“The Offspring”
Written by René Echevarria
Directed by Jonathan Frakes
Season 3, Episode 16
Original air date: March 12, 1990
Star date: 43657.0
Mission summary
Data summons Wesley, La Forge, and Troi to his lab for some Really Big News. After a drumroll, he unveils… a thing! They’re not really sure what it is–it seems to be a Soong-type android in beta–until it calls Data “father” and Data explains that this is his child, Lal.
The trio are stunned as Lal greets them. Data explains that he discovered some new kind of tech to tech his own positronic brain. Right now it looks a bit robo-Maria from Metropolis, but this lets his child customize its character. His three friends are excited by this development, but when the news reaches Picard it creates a miniature shitstorm. He’s furious that Data would so lightly take it upon himself to create a new life, completely unsupervised. But Data rightly points out that he has as much a right to reproduce as anyone else onboard, if not more so:
PICARD: Data, you are seeking to achieve what only your own creator has been able to achieve. To make another functioning, sentient, android. To make another Data.
DATA: That is why I must attempt this, sir. I have observed that in most species, there is a primal instinct to perpetuate themselves. Until now, I have been the last of my kind. If I were to be damaged or destroyed, I would be lost forever. But if I am successful with the creation of Lal, my continuance is assured. I understand the risk, sir. and I am prepared to accept the responsibility.
Troi is on his side, too, and tries to talk Picard out of his petty narrowmindedness and point out with utmost sensitivity that he’s never been a father, which serves more to remind us that she’s been a mother and now we’re all upset again because why did that ever happen. Lal, meanwhile, has sorted through her Barbie playhouse and decided on the human female outfit. It’s a girl!
As with all new babies onscreen, we get a montage of her growing up: learning to swallow, catching a ball, smelling things, recognizing terrible taste in art… She develops rapidly and Data takes pleasure (or at least, whatever the android equivalent is) in experiencing these things with her, made new again through her eyes. She slowly begins to become sentient, questioning her world and her purpose in it (to which Data artfully responds that their function “is to contribute in a positive way to the world in which we live”). He also decides to send her to school, so that she can better emulate human reactions and more easily integrate with the rest of the crew.
Her first day of school, like most children’s, isn’t much fun. Lal’s classmates tease and laugh at her, and she recognizes, even if she does not understand, her isolation:
LAL: Why would they wish to be unkind?
DATA: Because you are different. Differences sometimes scare people. I have learned that some of them use humor to hide their fear.
LAL: I do not want to be different.
Data goes to the only other visible parent onboard, Dr. Crusher, for advice. Her kid was a freak, too, so she understands! She suggests that Data relate his own difficulties assimilating, to show her that she is not alone and that he is there for her. He will, but in the meantime, he sends her to Guinan to observe people on Ten Forward. She offers herself as a waitress in exchange, and stuns everyone by saying “I’ve”–a contraction. She has exceeded Data’s programming! So precocious, she’s definitely destined for the gifted and talented program. Lal gets started as a bartender and, wanting to imitate what she sees, winds up kissing Riker when he sets foot in the bar.
The laughs are short-lived, however, because Picard urgently needs to talk to Data about Starfleet’s “interest” in Lal. Admiral Haftel, douchehat of the week, thinks that Lal is better off being studied in a lab–without Data’s influence. He’s rendezvoused with the Enterprise and if he doesn’t like Lal’s “progress” is empowered to take her back to a science station (and away from her father). Haftel interviews Picard, then Data, and then finally Lal, who he tries to persuade to come back with him of her own will. But she thinks he’s he’s an ass:
HAFTEL: Yes. Don’t misunderstand me, I have great respect for your father.
LAL: You do not speak with respect.
HAFTEL: She seems very adversarial.
LAL: I’m merely stating a fact, Admiral.
Damn right. Picard asks her what SHE wants to do, and she says she wants to stay aboard the Enterprise. Haftel dismisses her, but Lal leaves the ready room in disarray. She heads for Troi’s quarters, where she’s in obvious distress at the idea of being separated from Data. She can feel the fear. That’s… not right.
