YMMV / Star Trek: The Next Generation S3E16 "The Offspring"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Picard angry with Data because Data did not consult him before creating Lal, or is because he knows exactly how Starfleet would react when they found out and was afraid for his friend? His argument with Troi about Lal not qualifying as a child would point to the former, while his exasperated attempts to get Data to understand the "ramifications" of what Data has done and his body language while talking with Haftel before he boards the Enterprise would indicate the latter.
• Fair for Its Day: As the inclusion of both Values Dissonance and Values Resonance entries on this page for the same plot point would suggest, Data allowing his child to choose its own gender was a remarkably progressive attitude for the time, even if the choices were strictly binary.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • For as serious as this episode is, this is also the source of yet another memetic facepalm, one where Picard buries his face in both hands. Three memetic facepalms in the course of four episodes.
  • Lal failing to catch the ball◊ with "joke" added to the ball, usually posted in response to someone... well, guess.
• Tear Jerker: Lal's dying, Data's attempt to save her, and Haftel's description of the emotionless desperation Data had going, moving so fast Haftel could barely see what was happening, all to save his child's life.
  Lal: I love you, father.
  Data: [Beat] I wish I could feel it with you.
  Lal: I will feel it for both of us. Thank you for my life.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Hard not to see Lal's death as a degree of cowardice on the part of the writers, as a disappointing bow to Status Quo Is God. It could have been interesting having a very different kind of android on the Enterprise and to get to see Lal and Data's relationship develop, not to mention where else she could have ended up as a character as the Star Trek universe deepened; it might have been interesting to see her turn up on DS9, Picard, etc.
• Values Dissonance: While Data does give Lal the ability to choose her own gender, she is only given a choice between male and female (at least on screen^note the actual selection process involves several thousand candidates the audience didn't see), and she considers her state inadequate before making a selection. Her selection is also treated as irreversible. None of this aligns with the concept of non-binary gender identity that has gained more mainstream support since the episode aired.
• Values Resonance: Gender identity was not widely understood at the time. Data allows Lal to select her gender, which would conform with modern progressive attitudes toward gender identity being a matter of self-identification.

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