Amnesia of the Future: Datalore

2nd December, 2009 3 Comments

I can just see it now, Brent Spiner first getting the job on Star Trek and being told to act like a robot attempting to act human.  Then, thirteen episodes in, act like a robot attempting to act human, act like an almost identical robot attempting more successfully to act human, and act as that second robot attempting to act like the first robot.

Hayley Mills, Lindsey Lohan–your role(s) of twin sisters in The Parent Trap was a cakewalk compared to the acting chops Brent Spiner just displayed in Datalore.  I finished watching the previous episodes over a week ago and hung onto the disk to re-watch as I wrote my reviews and returned it to Netflix so that even with the long holiday weekend I’d be able to watch Datalore on Monday evening.  And I was so excited to see an email state that the disk had been sent and it was going to be waiting for me…right there in the mailbox, just waiting…until I got home from work.

Let’s reiterate that Brent Spiner is brilliant.  I’ve totally started stalking him on Twitter now.  You’re next, LeVar Burton.

What I don’t understand about this episode is how they couldn’t tell Data and Lore apart.  You’re on the frickin’ Enterprise!!  You can make ninjas appear in the holodeck, have a machine that will eventually form matter into Earl Grey tea, can tell that Lore has left his quarters…and you’re all relying on a facial tick and speech choice to tell the difference between the two?  The same person who forgot the firewall to keep the Ferengi out of the computer’s library must have been in charge of the “Data GPS Chip” that would have allowed the ship’s computer to recognize Data.  Let’s also point out the fact that the Lore head, when Data picked it up, had stupider poofy hair!  Did a haircut come with assembly?

Even Harry Potter had a fancy map that told you who was where in Hogwarts, and changing clothes with someone does mess the map up.

Memories of the Future:  Chapter 13

Thanks to watching original Warner Brothers cartoons as a kid, my adult life is really messed up–like the fact that I see about 4+ operas a year, and it’s rather difficult to be watching Figaro deliver his famous song only to see Bugs Bunny there in front of you instead of whichever tenor is on stage.  Or listening to blues and mis-hearing “Blues in The Night” as “My momma done told me when I was in knee pants to bring something home for lu-unch.”

So when Wil Wheaton writes:

Data wants to put it together and activate it, so he can love it and keep it and pet it and call it George.

I squealed.  Cannot tell you how many times I’ve said that and gotten the Christina-has-officially-lost-it looks.

But then he keeps writing and I realized that I had overlooked a lot of bad stuff that was going on in this episode–possibly because of my crush on Data and just how well Brent Spiner played the dual role.  So now, I just want to say “SHUT UP, WIL WHEATON!” cause you totally ruined Datalore for me now that I read the chapter and I’m never going to be able to go back and just be entertained by this episode.

Oh, and when does Volume 2 come out?  I’d like it tomorrow.  Make it so, Wil Wheaton.

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3 Comments

Winona

December 2nd, 2009 at 10:41 am    


THANK YOU. I thought I was alone in loving Datalore. Brent Spiner’s performances are wonderful. I love the deliciously bad characters we are introduced to so early in the show’s run (Lore and Q), and always looked forward to seeing Lore in other episodes. And of course, I always get frustrated that nobody’s listening to Wesley just because he’s a “kid”, even though he’s – wait for it – right, yet again.

By the way, have you checked out Brent’s album, Ol’ Yellow Eyes is Back?

Marcelo

December 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am    


I don’t know, over time I’ve cooled off to Brent’s acting. A lot of his characterizations like Lore are one-dimensional as opposed to complex nuanced characters (I’m one of the few Trekkies who hates his performance in the episode “Masks”). His work as Data is wonderful because the character’s limitations also rein in his tendency to overact. When you get the sense that Data WANTS to go further than he can, that’s the moment Brent’s acting really shines (see season 3’s “The Offspring,” or s6’s “Birthright pt 1″).

Especially when he’s standing next to Patrick Stewart, who just gets better and better and better.

Danyiel

December 10th, 2009 at 8:17 pm    


You said almost the exact same thing that I said verbatim (sans profanity) about how stupid the writers must have thought we were about Lore’s facial tick. He uses contractions, he has human emotions, and he’s kind of a dick. But no, that wasn’t good enough, they had to give him a facial tick, too, which was as easily switched between he and Data as a hat or a shirt. And Data’s uniform. WTF?! Just goes to show you how much input the actors (or in this case, actor) had when it came to the characters they played during the first season.

I’m not going to lie, I loved this episode when I was a wee girl of 14 with a dwindling crush on Jonathan Frakes and a budding one on Brent Spiner, and I honestly think that this may have been the turning point. I wouldn’t have known a good actor if he or she walked up and bit me back then, but the range that he showed in this episode is probably what started my having a crush on him because even though the episode was terrible in retrospect, Spiner pulled it off in spades. He actually carries the episode so well that it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I even noticed how awful it truly is. Okay…shutting up now. Commence crush on Data without the peanut gallery’s opinions.

P.S. I still to this day have crushes on both Data and Brent Spiner. Truly amazing actor and a wickedly funny guy.
.-= Danyiel´s last blog ..Calling All Metalheads =-.

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