Haftel, on the other hand, has made up his mind. He asks, and then finally commands Data to hand her over to Starfleet. Data refuses absolutely and threatens to resign his commission, and Picard stands by him with a line ready about refusing to just follow orders. But before a real fight can erupt Troi calls them all to the lab to help Lal, who is suffering some kind of malfunction. Data discovers that the emotional awareness has caused (or is perhaps a symptom of) a cascade failure–a terminal malfunction. Though he and Haftel, who feels suuuuuper guilty about this, try everything they can to keep her going, she is dying.
DATA: Lal? I am unable to correct the system failure.
LAL: I know.
DATA: We must say goodbye now.
LAL: I feel.
DATA: What do you feel, Lal?
LAL: I love you, Father.
DATA: I wish I could feel it with you.
LAL: I will feel it for both of us. Thank you for my life. Flirting. Laughter. Painting. Family. Female. Human.
He deactivates her, but transfers her memories over to his programming so that she will live on.
Analysis
I’m not usually the schmaltzy type. If someone described this episode to me and I hadn’t seen it I would probably roll my eyes or sigh. But I absolutely cannot be cynical about it because it is just so beautiful. Every time Lal says goodbye and tells Data “thank you for my life,” I can’t help but cry, as I am flooded with the memories of all those afternoons reading The Giving Tree with my mother and feeling, even then, that connection and love, and all of its pain and confusion. It’s absolutely the most moving, poignant, and bittersweet episode of the series.
Having a child is a natural and reasonable desire on Data’s part. Children are a huge part of being human (or even humanoid), and it makes sense that at a certain point in his development Data would want to experience that as well. But with Data, creating a child allows him to learn about himself in new and interesting ways. Not only does he get to experience things for the first time all over again (which is a lovely scene and a lovely little voiceover), but what Lal learns with his brain will help him grow, adapt, and develop, too. She quickly exceeds his programming, and the direction she and her development take is absolutely crucial to his own self-exploration. This new data–ahem–can provide the answer to where he came from and why he is the person he is. If they have the same brain, will they have the same personality? The same interests? I don’t think we knew until now that Data is truly a unique person, formed as much by his experiences as his programming. It especially makes me wonder what Data would have been like if he had grown up with Soong, or even with another Data. He had to navigate the world alone.
Until they “answered” this with the stupid godawful emotion chip, this episode also represented to me exactly why Data had to be limited the way he was. I had always assumed that he was denied emotions because he could never survive with them–they’re irrational and just not reconcilable with his programming. Were he to have them, his life would be cut short just as quickly as Lal’s. As such, I liked to imagine that it was in a way Soong’s own fatherly gesture, to spare him not only deactivation but the pain and sadness of that existence. Thanks, TNG, for dashing my hopes with that awful movie I guess I’ll have to see again.
In any case, Lal challenges a second crucial and compelling idea: the Federation’s much-venerated autonomy principles. Why does Picard think that Data should have cleared this with him? Does he truly have all the rights of a sentient being, including the ability to continue his own existence? And I think it’s important to show that Picard’s first victory in “Measure of a Man” is meaningless unless the Federation is really willing to stand by it and enforce it against those who would take those rights away. Rights don’t mean much if others don’t respect them, which was highlighted expertly when Lal told Admiral Haftel that no matter what he said, he did not speak with respect about her father. It rightly points to the fact that Data is always and forever going to have to fight back against oppression and assert his freedoms against others who would take them, and that’s the cost of doing business with humanity.
The only part of this episode I cringe at is when Data and Beverly have their heart-to-heart, and she says that she helped Wesley get through puberty by telling her how lonely and miserable she was as a teenager, and thus They Bonded. Yeah, right! Parents never understand…
Now excuse me while I go re-read my Shel Silverstein and call my mom.
Torie’s Rating: Warp 6 (on a scale of 1-6)
Thread Alert: I actually like Lal’s little peasant dress, so I’m going to pick on Picard, who apparently sleeps posed like a painter’s model and wears his robe to bed. Unless it’s just a shirt with a really deep V-cut? Either way, the best part is that he answers the videophone looking like that. Don’t change for anyone, Picard.
Best Line: PICARD: Data, I would like to have been consulted.
DATA: I have not observed anyone else on board consulting you about their procreation, Captain.
