The Offspring

A little back story: Through my teens I was an ardent fan of films and sci-fi (primarily Star Wars), and Star Trek always piqued my interest, but I was too intimidated to invest the time to acquaint myself with a franchise that stretched over television and film since the 1960s.

That being said, I came across this episode while scanning TV channels and was immediately drawn to the character of Data, an singular android who dedicates his improbable existence to evolve and grow in order to be more "human." His quest in this episode included creating a new android in the hopes of improving upon his own limitations through his designated "offspring" (as most true parents do), including having this android eventually find a way to develop authentic emotional reactions.

However, when Starfleet grows impatient with the development of Data's new android, they threaten to confiscate it, instigating a surprisingly emotional struggle over the philosophy of sentient rights and acceptance that ultimately becomes overshadowed in the face of tragedy. It's all the more astonishing to consider the most emotionally devastating moments of the episode feature characters who can't project any emotions at all.

Brilliantly written, performed, and directed, this is one of the finest hours of television that succeeded in appealing to an outsider of the franchise and making them a fan for life.

Despite a lot of this episode's themes' inherent creepiness, it is is definitely one of my favorites. It has a great story, great acting (as episodes in which Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart are handling the bulk of the acting usually do), and solid directing from Frakes, who is much better off behind the camera instead of in front of it. Yet another bullish Starfleet admiral makes for a great antagonist, and yet another good actor portrayed him. There are also deep philosophical questions about AI that we are facing NOW and in our near future that even Next Generation's cast and crew could not have possibly foreseen happening so quickly when they made this episode in 1990.

I prepared myself to watch this episode. I didn't want to react emotionally so I sort of built a wall and did not go there. My husband on the other hand I cried even though it was the fourth time seeing it. It is an excellent episode and nothing is wrong with it.

This is the best episode of STTNG.

Brilliantly written, acted, and directed. If you don't cry at the end, you might need a shrink.

Data's newest attempt at being human is a doozy. Now, to make his life more human, Data has decided to have a child! Of course he cannot procreate in the traditional sense, so he builds an android child! And, since it's an android, he allows it to choose its own gender and appearance. While this girl, Lal, looks more human than Data, she turns out to be amazingly slow compared to her 'father'. She cannot pick up on social queues as well, is clumsy and seems, at times, kind of stupid. Because of this, a bigoted Admiral is now pushing to have Lal raised by someone other than Data--and to be raised apart from Data. The WHY of this never really makes any sense--especially in light of an earlier episode which established Data's legal status as a sentient being. And, it makes little sense in light of the Federation's supposed attitude of tolerance and niceness--and this explains why I dropped the score just a bit.

As I mentioned above, in some ways this show is a bit like the story of Frankenstein--with Data creating a being like the doctor. However, unlike the irresponsible doctor, Data tries very hard to be a good father and not abandon her to some Federation jerk. Overall, this is a very good episode...and one that might surprise you with how sadly it ends. You might just want to have a box of Kleenex handy.