3.16 — “The Offspring”
Plot: Data surprises everyone by creating a new android named Lal, whom he refers to as his child. He has discovered a technique to create a positronic brain by transferring his own neural pathways, the first success at this endeavor since Dr. Soong’s work on Data himself. Data enlists Guinan to help him “raise” Lal by teaching her how to interact with humans, and discovers she is a precocious emotional learner. Meanwhile, Admiral Haftel from the Starfleet research division tries to order Data to surrender Lal for research purposes.
Thoughts: There is a lot going on in this episode.
The story of Data’s creation of Lal is fascinating. I find Data’s invitation to Lal to define her own gender and appearance to be very progressive, and timely, with identity politics currently bubbling to the fore. For androids, at least, we can agree that racial and gender identity is a construct, and that it is imperative to honor the individual’s feelings on the matter. Trek hasn’t always been great about sexual politics–see my forthcoming separate discussion post.
The story of Lal’s experience of social isolation and her grief at parting from Data are highly relatable, thanks to a remarkable performance by Hallie Todd. Denise Okuda, the Trek expert extraordinaire who oversaw the remastering of TOS and TNG for Blu-ray release with her husband Mike Okuda, reveals in the Blu-ray commentary that “The Offspring” is one of her favorite TNG episodes, and one of only two that ever brought a tear to her eye, based of the power of Lal’s personal story and the sensitivity with which it was portrayed.
The business with the Admiral, however, makes much less sense. Didn’t we just settle in TNG 2.9 “The Measure of a Man” that androids are legally persons, not property? If Data is so, then Lal is also (she hasn’t even enlisted in Starfleet). The Admiral’s demands are illogical anyway. Surely Data’s ability to reproduce positronic brains is a more revolutionary and interesting to Starfleet than Lal herself, who is just Data’s first progeny. Why they would be so interested in her and not in this knowledge is bewildering. If they really want Lal to grow up in a research facility, why not just transfer Data to the facility? Starfleet actually has the right to do this (provided Data does not resign), and it is apparent that no matter how good a third officer he is, Data’s most valuable service to Starfleet may be as a scientist. What advantage is gained by separating them? Is it so they deactivate and dissect Lal without Data’s knowledge? Why not just do that to Data? Oh right, because of”The Measure of a Man”–and we’re going around in circles.
The Admiral storyline is a “The Measure of a Man” retread, although the themes are arguably presented more viscerally and in less of an intellectual, detached fashion. A better episode would have acknowledged the precedent set in the previous episode and pushed the idea to a new place. Maybe elements in Starfleet are prepared to set aside the legal niceties for illicit gain. If not Starfleet, perhaps a Harry Mudd-style third party could have materialized?
I’m not sure that Lal qualifies as Data’s child, and not an invention, if she does not carry forward Data’s genetic material. Perhaps their brains are related? This episode could have easily gone in a more Frankenstein direction. The idea of Data creating life, in his spare time, without knowing how it will develop, is creepy and scary. It’s scary just to think of Data, with his incredible abilities, having hobbies, especially secret ones. He does not understand human norms, after all. Has anyone else seen Ex Machina (2015)? (I highly recommend it.) This can go badly.
When Data tells the bridge crew that he has incorporated Lal’s programs and memories into his own programming, does that include assimilating her experience of emotion? Does this have the potential to drive Data insane, as it did to Lal? Would he tell anyone? We have learned that Data is capable of concealing information. After his experience in this episode, he might rationally conclude that he is better off keeping his continuing experiments, or personal emotional/perceptual awakenings, to himself. Data is not human, and not necessarily harmless. Picard might wake up one day to find out he has created a superhuman robot army. I’m flashing back to TOS 1.7 “What Are Little Girls Made Of?,” an unsung highlight of TOS and a personal favorite. In that episode, the true tragedy of Dr. Corby is that, after the shift in consciousness he experiences while placing his brain in an android body, he doesn’t realize that he is now insane.
Two facts from Wikipedia demand inclusion here. First, this is the first Star Trek episode directed by Jonathan Frakes, and his first directing credit of any kind. Frakes would go on to direct seven more episodes of TNG, Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and three episodes each of DS9 and VOY. Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, and Gates McFadden would later follow in his footsteps, although Frakes has had the most prolific post-Trek directing career.
Second, this episode is the source of the famous Picard double facepalm meme: http://www.quickmeme.com/Picard-Double-Facepalm
3.5 of 5 inexplicably green Andorians.
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