Trivia/Other Notes: This was Jonathan Frake’s first directing effort. To prepare, he spent over 300 hours editing, dubbing, taking seminars, and reading textbooks. A pretty good first effort, if I do say so myself.
“The Offspring” began as a spec script by emerging writer René Echevarria. He was hired as a writer, and will go on to pen 17 more TNG episodes and 23 DS9 ones.
A former research consultant says that Whoopi Goldberg changed one of the lines on-set. She was supposed to be telling Lal about when “a man and a woman are in love,” and changed it to a gender-neutral version. They were going to throw in a same-sex couple into the background, too, but one call to production nixed the whole scene. The future, ladies and gentlemen!
Hallie Todd, who plays Lal, has an interesting Trek connection: she’s the stepdaughter of Guy Raymond, who was the human bartender in “The Trouble with Tribbles.” She is notable for two long-running series: the 1980s Showtime hit Brothers, and as the mom on Disney’s Lizzie McGuire.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 15 – “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 17 – “Sins of the Father.”
That reaction you describe if someone told you about this episode? That’s the reaction I had when it first aired and any other time I’ve seen any part of it since. I can’t say I hate it, but only because I don’t quite feel that strongly about it. It’s worse than meh, but not quite at hate levels. It’s a channel-changer on par with “That Which Survives” or “Spock’s Brain”.
The worst part, in a way, is that they’ve just chucked the results of “Measure of a Man” right out the airlock. Again. Either all positronic androids are sentient — in which case Starfleet has no right to attempt to seize Lal — or every single one ever developed will have to go through some sort of hearing to claim it — which calls the validity of the whole concept into question.
And the resolution is totally stolen from “Requiem for Methuselah”. Warp 1, maybe a 2 for effort.
Frankenstein, done sweet. Not monstrous.
IMO, this is another terrific episode, with pitch perfect emotional responses offset by Data’s inability to feel anything in association with a tragedy—in itself a tragedy. Extends what we learned in “Measure of a Man” and builds upon it; and its a powerful and satisfying update of TOS’ “Requiem for Methuselah.”
Another jerkwad jackass admiral, but this one is rather redeemed in the end. And his points about protecting and enhancing an emergent species are logical and reasonable, if wrongheaded. What I think works really well, wondrously well here, is Picard—the very embodiment of Star Fleet Command aboard the Enterprise—seems to anticipate Haftel in Picard’s earliest responses to the new android lifeform… exasperated, troubled by the very hubris of it, annoyed by efforts to make light of it. He is Haftel, before Haftel arrives.
Conversely, Data understands the letter of what he’s done, but only by analogy the meaning. His focus seems to be mostly on the “test tube” portion of the test tube baby equation, the creation antecedent of procreation. His admission of an inability to love, archly challenged by the doctor as he leaves, might be the intellectual payoff of the episode. We also know its untruth: the contradiction is what makes Data work as an endearing character.
Here Data’s challenge to authority works in a way it did not work in Pen Pals, where his disobedience to protocol seems perverse and almost deranged: Coming from No Place. Here, organic and understood. He is on the side of The Right Thing To Do: Coming from Some Place.
Probably my favorite treatment of the “Data’s Extended Family” story arc, and works much better than anything else having to do with Lore or the Soongs. Or even Data’s oft-tiresome “Search for Humanity.”
Like Torie, Data’s final moments with Lal choke me up every time: “Thank you, for my life.” What’s this thing in my eye, causing me to tear up? Frankly, the only moment in all of TNG that ever did.
We’re left wondering what’s charging through his circuitry at the end, and must consider that there is nothing charging through it at all. All knowledge of the death of a child, reduced to processing. Now that’s tragedy.
—a charming data episode with some exceptions— DemetriosX–i agree–as smart as star fleet is–we have to go through “measure of a man” again?–and this time without the drama of a trial—sometimes–the flag officer as the ‘fly in the ointment’ bit–is irritating and calls into question the responsible use of authority– un-star trek like—data’s innocence, his desire to be more human, and his obvious intellect–intersect in this episode with enjoyable results—his consulting with dr. crusher calls to mind another data installment–where he strives to find his place and protect those like him against those who would doubt—“the quality of life”—-w4—and btw—-riker is useless—-
—addendum—the best line should read, LAL: “why is the sky black”–lol—
I always loved this one too, but I didn’t expect to be so moved by it this time. I don’t remember the ending hitting me so hard when I watched it as a teenager, but this time I definitely had some trouble seeing during Lal’s good-bye. Maybe I’ve just gotten softer over the years, but when she says, “I will feel it (love) for both of us,” I almost lost it. But then again, the ending of The Iron Giant never fails to make me teary-eyed either.
