“Brothers” is episode three of season four of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Enterprise is heading to Starbase 416 after a medical emergency cut their liberty short, as a practical joke came close to a lethal conclusion. Troi escorts a boy, Jake, to the conference room to see Commander Riker. It seems he had been playing with his younger brother, Willie, with fake phasers and said his brother’s looked real. Then made his brother think he’d killed him. The younger boy ran away and ate some dangerous fruit. Riker reminds him of the terms under which the two stayed on the Enterprise whilst their parents were on sabbatical; that they keep out of trouble.
Riker calls Data to escort Jake to the quarantine anteroom. On the turbolift, Jake asks Data if his brother really could die. Data stops mid conversation, behaving in a jerkier manner, and changes the destination to the bridge. He takes his seat and Worf notifies the captain of a course correction and increase in speed. Wesley announces the new course and Riker asks Data a question, but gets no response. Then the computer warns them to evacuate the bridge as deck 1 life support failure is imminent. Captain Picard orders helm be transferred to engineering and everyone leaves. Everyone but Data. Who doesn’t need life support.
In engineering, Geordi discovers that life support didn’t fail; it was done deliberately. Picard and Worf arrive and Geordi says they can’t stop the ship as Riker and Wesley arrive. Worf states forcefields have been erected around the bridge. Picard asks the computer to locate Data. On the bridge. He orders Riker to take a security team. Geordi has no controls. Picard attempts to contact Data, who turns him off and instructs the computer to do a bunch of stuff.
Picard orders that they prepare for saucer separation, which would cause the saucer to drop out of warp. On the bridge, Data impersonates the captain and cancels that order, instructing the computer to only take command functions from the main bridge. Which the captain discovers shortly after. Worf, Riker and a security officer can’t gain access to the bridge. Picard contacts O’Brien and tells him to disable site to site transporter before speaking to Dr Crusher about Willie and the quarantine. Quarantine is intact and Willie is alright, but he won’t remain alright.
The Enterprise arrives at a planet and Data discovers he can’t use the transporter or override the lockout, so asks the computer for the shortest route to transporter room 1, and instructs it in a cascade forcefield sequence. In engineering, they can’t get to the bridge or call for help. They don’t even know what star system they are at. The only reason they know they’re out of warp is they looked out of a window (probably an exaggeration, given the warp core is there). O’Brien contacts them; Data has discovered the lockout and he wouldn’t be surprised if Data makes his way to a transporter room. The captain dispatches security teams. They can’t even find out how far away they are from the starbase.
Data, impersonating the captain again, secures the computer with a long security code, then initiates the forcefield sequence, instructing the computer to take orders for Commander Data en route. Forcefields stop security from getting near him. In the transporter room, Data activates a forcefield around the transporter pad, trapping O’Brien, Riker and another officer. O’Brien advises Riker not to fire a phaser inside as Data removes the lockout and beams down to the planet.
On the surface, he arrives at a lab where an old man says he’s right on time, before disabling Data’s combadge, tinkering with Data and bringing him back to normal. Data doesn’t recall how he arrived. The man sent for him. Does he look familiar to Data? Well, he bears a resemblance to Dr Noonien Soong, the cyberneticist who constructed Data. But he was killed by the crystalline entity. The man tells Data no; he’s found his long-lost father and he’s alive. Soong was never comfortable without a prearranged escape route. Though he never expected to use it to flee from a giant snowflake.
On the Enterprise, the quarantine forcefield is still intact, which means that it could be used to disable the bridge forcefields. Though, once on the bridge, there isn’t much they can do there, thanks to Data’s security code. Except detect another vessel, with no lifesigns, heading to the surface.
Through this, Dr Crusher spends time with Willie, who really needs to get to the starbase quickly, putting a time limit on solving the problem. Data doesn’t seem to realise; odd, because though he doesn’t remember how he got there, he should remember that they hadn’t arrived at the starbase.