The Best Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1, Episode 13 Quotes

- Emergency close.
- Now show me your warrior fierceness.

- Understood.
- We'll take it back to the ship with us.
- Picard: Captain's log, stardate 41242.45.
- Despite having only a few hours in which to explore data's home planet, we have discovered something which may explain data's beginnings, if we can properly assemble and communicate with what we've found.

Commander William T. Riker: No power in the universe can hope to stop the force of evolution.

- Data: Wes, the transporter.
- Wesley, now!

Commander William T. Riker: Commander Riker to the Enterprise.
Doctor: [over comm] This is the Enterprise, Crusher here.
Lieutenant: Must be worse up there than we thought.

Doctor: This virus mutates every twenty minutes! But we haven't had any fatalities - yet.
Lieutenant: If this continues, there'll be no one left to run the ship.
Doctor: If this continues, Lieutenant La Forge, nobody will be healthy enough to care.

- You're being very unfair, Wes.
- Data, the crystal thing is outside, somewhere close to the ship.
- And lore is loose on the inside.
- How badly are you hurt, data?
- I will function sufficiently to stop lore, doctor.
- Crystal entity form, it's your old friend.

- You've understood perfectly so far.
- Next I will signal that I'm about to transport something out.
- At which time the deflector shields will turn off for a moment, and if you move in at that time...
- How sad, dear brother.
- You make me wish
- I were an only child.

- and then it suddenly became violent, apparently sensing that Wesley and I were present.
- Or is it lore, pretending to be data and faking it all?
- I asked for commander riker's report, acting ensign crusher.
- Since it seems clear that you are unable to function within the limits of that appointment...
- Captain.

Commander William T. Riker: Mr. Data will need access to your library.
Beata: Our library is far too sophisticated for a man to comprehend.
Lt. Commander Data: I am an android, Mistress. Though anatomically, I am a male.
Beata: An amusing notion.

- I'd suggest you forget imitating him.
- If you'd said, "we've been using the sensors," instead of "we have,"
- I might have suspected you were lore.
- Yes. I do use language more formally than lore.
- Please inform the captain
- I will come up to the bridge and report on this.
- Aye, sir.

- Picard: Space, the final frontier.
- These are the voyages of the starship enterprise.
- Its continuing mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

- Lore,
- I have a few questions to ask you.
- Lore, it is data. He senses you.
- I cannot control him if you stay.
- Please, I will record everything he says.
- And you bring it to the bridge, immediately.

Captain: I've an away team down there, in less than friendly territory, and in addition, I have an appointment with several Romulan battlecruis...
[gasping and steadying himself, exhausted]
Doctor: You have an appointment in your cabin, Captain, with your bed!
Captain: Is that an order, Doctor?
Doctor: Yes!

Trent: Mistress Beata invites you to witness this morning's reaffirmation of Angel One's moral imperative.
Lieutenant: Is that the civilized word for 'murder' on this world?

Commander William T. Riker: To travel the distance we did in two days at warp 1, would have taken the Odin escape pod five months.
Lt. Commander Data: 5 months, 6 days, 11 hours, 2 minutes...
Commander William T. Riker: Thank you, Data.
Lt. Commander Data: ...and 57 seconds.

- Go, quickly, and I may not injure your son at all.
- I will stay with Wesley, doctor.
- Lore: Go.
- Or he'll be shrieking by the count of five.
- One, two, three, four...
- Thank you for my human qualities,
- Dr. Soong. Wait.
- A small payment for your son's misdeeds.

- Riker: Certainly is a good match for data, sir.
- Picard: Do you think so, really?
- I wonder which of them was made first.
- He was.
- But they found him to be imperfect, and I was made to replace him.
- You may call me lore.

[Beata is trying to seduce Riker, who is slightly resisting]
Commander William T. Riker: It's not my function to seduce or be seduced by the leader of another world.
Beata: It's not the reason.
Commander William T. Riker: No, it's not. But will you still respect me in the morning?
Beata: I hope so.

Commander William T. Riker: [on Data's warning of breaking Starfleet rules by saving Ramsey's group] I'd rather face a court martial than live with the guilt of leaving these people to their deaths.

- And you wanna be as stupid as them, dear brother?

- Lore's gone, sir, permanently.
- Doctor, now that Wesley's safe, go to sickbay at once.
- Captain, the crystal thing has begun to move away.

- all languages, all frequencies.
- I can't believe anything's overtaking us this fast.
- Beautiful, isn't it?
- I recognize it, sir.
- It's the crystal image lore described.
- My god.

- The positronic brain.
- He promised so much.
- And then when he failed completely,
- Dr. Soong disappeared.
- Now we know he went somewhere else to try a second time.
- Data, geordi, we'll get a close look at this lab.
- You and lieutenant worf reconnoiter where those corridors lead.
- Aye, sir.

