Inheritance (⭑⭑⭑)

I have very mixed feelings about “Inheritance.” On one hand, it’s a competently executed and emotionally compelling story that focuses on one of my favorite characters, and it raises an interesting question or two; on the other, it feels a bit too retconnish, and I don’t entirely like the ways that it changes some of the premises of Data’s existence. Additionally, I’ve never agreed with the decision that Data makes at the end. This is an episode that I care about, and I would a thousand times rather watch it than most of the drivel that season seven had given us up to this point (only “Gambit” has been better, so far). Still, I’m not sure that I can say I’m glad it exists.

It’s been remarked by plenty of other commentators that season seven of TNG introduces a few too many long-lost and/or otherwise previously unmentioned family members of main characters. We already dealt with Geordi’s mother in “Interface” and learned that Troi had a sister who died in childhood in “Dark Page”; in coming episodes, we’ll learn that Worf has a foster brother, attend the funeral of Dr. Crusher’s grandmother, and even be misled into believing that Picard has a son. This week, it’s Data’s turn. Most of these stories, to one degree or another, feel a bit premise-altering and even a little desperate, coming as they do so late in the show; that is, it feels like the writers are reaching a bit in search of new story ideas, and are willing to play just a little bit loose with continuity in order to gin them up. Sometimes, such as with Geordi’s mother, this is true on an emotional level (it’s hard to sell the idea of Geordi’s emotional connection to her when she’s scarcely (if ever) been mentioned over the course of six years of our getting to know him). In “Inheritance,” since we’re presented with a “mother” that Data didn’t even know about previously, we don’t have that problem—but the existence of Juliana does feel like a changed premise in other ways. Actually, there are kind of two problems here: First, there’s already enough about Data’s back story that doesn’t quite make sense, and to some extent, the inconsistencies just end up feeling magnified every time a light is newly shined upon them. But also (second), it sort of feels like the writers couldn’t resist continuing to embellish Data’s “family” without giving enough thought to the ways that doing so changes some of the meaning of who he is. I mean, look: Initially, Data’s existence is presented as a mystery; no one knows who created him or how he came to be on Omicron Theta. This, in itself, doesn’t make a lot of sense after “Datalore” establishes that Dr. Soong was a leading cybernetics expert who was known to have lived on the Omicron Theta colony right up until its destruction, but…whatever. Then, later, we learned both that there is another famous scientist, Ira Graves, who has known all along that Data was Soong’s creation but has apparently never told anyone, and that Dr. Soong himself survived the crystalline entity’s attack, but conveniently is a paranoid recluse living off in the middle of nowhere in secret. (The former is best forgotten for several reasons, but Soong’s survival, though kind of weird, I willingly swallowed.) But now it turns out that Soong also had a wife who survived, and who has been leading a normal life out in society/civilization as a scientist all this time, but who never told anyone about Data, or contacted him, or anything, in all the years since Data’s discovery by Starfleet? Really? Okay, so, she felt guilty about having convinced Soong to abandon Data (and I don’t know, maybe also about their abandonment of the rest of the colonists, who all died because of Lore?). Still, this is all just a bit much for me. And then, the eventual twist of the Juliana that we meet being an android replacement for the real Juliana—an android so indistinguishable from a human that no one has ever guessed the truth—also bothers me. There are huge plausibility issues, for one thing, but they aren’t my main concern; mostly, it’s that her existence means that Data actually isn’t Soong’s greatest or most significant achievement. Juliana, for instance, apparently has genuine human-like emotions (without being an unstable psychopath like Lore). So, when Data eventually installs his emotion chip and starts experiencing emotions himself, he’s not really breaking new ground; another Soong-type android out there has already achieved what he’s striving for, and seemingly without effort or struggle. Data’s experiences still hold the same meaning for him, of course, but the show has always presented him as unique, and honestly will continue to do so after this—and that doesn’t really hold up. I don’t love this. (On the other hand, I will say this: The explanation given here for why Data was left behind when Soong made his escape from Omicron Theta does kind of fill in a part of the back story that previously didn’t make much sense.)

