There is nothing I hate more in TV than the idiot plot. You know the one, the plot that relies entirely and solely on the characters beings idiots and not doing something obvious. It annoys me in sitcoms, so it’s especially annoying when it happens in a supposedly ‘intelligent’ show such as Star Trek. The entire episode rests on the crew of the Enterprise being just too stupid to know what to do when there’s an identical twin around. It’s especially annoying as one of the pleasant surprises of The Original Series was how rarely this plot got used.
It’s a pity, really, as it undermines what otherwise works quite well. The ‘evil twin’ is a well tested plot device, and Brent Spiner makes it work very well. And the first 20 minutes or so is pretty good. But as soon as Lore starts to impersonate Data everything is on a sharp downward slope. And things had just started to pick up as well…
For some reason I was particularly struck with the music in this episode. It seemed richer than usual. For instance, the Blade Runner undertones in the scenes of discovering and assembling Lore, and the music accompanying the exploration of the base. It’s one of the regular composers, so maybe I was just noticing it more this time.
118 down, 619 to go.