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Star Trek: The Next Generation – Season 7, Episode 10

Inheritance, where to watch, star trek: the next generation — season 7, episode 10.

Watch Star Trek: The Next Generation — Season 7, Episode 10 with a subscription on Paramount+, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Patrick Stewart

Capt. Jean-Luc Picard

Jonathan Frakes

Cmdr. William Riker

LeVar Burton

Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge

Michael Dorn

Gates McFadden

Dr. Beverly Crusher

Marina Sirtis

Counselor Deanna Troi

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• Star Trek: The Next Generation

Inheritance

During a mission to save an endangered planet, Data is stunned when he meets a native scientist who claims to be his estranged mother.

Fionnula Flanagan

William Lithgow

Cast appearances.

Patrick Stewart

Jonathan Frakes

LeVar Burton

Michael Dorn

Gates McFadden

Marina Sirtis

Brent Spiner

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Inheritance

Cast & crew.

Fionnula Flanagan

Dr. Juliana Tainer

William Lithgow

Dr. Pran Tainer

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E9Inheritance

Recap / Star Trek The Next Generation S 7 E 9 Inheritance

Edit locked.

Original air date: November 22, 1993

On Atrea IV, the planet's core is incredibly unstable, which sounds like a job for the Enterprise . The crew meets with Atrean scientist Pran Tainer and his human wife Juliana. Data suggests using the ship's phasers to drill a hole into the planet's crust and reignite the core, to which the Tainers agree. When everyone starts to put the plan into action, Juliana takes Data aside and reveals that she is the former wife of Dr. Noonien Soong, and helped create Data. In a way, she's his "mother."

Juliana explains that she married Noonien in secret and was there helping him through all of his initial attempts at creating androids, including Lore and three previous attempts that Data knew nothing about. In addition, Data went through a "childhood" where he learned basic motor skills and information processing, but the pair erased his memory of those days. When the Crystalline Entity attacked, she and Noonien could not bring Data with them because there was no room on the escape pod. Data notes that he met Noonien before his death, and Juliana is shocked to learn that he died.

Data verifies parts of Juliana's story but still isn't convinced, and Geordi starts wondering whether Data doesn't want to believe her, noting how illogical he's behaving. Data decides to accept Juliana as his mother and wants to know more about her. She continues telling stories of Data's creation, such as how she wanted him to be female and how they had to write a modesty subroutine to force him to wear clothing. In return, Data shares aspects of his life, including his art, his music, and how he created a daughter who died when her programming became unstable. Juliana is moved to tearfully admit that she had been against creating Data and never fully trusted that he wouldn't become as evil as Lore. When they fled the planet, she deliberately left him behind.

Meanwhile, the crew continue their attempts to fix Atrea IV's core, forcing Juliana and Data to continue working together. Data asks whether Juliana would have abandoned him if he had been her biological son. She admits that she would not have, but she insists that she did it because she would have found it too difficult to dismantle him if it became necessary. Data believes her and thanks her for her honesty. The pair go forward with their plan to perform a duet concert. Data has been occasionally looking at Juliana askance, and now he goes to Crusher to get some medical information about her. Crusher shows that she's an entirely normal middle-aged human woman. Data is not satisfied by the report but won't share his suspicions.

Disaster strikes in Atrea IV, forcing Data and Juliana to go on an emergency mission to finish the job. They finish their duties, but earthquakes force them to flee the area, and they have to make a long jump off a cliff to safety. Data lands like a cat but then sees that Juliana has gone unconscious with her arm snapped off, revealing android circuitry underneath.

In sick bay, Crusher marvels at how Juliana is an extremely advanced android designed to appear human in all respects, even sending out false medical information to scanners. A memory chip removed from her brain appears to have the answers. Data installs it into the holodeck and is greeted by an avatar of Noonien Soong that has been programmed to answer questions about Juliana. Recognizing Data, the avatar explains that there was a real Juliana, but she died shortly after the Crystalline Entity attack. Soong replaced her with an android and designed her to have a normal human existence. However, she eventually left him, just like the real Juliana would have, because he never showed her how much he really cared for her. The avatar begs Data to keep her nature a secret from her.

Data is forced with a difficult choice of whether to tell Juliana about her true nature. Crusher urges him to tell the truth. Picard notes that another accident down the line could force this issue again, and it might be better for Data to break the news to her rather than some stranger. Data is tempted to tell her the truth simply because she'd be another Soong android, and would make him feel "closer" to her. Troi, however, tells Data that the truth could devastate her and would rob her of the one thing Data has always sought after: the ability to be human.

Data reactivates Juliana and keeps the secret, telling her that she had simply been injured in the fall. With the mission complete, Juliana prepares to transport away. She asks Data to visit her sometime when he's on leave. Before she departs, Data tells her that Soong once mentioned having one love in his life and regretting not telling her how much he cared about her. He says he believes Soong was talking about her. Juliana is moved to tears and gently kisses Data on the cheek. As she transports away, she tells him to take care of himself, and he bids his mother farewell.

Tropes associated with "Inheritance" include:

