points virtually all planned out prior to shooting, Alex Kurtzman found a relatively unique way of editing the episode. " I had a very interesting experience on this that I've never actually had before, " he explained. " I had Jon Dudkowski , our editor, with us on set. And so, what was kind of amazing about that was […] by the time I would call cut on the last shot, we would have the scene assembled. So, like, we'd do a take, we'd say, 'Okay, great,' and then turn to Jon, [say] , 'Go from here to here,' and he'd start putting it together. Literally by the time we were done shooting the scene, it was basically cut. " Sonequa Martin-Green had never before seen a TV production being edited on the set while filming took place but had heard about this practice being employed in feature film production. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)

Continuity [ ]

• The stardate for this episode was given in " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ".
• Following DIS Season 1 finale " Will You Take My Hand? ", this is the second episode in a row to begin with a voice-over ostensibly by Michael Burnham (and delivered by Sonequa Martin-Green). The story she tells at the start of this episode's teaser is depicted more fully in ST : " The Girl Who Made the Stars ".
• Sonequa Martin-Green considered the moment when Amanda Grayson and Michael Burnham meet each other for the first time as a milestone moment in Star Trek continuity. " As far as backstory goes, my goodness! We learn a wealth of information in two seconds, " she stated, " because we see this woman and you get a sense of the woman she is, you get a sense of the mother she is, and automatically you get a greater sense of Spock, and, you know, [it] rounds out the whole world so quickly. " Alex Kurtzman concurred with this perspective. ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• This episode marks the first appearance of Spock in Star Trek: Discovery . However, only a boyhood Spock appears, with an adult version of the character meanwhile audible but unseen in the installment's final scene.
• This episode picks up where "Will You Take My Hand?" left off, with the Discovery encountering the USS Enterprise .
• It is revealed that the Enterprise has a crew complement of 203. Captain Pike mentions the same number in " The Cage ".
• This marks the only instance in which a 23rd-century VISOR is depicted. This type of device, albeit its 24th century variant, appears regularly throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation and in the film Star Trek Generations , worn by Geordi La Forge before he is portrayed as having replaced it with ocular implants .
• Saru makes a mention of his sister Siranna , who had appeared in ST : " The Brightest Star ", and went on to re-appear in " The Sound of Thunder " and " Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2 ".
• This episode marks the first on-screen appearance of the prime timeline version of Pike outside of Star Trek: The Original Series . His reference to Mojave harkens back to " The Cage ", in which that town is not only established as Pike's hometown but also an illusory manifestation of it is made to appear, by the Talosians .
• This episode marks the first appearance of the Discovery 's extremely spacious turboshafts . The Enterprise is portrayed as having a similar area in ST : " Q&A ".
• The multiple references to a recent war with the Klingons refer to the Federation-Klingon War , which is begun in the second episode of DIS, " Battle at the Binary Stars ", before continuing throughout the first season, until the Discovery is instrumental in bringing the war to an end in "Will You Take My Hand?".
• Saru mentions that standard operating procedure for transferring command codes of a starship from one captain to another has changed since the war, in that starship command shall not be transferred without DNA authentication and witnessed by the bridge's crew.
• This episode contains the first canonical confirmation that Pike's command of the Enterprise included a five-year mission. It also includes, via an on-screen display, the first live-action canonical reference to Robert April as the commander of the Enterprise prior to Pike (a fact established in TAS : " The Counter-Clock Incident " but due to the uncertain canon status of the animated series, and despite previous references to April on-screen, was not confirmed in live-action until now).
• Pike's statement that the previous captain betrayed the Discovery 's crew harkens back to events in "Chapter Two" of the first season. This commanding officer, Gabriel Lorca , is revealed to be a Terran from the mirror universe (to Burnham and the audience) in " Vaulting Ambition ", whereas the rest of the Discovery crew don't learn this about him until the episode which follows that one, " What's Past Is Prologue ", in which he fights Burnham but ends up being killed by Emperor Georgiou .
• Pike's personnel files contains a long list of awards and commendations , almost all have been previously established in canon. However, it's quite strange for a Starfleet captain to have been awarded with some of them: the Okuda Award and Campbell Award are, presumably, scientific or engineering awards. The Legate's Crest is supposedly a Cardassian decoration ( VOY : " Nothing Human "). The most curious entry is the Carrington Award , which is the Federation's most prestigious award in the field of medicine, usually awarded as a lifetime achievement ( DS9 : " Prophet Motive ").
