Been years since I've seen it, and I just watched it again, which prompted me to wonder two things above all: #1, does "lore" have some definition with which I am unaware and which would make it a fitting name for the brother of "data"; and #2, is it really appropriate for Geordi to report a 'bogey' on a '5 oclock tangent'? I thought bogey meant unfriendly craft; he has no way of knowing if it is friendly as of yet. Also, would he say 5 o'clock tangent instead of giving a bearing? After all, as pointed out in that episode, bearings give any direction in 3 dimensions; all we know from 5 o'clock is the first two.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Perhaps by saying tangent he was indicating that both ships were on the same plane. And perhaps bogey refers to any unidentified craft.
The reality is that it was just bad dialogue that was supposed to make Geordi sound young and hip and make Starfleet sound super-cool.
Lore can mean all the knowledge on a partiucular subject. Just like data means facts, records, or statistics, lore also has to do with a repository of knoweledge. So that may have been what Soong was thinking when he named him. Plus, it sounds kind of e-vil. Naming the episode Datalore is somewhat appropriate since we learn more about the history of Data.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Yeah, "bogey" is an unidentified craft, "bandit" is an enemy.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
See here for lots of other fun brevity code phrases.
As for Soong's naming, I think it was supposed to be a slightly whimsical pun. Lore usually referring to "old" knowledge, books, almanacs, folk lore and the like while Data is more often associated with computer based information. Hence one is an older version of the other. A tad prophetic on Soong's part, but then so is naming a prototype "Before".
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
B4, wasn't it? But anyway, thanks for the lore about Lore, I don't know why I never cottoned onto it before. ...That rhymed. And was corny.
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :
FWIW, they were originally going to use "B-9", which would also have been fun - but would have implied the existence of nine prototypes in the B series. Which is bad, because Data and Julianna Tainer in TNG "Inheritance" are only aware of three prototypes before Lore and Data...
Of course, Soong might have built more in secret. Or not been completely systematic with his whimsical names. But the idea of B-4 being the fourth prototype is very, very cute, because he'd be a "plausibly unknown quantity". Did Soong build one more prototype secret from his wife? Or is this an elaborate hoax? Data truly cannot tell. Now, if he were expected to believe in the existence of SIX further prototypes built in secret...
(The audience isn't any the wiser, for that matter. Was B-4 a real Soong creation, or perhaps a less than successful Romulan attempt at copying Soong's work? Both are workable possibilities for the plot.)
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Possibly the memory engram copy process (or however he managed to get his dying/dead wife's personality into an android) did not take wekk and the process had to be repeated. ...or maybe the first android version of Julianna Tainer was aware she was artificial and ended her own existance....I like this from a storytelling perspective: it explains why Soong made that little recording for Data and why he never revealed her existance before.
quote: (The audience isn't any the wiser, for that matter. Was B-4 a real Soong creation, or perhaps a less than successful Romulan attempt at copying Soong's work? Both are workable possibilities for the plot.)
It would have been far nicer -plotwise- for "B-4" to have been a botched Romulan creation: a kind of kindred spirit for Shinzon to have deliberately obtained and not just dumb luck for his discovery to match his plans for Picard.