Who is Lore, and what do we know about his return in Star Trek Picard season 3? This article contains spoilers for Star Trek Picard season 3 episode 6. The latest episode of Star Trek Picard brought back one of the most important characters from Star Trek The Next Generation: Lore.
As Riker, Worf, and Raffi broke into Daystrom Station to find out what the renegade Changelings had stolen, the famous pale-Star Trek character Lore made his return. From the trailers, we know that he’ll have a major impact on the remaining episodes of the TV series.
Last seen in a Star Trek series many decades ago, there’s plenty of lore about Lore to brush up on. So, here’s everything we know about Lore, his return, and what TNG episodes he appears in.
Who is Lore?
Lore is Data’s android brother. Like Data, he was one of the Soong-type androids made by the leading cyberneticist Doctor Noonien Soong on the Omicron-Theta colony.
Lore had the same physical characteristics as Data, and possessed and equal intellectual ability. However unlike Data, Lore was built with a capacity to experience emotions. This backfired, though, and the colonists on Omicron-Theta became unsettled by his instability and seeming malevolence.
Doctor Noonien-Soong then deactivated Lore, and worked on a second Soong-type android which did not have the capacity for emotion leading to the creation of Data. Lore was disassembled, and put into storage. However he was later found by an away team from the Enterprise-D who visited Omicron-Theta, only to find that it had been destroyed by the Crystalline Entity that Lore had built a relationship with.
Lore was taken aboard the Enterprise-D and reactivated, however he quickly came up with a plan to destroy the Enterprise-D and its crew. This plan was ultimately foiled, and Data used the transporter to beam Lore into space in order to stop him.
Around two years later, Lore was discovered in space by a group of Pakled scavengers. When Doctor Noonien Soong sent out a homing signal to bring Data to his new planet Terlina III, Lore also responded.
Lore the discovered that Doctor Noonien Soong was intending to give Data an emotion chip, and this knowledge sent him into a jealous rage. He stole the emotion chip, and fatally wounded Soong, before leaving the planet and disappearing once again.
The crew of the Enterprise-D would cross paths with Lore once again when the discovered he was leading a renegade group of Borg including Hugh. He had become the group’s leader, and was conducting experiments on his followers in an effort to attack Federation targets.
Lore in Star Trek Picard season 3 explained
Lore makes his return in Star Trek Picard season 3 episode 6. Sort of. It is revealed that Data’s body was taken in by Daystrom, and that it was that reconfigured to act as the AI security system that protected Daystrom Station as an amalgamation of all of the Soong-type androids. This includes Lore, his personality, his intelligence, and his experience.
This made use of Lore’s immense intelligence, however Lore also had weaknesses that could be exploited by the likes of Riker and the Changelings who stole the tech.
When Riker, Worf, and Raffi broke into Daystrom Station, they found that Lore was using Moriarty as a form of defence for Daystrom. However, Riker was able to establish that Lore was playing a game with a call-back to his first meeting with Data. Riker completed the tune to ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’ which granted him access to the heart of the station where Lore was being kept.
In the conclusion of the episode, Lore was then beamed aboard the USS Titan for further examination. It was thought he would be able to help uncover what the Changelings stole from Daystrom.
Lore TNG episodes
Lore is in four TNG episodes, including two-standalone episodes and one two-parter. The two-parter, Descent, acted as the TNG season 6 finale.
While Descent isn’t one of the best two-parters (certainly not matching the heights of TNG episodes such as Best of Both Worlds or Chain of Command) it still has some great moments for Data and Lore.
Meanwhile, Datalore is one of the better episodes of season 1, and Brothers is among Data’s best episodes.
Lore TNG episodes in order:
- Datalore
- Brothers
- Descent
- Descent Part 2
That’s it on Lore for now. As Star Trek Picard season 3 continues, we can expect to learn more about how he’ll impact the plot.
For more on Star Trek, check out our guide on the Star Trek Strange New Worlds season 2 release date, and learn more about the Star Trek movie Star Trek 4. Or, get to know other important characters including Captain Shaw, Vadic, Ro Laren, and Jack Crusher.