The Offspring, TNG 3
All kidding aside, Brent Spiner doesn’t have it easy. He plays a robot (excuse me, Android) and each week his character undergoes an emotional transformation. . .yet he can not show emotion, as his character doesn’t understand it. Yet, we must sympathize with him. . .in that, we have to understand what “Data” is feeling in his non-feeling-ness. We have to experience (in the case of this episode) grief in a grief-less manner.
Plus, Spiner has to wear all that makeup.
This episode starts out corny as hell (Data “procreates”) and ends, no joke, quite touchingly. We are sad because Data can not be sad. It’s heavy stuff. . .and, as a recent subway conversation reminded me, like all good Trek episodes it brings up very basic questions about existence and presents them in a fresh light. A little heavy, I know, but I watched this very late at night.