• Pike's reference to the last time Starfleet investigated an unidentified energy distortion, resulting in a Klingon war, is a callback to the first two episodes of DIS. In the series premiere " The Vulcan Hello ", Burnham herself investigates an unusual energy distortion emanating from a strange, ancient artifact , prior to the war beginning in "Battle at the Binary Stars".
• Although the modern colloquialism "hit it", in reference to engaging a device, was previously used in ST : " Calypso ", this is the first installment of DIS to incorporate the phrase.
• The Discovery was previously shown speeding through space while accompanied by the sound of Kasseelian opera (as it is at the start of this episode's second act) in " What's Past Is Prologue ", during the ship's return journey from the mirror universe.
• Hugh Culber briefly appears in a previously recorded message to Paul Stamets . Earlier in the series, Culber was killed by Ash Tyler in " Despite Yourself " and was last seen in " Vaulting Ambition " as an apparition in the mycelial network . His fondness for Kasseelian opera was previously established in episodes such as " Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad " and " Vaulting Ambition ".
• Stamets reveals to Sylvia Tilly that, following the peace accord signing in Paris (which takes place in "Will You Take My Hand?"), the Vulcan Science Academy offered him a permanent teaching position. Starfleet approved his transfer, and, as of this episode, he intends to leave Discovery following the completion of Pike's mission.
• Sarek mentions that L'Rell is formally now a High Chancellor . In "Will You Take My Hand?", she is persuaded by Burnham and Voq /Tyler to assume leadership of the Klingon Empire , though her specific title in that role isn't established until this episode.
• This outing reveals that, under Pike's command, the Enterprise and its crew intentionally refrained from involvement in the recent Federation-Klingon War. The episode also establishes that this was on orders from Starfleet – as the organization viewed the ship as a potential last resort – but that, as Pike says, this took a toll on the crew.
• Tilly mentions she witnessed a huge mycelial energy spike with a tardigrade , referencing Ripper from first season installments " Context Is for Kings ", " The Butcher's Knife Cares Not for the Lamb's Cry ", and " Choose Your Pain ".
• The sequence in which the landing pods fly through a debris field is reminiscent of such high-speed transits through debris fields as are depicted in the film Star Trek Into Darkness and DIS series premiere " The Vulcan Hello ", the latter of which features Burnham wearing an EV suit and losing contact with her ship, much as she does in the scene from this episode.
• The scene in which Enterprise Science Officer Connolly is overly confident during high-speed maneuvers towards a destination and consequently dies before he can make it there is similar to a scene in the film Star Trek , in which USS Enterprise Chief Engineer Olson dies while attempting to orbital skydive onto the Narada 's drill platform . Both characters are quickly introduced and killed off before a more well-known character (though played by a new actor in each role) is established in the same line of work – in the earlier case, Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott and, in this case, Science Officer Spock. Also, both high-speed maneuvers are carried out by away teams which are ultimately under the command of a Captain Christopher Pike, though the away mission that claimed Olson's life is indirectly commanded by the Pike of the alternate reality .
• Chronologically, this episode features the earliest appearance and on-screen usage of pattern enhancers .
• The effort to restore power to a transporter in an evacuation procedure aboard a crashed ship, in this case aboard the USS Hiawatha , is also done in such cases as aboard the USS Jenolan in TNG : " Relics " and the USS Franklin in Star Trek Beyond . Also, the scene in which Burnham runs out of the crashed remains of the Hiawatha while it falls apart around her is reminiscent of a scene in Star Trek Beyond in which Kirk and Chekov run out of the crashed remains of the USS Enterprise 's saucer section while it falls apart around them.
• Pike finds a leftover fortune cookie message under Lorca's desk. It reads, " Not every cage is a prison, not every loss is eternal, " a possible reference to Pike's Talosian arc featured in "The Cage" (which is set a few years before this episode) and "The Menagerie" two-parter (which, chronologically, is yet to come).
• Pike comments that entirely logical questions Spock asked made everyone realize that "logic was the beginning of the picture and not the end." This harkens back to a scene in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country where Valeris initially views a picture in Spock's quarters aboard the USS Enterprise -A , Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise , and Spock subsequently tells her that logic is "the beginning of wisdom" and "not the end."
• The final scene of this episode establishes that Spock still held the rank of lieutenant in 2257. He is depicted as holding that rank in "The Cage", though his earliest rank in subsequent episodes of TOS (which are set after this episode) portray him as a lieutenant commander.

