Brothers (Star Trek: The Next Generation) Brothers (Star Trek: The Next Generation) "Brothers" is the 77th episode of the syndicated American science fiction television series "", the third episode of the . Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the Starfleet starship USS "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". A misguided prank between two young brothers exposes one of them to a toxic parasite that cannot be treated aboard the USS "Enterprise", but Dr. Crusher (Gates McFadden) is able to
Brent Spiner films. As a main character, he appeared in all but one of the series' 178 episodes; he was not in the episode "". He reprised his role in the spin-off films "Star Trek Generations" (1994), "" (1996), "" (1998), and "" (2002). Although billed as the final "Trek" movie for the "TNG" cast, the ambiguous ending of "" suggested a possible avenue for the return of Data. However, Spiner opined that he was too old to continue playing the part, as Data does not age, whereas Spiner had already aged considerably during the years in which he played the role.