[last lines]
Captain: [hoarsely, still recovering from the virus] Mr. Data, set course for the Neutral Zone, warp 6.
Lt. Commander Data: Coordinates set, warp 6, on your mark, sir.
Captain: [croaks, almost inaudibly] Engage.
Lt. Commander Data: ...Sir?
[Picard looks pleadingly at Riker]
Commander William T. Riker: Engage!

- Because I was designed to be so human, my brother,
- I enjoy pleasing humans.
- "My brother."
- That has a nice sound to it, data.
- You consider it important to please humans.
- It's not important?
- There are many things of importance, some more than others.

- as if to hide something here.
- Yes, that was it, geordi.
- This awakens a memory remnant of how the colonists hoped to remain hidden.
- But their fear of being discovered led to their storing information in me.
- Heh, yeah, thought so.

Lieutenant: Ever feel like you're not really wanted?

- Tas ha: Sir, this installation is big enough to hold hundreds of people.
- But all that's here now is empty beds.
- Riker: Thank you, lieutenant.
- Complete your record scans and report back here.
- La forge: Commander riker, looks like some sort of storage area.

- That everything that I have said would have been listened to if it came from an adult officer.
- Request permission to return to my quarters, sir.
- Agreed. Doctor, go with him.
- You're putting me off the bridge?
- I'm asking you to keep an eye on your son during all of this, doctor.

- except that my first officer would object.
- How would starfleetjudge me if I didn't?
- An entire earth colony did disappear down there.
- You see?
- Now in close parking orbit, sir.
- Mr. Data, welcome home.

Captain: What is that smell?
Lieutenant: Hm, yes - slightly reminiscent of night-blooming throgni, Captain. From home. Quite stimulating, wouldn't you say?
Captain: No!

- Captain, speaking strictly as security chief, how much can you trust data now?
- I trust him completely, lieutenant.
- But everyone should also realize that that was a necessary and legitimate security question.
- Thank you, sir.

- I will feel nothing at all.
- Marvelous.
- It should be a lot simpler once we see how your circuitry's connected.
- I won't mention it to anyone.
- You have my word.
- If you had an off-switch, doctor, would you not keep it secret?
- I guess I would.

- How many more datas are there?
- Looks like just these two.
- I mean that, and the real data.

Lieutenant: I think I may sneeze.
Lieutenant: A Klingon sneeze?
Lieutenant: Only kind I know.

Beata: We may not be able to stop evolution. But perhaps we can reduce it to a slow crawl.

- Tasha: Captain, confirming class m reading there but the sensors aren't showing any life readings.
- Not even vegetation.
- Strange.
- The cruiser that found data reported farmlands there.
- Do you want to take her into orbit, data?
- No, thank you, sir.

Lieutenant: [having the command of the ship] Make it so.

[Dr. Crusher enters Picard's quarters with a thermos bottle and fills a cup from it]
Doctor: It looks horrible. Tastes worse. But it's absolutely guaranteed to make you feel better.
[she forces a reluctant Picard to drink]
Doctor: I knew you'd like it!

- Argyle: Yes, notice the micro-circuitry here. And here.
- And another fibroid-like connection here.
- Let's close up.

- you spent among the colonists, including everything you know about what happened to them.
- I promise a report of great detail and accuracy.
- Thank you, lore.
- I now have duties to perform.
- Unless, of course, you need something more?
- I have more than I dreamed possible, brother.

- Praising young Wesley on the helm, for example.
- He has a child's body, but we have found him to be much more.
- Thank you for that information too.
- You do care about how I perform.
- I pledge to be worthy of your teaching, my brother.
- Try not to be jealous of my abilities.

Lieutenant: Engineering reports computer ma... a... ATCHOO! I'm sorry - I'm getting sick.
Lieutenant: I'm sure half the ship knows that by now.

Commander William T. Riker: Martyrs cannot be silenced.

- Not if I have a choice.
- That is enough, ensign.
- When addressing a senior officer...
- I've guided his training.
- I'm the one at fault.
- You will show the proper respect.
- I will accompany you down there to make certain of it.
- With your approval, of course, sir.

[the away team has found the survivors of the Odin, but is greeted with some reservation]
Counselor: Seven years on an alien planet, and I sense no anticipation, no excitement at being rescued?
Ramsey: What is it that you think that you're rescuing me from? My shipmates and I have all taken wives, a few even have children. You can't rescue a man from a place that he calls his home.

Lt. Commander Data: Angel One has evolved into a constitutional oligarchy. It is governed by a parliamentary body consisting of six elected mistresses and headed by a female they refer to as 'The Elected One'.
Counselor: It sounds like my own planet.

- It seemed to go well, thanks to a look inside Mr. Data, but there have been no signs of consciousness yet.