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 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.
- Call-Back:
- 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.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A non-romantic example. Data decides not to reveal to Juliana that she's an android so that she can continue to live her life as a human.
- This is pushed by how the Soong hologram stated he thought it better for Juliana to live as a human.
Data: Then you do not wish her to know the truth?Soong: The truth? The truth is, in every way that matters, she is Juliana Soong. - 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. 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.
- Spotting the Thread:
- 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.
