This great episode is a great performance by the equally great Fionnula Flanagan as Dr. Juliana O'Donnell/Soong/Trayner.
As first, Data has reservations accepting her as his de-facto "Mother" but quickly finds a connection to her. He works well with her and he plays well with her, Spiner and Flanagan bounce off each other with Robotic Precision.
But Data discovers that the connection is more Positronic than Organic, Dr. Juliana Trayner is a little too fast when working with computers and even more so when playing music with him. This gives Data the false impression that she is also a Soong-Type Android, like he is.
But she is not quite the same - For one thing, she is not as sturdy as he is, and is damaged when Data pushes her off one of the many rock faces we see in Next Generation.
For all intents and purposes, she is the same person as the one she was built to replace, and even possibly an improvement on Data himself - She has emotions, she fools Medical Scanners into thinking she is Human, she has sweat glands, breathes, has tear ducts, and ages like any other "real" person. This episode also reveals that Data was built to "age" as well.
And, finally, Data knows beyond a doubt that he is no longer Unique in the universe. But he cannot share this discovery with Dr Trayner. Embedded in her Positronic brain is a holographic chip which Dr. Noonian Soong had put there in case anyone discovers her true nature - Particularly Data. And so this episode is the fourth and final "Data" episode, and the last TNG appearance of "Dr Noonian Often-Wrong Soong". It bookends Data's History with solid answers, now we know why and how he was left on a slab to be discovered by Starfleet on Omicron Theta- At least the reason the Juliana-Android stated. In Reality, the human version of her had been injured fatally by the Crystalline Entity.
Fionnula Flanagan is one of my favourite actresses, and I was pleased to see her here, and later in Deep Space Nine. I had seen her in all kinds of 80's television, but this was one of the best parts she had ever played. One of the best 7th season Next Gen Episodes.
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