Reception [ ]

• Alex Kurtzman was announced as directing the season premiere in March 2018 . [11]
• This is the first episode of Discovery that didn't have a companion After Trek episode, or aftershow at all, at release. While TRR : " Brother and New Eden " covered this episode, it didn't come out until the day after the release of " New Eden ".
• Alex Kurtzman described the Cassini footage which begins this episode as "amazing" and spoke appreciatively of the teaser in general, commenting about its flashback sequence, " I love the idea of going back into Burnham's history in this very dream-like, very ethereal way where, you know, the memory of the past is more poetry in her mind than sort of a literal representation. " Due to the flashback featuring the first moment Burnham sees Spock, Kurtzman considered the flashback "such a poignant and powerful memory." He also approved of the end of the teaser, saying it was, " for me, so emotional. I mean, that's the thing that I love about it. Just so, so emotional. " Kurtzman also described the scene in which Burnham, while Amanda is reading to her, sees Spock observing from a distance as "so painful." ("Brother" audio commentary , DIS Season 2 DVD & Blu-ray special features)
• Executive Producer Heather Kadin was of the opinion that this episode presented a better sense of each of the bridge crewmember's individual personalities than had regularly been the case in Season 1. ( TRR : " Brother and New Eden ")
• The Ready Room host Naomi Kyle found the interaction between Pike and Tilly memorable; Kyle remarked that seeing Tilly deal with experiencing "a little bit of the captain's presence" was "really cool." ( TRR : " Brother and New Eden ")
• Olatunde Osunsanmi approved of the TOS uniform colors being used in this episode. " They come on board with those amazing colors, " he enthused. " The minute you see those colors, you're like, 'Oh, my God, that's like The Original Series .' " [12]

Apocrypha [ ]

• Pike's mention of Starfleet Command ordering Constitution -class vessels to sit out the war in reserve as a last resort was elaborated upon in the novel The Enterprise War .

Production history [ ]

• 16 April 2018 : Filming begins [13]
• 3 January 2019 : Title publicly revealed [14]
• 17 January 2019 : Premiere airdate on CBS All Access
• 18 January 2019 : International release date (outside Canada and the USA)

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• As part of the DIS Season 2 DVD collection
• As part of the DIS Season 2 Blu-ray collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• Sonequa Martin-Green as Michael Burnham
• Doug Jones as Saru
• Anthony Rapp as Paul Stamets
• Mary Wiseman as Sylvia Tilly
• Wilson Cruz as Hugh Culber
• Anson Mount as Christopher Pike

Guest starring [ ]

• James Frain as Sarek
• Mia Kirshner as Amanda Grayson
• Tig Notaro as Jett Reno

Co-starring [ ]

