History Recap / StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E9Inheritance

* OmniDisciplinaryScientist: Juliana is apparently skilled in AI and robotics as well as geology. The ship's crew also apparently know enough about geology to never bother recruiting specialists.

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 Dr. Noonien Soong and helped create Data. In a way, she's his "mother."

* CrazyPrepared: 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 that's who did.

Data verifies parts of Juliana's story but still isn't convinced, and Geordi start wondering whether Data doesn't want to believe her, noting how illogical he's behaving. Data decides to accept Juliana and 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 the fact that he [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E16TheOffspring 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.

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 Julaiana 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.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: 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 at first because she doesn't want to embarrass Data; Data tells her he is incapable of being embarrassed and to go ahead.

** Data informs Julianna [[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E3Brothers}} of the time he met Dr. Soong in-person]], alerting her to the fact that he died since they last saw each other.

* CrazyPrepared: Soong admits he'd always suspected Julianna 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 Data is the one to find out.

** This is pushed by how the Soong hologram stated he thought it better for Julianna to live as a human.

-->'''Soong''': The truth? The truth is, in every way that matters, she is Julianna Soong.

* OmniDisciplinaryScientist: Juliana is apparently skilled in AI and robotics as well as geology. The ship's crew also apparently know enough about geology to never bother recruiting specialist.

* RoboticReveal: 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 ''Anime/AstroBoy''-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).
* SecretKeeper: The rest of the crew promise Data they will also keep the truth of Julianna being an android secret from her.

** 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 using 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.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Averted; Juliana is programmed to shut down in the event that she discovers that she's actually an android.

* AdultFear: Juliana describes the failure of Soong's first three prototypes as being like OutlivingOnesOffspring. She was aghast at having to go through it again when Soong wanted to build another one. Of course, that one was Lore, and he presented all sorts of other fears for his parents. Her reason for leaving Data behind was that he would end up just like Lore.

* MoralDilemma: The episode's climax is one of whether telling Juliana or letting her believe she's human, an ersatz test of the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Third Law of Robotics]].

* MoralDilemma: The episode's climax is one of whether telling Juliana or letter her believe she's human, an ersatz test of the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Third Law of Robotics]].

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. 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.

* SpottingTheThread: 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 using 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.

* CrazyPrepared: Soong admits he'd always suspected Julianna 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.

* TomatoInTheMirror: Averted; Juliana is programmed to shut down in the event that she discovers that she's actually an android.