Following up on one of my least favorite episodes I was pretty bummed out when I saw the summary of this episode. "The one with Data's fake mom," is all I could remember about this one, but it was actually way better than I remembered. Data's endless skepticism about whether the woman claiming to be his mother is the kind of thing you don't see very often. A lower quality episode would have had him embracing her as his mother from the very beginning and then have the SHOCKING conclusion that she is a fake at the very end.
The episode opens with the senior staff receiving a briefing from a scientist and his wife. Their plants core has cooled and the ability to inhabit the planet is at risk. Data proposes drilling holes deep into the planet and then injecting plasma into the core the melt it for a few hundred years. (Note: This makes no sense on so many levels. Just to deal with one, our planets core has stayed molten for billions of years, the idea that a remelted core would cool in a few hundred seems remarkably unlikely.) After the meeting the woman, Dr. Juliana Tainer, pulls Data aside and asks if he remembers her. He tells her he does not so she introduces herself as Dr. Soong's ex-wife, his mother. Data has a lot of questions about why he has no memory of her or why she isn't mentioned in the logs of the colonists that make up has early memory as Dr. Soong's wife. She explains they got married in secret but he clearly doubts her story.
While Geordi prepares to blast holes in the planet Data researches her story and confirms that she and Dr. Soong traveled together to the planet they claim to have been married on. Geordi points out that the emotion chip was supposed to contain more memories for Data and that sometimes you just have to deal with not knowing things for sure. Data returns to Dr. Tainer in Ten Forward and addresses her as Mother. The two of them start hanging out and she asks to play viola with his violin solo performance the next day. The two of them rehearse in Ten Forward and she is clearly an accomplished player. They work together on drilling the holes in the planet and she seems to be able to do incredible calculations without computer assistance.
The holes are drilled but there are problems with seismic instability. Data and Dr. Tainer beam down to try and fix the issues with the plasma injectors but they are forced to jump down a large cliff to get back to their beam out point and Dr. Tainer in injured. We see her lying on the rocks with her arm by her side, but on the inside she is an android. Back on the ship Data tells Riker that he knew she was an android from her pattern of blinking and the fact that her performance on the viola was exactly identical both times. He finds a holograph memory chip in her head and puts it into the holodeck. Dr. Soong appears and explains that she is a copy of his actual wife and even has her memories. He begs Data to not reveal to her that she isn't human. After much discussion Data reactivates her but doesn't tell her she is an android. He does agree to visit her on his next leave.
Review: I skipped over some really nice character moments in my summary above. If you want to see some really touching Data moments be sure and not miss this one.
7 out of 10
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