In the fictional Star Trek universe, Lore is the name of a prototype for the android Data, often referred to as his 'evil brother' and was played by the same actor: Brent Spiner.

Lore was built on Omicron Theta after B-4, but before Data, by Dr. Noonien Soong. It is unclear whether Lore's personality defects arise from errors in his design, or from his having more "human" features than Data, but regardless, Dr. Soong felt it necessary to deactivate and disassemble Lore. Before being disassembled, Lore contacted the Crystalline entity, which destroyed the entire colony.

In 2364, Data discovered his "brother" Lore, and Dr. Beverly Crusher led the team that reassembled him. However, Lore's psychopathic tendencies soon became evident: he deactivated Data in an attempt to take over the Enterprise. Lore was transported off into space just before he had a chance to kill anyone. ("Datalore")

In 2367, Dr. Soong summoned Data to a planet in order to give him an emotion chip that would allow him to experience human feelings. Lore was summoned by the same signal and tricked Dr. Soong into giving the chip to him. Lore killed Dr. Soong before the Enterprise crew could find Data. Lore then escaped with the chip. ("Brothers")

In 2370, Lore ran into a group of Borg who had been cut off from the collective. Lore became their leader for a while, and lured Data into helping him fight the Federation. Eventually, the group of Borg rejected Lore's leadership. Data finally dismantled Lore for good, but kept Lore's emotion chip. He chose not to use the chip immediately, however.

The special effects that allowed the Lore and Data to appear in the same frame were quite sophisticated. In one scene Lore puts down a glass of wine which Data then picks up. This was achieved by the use of a moving split screen.

What may be just a coincidence is that the facial expressions of Lore in genial mood, and Data in playful mood, closely resemble the Scarecrow in "The Wizard of Oz", who sighs "If I only had a brain".

Appearances