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents : Juliana can't resist telling Geordi about how anatomically-correct Data didn't bother to wear clothes for the first period of his existence. Invoked in that Juliana initially demurs from telling the story because she doesn't want to embarrass Data; Data tells her he is incapable of being embarrassed and to go ahead.
• Artistic License – Medicine : Crusher shares Juliana's medical information with Data even though he won't elaborate on why he wants it. It's a serious breach of medical ethics to share a patient's medical info without a very good reason.
• Data and Juliana discuss how the Crystalline Entity destroyed Omicron Theta as well as how Data was programmed with the memories of its settlers .
• Juliana recalls the creation of Data's modesty subroutine, which was used against him in " The Most Toys ."
• Among Data's paintings is one of Lal . He tells Juliana what became of her, and it leads to her talking about all of Soong's prototypes.
• Data informs Juliana of the time he met Dr. Soong in person , alerting her to how he died since they last saw each other.
• LaForge reminds Data that Lore told him that the emotion chip Soong made for him contained memories he wanted him to have, and suggests they were the memories of his "childhood".
• Crazy-Prepared : Soong admits he'd always suspected Juliana would leave him just as the real one would have. So he left behind the special holographic chip to explain what she was to anyone who discovered the truth. And he put in a special response program just in case Data was the one to find out— and says he's happy that Data's the one who found it out.
• This is pushed by how the Soong hologram stated he thought it better for Juliana to live as a human.
• It's All My Fault : A brief but significant example of this; the holographic Soong acknowledges that his fixation with his work is the reason Juliana left him, and accepts that the original Juliana would have also left under those circumstances.
• Luke, I Am Your Father : Juliana assisted in Data's construction and early development, and considers herself his mother.
• The Main Characters Do Everything : As with most science-related problems, the geology issue on Atrea is seemingly handled exclusively by the main cast. They don't even consult with any lower-ranked science officers who specialize in geology.
• My Greatest Failure : Why did it take so long for Data and Juliana to reunite? Juliana admits to Data that she intentionally left Data behind on Omicron Theta when the Crystalline Entity came, because she was terrified he'd wind up like Lore. She's overjoyed to discover he isn't, but she still feels incredibly guilty.
• Omni Disciplinary Scientist : Juliana is apparently skilled in AI and robotics as well as geology (though of course in her case it's justified ). The ship's crew also apparently know enough about geology to never bother recruiting specialists.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping : Traces of Fionnula Flanagan's native Irish accent are occasionally noticeable.
• Remember the New Guy? : The episode constructs a series of admittedly believable reasons to explain why Data had never heard of Juliana before.
• Ridiculously Human Robots : Dr. Soong did a bang-up job on Juliana. Crusher openly notes how the body "replicates all bodily functions" and has a special jammer that fools any scanner into reading her as purely human. The only one he didn't fool was, of course, Data.
• Robotic Reveal : The Juliana we meet in this episode is really an android duplicate of the original. A holographic Noonien Soong has been hidden in her positronic brain to give the Astro Boy -like backstory— his wife passed away, and in his heartbreak, he uploaded her brain into a new android. And then... the android Juliana left him, not feeling favored as much as his work (and he fully believes the real Juliana would've left too, if she'd lived).
• Secret-Keeper : The rest of the crew promise Data they will also keep the truth of Juliana being an android secret from her.
• So Proud of You : Juliana says she's been following Data's career for years and has been very proud of his accomplishments.
• We occasionally gets reaction shots of Data looking suspiciously at Juliana. He first notices how she did superhuman mental calculations. Then notes that her blinking uses the same seemingly randomized pattern as his own. Finally he notices that she plays a song exactly the same way twice. All of these suggest that she's an android.
• Data also "accepts" her as his mother, but in reality, he's just trying to see if there are any holes in her Back Story to make sure she's not some sort of Manchurian Agent .
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That : A variation. Dr. Soong programmed his holographic message with a special subroutine just in case Data was the one to discover Juliana's secret.
• Tomato in the Mirror : Averted; Juliana is programmed to shut down in the event that she discovers that she's actually an android, then forget the discovery when she's revived.
• What You Are in the Dark : Subtle example when Soong reveals he always suspected Julianna would eventually leave him. While it's not explicitly pointed out, Soong could easily have programmed her android duplicate to not leave him and no one would ever know. He didn't (likely because it would've been a betrayal of the real Julianna's memory and Soong knew it).
• Who Wants to Live Forever? : Holographic Soong notes that Juliana will not live forever. She's programmed to deactivate permanently at some point to maintain for her the illusion she's aging and will one day die.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S7E8 "Force of Nature"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Next Generation
• Star Trek: The Next Generation S7E10 "Parallels"

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Star Trek: The Next Generation : “Force Of Nature”/“Inheritance”

“Force Of Nature” (season 7, episode 9; first aired Nov. 13, 1993)

Or  The One Where The  Enterprise  Should Get Its Exhaust Checked

For an episode which takes aim at one of the  Trek  franchise’s most long-running assumptions, “Force Of Nature” spends an awful lot of time focused on Data’s cat, Spot. First Geordi borrows Spot because he wants to get an idea of what pet ownership is like; then Geordi freaks out because pet ownership is more demanding (and more potentially destructive) than he realized, and tells Data that he has to train his cat. Then Data attempts to train his cat. Then—well, we never find out what happens next, exactly, because by that point the  Enterprise  is neck deep in crisis mode, trying to rescue a missing ship and deal with some crazy alien scientists. But those first 20 minutes are, basically, driven by the nutty adventures of Data, Geordi and That Darn Cat. It’s a curious narrative choice, to say the least, especially since these adventures have nothing to do with the episode’s main focus: the potentially dangerous effects of warp drive use on the fabric of space-time. That’s a big a deal, and you’d think it would merit the focus of an entire hour.

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For what it’s worth, I didn’t hate The Spot Chronicles. It’s a matter of taste (well, more so than usual, I mean), but watching Geordi and Data chat about feline obedience rituals has a certain fascination to it. La Forge is kind of a jerk about it, assuming that simply because he doesn’t know how to handle a cat, the cat has to change. But the rapport between him and his robot buddy—Geordi as slightly condescending as always, Data as patient as ever—has a laid back affability to it that helps it to go down easy. It’s a hang-out subplot, a storyline which exists primarily to let us enjoy the characters and not get overly concerned with plot. This makes for an oddly structured episode, with a comparatively large amount of time given over to a plot with low stakes and no real drama. We find out about the trouble with Spot, we get a discussion or two about the difficulties of training cats (to wit: you can’t), and then we get a joke about how Spot trained Data better than Data will ever train him—a joke which I didn’t realize till just know is intended as the end beat for the plot. It’s all sort of  Reader’s Digest -y, but charming enough.

