I’m beginning to see why there was never an 8th season of TNG. It’s time to wrap things up. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love these characters…it’s just the stories are starting to repeat themselves. We already met Data’s “father,” now we meet his “mother” – the woman at Dr. Noonien Soong’s side during his creation and who insisted on little changes here and there.
The Philip K. Dick twist at the end isn’t too hard to predict, but the thing that bugged me was this: all of Starfleet is scratching their heads over what makes Data tick. They can’t talk to Dr. Soong – he was in hiding and now he is dead. Why didn’t this woman stand up before with her expertise? It’s not like she’s keeping the news secret once she gets some screentime.
There’s another little “gotcha” in logic that wikipedia points out. Here goes: the hologram program Dr. Soong inserts for Data in Juliana’s head makes reference to “she left me.” But if she left him, when did he get a chance to insert the program in her head? Maybe it was a slow departure and he did it one night as she slept? Or was he so prescient (he was a genius, after all) that he wrote this all before she was switched on? Or is it – just a gaffe?