I thought the setup was great, but I was a little impatient with the montage of child rearing scenes, as entertaining as they are, and I didn’t find some of the humorous elements as hilarious as I once did. But it’s definitely still funny and well-written. I was also disappointed that we were forced to rehash some of the ground covered by “The Measure of a Man,” though that seems to be part of the point.
I do wonder if Lal’s end was inevitable, or whether Haftel inadvertently causes her cascade failure–initiating a strong emotion before her programming was ready to cope with it. And while I’m a little weirded out by Data absorbing her memories into his programming at the end, it’s what he does, and how he learns, and it’s very touching. In fact, I remember hoping that Lal survives too when he transfers his own memories to B4 at the end of Nemesis. There’s something poetic about the way he has preserved the memories of the colonists from his planet and stores Lal in his mind, and in turn preserves himself.
Until Torie reminded me about “The Child,” I had already forgotten it, so Troi’s line to Picard about “You’ve never been a parent” didn’t make much sense to me :) It’s probably worth noting that this is a moment in which Troi isn’t entirely useless, though she doesn’t do much to help Lal choose a form in the end. Which brings me to the thing that bugged me the most this time around: the notion that Lal could only choose one of two genders.
Still, Warp 6 from me.
Also, I looked up the word “Lal” to confirm that it means “beloved,” but apparently it actually means “red.” Does that make her an android red shirt?
This is a wonderful episode but it was too bad that it was done at a time when Star Trek was not comfortable with letting an important character evolve to any greater degree than baby steps. They let Picard work out his grief over the Borg affair in the episode Family. I guess this one was too soon. It would have been nice to see Data, one or two episodes down the line, comment about his dealing with the loss and asking if it was the same for Humans. Little things like this could have done so much toward developing Data as a growing character.
I agree with Lane Arnold about the best line.
…so, did I miss an update where you folks said you were taking a break?
It’s been a month. Goin’ through withdrawal here.
I mean, I could see encountering an episode so bad, it would make you give up, I just find it hard to believe “Sins of the Father” would be that episode.
@8 J T Dogzone
Torie mentioned in comments on the previous post that we would be taking a few weeks off during her finals. We were supposed to be back last week, but now *I’ve* been swallowed by a deadline, so it’ll be another couple of weeks before we resume. If I can finish my novel revisions by early next week, I’ll try to post for June 6 — otherwise, I’ll definitely be back for June 13!
@1 X & @3 lane
I don’t think this episode portrays the results of ‘Measure of a Man’ with any falsehood whatsoever. Yes, Data won his rights, but what world are you from where once civil rights have been won for a group, everyone just accepts them instantly and adjusts their thinking to the new status quo? The fact that Data would be forced to continue to fight for his personhood is verisimilitude. Starfleet still regards him as a machine, even if he’s a sentient machine, and it’s just going to take time and his asserting those rights to change that.
The only thing regarding where ‘Measure of a Man’ and this episode intersect that bugs me is Picard. He was the most vocal and forceful advocate for Data’s personhood in the past, yet here he questions whether or not Data should be allowed to perform the most basic functions of life, sentient or not? I understand the doubts, but not coming out of his mouth. He should have been the one making Data’s remarks about not requiring consultations when others on the ship have children. I’ll probably never say this again, but they really could have used Pulaski here.
Wouldn’t it be great if all children had an off button when it’s time for bed?
I agree that this episode is much better than a quick written summary might suggest.. It’s a great episode for Data, and while I agree that Picard’s initial attitude was surprising, I think the idea was that he was more motivated by a desire to protect Data than anything else, knowing that Starfleet would inevitably want to intervene. The only thing I’d have changed would have been his initial insistence that Lal not be called a child. That just seemed out of character.