• Hannah Cheesman as Lt. Cmdr. Airiam
• Emily Coutts as Lt. Keyla Detmer
• Patrick Kwok-Choon as Lt. Gen Rhys
• Oyin Oladejo as Lt. Joann Owosekun
• Ronnie Rowe Jr. as Lt. R.A. Bryce
• Ethan Peck as Spock V.O.
• Sean Connolly Affleck as Lt. Connolly
• Rachael Ancheril as Cmdr. Nhan
• Arista Arhin as Young Michael Burnham
• Raven Dauda as Dr. Tracy Pollard
• Julianne Grossman as Discovery Computer
• Liam Hughes as Young Spock
• Sara Mitich as Lt. Nilsson
• David Benjamin Tomlinson as Linus

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• George Alevizos as Discovery crewman
• Avaah Blackwell as Bridge crewman
• Ross Carter as Haj
• Thai Douchette as Discovery sciences crewmember
• Andrea Gallo as Discovery sciences crewmember
• Shelley Owens as a Discovery medical crewmember
• Andrew Shiff as Discovery transporter chief
• Unknown actor as Grek

Stunt double [ ]

• Geoff Meech as stunt double for Anson Mount

Stand-in [ ]

• Stacy-Ann Buchanan as stand-in for Sonequa Martin-Green

References [ ]

100,000 years ago ; Africa ; Alice ; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ; aortic valve ; armistice ; asteroid ; atmosphere ; ball ; baryon ; bat'leth ; Battle of the Binary Stars ; Betelgeusian ; Bible ; black hole ; blood ; bloodwine ; Bolian ; brain ; brake ; Brianna ; Caitian ; candle ; Cassini ; cat ; Cheshire Cat ; Christ ; clockwise ; Command Training Program ; compass ; Connolly's roommate ; covet ; crash landing ; dagger ; dark matter ; decapitation ; Dione ; DNA authentication ; drawing ; DSC 01 ; duotronic ; endocrine system ; Enterprise , USS ; ethno-botanist ( Stamets' colleague ); EV booster ; evolution ; exo-suit ; Federation-Klingon War ; Federation tug ; five-year mission ; flux coupler ; fortune cookie ; free fall ; girl who made the stars, the ; gravity ; gravity simulator ; gravity well ; Grek ; handshake ; heart ; hemerythrin ; Hiawatha , USS ; Hiawatha -type ; High Chancellor ; Human ; hybrid ; inertia dampener ; interstellar asteroid ; invertebrate ; Kasseelian ; Kasseelian opera ; kid (robot) ; kill zone ; Kim-Tara ; landing pod ; launch station ; Leaning Tower, The ; logic ; logic sciences ; L'Rell ; letter in a bottle ; Lorca, Gabriel ; magnet ; medical frigate ; meditation ; metaphor ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mirage ; Mojave ; Monday ; Morse code ; multi-vector propulsion ; nail bed ; National Aeronautics and Space Administration ; nightmare ; north pole ; orphan ; Paris ; particle ; pattern enhancer ; peace accord ; penny ; phaser cannons ; pinkie ; Pisa ; planetoid ; prima donna ; Prometheus ; proverb ; pulsar ; rank ; Red Angel ; red burst ; red shirt ; Rhea ; roller coaster ; roll call ; shrapnel ; simile ; Siranna ; Spacedock ; stars ; Starbase 36 ; Starfleet Corps of Engineers ; General Orders and Regulations ; Starfleet uniform (late 2230s-2250s) ; stream ; tardigrade ; task force ; telescopic camera ; Tellarite ; temporal anomaly ; Tethys ; three-dimensional chess ; titanium ; tonal matrix ; tower ; tow ships ; Ten Commandments ; tractor beam ; tribble ; Ursa Major ; Valentine ; Vulcan ; Vulcan bells ; Vulcan High Command ; Vulcan lute ; Vulcan Science Academy ; worker bee ; /Xam Abathwa

Christopher Pike personnel file references [ ]

