Inheritance

DVD, TNG S7 (Inheritance)

NOOOOO! You're not my Mother! Search your feelings Data, you know it to be true. Hang on a jiffy, I'll just go and pop my emotion chip in so I can accommodate you.

You would never have thought, if the theme of families had come up as a planned endeavour for as many as possible of the character's to meet or have dealings with them this season, that Data would be among them. It's amazing what you can do with some well-placed and crafty ret-conning action, and I say that with genuine astonishment that they were able to come up with something like this: Data meets his Mother. For a start, we never even knew he had a Mother, and for seconds it all cunningly interweaves with the facts we know about Data and his early life on Omicron Theta. Whoever thought we'd hear references to Lore or the Crystalline Entity after the destruction (or disassembly), of both of them. I wonder why Data didn't regale Juliana with the full history of his encounters with Lore. Probably for the same reason he was initially reticent to accept her on her own word, or later, when he noticed there were things about her that didn't make sense.

Juliana Tainer, nee Soong, was Dr. Noonien's greatest accomplishment, yet also his worst failure. He failed to accept death as the end, and instead created a new life for her. In the same way as Dr. Ira Graves tried to survive by transferring his consciousness into Data in 'The Schizoid Man,' it was never going to end happily, but it depends what you mean by end. For Soong, the end was when she left him, but for her, the end is yet to come. Among the deft dancing around and into facts of history, there were some throwaway lines that could have spun off into entire episodes themselves: one of the biggest is the revelation that there were three other androids created before Lore. I think we knew already that he'd made other prototypes, but never had such a definite progression been confirmed as that. Could B4 of 'Nemesis' be one of those three? What happened to the other two?

Even more intriguing, maybe even mind-blowing, is the line about Juliana's ageing process 'the same as Data's.' Whoah, hold up there! Did you just say that Data has an ageing process? Why have we not heard of this before? It's always been hinted or assumed that Data could theoretically live forever, or until his components finally degrade. Now he's actually got an ageing process? I love that concept, and I so wish they had spoken of that a few more times towards the end of the series to acknowledge that Brent Spiner wasn't getting any younger. It would have been even better if they could have talked about it in the films, which would have given Spiner less reason to feel he should stop playing the android. This episode gives another reason why he is one of the best actors ever to grace the 'Star Trek' stage: his brilliant reprisal of Dr. Noonien Soong.

We'd already seen the doc once after his death thanks to Data's dream program of 'Birthright, Part I' in which he appeared as a young man who looked much more like Data than the ancient white-hair we see alive in Season 4's 'Brothers.' This time we see an older Soong, somewhere between his fresh-faced appearance and the wrinkled old Hobbit look, but regardless of what he looked like, his great ability, his nuanced performance, all shouted out the greatness of the actor. It helps you realise just how constrained he was as Data. Might we even say wasted? No, that would be too harsh, as Data is one of the best Trek characters ever seen, but what if he'd played a human character, or an alien, someone that was allowed out of the rigid shell Data wrapped around his creator? It made me wish he could come back as another character, not like 'Enterprise' where he did get a good role that was brief, but a permanent cast member on a new series.

As great as Brent Spiner is in this episode, he never crosses the line into emotion despite the heavy issues he's dealing with, but subtly alters Data's reactions, his puzzlement, his attempt to react in the way a son should, and his failure to pick up on the finer points of Juliana's feelings towards him or Lal. So much is brought up from Data's seven-year story and before it, that this must be the definitive account of his life to that point. When you think about what Juliana said, the time period of when he was created (running around naked because he didn't need clothes - it's logical and believable, yet also comical and laughable), the memories of the colonists being programmed in, Soong and Juliana leaving, it may not make complete sense, I'm not certain. The point is that they were able to tie all this together so that on the surface it seems very plausible, yet there is an impression that this is all too good to be true.

To a degree it was all to good to be true, but it also had the virtue of being true to Juliana who knew no better, and though the moral quandary of the episode comes incredibly late, it still packs a punch and if possible, endears Data more to our hearts than ever before thanks to the way he handles the decision, yet also slips in a kind word that means so much to Tainer. It's a beautiful episode, not just thematically, but it looks good too - from the arc of blue and yellow console design reflected in the conference table, to Juliana herself and her twinkling eyes, even the age-old cave set had a certain something about it this time! I haven't spoken of Juliana's husband - I hasten to add I'm not including him in the list of beauty, but he did have a fascinating design, like a cross between an old cowboy and a Ferengi. He adds a bit of discomfort to an otherwise peaceful episode, suggesting Data may not be trusted to make calculations, and generally seeing him as a machine. Even when you think he's actually going to apologise for doubting Data in the cave, he actually goes on to stick up for his wife, thinking Data's angry with her. I felt his contribution to the episode, or sub-plot, could have done with a lot more to it, emphasising his distrust of machines. Maybe that's why he was scaled back: it would have been much easier for Data to use that to come to his decision.

The episode successfully mixes a potion of family history, getting to know a Mother that abandoned her child, and even a little excitement when Data drags her off the edge of the cliff. It was a bold move, because if his deductions had been wrong he would have had egg on his face (or Juliana…), but probability was low that she was a genius savant. The other sub-plot of the Enterprise drilling into the core of Atrea IV was something else that could have done with shaping up a bit, leading the episode to feel a little slow and careful in places, though these few times are counteracted by the brilliance of the music recital. Who did Data drop as his partner when Juliana took over, or was he planning to do a solo? It's a credit to the series, the writers and the actors that this late on, with so many episodes behind them, they could still find new and deep things to explore in the characters. My only regret is that she never appeared again, though I can understand why - a grumpy stepdad, a planet that was far away, and the fact that her story was done.

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