Inheritance is a slow moving episode whose underlying premise is quite suspect. But once it gets to the heart of the story, and if you can suspend your disbelief enough to accept the premise (a very big *if*), then the episode provides a legitimate twist that is not only a surprise, but also offers a genuine character exploration for Data.

The episode begins with the Enterprise in orbit around a planet whose molten core has begun to cool. Their mission will be to find a way to heat up the core so as to avert a planetary crisis. Talk about obscure sci-fi. Fortunately, the molten-core concept is really present only to provide a backdrop for the episode’s main story.

On board to assist the Enterprise crew are a husband and wife named, Pran and Juliana Tainer. Following a mission briefing, Dr. Juliana Tainer talks to Data and reveals that she was once Juliana Soong, wife of Data’s creator, Noonian Soong — effectively, Data’s mother. It’s a concept that is just a bit difficult to swallow. But the episode does the smart thing and has Data just as skeptical as the audience.

Data spends some time researching her backstory — which is provided over a number of very slow, thoughtful scenes. Unfortunately those scenes are heavy on the slow side, and not so much on the thoughtful side. But Data does do his research and discovers some evidence that seems to corroborate her story — while finding nothing to discredit it. And on the advice of his friend, LaForge (who tells Data that sometimes life throws things at you that cannot be reconciled by logic), Data decides to accept Juliana’s story at face value.

Having accepted Juliana’s word, Data and his “mother” spend a great deal of time together — working on the molten core problem, as well as for recreation. There are the inevitable “when you were young” stories as well as explanations about how Juliana left Dr. Soong. There are some hits, such as the emotional discussion of Data’s daughter, Juliana’s granddaughter, Lal. And there are some misses such as the cringeworthy story of how Data once ran around in the nude until a modesty program could be written for him.

The problem is that it all feels so … clinical. It’s almost as if the scenes are being carried out in a laboratory, as opposed to real life. There may have been a reason for that (as we will see), but even so, the lack of emotion doesn’t allow the audience to truly buy into this mother-son relationship.

But things aren’t quite as they seem. Data’s skepticism continues following a couple of odd occurrences, such as Juliana’s remarkably quick ability to calculate a solution to a growing problem with the molten core mission. More alarming for Data is a performance the two give in Ten Forward. Following the performance, he rushes off to Dr. Crusher to inquire about a medical scan. The surface scan appears to be normal, but before Data can inquire any further, he and Juliana are called to assist with a crisis on the planet.

While in a cave on the planet, we finally learn why Data was so suspicious of Juliana and why, perhaps, the scenes between the two felt so absent of emotion. After a cave in, they are forced to jump from a high cliff. In the fall, Juliana is injured. Her arm is broken into two pieces.

She is an android.

It’s quite a twist that is carefully guarded by the episode. But like the idea of the molten core, it’s a difficult concept to accept outright. If you’re unable to accept the idea, then the final sequences will fall flat. But the episode does its best to explain itself.

Back on board the Enterprise, with Juliana in an unexplained coma, Data finds a holographic chip. Playing the chip on the Holodeck, Data learns that Juliana is indeed a creation of Dr. Noonian Soong, his father. He learns that there once was a real woman named Juliana, who really was married to Dr. Soong. But following the attack of the Crystalline Entity, she was fatally injured. Unable to continue without his beloved, Dr. Soong created an android and transferred his wife’s consciousness into its body (much like Dr. Graves in The Schizoid Man). Data’s scenes with his father are pretty solid — not a surprise, considering how good a performer Brent Spiner is.

As it turns out, the android Juliana has never known that she was not human. She just believed that she had awakened from a serious injury. And now it is up to Data to decide whether or not to tell her. Ultimately, he decides not to because if he did he would, as Troi wisely states (shocking, I know): to tell Juliana would be to rob her of the one thing Data has sought all his life, her humanity.

Inheritance is enjoyable for its revelations about Data, his mother and father, as well as a better understanding of Dr. Soong’s work. But the pace and implausible premises really make the episode difficult to access.

Filed under: TNG Reviews