Advanced Navigation ; Advanced Tactical ; allergic reaction ; Ancient Philosophies ; Antares , USS ; Aryabhatta , USS ; asthma ; Astrophysics ; Campbell Award ; campus ; Carrington Award ; childhood ; Chatelet , USS ; Communications ; Decoration for Gallantry ; diagnosis ; Earth ; Earth History ; Extended Tour Ribbon ; Federation Citation of Honor ; first officer ; fracture ; Graduating class of 3201.14 ; infection ; Interspecies Protocol ; laceration ; Legate's Crest of Valor ; Legion of Honor ; Medal of Commendation ; Medal of Excellence ; medical leave ; Okuda Award ; Order of Tactics ; Proficient Service Medallion ; Rigel Cup ; San Francisco ; Scientific Legion of Honor ; space sickness ; Star Cross ; Starfleet Academy ; Starfleet Award of Valor ; Starfleet database ; Starfleet Medical ; Starfleet Silver Palm ; Survival Strategies ; Tactical Analysis

USS Enterprise file references [ ]

2240 ; 2245 ; 2250 ; AD ; April, Robert ; Constitution -class ; cruising speed ; deflector screens ; deflector shields ; emergency speed ; enlisted ; Enterprise , USS ; heavy cruiser ; meter ; metric ton ; officer ; photon torpedo launcher ; San Francisco Fleet Yards ; Starfleet Command

External links [ ]

• "Brother" at StarTrek.com
• " Brother " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " Brother " at the Internet Movie Database
• " Discovering Season Two: Brother " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 USS Antares (32nd century)

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‘Star Trek’ Fan Leaves Behind a Collection Like No One Has Done Before

When Troy Nelson died, his shelves were filled to the rafters with memorabilia from the popular franchise. Soon, the massive collection will be boldly going, going, gone.

Evan Browne said her brother Troy’s love of “Star Trek” began with the original series, which he and his siblings watched at dinnertime. Credit... Connie Aramaki for The New York Times

Supported by

By Sopan Deb

• Published April 1, 2024 Updated April 3, 2024

Editors’ Note, April 2, 2024: After publication, The Times learned that Troy and Andrew Nelson were named in a civil lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court in 1998, in which they were accused of molesting three disabled adults in a state-licensed facility that they operated. After a six-week jury trial, Washington State was ordered to pay $17.8 million to the plaintiffs. The state said it intended to appeal but missed the deadline and paid the victims. The Nelson brothers denied the allegations and were never criminally charged.

Troy Nelson and his younger brother Andrew were almost inseparable.

The two youngest of six, they were born two years apart. They lived together in their childhood home in Bremerton, Wash., for more than half a century. Near their home, there is a park bench on which they carved their initials as young boys.

The Nelson brothers never married or had children. They worked together at the same senior home. They even once, as teenagers, dated the same girl at the same time while working different shifts at the same pizza shop. This lasted a week until they realized it.

“Two parts of one body,” Evan Browne, their older sister, said of their relationship in an interview.

On Feb. 28, Andrew Nelson, who had been treated for cancer for years, went to feed the chickens and ducks that were gifts from Ms. Browne to her brothers. He had a heart attack and died. He was 55. Just hours later, Troy Nelson, who was stricken with grief, took his own life. He was 57.

“He had talked about it before,” Browne, 66, said, tearfully. “He said, ‘Hey, if Andrew goes, I’m out of here. I’m checking out.’ Andrew would say the same thing, and then it really happened .”

What Troy Nelson left behind has become a sensation. After his death, family members posted pictures on social media of his massive — and, really, the keyword is massive — collection of “Star Trek” memorabilia, which have now been shared thousands of times.

The items took up two living rooms and a bedroom, all lined with bookshelves, according to Elena Hamel, one of the brothers’ nieces. The centers of the rooms were lined with additional bookshelves — all packed to the brim — to create aisles. There were jewelry cabinets serving as display cases.

