The Offspring is a superb, emotional episode and is, in many ways, a natural progression from season two’s The Measure of a Man. In this installment, Data literally creates his own offspring, a female named Lal. The story then, is about how Data brings Lal into this world and begins to teach her and instruct her to function in and contribute to society. The conflict arises when Starfleet decides it wants Lal’s development to take place on a Starbase, without Data.

Part of what works for this episode is Data’s obvious devotion to his child. Indeed, merely by referring to Lal as “my child” Data exhibits a sincere sense of obligation and duty. And while Data is incapable of feeling carign and love, his actions demonstrate those two emotions in deeply profound ways. Data’s performance in this episode is absolute perfection. His ability to convey the emotions and struggles and fears of a parent can speak to everyone in the audience. And you can truly see pride and joy from Data when Lal is able to exceed Data’s programming.

The stakes are raised when a Starfleet Admiral arrives to inspect Lal’s development. His intention to remove Lal from Data’s custody sparks a spirited and profound objection from Picard, who turns yet another stellar performance. Indeed, Picard is willing to sacrifice his Starfleet career to protest the actions of Starfleet. The tragedy is that Picard never gets a chance to follow through on his stand.

Partly precipitated by an unsettling interview with the Admiral, Lal begins to suffer catastrophic malfunctions. These malfunctions lead Lal to be able to experience emotions such as fear, confusion and love. But the price for these emotions proves too steep as Data is unable correct the problems. The final scenes are moving, touching, and deeply emotional.

The Offspring is beautiful episode of TNG. Its themes, its acting, its emotions will leave an indelible imprint upon the viewer.

Topics: New Life
Filed under: TNG Reviews