Emotion chip The emotion chip was a device designed by Dr . Noonian Soong to allow his creation Data to experience Human emotion s . History . Soong finished the chip in 2366 after twenty years of work , and summoned Data to his lab on Terlina III to install it . However , Lore also arrived at the same time , and stole the chip by masquerading as Data , despite Soong attempting to warn him that the chip hadn ' t been designed for Lore ' s brain . ( ) In 2369 , Lore used the emotion chip to trigger certain negative emotions in Data over a carrier wave , seeking to turn Data to his side by luring him away from his friends with the promise of experiencing additional emotions . Lore ' s scheme failed after personnel reactivated Data ' s ethical program ; Lore had been keeping Data under control by deactivating the ethical program and only sending him negative emotions , causing him to focus on the negative emotional consequences of his interaction with his shipmates rather than the positive , but by restoring his ethical program Data was able to make the ethical choice to spare his friends . The chip was removed from Lore after he was dismantled , but Data did not install it , both because the chip was damaged after he had fired on Lore and because he believed it to be too dangerous after what had happened , although Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge prevented Data from destroying it as he didn ' t want Data to abandon his dream of experiencing emotions . Lore had revealed that the chip also contained memories from Data ' s early days at Omicron Theta . ( ) Data finally installed the chip - apparently repaired - in 2371 , to further his growth as an artificial lifeform , Data ' s initial emotion being disgust at a foul - tasting drink followed by joy at the emotional response . Unfortunately , the chip overloaded his positronic relays , causing him to experience erratic emotions , such as focusing on his sense of humour when in the middle of an analysis of a deserted space station and being subsequently overwhelmed by fear in a firefight . The chip also became fused to his neural net , making it impossible to remove . Data was eventually able to control the emotions . ( ) By 2373 , Data was able to turn the emotion chip on and off at will . The Borg Queen activated the chip during their effort to assimilate Earth in an unsuccessful attempt to use Data ' s emotions to manipulate him . ( ) A way was eventually found to remove the chip , and Data left the chip behind on the prior to his mission to the Ba ' ku planet in 2375 . ( ) Appendices . Background information . The chip changed in appearance in between and , though the chip was damaged so perhaps its appearance changed as part of the repairs . " The fate of the emotion chip is unknown , but it may have been destroyed when Data was killed in . However , a deleted scene included in the two disc Special Edition had Lt . Commander Geordi La Forge and Lt . Commander Worf going to Data ' s quarters to remove some of his items near the end of the film . La Forge took Data ' s emotion chip and Worf took Spot , Data ' s cat . Apocrypha . The novelization for " Nemesis " states that the Borg Queen ' s tampering with the chip and Data ' s circuitry in " First Contact " led to its destruction . In the 9 - part " " series of books , which take place during the year leading up to " Nemesis " , Starfleet Command ordered the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to forcibly remove Data ' s emotion chip following events at Rashanar . The comic book series " " ( a tie - in to the 2009 film ) and the timeline established for the " Star Trek Online " game establish that sometime prior to 2387 , Geordi La Forge installed Data ' s emotion chip into B - 4 ' s neural net . This caused the uploads to B - 4 by Data to fully reactivate , allowing Data ' s full memory and personality to assert itself , essentially resurrecting him . Starfleet decided to reinstate the android to service , and by 2387 Data had become captain of the .