“The Offspring” is written by: René Echevarria and is
directed by: Jonathan Frakes. It was
produced under production code 164, was the 16th episode of Star
Trek: The Next Generation Season 3, the 64th episode overall,
and was broadcast on March 12, 1990.
Saying something aged poorly is often a negative
descriptor, and rightly so, for something problematic in a piece of media that
is otherwise popular and still somehow culturally relevant. Star Trek is no stranger to having
this label, despite it often being progressive.
“The Offspring” is an interesting example of this because it is
progressive but the language it uses is not quite there. This is an episode about parenthood and furthering
Data’s status as a person, but also with undercurrents of existing outside of the
typical bounds of a social construct.
The premise is that Data has a child and I say a child because this
child is given more agency than our own children are given. The first act of the episode presents the
child, named Lal, as a blank slate and importantly an adult child for Data so René
Echevarria can further explore social constructs from the adult perspective. “The Offspring” posits that social constructs
are intentionally conflicting and confusing, Lal is given the agency to choose the
identity that fits with her sense of self.
I say her because her gender is her choice. She is initially presented as gender neuter,
a term that is not inaccurate but in modern linguistics could be described as
agender, an agender female. This is portrayed
by through the first act having Lal played by Leonard Crofoot before the choice
is made and she is played for the rest of the episode by Hallie Todd. The episode is clear that both Data and Lal
only experience gender to fit into society, the forms they take are ones that
they like and have some connection to, however Echevarria makes it explicit that
if they so wished they could just change their appearance and identity on a
whim. There is a segment of Star Trek
fandom that especially likes to make Data’s sense of gender a rigid cisgender
male identity when it is not cisgender, arguably it is at the same time male
and not bound as male. The same is true
for Lal.
“The Offspring” is an episode that is surprising in
how well it fits in with Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future of humanity
being past conflict, the central conflict of the episode is where Lal should go:
if she should stay with Data on the Enterprise or she should be put on a
Starfleet base. This is actually the
B-plot of the episode and Data has very little to do with this plot outside of
advocating for his daughter to be treated in the same way as he is, as someone
who deserves autonomy. She is a
person. Picard, who has his own feelings
to overcome since he has not quite examined that Data being a person means he
can have children as any other crewmember can, is the one who advocates for Lal
against Admiral Haftel, played by Nicolas Coster. Haftel is the antagonistic force of the
episode, but he is not a villain, he is just someone who has not yet
encountered an android like Data and Lal and slowly overcomes his
preconceptions of what they are. The
drama is still there, the concept of Data losing his daughter and Lal losing
her father is great, especially surprising since this is Lal’s introduction and
the episode ends in tragedy of Lal sadly dying of natural causes despite both
Data and Admiral Haftel’s best efforts to save her. Picard’s initial apprehension and then coming
around almost immediately, the episode advocating a woman’s right to choose without
writing an episode about a woman having a child. It makes the issue a fascinating rhetorical
trick, making it effective at getting around certain unconscious biases in the
audience against the argument for women’s rights. Putting it in the voice of men (or male presenting
characters as Data is) means that the audience has to see the humanity in the
argument and cannot let biases against women get in the way.
The rest of the episode is a more internal
conflict. Data has to be a good father
and Lal has to discover who she is and what she wants to be. Echevarria is intentional in looking at where
Data has been and what Lal would need and could do to become more developed than
her father. She can use contractions,
Data cannot (or at the very least does not in most episodes, the absolute continuity
isn’t always so tight). Data forms
relationships but Lal is hinted at having a desire for romantic intimacy (and
potentially sexual intimacy, however as this is a television episode from 1990
that is not explored being asexual and aromantic are conflated). Brent Spiner while once again working with a
script that on paper says Data does not show emotion, does nothing but show and
experience those emotions. It is a heartbreaking
performance and Hallie Todd for her part is doing so much to keep that Data
like cadence for Lal while making her sound more than just Data but a woman. Lal is taken to Ten Forward, the Enterprise
bar that was only named recently onscreen, and is put to work as a waitress
so she can observe people. Whoopi
Goldberg as Guinan is this beautifully empathetic towards Lal, explaining human
relationships though not wishing to overstep her bounds. Lal kisses Riker unprompted because she is
immediately smitten with him, something that is played off as a joke and not
followed up on for Riker as Jonathan Frakes is directing the episode, but for
Lal she has to learn the concepts of consent.
It’s nice to see a prototype of that conversation in an episode that does
not entirely brush it off. On the topic
of direction, Frakes brings this fantastic energy to keep the camera moving
throughout the episode. There is a lot
of very small touches that Frakes brings, having Riker not in the episode
outside of that very brief cameo means he can focus on making the episode look
particularly dynamic for a 1990 episode of television. You can really see exactly why Frakes would
continue to direct several episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation,
episodes of future series, and films, he shows such promise as a director.
Overall, “The Offspring” has aged poorly in its
language in places but not with what René Echevarria is doing with the
script. This is an episode that
acknowledges how much of human society is just a social construct that could very
easily be changed while also acknowledging some of the beauty in those constructs
(mainly the way romance is portrayed).
It’s an examination once again of what it means to be a human being from
a non-human perspective and clearly has commentary on the social ostracization
of certain groups without naming those groups.
There is definitely commentary that I am missing in this review: Data being
representative of neurodivergence in certain ways is also a perfectly valid and
interesting reading of “The Offspring” that there just isn’t the time to get
into here. Despite one joke that has
aged quite poorly, this is the second perfect episode of Star Trek: The Next
Generation in a row. 10/10.
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