As for the real meat of “Nature,” well, I respect the ambition; I’m just not sure it’s a choice that works for this show, at this point in the run. The  Enterprise  is working its way through the Hekaras Corridor, a safe path of space through an area filled with tetryon fields. They’re looking for the  Fleming , a missing science ship last seen in the corridor. While on the hunt, our heroes come across a Ferengi ship floating seemingly dead in the water (so to speak). The Ferengi are playing possum, to a certain extent; there’s an exchange of fire, the  Enterprise  comes out victorious, and when Picard contacts the other ship, the DaiMon accuses him and the rest of Starfleet of setting out a trap. The Ferengi came across a Federation buoy, but when they approached it, the buoy sent out a pulse the disabled the engines of their ship. No one knows what’s going on, but the  Fleming  is still missing, so the search continues, right up until the  Enterprise  finds a buoy much like the one the Ferengi described. It’s emitting a distress signal, and when the  Enterprise  responds, their engines are hit, knocking out their shields. Once the shields are down, another ship appears, and two Hekarans beam aboard. They’re from Hekaras Two, the only planet in the corridor with intelligent life, and they set out the buoys as a way to attract attention. They claim that the continued use of warp drive is disrupting the fabric of space, and, if it continues, it will ultimately destroy their home world.

Have we had activists on  TNG  before? It feels like we must have, but I can’t remember any off the top of my head. Surely none as a strident as Serova, the genius scientist who demands that others immediately agree with everything she says. Her brother, Rabal, is a little less strident, but he can’t do much to keep Serova from alienating anyone she comes in contact with through her stridency and impatience. Serova eventually gives her life to prove her theories correct, and while it’s hard to feel too bad about seeing her go, it is a fairly abrupt way to make a point. “Force Of Nature” does a decent job of empathizing with the Hekarans’ frustration, and it’s interesting to see the  Enterprise  on a losing end of this sort of conservationist struggle. So much of the series has been about Picard and the rest of the ensemble stressing at every opportunity the importance of non-interference that it’s a change of pace when Picard starts talking about bringing evidence to the Science Council and so forth. Even coming from Picard, who’s so reasonably and adult about these situations, the response seems insufficient to Serova’s demands. As annoying as she is, if she’s right, her entire planet is in danger, and every ship that passes by traveling at warp speed is going to make the situation worse. Anyone who’s paid any attention to governmental attempts to manage environmental dangers (like, say, the climate change “debate”) will see parallels here. Picard has the best of intentions, but even the most genial, conflict-free bureaucracies are very, very slow. If you’ve spent years trying to get someone to pay attention, it must be next to impossible to maintain perspective when you keep getting forced through the same tired steps.

So Serova gets back in her ship and overloads the warp drive in her engine, destroying the ship, killing herself, but demonstrating that excessive warp can create rifts in space. (The problem I have with this is that part of the discussion was the debate over whether or not warp had a  cumulative  effect. Sure, Serova has shown that a whole lot of warp all at once does significant damage, but all she’s really done is proven that people shouldn’t blow up their space ships.) Quibbles aside, this convinces a shocked, and somewhat guilty,  Enterprise  crew, but before they can report their findings to the Federation, they have to rescue the  Fleming ; and thanks to Serova, the  Fleming  is now trapped inside a rift. Data comes up with a plan, he and Geordi work out how to implement it, and after a few close calls, the day is saved. Only, there’s still that worrisome possibility that traveling at warp speed can be damaging to the continuity of space-time. The law is handed down: travel through the Hekaras Corridor is restricted to essential personnel only, and from now on, Federation ships can only travel at speeds up to warp five, unless in cases of extreme emergency.

Nothing says fun like restrictive regulation, eh? I respect that  TNG  was willing to try on an idea this big, and this potentially status-quo shifting. Warp drive has been essential (if understandably magic-seeming) part of  Trek  lore since the start of the first show, and it’s always been treated as a given, a necessary piece of hand-waving required to justify all this jaunting around the galaxy. To raise the possibility that all of this might have consequences after all is a big deal, and it does fit in well with  TNG ’s general approach to storytelling. It’s also impressive the way the episode subtly ties in the potential danger of space travel with Geordi’s need to one-up a fellow engineer. He tells Data there’s no real reason he wants to make sure he’s beating the other guy. It’s just a problem he wants to solve, based on his pride and the fact that problem solving is how he defines himself. It’s the pursuit of scientific advancement without any need. While warp drive is a necessity for space travel, the potential consequences of the episode make you wonder how much of all the development and progress was driven by need, and how much of it came from just wanting to one up the next guy.

That said, I’m not sure the show needed this, especially not this late in the run. If  TNG  was more interested in serialization, the sudden restriction of warp drive might have had an impact, but given we don’t have that many episodes left to get through, it’s hard to imagine this coming up again. As is, it’s going to have a minimal effect, and while we’ve had plenty of  TNG  episodes that didn’t linger long after the end credits, something this game-changing (dammit, I was trying to avoid that phrase) seems like it  should  last longer. But even more importantly than that, I don’t know if I really need a show whose primary focus is on hoping from world to world and having adventures and so forth to suddenly get worried about this kind of consequence. Restrictions can help stories come into shape, but this kind of restriction just seems arbitrary to me, and far too depressing. I want Picard traveling the stars, not checking his exhaust fumes.

Stray observations:

• At some point in my notes, I wrote “A little too shticky.” I’m assuming this has to do with the Geordi/Data plot, so watch out for that.
• It would be easier to take the Hekarans seriously if I didn’t keep wanting to ask them how difficult it is to feed the mouth on their forehead.
• “Geordi, I cannot stun my cat.” Funny line. Also, Geordi claims he was joking, but I really don’t think he was.
• Serova announces she’s going to “give them proof.” At some point, every mad scientist in the history of mad science has said this.

“Inheritance” (season 7, episode 10; first aired Nov. 20, 1993)

Or  The One Where Data Gets His Cradle Rocked

Maybe what’s going on here is that season seven is when the writers decide to start throwing out every story idea they’ve got left, because it’s season seven so why the hell not. So we’ve had a crazy dream story with Data; we’ve uncovered the lost, dead daughter of Lwaxana Troi; we’ve resolved (sort of) the romantic tension between Picard and Beverly Crusher; and now, we’ve got Data meeting his mother. Only she’s not really his mother, she’s actually an exact robot duplicate of his mother. That’s strange enough, but it’s weirder than that, because no one knows that Mom (aka Dr. Juliana Tainer, played by Fionnula Flanagan, better known to most of us as Eloise Hawking from  Lost ) is a robot. And it’s weirder than  that,  because  Mom  doesn’t know she’s a robot. Somehow she’s managed to live a normal life, even get married, without anyone stumbling across her secret. All this time, we’ve assumed that Data was the pinnacle of Dr. Soong’s achievements, a mechanical man who needed to develop his own humanity through patience and careful study. Turns out, he came out with a better model before he died. I guess he figured out that emotion chip.