The shelves contained action figures. Dolls. Models of ships. Posters. Ornaments. Lunchboxes. Legos. Several toy phasers and tricorders. (For non-Trek fans, the phaser is a weapon, and a tricorder is, essentially, a fancy smartphone.) Multiple “Star Trek” lamps. (Yes, there are “Star Trek” lamps.) Trading cards. Comic books. Trek-themed Geeki Tikis (stylized tiki mugs). Life-size cutouts of famous characters. A life-size captain’s chair.

While it’s impossible to account for every private collector in the world, Troy Nelson’s collection is almost assuredly among the largest — if not the largest.

The last additions to the collection came in the final weeks of his life: Stuffed rabbits in “Star Trek” uniforms. “I’ve never seen a collection that size,” said Russ Haslage, the president of the International Federation of Trekkers , a “Star Trek”-themed nonprofit that Haslage founded with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the franchise.

Haslage’s organization opened in 2020 a “Star Trek” museum in Sandusky, Ohio, that has received donations of memorabilia from estates. Those collections “pale in comparison” to Mr. Nelson’s, he said. (Haslage has reached out to the family to ask about donations from the collection.)

The older brother’s love of “Star Trek” began with the original series, which he’d watch with his siblings.

“It was our dinner meal,” Ms. Browne said. “When we had dinner, we were sitting in front of ‘Star Trek.’”

Troy Nelson began collecting in the late-1970s. His first acquisition was a model version of the Starship Enterprise. Then came Star Trek conventions. Why the franchise was such a draw to him remains a mystery to his family.

“I really can’t say. I mean, other than the fact that he was brainwashed with it at dinner time,” Browne said, laughing. “That sounds ridiculous. When we grew up, it’s like, ‘Dinner is at this time. And if you don’t get here at this time, you don’t get dinner.’ So it might’ve been a comfort for him .”

Troy Nelson would often monitor sites like eBay for items he didn’t have. On several occasions, he would express frustration on losing out on an item before being able to bid on it. Until he found out the reason.

“Andrew already got it for him,” Ms. Browne recalled.

Obsessive “Star Trek” fandom has long become an indelible part of pop culture, especially as the franchise — which has spawned several television series, movies, novels and comics — has been a long-running institution. There have been documentaries that have studied the subject, such as “Trekkies” in 1997. It’s been lampooned on “The Simpsons,” “Saturday Night Live” and “Family Guy,” and become a story line in an episode of “The West Wing,” among many others. For dedicated fans, accruing collectibles isn’t uncommon.

“When you collect these things, you’re closer to that genre that you enjoy so much,” Haslage said. “When I first started in 1979, I was grabbing everything I could get my hands on because it was cool, and it was a piece of the whole ‘Star Trek’ mythos. If you have these pieces, you’re a part of that universe in some way.”

It turns out that collecting is a pursuit that runs in the family.

Andrew Nelson collected mall swords, Ryobi-branded tools and statues of warrior women, like Xena, the warrior princess .

Browne’s house has a wall with thousands of smashed pennies and her living room windows are full of glass sugar and creamer bowls.

Browne’s father, Bud Peers, collected salt and pepper shakers, guns and knives. Troy and Andrew’s father, Norman Nelson, collected scrap metal and wood.

Hamel has 17 Christmas trees, all fully decorated with separate themes.

Browne’s son, Michael, who is 36, collects anything and everything related to black bears.

“ When you have a large collection like that and it’s displayed like that,” Hamel said, “and it’s something that is important to you, it’s often really calming to be in a space like that. It’s just all the things that you love. It’s soothing.”

As far as Browne knew, Troy had no history of mental illness or any previous suicide attempts. After Andrew died, she received a distraught and frantic call from Troy with the news. She told him that she was on her way.

Ms. Browne said she called him when she got to the Tacoma Bridge. No answer. And then again, at the Manette Bridge. No answer. When she reached their home, the back door was open. And then she found him. The phone call was the last time they spoke.

Troy Nelson did not leave a note, but did leave some things meticulously arranged by his computer, including a key to the house, burial plans for the two brothers, and bills.

