TNG - "Datalore"

The Enterprise travels to Data's home planet, where all life, human or otherwise, has been mysteriously wiped out. There they discover a "brother" of Data's, an identical android named Lore. Lore, unlike Data, is highly emotional and arrogant. He attempts to switch places with Data, and it is revealed that Lore betrayed the colonists of his world by leading a massive life-eating "Crystalline Entity" to the planet and letting it destroy all life. After the Enterprise crew figures out what's going on, Data beams Lore into space.

That summary was the longest I've had to write for a TNG episode thus far, save for the 2-hour premiere. That should either tell you how important this episode is or how simplistic most of the show is at this point. Unfortunately, it's a little of both, mostly the latter.

Lore is a great villain, if slightly stereotypical. What makes him really work is the awesome job Brent Spiner does playing Data's polar opposite. Spiner taps into a kind of narcissistic madness with a dose of Machiavellian style. If not for this, Lore would have been a wasted, stupid character.

Wesley once again is "the only smart person on the ship" as well as "the kid that no one listens to." It's getting more than annoying. At this point, it just makes everyone on the Enterprise (as well as everyone in the TNG writers' room) look really stupid.

The crystalline entity looks cool, even if it is obvious CG. Crystals, being generally low-polygon structures, have the advantage of looking fine with old-style CG.

If there's one problem with this episode, it's that, for all its notability, it's just... "there." The introduction of Lore—the closest thing Data has to family thus far—doesn't seem to have changed Data all that much; he pretty much goes back to his station at the end, seemingly having gained or lost nothing. This really feels like a one-off episode that's decent, but not necessarily great.