Oh, you can fudge this some. The reason Juliana (who seems shockingly warm and loving, especially if you’re more familiar with her work as Ms. Hawking) is so warm and effusive while Data struggles to grasp the concept of emotion? That’s because Juliana is based on a real person, the actual Juliana who was once married to Dr. Soong. That Juliana died shortly after the crystalline entity attacked (this was when Data was originally dismantled, before the Federation found him), and, to cope with his grief, Soong built a back-up. As  Blade Runner  has taught us, robots with human memories have an easier time with feelings and empathy and so forth, so you could say that Juliana is such a leap forward from Data largely due to her cheated past. But this raises still more questions, and none of the answers put Soong in a positive light. The challenge with doing an episode like this one, which attempts to fill in a piece of backstory we didn’t realize was missing, is that the writers need to understand the ramifications of what they’re doing, not just for the episode itself but for the series as a whole. “Inheritance,” while compelling in its way, doesn’t seem to realize its own implications, while at the same time hitting a reset button at its conclusion that prevents any of the potential fallout from ever being questioned again.

It’s a bit late in the game now to start coming up with new catchphrases in these reviews, but I feel like there should be a “[blank] of the Week” term for the regular MacGuffin-like crisis that launches the  Enterprise  into action with each new episode. These crises need to be important enough to merit the attention of Starfleet’s flagship, but they also need to be straightforward enough that they don’t distract too much from the real story. Bonus points if it’s a crisis that can, when necessary, place certain cast members at risk, giving the writers something to punch up the third act. We’ve had a plethora of missing ships; we’ve had planets worried about asteroids, planets in danger of drying out, populations that need a vaccine to prevent the spread of disease. In “Inheritance,” Atrea 4’s molten core is, essentially, drying out, and the  Enterprise  shows up to help fix the problem, with some assistance from Dr. Tainer and her husband. (That’s a bit of a coincidence, isn’t it? It’s not surprising that Juliana is a brilliant scientist, but geology is a long way from robotics. There’s nothing to stop her from having a different scientific discipline than Soong, but it’s never mentioned, and it seems more to fall under the “If you’re smart in one thing, you know everything” heading that  TNG  occasionally indulges in. Even then, this might have worked better if Juliana and Data’s meeting had been more a matter of choice than of chance.) The molten core problem takes up part of the episode, with the expected amount of techno-babble, and it indirectly leads to Data finding proof the Juliana is an android, but it’s not the sort of story element you’ll remember afterwards.

That’s probably because the rest of “Inheritance” is loopy. Juliana admits to Data that she’s his mother, telling him that she was married to Soong when he built his androids, and that she didn’t seek him out earlier because she had too much guilt over abandoning him when the entity attacked. Much is made over the growing rapprochement between Data and his newfound mother, but, while it’s sweet to see him getting positive reinforcement from her (everybody needs unconditional love from someone), there’s something odd going on. Partly it’s that Flanagan’s warmth is so excessive that it invites suspicion, and part of it is that Data questions her legitimacy from the start. We’re conditioned by now to trust Data’s judgment (occasional stabbings aside—and even then, it was a stabbing with the victim’s best interest at heart), and the fact that he immediately doubts her word means we doubt her as well. And yet, his doubt is more human than mechanical; it’s the same doubt anyone would have if a stranger arrived claiming to have a right to a piece of your heart. Plus, his initial doubts are unfounded—there was a Juliana, she was married to Soong, and she was around during Data’s “childhood.”

It’s just, as mentioned previously, that Juliana is dead. Watching this episode, I started to suspect that the current Juliana might be a robot somewhere around the 15-minute mark (give or take), but the idea was so ridiculous I did my best to dismiss it. What makes those scenes between Data and Mom pre-reveal so strange is that it seems like there’s going to be another twist coming, but you can’t be sure it’ll happen. So you get stuck, because you aren’t sure if you should be enjoying their interactions, or combing over them for clues. And then when the real answer hits, it’s at once inevitable and a huge reach, because this show doesn’t do impostor robots. It’s had people pretending to be other people, it’s had aliens taking over people’s bodies, but the whole reason Data (and Lore) are so important is that he’s a singularity. He has artificial intelligence, and he looks mostly human. To come up with another robot who can be mistaken—and has been mistaken, many, many times—for a human is, quite frankly, cheating. It doesn’t reduce Data’s value, but it does put a dent in one of the show’s fundamental precepts, in a way that isn’t particularly well thought out at all.

For one thing, it’s difficult to believe that Soong was able to design an android so complex and, on the surface, so biologically indistinguishable from a woman. At one point Beverly mentions that Juliana-bot has a device that feeds false information to medical scanners, and while I’m glad they explained how the machine could go undetected in a universe with transporters and scanners, it’s an explanation that raises its own questions. Like, how easy is to build something like that? Also, wouldn’t Juliana-bot weigh more than a regular human? I guess Soong could’ve equipped her with some sort of weight-reducing anti-grav device. Surely at some point she’s gone to see a doctor. Given that she was built, not born, I can accept that she wouldn’t have to worry about the flu (although you’d think a machine this complex would have an occasional hiccup), but surely at her age, she’d do regular check-ups as a matter of course. Maybe the super high-tech future saves her there; maybe doctors would just wave a tricorder around her and call it good.

