The Offspring (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
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| Star Trek: TNG episode | |
| "The Offspring" | |
 Data with his daughter |
|
| Episode no. | 64 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 164 |
| Airdate | March 12, 1990 |
| Writer(s) | René Echevarria |
| Director | Jonathan Frakes |
| Guest star(s) | Whoopi Goldberg Hallie Todd Nicolas Coster Judyann Elder Leonard Crofoot |
| Year | 2366 |
| Stardate | 43657.0 |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "Yesterday's Enterprise" |
| Next | "Sins of the Father" |
"The Offspring" is a third-season Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, in which the android Data creates a "child" of his own. The episode was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who also portrayed Commander William Riker. It was the first of many Star Trek episodes to be directed by a member of the cast.
The show was written as a spec script by René Echevarria, and was bought by the show. Echevarria did a re-write which was then touched up by staff writers. Echevarria was subsequently hired to re-write the episode "Transfigurations", and would become a regular writer and story editor for the show.[1]
Like most critically acclaimed episodes of Star Trek, "The Offspring" raises philosophical questions, namely, what constitutes a living being and a good parent? The former was a subject that had been addressed by Next Generation writers before, specifically with regards to the character Data's rights as an android. ("The Measure of a Man").
This episode is rated 4.6/5 on Star Trek.com[2] (24 June 2008)
[edit] Plot
Data announces that he has created a new artificial life form, using his own designs as its basis, surprising most of the Enterprise crew. Data enlists Troi's help to assist his initially asexual creation select an outward appearance; it eventually settles on an adolescent female human. Data names her Lal. Picard warns Data of the unauthorized experiment and that it will attract attention from other Federation scientists. Data helps Lal become accustomed to life. He arranges for Lal to work in Ten-Forward under Guinan's care while he is on duty, allowing her to observe human interaction, though Lal overreacts in one case and ends up kissing Riker just as Data returns to collect her. Data and Lal quickly discover that Lal is surpassing Data in some aspects — Lal is able to use contractions in her speech, a function Data has not yet been able to perform.
As Picard warned, Lal's creation has led to the arrival of Admiral Anthony Haftel, who intends to take Lal to a research facility for further study. Admiral Haftel is outraged to find her performing the duties of a cocktail waitress despite Picard explaining Data's intentions. Lal, when asked what she would like to do, insists on staying aboard the Enterprise. As Data seems ready to give into the Admiral's demands to hand over Lal, Picard steps in and asserts that he had previously defended Data as a life form able to make his own choices, and refuses to allow the Admiral to take Lal forcefully.
Lal, after hearing these conversations, sees Troi and expresses her feelings of fear of the Admiral, feelings which Troi can sense - ironic, as since Lal is an artificial life form like Data, she should not be able to experience emotions. Data quickly discovers that the recent events have triggered a cascade failure in Lal's positronic brain. When Admiral Haftel hears of this, he quickly decides to help Data in order to try and prevent a complete failure, but they are not successful. After recounting her experiences to Data and expressing feelings for both of them that Data cannot express, Lal dies in Data's arms. Data later deconstructs Lal, incorporating some of her neural networks into his own so that he will not forget her.
[edit] References
- ^ Lou Anders (July 1997). "The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword". Star Trek Magazine (Titan): p. 30-34.
- ^ http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TNG/episode/68434.html
