the story underwent significant changes prior to filming, with it originally meant to be a romance episode for data with a female android. it was then altered to an "evil twin" plot at the suggestion of spiner and elements of data's origin were introduced, first as an alien creation and then at the hands of dr. noonien soong. soong was named by roddenberry after a friend in the second world war. edits to the script continued to be made during filming, and while the look of the episode was praised by cast and crew, the characterisations in the script were not. ratings for the episode came in at 10.3 million for the first broadcast, which was lower than both the previous and subsequent episodes. critical reception has been mixed, with criticism directed mostly at the quality of the script and spiner praised for his dual role.