All of this is a stretch, and it makes the episode’s big moral decision harder to take seriously. Data (and Beverly and Picard and Troi and god knows who else) discover Juliana’s secret. Then Data alone has to decide whether or not to tell his mother her true nature. It’s an interesting question, although I’m troubled by the way Data’s decision not to tell Juliana seems to serve the show’s needs more than his (or her) own. Yes, there are reasons for keeping it secret—there’s no telling how Juliana would react (and give how upset she was about abandoning Data, I’m guessing she’d freak out quite a lot), and there’s no immediate gain in telling her. Yet keeping it secret also means that  TNG  doesn’t need to remember Juliana in later episodes, or deal with any sort of fallout from introducing another, significantly more advanced robot into the show’s world. Troi claims that Juliana has achieved what Data has struggled to achieve for so long: humanity. But this isn’t true. Data wants to be himself as a human. It’s hard to know what Juliana-bot is, but she isn’t self-aware, and that means she’ll always just be a copy of someone else’s dream.

About that “someone else”: What I really take away from “Inheritance” is that Dr. Soong is a deeply screwed-up individual, and, what’s worse, no one on the show seems to recognize this. He built a robot copy of his dying wife. Juliana was in a coma at the time, so I doubt he asked her permission. He designed the copy to be as indistinguishable from the real thing as possible. Then, after Juliana died, he went on living with the robot as man and wife. Only, he was so inept as a husband that the robot eventually left him, and instead of realizing maybe that would be a good time to end the charade, Soong lets Juliana-bot go off on her own to marry someone else. She goes by the dead woman’s name, and, since she’s apparently the most prominent scientist on the planet in her chosen field, presumably no one else knows the real Juliana is dead. She mentions a mother—does she have any other family? Have they hung out with a robot and thought it was their own flesh and blood? Soong is doing the worst kind of mad science here, playing God in an arrogant, selfish tribute to his lost love, and no one seems at all bothered by this. Soong even left a holographic recording of himself in Juliana-bot’s head, in case anyone found the truth, and the only guilt to be found on it is his regret at not being a better husband. It’s not so much that Juliana-bot  has  to be an abomination; it’s more that not a single character in the cast questions the morality or implications of the situation. No one even says, “Wow, that machine has feelings and isn’t insane! Surely this means something.”  Thought it’s competent as an hour of television, “Inheritance” is the worst kind of science fiction, using tropes without bothering to wonder what any of them might mean.

• One more bit of creepiness: Soong programmed Juliana to eventually die. Spared no expense!

Next week:  Worf has to handle some tricky “Parallels,” and we take a trip on “The Pegasus.”

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Editorial reviews.

This lovely episode, which clarifies and expands upon Commander Data's early existence, stars Fionnula Flanagan as Juliana Tainer, a scientist and former wife of Data's late creator, Dr. Soong. Meeting aboard the Enterprise while working to reheat the cooling core magma of a Federation planet, Juliana tells Data that she regards herself as his mother, a remark that initially does not warm the android. His memories having been erased when she and Soong fled the planet upon which he was created, Data does not directly recollect her, and suspects she wanted to have him dismantled back then anyway. The more Data observes her, however, the more he suspects something that even she doesn't know--a truth that inevitably draws them closer together. The whole fairytale-like journey of Data to become as human as possible takes a large step with this story. Brent Spiner's performance, his mix of android dispassion and vaguely mortal yearning, has never been more subtle or soulful than in this program. The episode, fortunately, gets us off the Enterprise a little while and down on the planet's surface, among earthquakes and instability that gives the show an added measure of adventure. -- Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover

Eventually, Data senses something strange about his mother and begins to investigate her true origins.

Product details

• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 ounces
• Director ‏ : ‎ Beaumont, Gabrielle, Becker, Robert, Bole, Cliff, Bond, Timothy, Burton, LeVar
• Release date ‏ : ‎ March 2, 1999
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ October 25, 2006
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Burton, LeVar, McFadden, Gates
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Paramount
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000003K5R

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Fionnula Flanagan

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Fionnula Flanagan ( born 10 December 1941 ; age 82) is an Irish actress who appeared as Juliana Tainer in the Star Trek: The Next Generation seventh season episode " Inheritance ", Enina Tandro in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine first season episode " Dax " and V'Lar in the Star Trek: Enterprise first season episode " Fallen Hero ". A costume worn by her in "Inheritance" was sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [1]

Flanagan was born Fionnghuala Manon Flanagan in Dublin, Ireland, and trained at Dublin's Abbey Theatre. Her most notable work is the tour de force "James Joyce's Women", in which she played six different roles. On TV, her most notable work was How the West was won , where she played Molly Cullhane for 12 episodes and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series . This show also featured Ed Lauter , Harris Yulin , Richard Kiley , Ricardo Montalban and, for one episode, William Shatner .

Other notable roles include Catarine in Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure (1984). Film audiences may also remember her appearance as the housekeeper Mrs. Mills in the 2001 thriller The Others , or for her prominent role in John Singleton's Four Brothers . She also played a recurring role as Eloise Hawking in seasons three, five and six of Lost , with Daniel Dae Kim , Terry O'Quinn , Sam Anderson , and Alan Dale .

Other film work includes the action film White Mile (1994, with Robert Picardo , Jacqueline Kim , Dakin Matthews , Ken Jenkins , Dan Kern , Brian Markinson , Dan Gilvezan , Gina Ravarra , Brett Porter , Ken Thorley , Don McManus and Tom Lupo ), the comedy Waking Ned Devine (1998), and Blessed (2004).

More recently, Flanagan portrayed the recurring role of former mayor Nicolette "Nicky" Riordon in eight episodes of the first season of SyFy 's Defiance in 2012/2013. Gary Hutzel , David Takemura , and Doug Drexler worked on the visual effects for this series and Allan Kroeker directed Flanagan in one episode. In 2017, she co-starred in the Irish-British miniseries Redwater . In the same year, she appeared in an episode of Bryan Fuller 's American Gods , directed by Adam Kane and featuring Chris Obi .

Star Trek appearances [ ]

External links [ ]

• Fionnula Flanagan at Wikipedia
• Fionnula Flanagan at the Internet Movie Database
• All about legendary Irish actress Fionnula Flanagan at IrishCentral.com

Gates McFadden didn't think Star Trek: The Next Generation would last long

B efore Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered, there were plenty of doubts about how long the series would last. The fans who declared they would not watch any other captain or crew on the bridge of the Enterprise besides Captain Kirk and his team probably had a lot to do with that assumption. And when the first season began, things were a little rocky, and it looked like all signs were pointing toward a quick cancellation.

