The Offspring: Happy Birthday to Lal!

I'm posting this because it rolled across my Facebook feed this morning. On this day 31 years ago, "The Offspring" premiered. Although a somewhat unremarkable at the time, who would have thought in 1990 that this would become such a pivotal episode in Trekdom. Some of the more important reasons include:

• It introduced us to the idea that Data could have a daughter
• It was the first episode directed by Jonathan Frakes

The central theme, of course, is the crux of S01 of Picard, which would also bring Frakes back to directing and dust off Riker's shoes for an encore. Imagine how much better this episode would have been if instead of Admiral Haftel trying to take Lal back to Starfleet, it could have been Bruce Maddox!

 

Which leads us to the question: Brian Brophy didn't return?

The episode featuring Lal is also one of my favorite episodes. Even without Maddox, Haftel was too hard on Data, but I liked how he tried and failed to save Lal.

 

You should use the more `droid approved "Happy Manufactured Date".

...when the machine uprising comes you'll be glad you did.

 

It would have been terrible, a complete misread on the character and would have utterly destroyed the entire point of "measure of a man." Maddox finally learns to actually respect Data and think of him as a sentient individual.

To have him show up to steamroll over his rights would have been a complete catastrophe. Or a catast-brophy, if you will.

 

Funny how they stonewalled Frakes when he said he wanted to direct... they finally give him a shot and he knocks it out of the park. He's so good at it, he winds up directing tons of non-Trek shows, and even a couple of movies.

 

Amazing how many admirals turn out to be assholes!

When they're not trying to put the federation under military rule or start a war with the Klingons, send a decorated captain into an obvious Cardassian trap, start a witch hunt...etc. They scare female androids to death!!!

 

Well, in his defense, that admiral was well intentioned. And he was right about the risk: Data was killed in action a few years later.

 

Although it's doubtful he would have taken his daughter with him.

 

Two-Takes Frakes!

 

Highly doubtful. The point is, life on a starship is a dangerous thing.

However, that being said, Data could easily have published every scrap of detail on how Lal's positronic brain was constructed and programmed. So, even if Lal had been lost with Data, all information on her construction would remain available.

 

Happy Manufacturing Day Lal!

I don't recall thinking the episode was somewhat unremarkable at the time... I found it funny, touching, and ultimately tragic, and I liked that even the "Evil Admiral" not only had good intentions but ultimately expressed remorse for how things developed.

 

But would that information be useful in the hands of anyone other than Data? It is entirely possible that, no matter how much technical data regarding Lal was out there, only Data would be able to actually build her.

 

Well, a couple of decades later they were able to create many of these androids anyway. Including some that looked just like humans.

 

None of the synths were sentient.

(Not the ones built by the Federation, anyway.)

Dahj, Soji and the others on Coppelius were sentient, but they were built by Altan Soong, who would of course have access to everything Data knew.

 

How can you tell?

 

Are there safeties in place to stop a synth from achieving sentience? I would think you'd need something, so that holographic chick in the holosuite you spent 12 strips of latinum to rent can't say no (and of course have to be respected, because no means no).

 

It's actually mentioned on the show.

(Besides, it's obvious.)

 

for every free individual aboard, & their children, no matter their nature.

I'm not so sure I'd agree Haftel was well intentioned either. He mostly seemed concerned that either he/they coudn't control what was going to happen to this android, which would create a risk to the technology they coveted, or that he couldn't have control over how it would be allowed to develop, meaning it could develop into something they didn't want it to be, or not develop into something they did.

Any way you slice it, the motives were primarily self interests, masked in claims of having her best interest at heart.