In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data’s “brother” Lore dealt treacherously with the Crystalline Entity on at least two occasions, betraying first the people of Omicron Theta colony and, later, the crew of the Enterprise. What was never explained was why? What did the Entity have to offer that Lore could possibly want?
IMHO, Lore was a sadist.
I always just assumed that Lore was simply evil, and he hated humankind. What he stood to gain from the Crystalline Entity was the gratification of his genocidal rage and a feeling of power and mastery.
Well, you see, it was explained in the episode that… uh…
Okay, see, what happened was…
Did I tell you that Lore was Data’s evil twin? I did?
Right. Well, Lore, you see, since he was evil… I believe I mentioned that… Lore, see, had this thing where… where, uh…
Nope, got nothin’.
This is yet another reason why Lore is #1 on my list of Most Awfulestest Star Trekkish Characters Ever.
Like many other evil individuals, Lore didn’t act out of any kind of self-interest. For someone that evil, death and destruction are an end in themselves. If he had succeeded in destroying the Enterprise, he simply would have moved on to another group of victims (assuming that he, himself, had survived – which wasn’t even an issue for him).
Conkers!
:dubious:
IMHO, Lore probably thought he could control this awesome sentient being as a super weapon. Also, as has been stated already, he was a fiend, was petty, was ambitious, had a mean streak 12 parsecs wide, etc…
Good point. This would be the ultimate in siccing your dog on someone who pisses you off.
No. Q had that. IIRC, Q wiped out an entire race just because.
You might be thinking of the ep: The Survivors. The character of Kevin Uxbridge, a somewhat all powerful being (a Douwd), wiped out the entire species known as the Husnock when they killed his wife.
Of course, perhaps Q did it as well - he was kind of nutty that way.
Yeah, he was pretty clearly an Android supremecist. I can imagine he would have happily killed every biological lifeform on the galaxy to promote the android agenda. Unfortunately he never really had much of a plan for populating with more androids, and except for his little Lord of the Borg experiment didn’t really get much done, but maybe he figured he had near forever to implement everything and was working slowly.
Of similar incoherence is the crystalline entity’s next appearance, in which a scientist is on board investigating various methods of communication with it involving pulses of gravitons and whatnot. All Lore had to do was open a channel and talk to it.
Further, I’m not sure why Lore thought delivering ~1000 people would be especially impressive. The entity was established as being accustomed to chowing down on entire biospheres. On Earth, the biomass is at least a trillion (i.e. 10[sup]12[/sup]) tonnes. Compared to that, the crew of the Enterprise-D is the tiniest of crumbs, hardly worth going out of one’s way for. It would be like a person used to eating large pizzas having a sense of gratitude for a gift of a grain of salt.
I disagree. His schemes were over the top and “the evil twin” is a cliched plot device, but that overlooks an important detail: he was DATA’s evil twin. Lore was an irrational, sadistic sociopath. Data was rational, benevolent, and eager to learn about humanity rather than destroy it. Data and Lore were polar opposites, not just “good guy vs. bad guy,” and that makes Lore an interesting villain; not the most potent or terrifying, but well-conceived, at any rate.
Thus sayeth Khan.
:dubious:
I forget…do we know for certain that he was communicating with it, and not just drawing it’s attention? Maybe he was delusional, and he just thought he was talking to it.
Delusional? That would explain the tree…
Well, she still has a point. Whatever Q may have done, and what Kevin Uxbridge did, were done by their own power. Lore was trying to get the CE to do his dirty work. So the comparison to siccing a dog on Picard is a good one.
I figure that Lore planned on cutting the crystalline entity up and selling the pieces on the black market.
Say no to crack!