While there were a few episodes that stood out like The Big Goodbye and Heart of Glory , there were many more that are considered cringeworthy even to this day. In fact, one of them, Code of Honor , has been denounced by Jonathan Frakes and others with the suggestion that it should be pulled from viewing. Others like Angel One and Skin of Evil are, for the most post, skippable even though the latter is the one where Lt. Tasha Yar (Denise Crosby) dies. So it's fair to say that it's no wonder there were questions as to whether The Next Generation would be renewed for a second season.

Even Gates McFadden , who portrayed Dr. Beverly Crusher in season one and again in seasons three-seven, admitted in an interview for Star Trek All Good Things: A Next Generation Companion, that if she'd been asked years ago if the show would go for a year, she would have said it probably wouldn't. In fact, she said she thought "The Next Generation would be a short-term job."

The Next Generation picked up steam in season two, though, even if it was without McFadden, with som strong episodes like The Measure of a Man , Pen Pals , Q Who , and The Emissary really upping the strength of the season and making another season renewal easier. Fortunately for all of us fans, those who thought The Next Generation would make it beyond the first season were wrong, and the characters from the series are still going strong thirty-seven years later.

This article was originally published on redshirtsalwaysdie.com as Gates McFadden didn't think Star Trek: The Next Generation would last long .

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10 star trek aliens who don't look human.

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Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

Star trek: strange new worlds season 3 - everything we know, everything we know about star trek: prodigy season 2.

• Many Star Trek aliens look humanoid due to the practical and budgetary limits of producing TV series.
• Not all aliens resemble humans in Star Trek, such as silicon-based creatures like the Horta and mysterious interdimensional beings like the Kerkhovians.
• Star Trek explores a wide range of intriguing and unique alien species, from incorporeal beings like the Organians to gas giant inhabitants like Species 10-C.

Many of Star Trek 's most well-known aliens look basically human, but sometimes Starfleet encounters truly alien creatures who do not resemble humanity at all. Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 20, "The Chase" provided an in-universe explanation for why so many Star Trek aliens look like humans with bumpy foreheads. Billions of years ago, a humanoid species now referred to as the Progenitors seeded planets across the galaxy with DNA that would evolve into lifeforms similar to themselves. Star Trek: Discovery season 5 has provided more insight into these mysterious ancient humanoids and their technology.

The practical reason that so many Star Trek aliens are humanoid is, of course, that all actors are human, and, as a television series, there were practical and budgetary limits to how Star Trek could create aliens. More than a few energy-based beings popped up on Star Trek: The Original Series , but they often possessed humanoid hosts or shifted into a human shape so that actors could portray them. Even the Q and the Changelings, who could take nearly any form, take humanoid forms when interacting with humans. In modern Star Trek , humanoid aliens remain the norm, even as make-up and special effects technology has advanced. But it's always fascinating to see Star Trek aliens who bear little to no resemblance to humanity.

Star Trek is ending series like Discovery and Lower Decks but renewed Strange New Worlds while setting up new streaming and theatrical movies.

10 The Horta

Star trek: the original series season 1, episode 25 - "the devil in the dark", star trek: the original series.

In one of Star Trek: The Original Series' most iconic episodes , Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the USS Enterprise travel to a mining facility to investigate a series of deaths. Once there, they find a strange subterranean creature that is a silicon-based lifeform. When Spock (Leonard Nimoy) mind-melds with it, he discovers that the creature is called the Horta and only killed the miners to protect its eggs.

"The Devil in the Dark" contains the first use of the phrase, "I'm a doctor, not a...," when Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) says, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"

At the end of Star Trek 's "The Devil in the Dark," the miners agree to leave the Horta and its eggs alone, and after the new Horta hatch, they help create tunnels within the mine. While the Horta may look like nothing more than a moving molten rock, it remains one of Star Trek's most unique aliens. With its classic Star Trek premise, "The Devil in the Dark" remains one of the franchise's most memorable episodes.

9 The Kerkhovians

Star trek: strange new worlds season 2, episode 5 - "charades", star trek: strange new worlds.

When Nurse Christine Chapel (Jess Bush) and Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) do a flyby of the Kerkhovian moon in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , their shuttlecraft gets pulled into a dangerous vortex. While Chapel is unhurt, Spock has been turned completely human . Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) then contacts the Kerkhovians who "repaired" Spock, but they say that since "remediation" was made, no further contact will be necessary.

The Kerkhovians once built a civilization on the moon of the planet Kerkhov but later moved to interdimensional space. As powerful non-corporeal beings, the Kerkhovians were able to repair the shuttle and heal Spock , but they were confused by Spock's combination of Vulcan and human DNA. Chapel eventually flew a shuttle into interdimensional space and convinced the Kerkhovians to return Spock to his proper half-Vulcan/half-human state.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2 ended with an epic cliffhanger and here's everything known about when it will be resolved in season 3.

8 The Tholians

Star trek: the original series season 3, episode 9 - "the tholian web" & star trek: enterprise.

The Tholians are a crystalline species with a hard outer carapace and six legs who thrive in an extremely hot environment. After Starfleet became aware of the Tholians in 2152, they had several conflicts with one another over the next century . In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode, "The Tholian Web," Captain Kirk and his crew answer a distress call from the USS Defiant only for the Tholians to show up and order the Enterprise to leave their system.

Tholian vessels can weave an energy web to entrap much larger ships.

Governed by the Tholian Assembly, the Tholians are incredibly territorial and are known to kill outsiders for tresspassing in their space. Although small, Tholian vessels can weave an energy web to entrap much larger ships. The Star Trek: Enterprise season 4 two-parter, "In a Mirror, Darkly," reveals that the Defiant crossed over to the Mirror Universe and was salvaged by the Tholians before being stolen by the Terran Empire.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, Episode 20 - "Tin Man"

Star trek: the next generation.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation 's "Tin Man," the Betazoid Federation emissary Tam Elbrun (Harry Groener) comes aboard the USS Enterprise-D to initiate First Contact with a sentient spaceship referred to as Tin Man. When Elbrun communicates with Tin Man, he discovers that the creature is called Gomtuu and that it may be the last of its kind. After its crew was killed, Gomtuu wandered the galaxy for millennia before eventually deciding to end its own life.

