Data creates an android which he names Lal. He allows it to choose its appearance. It chooses to look like a young, adult, human female. It looks more human than Data.
Data instructs Lal as she starts to learn. He tries enrolling her in classes with humans but she does not possess the knowledge or experience to interact with most other humans. Data takes Lal to Ten Forward and places Lal under Guinan's supervision. The job allows her to learn by observing human behavior.
Data sends progress reports to Admiral Haftel who gets very concerned about Lal's development. He doesn't think that a starship is the proper environment for Lal to learn. He wants to have her transported to a star base so that Starfleet can better guide her development.
Captain Picard and Data object. Lal is Data's child. It would be wrong to separate a parent and child. Data hopes that one day, once Lal has learned enough, that she can attend Starfleet Academy. He does not want to let her go now. Lal does not want to leave Data now. Admiral Haftel tries to insist that Lal needs to leave the Enterprise but the discussion gets interrupted.
Lal is experiencing some sort of a crisis. She returns to Data's lab. Data analyzes her functioning. It seems that her circuits are unable to properly process all the information she has ingested. Data tries to do something about it but nothing he does seems to fix Lal. In the end, she stops functioning.
Thoughts
I think I might have seen this episode before. It seems familiar but I'm not sure when I might have seen it.
I have a bit of a problem with the ending. My problem is with the way Admiral Haftel goes from insisting that he knows what's best for Lal to being moved by the way they lost her. I have to wonder if he wouldn't want her transferred to Starfleet so that her inactive circuits could be studied.
This episode was amusing in the early going but towards the end it got to be a bit heart wrenching. I don't think this is a great episode but I think it is a good one.
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