“ I don’t know really what I thought,” Ms. Browne said. “All I could do was just scream.”

The Nelson family is boxing up Troy’s “Star Trek” collection to prepare it for auction. Andrew’s ashes will be placed in an urn carved in the likeness of the supermodel Bettie Page . (He was a fan.) Troy’s ashes will be placed in a “Star Trek” lunchbox.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

Sopan Deb is a Times reporter covering breaking news and culture. More about Sopan Deb

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Discovery Season 5 is Taking a Huge Swing With Star Trek Canon

Get out your space history books.

Why do so many Star Trek aliens look like humans? The real-world explanation is that way back in 1964, Gene Roddenberry said the format of Star Trek would focus on stories that took place on “parallel worlds.” This didn’t mean Trek was an alternate universe-hopping show, but that allegorically, the people encountered by the Enterprise were humanoid, thus making the stories easier to write and understand (and, from a budget perspective, easier to make). But there’s an in-universe explanation for this, too.

In 1993, Star Trek: The Next Generation devoted an episode to answering this big question. And now, 31 years later, Star Trek: Discovery is doubling down with a Season 5 storyline that serves as a direct sequel to that story. Here’s what this means and why it matters. Spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episodes 1 and 2.

The return of Star Trek’s Progenitors

The Progenitor’s message in the Next Generation episode “The Chase.”

At the end of Discovery Season 5, Episode 1, “Red Directive,” we learn that the data the crew has been assigned to protect is connected to discoveries made by a Romulan scientist in the year 2369. Season 5 happens roughly 820 years after that date, but as Kovich (David Cronenberg) tells Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), this information has been kept hidden for centuries. Why?

Well, in “The Chase,” Picard, Crusher, and the Enterprise-D crew — along with representatives from the Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans — discovered an ancient message coded within DNA that revealed everyone descended from the same ancient aliens. The Progenitors, as their message explains, “...seeded the primordial oceans of many worlds, where life was in its infancy. The seed codes directed your evolution toward a physical form resembling ours.”

Captain Burnham is floored by this information, which makes sense since she’s originally from the 23rd century, and her pre-time travel adventures in Starfleet predate Picard’s by about 100 years. But Burnham’s ignorance of the Progenitors isn’t because she and the Discovery crew are time travelers. There’s another reason why this has all been classified.

Discovery’s new God-mode tech

Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is racing to find the most powerful Trek tech of all time.

The fact that most humanoid-looking life in Star Trek descended from an ancient alien species isn’t a new revelation to longtime Trek fans. Even Original Series episodes “Return to Tomorrow” and “The Paradise Syndrom” hinted that several species originated thanks to some kind of organized panspermia . What is new is that the technology the Progenitors used to create life on thousands of worlds has been found.

In Discovery’s “Red Directive,” the journal left by the Romulan scientist is just the first piece of the puzzle. The larger mission is to find the technology the Progenitors developed millions of years ago, and so Discovery has revealed the most powerful technology in all of Trek canon to date. In The Wrath of Khan , we got the Genesis Device , a tech capable of instantly terraforming planets. In Voyager’s “Year of Hell,” the Kremin weapon ship pushed entire planets out of the spacetime continuum, altering history in the blink of an eye.

But those examples of super-tech were unstable. What’s interesting about the ancient Progenitor tech is that it obviously works . Discovery’s imperative to find the tech is classic Trek: if the ability to seed life on a planetary scale falls into the wrong hands, the galaxy could be changed forever. In the grand tradition of Star Trek, the biggest superweapons aren’t planet-destroying superweapons, but something that could redefine and rewrite life itself.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 airs on Paramount+.

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Star trek: discovery introduces its own data .

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 introduces an android who bears a striking resemblance to Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data.

