The Offspring
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 12 March 1990
- ON
- First-run syndication
- STARDATE
- 43657.0
- DIRECTED BY
- Jonathan Frakes
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 164
WRITTEN BYWritten by René Echevarria
Data unveils a secret project: an android child he has built himself. Raising a daughter proves hard enough, before Starfleet starts asking who she really belongs to.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Drawing on new advances in cybernetics, Data secretly builds an android based on his own design and introduces her to his shipmates as his child. He names her Lal, and with Troi's help she chooses the appearance of a young human woman. Lal learns quickly, guided by Data and his friends, and Guinan gives her a job in Ten Forward. She is soon using contractions, something Data has never managed, and she begins to show signs of feeling. Starfleet sends Admiral Haftel to assess her, and he orders that Lal be moved to a research facility. Picard stands firmly behind Data's rights as her parent. Before the matter is settled, Lal suffers an emotional overload that triggers a cascade failure in her positronic brain. Haftel and Data work desperately side by side but cannot save her. Before she dies, Lal tells Data she loves him, and he transfers her memories into his own neural net.
- 01Jonathan Frakes's directorial debut, and the first Star Trek episode directed by a cast member. He went on to direct many more episodes and two feature films.
- 02René Echevarria wrote it as a spec script. Its sale led to further assignments and a place on the writing staff.
- 03Lal's name comes from a Hindi word meaning “beloved”.