With all of that said, I do like the character of Juliana (I’m calling her by her first name because she has several different last names, depending on which era of her life one is referring to, so “Juliana” just seems easier) as she is presented here. Her reactions to Data, and the back story about his early days that she relates, are fun, and watching Data try to assimilate it all is also enjoyable. (Especially moving is the bit where Juliana inquires about Data’s painting of Lal, and he tells her about his own attempt at procreation. Of course, this was pretty inevitable given that Rene Echevarria co-wrote the teleplay.) As so often, the writing walks that fine line where Data’s behavior is explicable in non-emotional, android terms, while nevertheless pushing right up to the brink of looking like something else; he’s investigating Juliana’s claims about having been Soong’s wife because there are legitimate questions about their veracity, but is he also struggling to assimilate this new information about himself and his “family” like a human? Kind of, yes, but with an open-minded equanimity—a willingness to accept whatever turns out to be the truth—that few humans would be able to muster. So to that extent, the episode is enjoyable. (I don’t know that I buy the idea that Juliana had to convince a skeptical Noonien to endow Data with a “creative side,” though. The Noonien Soong that we see in Data’s dream sequence in “Birthright” does not seem like a guy who would need any convincing on this point.) Meanwhile, the rest of the episode (the plot about fixing the planet) is competent but stays out of the way, which is exactly what was needed. I appreciate that it doesn’t try to manufacture tension out of a bunch of technobabble, or try to be the story of the episode in a way similar to what happens with the “action sequence” in the episode previous to this one (“Force of Nature”); instead, it just provides a backdrop that showcases our people being professionals and doing what they do. Since the pseudo-emotional arc that Data goes through as he gets to know Juliana (and the eventual twist of her being an android) are the real story, not much is needed from the “mission of the week” plot.

We come, then, to the big “twist” and its resolution. The first thing to be said here is that, even though I’ve already stated that I don’t love the idea of this more-sophisticated-than-Data Soong android existing, there isn’t really an episode without this twist; it definitely has to be there to make the episode work. So, despite my premise-level qualms, I can’t really argue that the twist shouldn’t have been introduced, at least when taking the episode on its own terms (as opposed to evaluating whether or not the whole of it should have been made). In fact, I vividly remember watching this when it original aired, way back in my sophomore year of college, and having my interest immediately piqued when it became clear that the episode was building toward the question of whether to leave Juliana in blissful ignorance or tell her a possibly unwelcome truth. Here, though it arrives very late in the episode, was the show’s sci-fi-enabled philosophical hook of the week. The trouble is, I knew immediately which way I wanted Data to go on this—but alas, he goes the other way. Moreover, the intervening decades have only solidified my view that he should have told her the truth. Now, as then, it’s very much my view that acknowledging and facing the truth, especially about oneself, is critically important, and always preferable to the alternative. Juliana has been denied this self-knowledge by others (first Soong, now Data) who believe that they know what’s best for her, and to my mind, that’s criminally unethical. I would never want anyone to lie to me “for my own good,” and I never like it when characters in stories do this, either…but especially not when the story presents the deception as some kind of benevolent or merciful act that the character was “right” to perpetrate. Just, no. Additionally, I feel like Data’s choice here both clashes with the usual themes of the show overall (need I reference “the first duty of every Starfleet officer”?) and is out of character for him personally. Trek is about boldly venturing into the unknown, not denying or hiding from it—and part of what has always made Data so compelling is his easy ability to pursue truth relentlessly, without emotional blinders. He ought to have acknowledged that his “mother” had a right to learn her own truth, and trusted her to be able to handle it, even if she did find it unpleasant (which, incidentally, she might not have!). Plus, earlier in this very episode, there is a scene in which Geordi impresses upon Data that embracing unexpected realizations, even when they clash with one’s preconceived mindset, is an important part of life and being human. Did he forget, or decide that Geordi was wrong? Ultimately, too, Data’s decision was just one more way for the writers to flirt with introducing some big change into the fabric of the show, only to backpedal and preserve the status quo (just like Crusher shutting Picard down romantically at the end of “Attached”). I wouldn’t have cared much for this particular change, but still.

So: I disagree with many of the choices upon which this episode was built, yet still enjoy much of it, and certainly care a great deal about its subject matter (both in the sense of Data and his back story, and in the sense of the philosophical questions). On balance, I do have to say that I would prefer for it not to be part of the canon of the show. And yet, it also is not a bad episode. Like I said: very mixed feelings.