• Discovery season 5 introduces a Soong-type synth similar to Data, connecting to TNG and Picard storylines.
• Fred, a synthetic with ties to Data's creator, Noonien Soong, showcases advanced technology in the 32nd century.
• With themes of humanity and artificial intelligence, Star Trek: Discovery continues to explore interesting connections and mysteries.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5, Episode 1 - "Red Directive"

Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere introduced a Soong-type synth who looked a lot like Data (Brent Spiner) from Star Trek: The Next Generation . Throughout TNG , Data became one of Star Trek's most popular characters, with his child-like curiosity and lifelong quest to explore his humanity. Created by cyberneticist Dr. Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner) in the 24th century, Data was the most advanced android of his time. With his enhanced strength and ability to process massive amounts of information in seconds, Data proved invaluable as a crewmember on the USS Enterprise-D.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 begins with a bang, as Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the USS Discovery are thrown into a galactic treasure hunt hundreds of years in the making. In Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive," Discovery sets out in pursuit of a mysterious Romulan artifact from 800 years ago. When their target is stolen by couriers Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis), Michael reaches out to Cleveland Booker (David Ajala) for insight as to where the couriers might try to unload their haul. This leads Discovery to a fence named Fred (J. Adam Brown), a synthetic with the same distinctive pallor and yellow eyes as Data.

Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 Returning Cast & New Character Guide

Star trek: discovery has its own data-like android named fred, in only one episode, discovery season 5 has more connections to tng than any previous season..

Moll and L'ak reach Fred first in Star Trek: Discovery season 5's premiere with their prize of a Romulan puzzle box. When they present the Romulan artifact to Fred, he remarks that he has "not encountered one of these for 622.7 years," revealing a clue about the android's age. Fred makes quick work of the box, as well as the handwritten journal found inside. After reading the entire contents of the book in mere seconds (as Data often did on TNG ), Fred makes an offer that's too low for L'ak and Moll. Sensing Fred's upcoming double-cross, L'ak remarks that "it's been a while since we've seen a synth anxious."

When Fred attempts to keep the book, Moll and L'ak attack, eventually killing the android fence. Michael and Book arrive too late to catch Moll and L'ak, but they beam Fred to Discovery to look through his memories. As Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) examines Fred, he discovers the android's serial number to be AS0572Y, remarking that AS must stand for Altan Soong (Brent Spiner) , the son of Data's creator, Noonien Soong. Introduced in Star Trek: Picard season 1, Dr. Altan Inigo Soong created a population of synths on the planet Coppelius, all using one of Data's positronic neurons.

Data returned in Star Trek: Picard season 3, with a newly upgraded synthetic body, as well as the ability to experience organic emotions and physical touch. These upgrades brought Data as close to being human as he could possibly be.

Discovery Already Has A Synthetic Like Picard

Jean-luc picard received a golem body in star trek: picard, as did gray in star trek: discovery..

While it appears that Fred is dead (unless Stamets can find a way to revive him), Star Trek: Discovery already has another, more advanced synthetic in Gray (Ian Alexander). The partner of Ensign Adira Tal (Blu del Barrio), Gray was thought to be dead, but they were later revived when their consciousness was transferred to a synthetic golem body. Gray followed in the footsteps of Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), who received the same kind of synthetic body in the final episode of Star Trek: Picard season 1, after succumbing to a terminal brain condition.

Even if Fred remains dead, here's hoping Star Trek: Discovery reveals more information about the intriguing android and his connection to Data.

Even during the 25th century of Star Trek: Picard , synthetic and android technology improved significantly since the creation of Data, although very few beyond the Soong family understood the science behind it. Still, Picard's golem body , like Gray's, was indistinguishable from a human (or a Trill, in Gray's case). It's unclear why and how a synth resembling the earliest version of Soong's androids would exist in the 32nd century, and Fred's admission that he is over 600 years old certainly raises some interesting questions. Even if Fred remains dead, here's hoping Star Trek: Discovery reveals more information about the intriguing android and his connection to Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data.

New episodes of Star Trek: Discovery air Thursdays on Paramount+.

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