With a hard and protective outer shell, Gomtuu can grow furniture and equipment inside to support a carbon-based crew. Gomtuu possesses powerful defensive abilities and the ability to transport people even through shields. At the end of TNG' s "Tin Man," Elbrun decides to join Gomtuu, and the two depart to explore the galaxy. As Elbrun has spent his life feeling overwhelmed by his strong telepathic powers, he finds peace with only Gomtuu as a companion.

6 The Organians

Star trek: the original series season 1, episode 26 - "errand of mercy" & star trek: enterprise season 4, episode 11 - "observer effect".

In Star Trek: The Original Series' "Errand of Mercy," the USS Enterprise travels to the planet Organia, which lies near the Klingon border. Captain Kirk and Spock head down to the planet to convince the Organians to resist the Klingons, but the Organians refuse any kind of violence. The Organians then reveal themselves to be advanced incorporeal beings capable of incapacitating both the Federation and the Klingon ships.

"Errand of Mercy" features the first appearance of the Klingons and also introduces the Klingon Kor (John Colicos), who will later appear in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Although the Organians had once been humanoid, they now existed as pure thought and their actual appearance remains unknown. In Star Trek: Enterprise's "Observer Effect," two Organians possess various members of the Enterprise NX-01 crew as they observe humanity to determine whether they are ready for First Contact. Impressed by the crew's compassion, the Organians heal everyone that was sick and erase all memories of the encounter from the crew's mind.

5 The Ba'Neth

Star trek: voyager season 6, episode 6 - "riddles", star trek: voyager.

Little is known about the reclusive Delta Quadrant species known as the Ba'Neth, and they were even once regarded as a myth. In 2376, the USS Voyager's Delta Flyer shuttlecraft encountered a Ba'Neth, which attacked the mind of Lt. Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ) . As Voyager's crew works with a Kesat investigator named Naroq (Mark Moses) to help Tuvok, they learn that the Ba'Neth render themselves invisible using cloaking technology.

Ba'Neth were known to have tentacles and possessed a large fleet of ships.

Although they typically remained cloaked, the Ba'Neth were known to have tentacles and possessed a large fleet of ships. Tuvok eventually remembers the cloaking frequency used by the Ba'Neth, and Captain Kathryn Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) uses it to find a Ba'Neth space station. After the Ba'Neth admit to attacking ships to assess potential threats, Janeway negotiates with them for information to help Tuvok recover.

4 The Medusans

Star trek: the original series season 3, episode 5 - "is there in truth no beauty" & star trek: prodigy, star trek: prodigy.

The Medusans made their first appearance on Star Trek: The Original Series when Ambassador Kollos visited the USS Enterprise with a human engineer, Larry Marvick (David Frankham), and a human telepath, Dr. Miranda Jones (Diana Muldaur) . As a non-corporeal Medusan, Kollos had to travel within a special transport chamber, and the appearance of Medusans drove humans and other corporeal beings mad on sight.

Medusans were extremely skilled navigators and possessed telepathic abilities. Zero (Angus Imrie) in Star Trek: Prodigy was a Medusan who escaped from The Diviner (John Noble) and made a makeshift containment suit for themselves. Zero helped fellow prisoner Dal R'El (Brett Gray) steal the USS Protostar and assisted the make-shift crew in their subsequent adventures and attempt to join Starfleet.

Star Trek: Prodigy season 2 will stream on Netflix after the animated series was canceled by Paramount+, with 20 brand new episodes coming in 2024.

3 The Pah-Wraths

Star trek: deep space nine.

As enemies of the Bajoran Prophets, the Pah-wraiths became major players in the final episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . The Pah-wraiths were incorporeal like the Prophets, but they more regularly possessed people to accomplish their own ends. The Pah-wraiths seemed to feel only negative emotions and those possessed by them often felt lingering rage and hate.

In one of DS9's most tragic moments, the Cardassian Gul Dukat (Marc Alaimo) released a Pah-wraith, which then possessed him and killed Lt. Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) . This Pah-wraith attacked the Bajoran wormhole, leading to a war between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths. Dukat began working with the Pah-wraiths in their plan to destroy the universe, but Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) managed to stop him by sealing the Pah-wraiths within the Fire Caves.

2 The Sheliak

Star trek: the next generation season 3, episode 2 - "ensigns of command".

In Star Trek: The Next Generation' s "The Ensigns of Command," the mysterious Sheliak contact the Federation asking them to remove human colonists from one of their planets. Although the Federation has had dealings with the Sheliak in the past, they have struggled to find common ground. Not only are the Sheliak non-humanoid, but their language has proven impossible for Federation scientists to translate.

The Federation eventually established the Treaty of Armens with the Sheliak, a 500,000-word treaty that took 372 Federation legal experts to write. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) finds a loophole within the treaty that gives him the time he needs to evacuate the colonists. The Sheliak have not been referenced on screen since TNG, but they remain a fascinating and complex alien species, despite their belief that humans are lower lifeforms.

1 Species 10-C

Star trek: discovery season 4.

As the USS Discovery searches for the cause behind the Dark Matter Anomaly (DMA), they discover the existence of a species located beyond the Galactic Barrier known as Unknown Species 10-C. After their gas giant planet became uninhabitable, Species 10-C created an advanced hyperfield that protected them. They created the DMA to harvest boronite, which they needed to power their hyperfield.

Species 10-C are aliens unlike any other.

After Discovery crossed the Galactic Barrier , they eventually found a way to communicate with Species 10-C with lights and emotion-conveying hydrocarbons. Once Species 10-C understood that their mining device was destroying sentient beings, they agreed to stop using it. With their atypical way of communicating and their existence as a linked whole, Species 10-C are aliens unlike any other. Hopefully, Star Trek will continue to incorporate unique non-humanoid aliens into its vast universe of species and cultures.

