As one of the most heartwarming episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Hero Worship" follows the Enterprise investigating the mysterious destruction of science star-ship, the Vico, which was last seen en route to investigate a large black cluster in space. The sole survivor of the tragedy is a traumatized nine year/ ten year old boy named Timothy. The android Data rescues Timothy from the ruins of the Vico, transporting himself and the boy onto the Enterprise.
While Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Worf and Geordi La Forge try to figure out what exactly happened, Timothy, who has lost both of his parents, looks up to Data as a potential father figure. As a way to ease, even suppress, his pain and survivor's guilt, Timothy begins to pretend that he is an android, going so far as copying Data's movements and speech patterns (from the quick, bird like neck movements to the stoic "That is correct" and "That would be acceptable" quotes). Following the instructions of Counselor Deanna Troi, The stoic and logical Data finds himself bonding with Timothy as he teaches the orphaned boy to be "the best android he (Timothy) could possibly be." in his own, wholehearted android ways.
In the end, it is Timothy's recollection and Data's observational intellect that helps Picard and the Enterprise crew find out what caused the Vico's destruction. The episode ends on heartfelt note that although Timothy has finally come to terms with his parents' deaths, he still considers Data as a friend.
The interaction between Timothy and Data is the heart and soul of this episode. In the past, there were episodes where Data showed a fatherly side to his emotionless personality - In "The Offspring", he created and cared for Lal, an young female android. In "Pen Pals", he answers to the intergalatic distress call of an alien girl named Sarjenka who is concerned about the strange natural disasters that are happening to her planet. But here, Data is a fatherly figure to someone who is neither android nor alien - but a human.
Affected by a tragedy that took his parents, Timothy finds himself looking up to his android rescuer as the older brother he never got to have and the father he didn't have anymore. Data finds himself looking after a boy as he tries to make him (Timothy) the best andorid he could possibly be. He learns about parenting (in the scene where he grooms Timothy's hair to look like his own hair and is befuddled by Timothy's constant jerking head movements) and that his presence as an "adult" is key to a child's recovery from trauma. It also makes him self-examine his own identity as an android and his ruminations of what being human is like (hence when he says, "I would risk feeling bad over anything, even if it means tasting my dessert").
This episode is truly something worth watching.
