Ironically, it's not the character's fault. Wesley is drawn fairly reasonably here, it's that the script makes all the adults utter buffoons to make Wesley look smart that ruins it. It's an early episode, but that doesn't fully excuse Picard's behavior in that he seems to implicitly trust Lore, and he actually mentions "Data" being out of character, when it's really Lore.
Curiously, Riker actually did intentionally trip Lore up early on, which certainly at least suggested Lore was being dishonest. This was at least the second time in the first season where Picard was made to look bad and Riker good, the other being The Naked Now. I seriously wondered back then if they were planning on dumping Picard.
Also, note they don't bother to retrieve Lore at the end, and this DOES have later consequences.
I suppose if I wanted to fan wank this episode, it would be that we are actually seeing "Wesley Crusher's" personal log, and how he perceived these events.
By the way, a reviewer notes Data's creator Noonian Soong's name was a homage to Khan Noonien Singh. This isn't quite right. Roddenberry had a buddy in WWII with that name that he had lost contact with. He repeatedly used the name hoping that his buddy would notice and respond, but it did not work.
Curiously, Riker actually did intentionally trip Lore up early on, which certainly at least suggested Lore was being dishonest. This was at least the second time in the first season where Picard was made to look bad and Riker good, the other being The Naked Now. I seriously wondered back then if they were planning on dumping Picard.
Also, note they don't bother to retrieve Lore at the end, and this DOES have later consequences.
I suppose if I wanted to fan wank this episode, it would be that we are actually seeing "Wesley Crusher's" personal log, and how he perceived these events.
By the way, a reviewer notes Data's creator Noonian Soong's name was a homage to Khan Noonien Singh. This isn't quite right. Roddenberry had a buddy in WWII with that name that he had lost contact with. He repeatedly used the name hoping that his buddy would notice and respond, but it did not work.