"Brothers" is the 77th episode of the syndicated American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the third episode of the fourth season.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, Commander Data (Brent Spiner) aborts an emergency mission and hijacks the Enterprise in response to a homing command from his "father".
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Plot
A misguided prank between two young brothers exposes the younger of them to a toxic parasite that cannot be treated aboard the USS Enterprise, but Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) is able to stabilize his condition in a controlled environment in sickbay while the ship sets out for a starbase that can cure the boy. As Commander Data (Brent Spiner) escorts the older brother to visit his sibling, he suddenly stops and returns to the bridge where, unseen by the crew, he sets a new course for the ship and triggers a life support alarm, causing the evacuation of the bridge to be ordered. Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) orders Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) to transfer the controls to Engineering while the rest of the bridge crew evacuates, but Data instead remains on the Bridge, mimics Picard's voice and locks down control of the ship with a complex access code, preventing any interference with his actions. The crew discover Data's lockdown and manually disable the transporter's site-to-site function to prevent Data from easily moving about the ship. Once the Enterprise is in orbit about the planet Terlina III, Data creates a programmed sequence of force fields to allow him to move from the bridge to the nearest transporter room without being stopped by security, and then beams down to the planet, leaving the Enterprise still under his lockdown. Picard orders his crew to attempt to override Data's lockdown of the ship, while Dr. Crusher attempts to keep the infected boy stabilized.