All of the above Star Trek shows except Star Trek: Prodigy are available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Prodigy is available to stream on Netflix.

Den of Geek

Star Trek Discovery Just Brought Back a Beloved Piece of Next Generation Canon

As Discovery enters the “Labyrinths” of Captain Burnham’s mind, fans should be reminded of a Star Trek: The Next Generation classic.

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers.

With the release of this week’s “ Labyrinths ,” Star Trek: Discovery only has two more episodes to go before its series finale, which will have to wrap up not only its season-long Progenitor mystery but multiple character arcs at the same time. It’s a lot for one of the most action-adventure-oriented Trek series ever. Still, we didn’t mind that Discovery took a second to pause with an introspective episode before jumping back into the breakneck action of what will become the final two stories. In “Labyrinths,” Captain Burnham enters inside what she thinks is an ancient Betazoid book. Instead, she ends up in a mindscape created by her own subconscious.

This is classic Star Trek stuff, an entire sci-fi adventure that happens almost exclusively in the mind of one character but is full of emotional stakes that directly impact the physical stakes in the outside world. And, for longtime fans, the method by which Burnham ends up in this mindscape should seem very, very familiar, as it’s a callback to one of the most beloved Next Generation episodes of all time.

While onboard the Eternal Gallery and Archive, Book and Burnham finally locate the manuscript called Labyrinths of the Mind , written by Marina Derex, a Betazoid scientist who lived 800 years in the past, way back in the 24th century. Book and Burnham are told that nobody else before has requested this book, and we quickly find out why. When Burnham opens it and presses a specific panel, she’s zapped unconscious. Dr. Culber explains she’s been hit by a “nucleonic emitter,” which should ring some bells in the minds of people who love The Next Generation .

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Just before the end of The Next Generation’s fifth season, on June 1, 1992, the series dropped what is almost certainly its best standalone episode, “The Inner Light.” This story, from writer Morgan Gendel, begins with a different kind of archive in space: a probe sent by an ancient civilization from the planet Kataan. As in the new Discovery episode, Picard is zapped by a nucleonic beam, and ends up on the planet Kataan, which from the point-of-view of the 24th-century timeline, life has been extinct since the 14th century.

Discovery isn’t 10 centuries in the future from The Next Generation , but it is eight centuries ahead. This is one of those strange quirks of Discovery’s time-jump from the end of season 2. By leap-frogging beyond the The Original Series timeframe where the show began, the series is also now 800 years beyond The Next Generation . For people like Burnham, Culber, and Kovich, the fact that Jean-Luc Picard was one of the first humans to discover the Progenitor tech (in “The Chase”) means very little, he’s just some guy lost to history. And yet, it’s interesting that the timespan between Picard and the death of the planet Kataan is now comparable to the timespan between Discovery’s future and the now-classic era of The Next Generation .

But, one has to wonder, did the Betazoid Dr. Derex adapt technology from the Kataan probe to use in this manuscript? We know that the various scientists hid the clues to the Progenitor tech that were created in the 24th century during the Dominion War, which would be after the events of TNG’s “The Inner Light.” So, it’s totally conceivable that the technology of the nucleonic beam was adapted by Federation scientists, and used in this book, specifically.

Burnham’s journey differs from Picard’s in “The Inner Light,” of course. She’s totally aware of what is happening, and the projections from her mind, including a representation of Book, make her aware she’s in a mindscape puzzle, and that her goal is to get out. In “The Inner Light,” the world of Picard’s other life, living as Kamin, wasn’t a puzzle for him to solve, or really a quest of any kind. Instead, Picard was encouraged just to live out his days in that world. However, there was a ticking clock on the other end, and Crusher was concerned he might die if the nucleonic beam isn’t severed. This is paralleled in “ “Labyrinths” when Dr. Culber resists beaming Burnham out until the program has run its course.

What’s really fascinating about all of this is the idea that Burnham has to deal with herself before moving onward into the rest of the mission. It’s a ruminative episode, jammed in the middle of some action episodes, which also repeats Star Trek history. In 1992, “The Inner Light” was the penultimate episode of The Next Generation season 5. The episode that followed “The Inner Light,” was the time travel cliffhanger “Time’s Arrow Part 1,” which brought together the entire TNG crew on an epic quest. 

Discovery seems to be doing something similar; right toward the end of its own season 5, the captain of the ship goes on an inward journey, right before the next two episodes kick things into maximum warp. Captain Burnham is nothing like Captain Picard, but as Discovery proves, sometimes, the farther one travels, the less one knows. And when that happens, it’s time to chill out and get nucleonic.

Star Trek: Discovery is streaming now on Paramount+.

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Ryan Britt is a longtime contributor to Den of Geek! He is also the author of three non-fiction books: the Star Trek pop history book PHASERS…

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Star Trek: The Next Generation

Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before. Set almost 100 years after Captain Kirk's 5-year mission, a new generation of Starfleet officers sets off in the U.S.S. Enterprise-D on its own mission to go where no one has gone before.

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• Trivia Almost everyone in the cast became life-long friends. At LeVar Burton 's 1992 wedding, Brent Spiner served as best man, and Sir Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , and Michael Dorn all served as ushers. Man of the People (1992) (#6.3) aired on that day.
• Goofs It is claimed that Data can't use contractions (Can't, Isn't, Don't, etc) yet there are several instances throughout the series where he does. One of the first such examples is heard in Encounter at Farpoint (1987) , where Data uses the word "Can't" while the Enterprise is being chased by Q's "ship".

[repeated line]

Capt. Picard : Engage!

• Crazy credits The model of the Enterprise used in the opening credits is so detailed, a tiny figure can be seen walking past a window just before the vessel jumps to warp speed.
• Alternate versions The first and last episodes were originally broadcast as two-hour TV movies, and were later re-edited into two one-hour episodes each. Both edits involved removing some scenes from each episode.
• Connections Edited into Reading Rainbow: The Bionic Bunny Show (1988)

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• Feb 26, 2003

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• September 26, 1987 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Official site
• Star Trek: TNG
• Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant - 6100 Woodley Avenue, Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA (location)
• Paramount Television
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 45 minutes
• Dolby Stereo

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