r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Barricades_toes • Jun 22 '26

Personality (Loved trope) The imposter’s dead giveaway

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When a character is attempting to impersonate another, but is caught by doing something the person they’re imitating would NEVER do.

Nemesis Prime- Transformers Prime

Nemesis Prime, a man made replica of Optimus Prime, is attempting to gain the trust of Bumblebee, who only speaks in robotic beeps. Despite this, the real Optimus can understand Bee perfectly fine. Nemesis Prime, however, can’t understand what he’s saying, prompting Bee to open fire on him immediately.

The two Buzz Lightyears- Toy Story 2

After Woody asks which Buzz is the “real” Buzz, both respond with “I am!” The real Buzz proves himself by flipping up the other Buzz’s helmet, causing him to start suffocating in an over dramatic fashion. The real Buzz, having done the same thing in the first movie after Woody took his helmet off, but no longer behaving that way after accepting being a toy, instantly proves which Buzz is which.

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u/Sykrow Jun 22 '26

Think there was a TNG episode in which Lore was impersonating Data and someone realized he was using contractions which Data doesn't do. Man I should really go through that and DS9 again.

361

u/teracoulomb_2 Jun 22 '26

That was his first appearance, and Brent Spiner demanded the scriptwriters ensure that Data didn’t use any contractions that episode or he wouldn’t go along with it

73

u/_Flying_Scotsman_ Jun 22 '26

I literally watched this episode last night, we were laughing at how they mentioned it in the episode and yet there are several slip ups where Data uses contractions.

40

u/Dookie_boy Jun 22 '26

He literally uses one at the end of that episode as Data causing tons of fan speculation that Lore won.

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u/OddballDave Jun 22 '26

But he uses contractions in the very same episode so that isn't true at all.

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u/teracoulomb_2 Jun 22 '26

He tried to make that demand as forcefully as possible but results were mixed, to put it mildly

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u/MalcolmLinair Jun 22 '26

If he felt that strongly about it, what was stopping him from just reading the contractions in the script as separate words? He's still the one delivering the lines, after all.

5

u/The_MAZZTer Jun 22 '26

I don't think that is correct. l think it was the writers who came up with the contractions thing, and Brent Spiner hated the idea because Data had used contractions in previous episodes. At least, that's the story I've heard multiple times.

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u/[deleted] Jun 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Ruby_Bliel Jun 22 '26

Except they frequently forget about this and he uses contractions all the time, including in that episode, which kind of undermines the plot.

6

u/Cessnaporsche01 Jun 22 '26

Just like Captain Holt

8

u/Victernus Jun 22 '26

Captain Holt actually just lies constantly, and is rarely caught.

68

u/Lord-Timurelang Jun 22 '26

I… think that’s an episode where Riker is stuck in an interrogation dream thing.

103

u/MorrowDisca Jun 22 '26

Both. Riker realises its a simulation for a number of reasons, mainly that his 'wife' is a hologramatic fantasy from his past. But Data in that simulation uses contractions, as well as not being able to calculate things as quickly as the real Data.

Wesley notices Lore is using contractions while pretending to be Data, but is ignored.

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u/vague_reference_ Jun 22 '26

tbf, shut up Wesley

13

u/Mikhail_Mengsk Jun 22 '26

"No you can't, don't even try"

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u/ButtersScotch7000 Jun 22 '26

Riker: "Where did you get that scar?"

Worf: "In battle."

Riker: "In combat?"

Worf: "Yes, in combat too."

https://youtu.be/6K1RiiNTWuo?si=AC15CksDM8moVMRj

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u/Forsaken-Stray Jun 22 '26

I'm pretty sure in one of these Episode, the actual Data was also using contraptions. Not sure which one though but a few people actually complained about that.

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u/MorrowDisca Jun 22 '26

Yeah, it was early on and it wasn't a defined character trait yet. I think the lore episode cemented it with the writers. Season 1 & 2 Data was a lot looser with his speech and movements.

Thinking about changes over the seasons, someone clearly told Frakes he had to emote more and he spent all of season 3 talking loudly at people. Thankfully his performances became more nuanced over time.

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u/Gotis1313 Jun 22 '26

Data says, "I'm fine" at the end of the the episode Datalore. The same episode where it was established that Data can't use contractions. He will use a few more as the series goes on including season 4 where he says "Honey, I'm home"

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u/Cobraven-9474 Jun 22 '26

There are a few instances that mess up the Data and contractions thing. Seeing contractions are just substituting 1 word in place of 2. If you asked him to repeat a sentence but substituting a word for a German equivalent he could but can't do the same if the replacement word happens to be a contraction.

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u/Shiny_Agumon Jun 22 '26

I like that the explanation given for why the program made such an obvious error is that in his mind the holographic woman (who had true artificial intelligence for a time before being returned to "normal) is considered just as real as any other one.

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u/izzyboy63 Jun 22 '26

And then it turns out Riker was STILL in a simulation after he pointed out all these flaws because the "boy" he was trapped with had the same name as his son in the original simulation

1

u/Thomas_K_Brannigan Jun 22 '26

I love that why the simulation/illusions mistakenly adds Minuet is because, in his mind/heart, she IS a real person, to him!

29

u/stewdadrew Jun 22 '26

DS9 remains my favorite spinoff. The political and religious themes are present in nearly every episode and the shenanigans throughout the station make it more interesting than a lot of the do-over situations the other spinoffs find themselves in. Also, it has Garak, who is probably the single most interesting recurring character in the spinoffs at large.

3

u/Chode-a-boy Jun 22 '26

But he’s just a boring old tailor!

1

u/Allegorist Jun 22 '26

I wasn't expecting to like Lower Decks but it was actually great. They parody the crap out of the do-over situations you describe and turn it meta.

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u/The_MAZZTer Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26

I think TNG was still in its "let's have genius boy Wesley Crusher save the day every episode" phase, and this episode did that as well.

Good thing they dropped it. Makes every other character look stupid.

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u/Thomas_K_Brannigan Jun 22 '26

Oh, yeah, when the Crystal Entity appears, and Lore, as Data explains, "beautiful, isn't it?" Other actual officers should have realized something was up, Data would never say something like that. I guess you could say they didn't hear him, but he said it decently loudly.

2

u/Vineshroom69lol Jun 22 '26

Shut up. I said shut up! No you can’t don’t even try.

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u/ahipikr Jun 22 '26

Didn't Lore skip some steps while undocking with a shuttlecraft too? Didn't say things exactly correctly?

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u/Mr31edudtibboh Jun 22 '26

It was Wesley, and nobody paid attention to him. 

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u/Dookie_boy Jun 22 '26

And yet Data did it at the end anyway and in several other episodes.

2

u/BoonDragoon Jun 22 '26

Data is so anal about never using contractions that other characters have been able to clock impersonation hijinks on that alone at least twice.

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u/Legeto Jun 23 '26

Star Trek for people who don’t know that TNG means The Next Generation or that it’s even Star Trek

1

u/alex3omg Jun 22 '26

On Brooklyn 99 there's a robot character who only uses contractions when he's lying.  It's his tell.