Data's Family - An Asexual Analysis of Lal, Lore, and B-4 from Star Trek: The Next Generation
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| Image description: From left to right, Lal, Lore, and B-4, other androids like Data who appear throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation. Lal is Data's daughter while Lore and B-4 are his brothers, but all of them challenge us to think about themes like humanity, emotion, love, and identity just as much as Data himself does. |
Last year, I wrote a post centering on Star Trek: The
Next Generation’s beloved android character, Data – a character many will
point to when discussing aspec characters in Star Trek. In that post, I
talked about the ways Data could be asexual/aromantic, and examined how moments
of romance and sex are portrayed for him in often tropey ways. Originally, that
post was twice as long because, during the course of talking about Data, I
thought it would be remiss to not mention the other androids like him throughout
the series. I quickly realized that the subject of the other “Soong-type”
androids like Data was one rich enough to be discussed in its own separate essay,
the one you are reading today.
Naturally, because Data is a series-regular character, his
identity gets more time to be explored. However, the points that are brought up
with Data throughout the series are also excellently explored through
characters like his daughter, Lal, and his brothers, Lore and B-4. Despite
their limited screen time, these characters and their own struggles offer us
even more in-depth glances at both what it means to be human or not human, and
at Data’s character in general. They also allow us to draw interesting aspec
parallels, just as we can with Data himself.
Recapping Data
Although I already covered Data in detail previously, let’s recap – Data was created by Dr. Noonian Soong and his wife Julianna, along with other failed androids like Lore and B-4 (both of whom I will discuss later in this post). As an android, Data falls into some of the same tropes we often see used for non-human characters; for instance, there are many times throughout Data’s journey to be more human where sex and romance are treated as the pinnacle for him, even while he is actively being infantilized or treated as cold. In my Data-specific post, I expressed confusion for this, especially the notion of him being “cold”. Despite Data himself repeatedly claiming he has no emotion, he has many meaningful friendships throughout the series. Whether the familiar-type relationships he has with the Soongs, his friendships with the crew, or even his sweet relationship with his cat Spot, there are countless ways Data relates to those around him, something which is usually the focus of his best episodes and finest moments. But, as with many seemingly non-sexual and non-romantic characters, especially ones that are also non-human, we see how sex or romance are framed as essential to his journey.
This paradox is not limited to Data, however, and many of the struggles we see in him are highlighted even further in his android family. Even beyond the tropes, something Data and the other “Soong-type” androids experience is having to change themselves to be more human. For example, throughout the series, Data is seen doing things like teaching himself how to blink so he seems more like the humans on the Enterprise – an undertaking that seems more like it’s done for the comfort of other people than for Data himself. Other times, we see the ways he fails to do basic human things like sneeze and, although he says these things interest him, for the most part it seems like the only reason he bothers with trying them is for the sake of his desire to be human.
This type of self-alteration to please people made otherwise uncomfortable by their non-human natures is not limited to TNG’s androids. We see this happen with many non-human or not-entirely-human characters, including some I’ve covered extensively on the blog before, like Dragon Age’s Cole or Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine. This is also something I’ve discussed in my post specifically about non-human characters and why having them as aspec representation can be tough. Although not all non-human characters long to be human, Data (and by extension, many of the androids in his family) has that desire front and center – it might even be argued that this ultimate wish of Data’s is part of what fuels the assumption that all non-human characters long for humanity, sometimes despite their protests. Data, by his own admission, would gladly give up his superior android abilities to be human, and often times the narrative pushes sex or romance on him as part of that. This is disheartening, because Data gives us many examples of humanity that don’t involve sex or romance. For instance, in the episode “Inheritance,” Data talks about his creative endeavors like music and painting. He says that when he expresses his creativity, he feels closest to being human. In my post about Data, I argued that there might be a case for calling him aspec, despite the problematic tropes used against him, and I think this sentiment about creativity is a point in favor of that argument. I would also argue that it shows Data’s clear emotional range, as well as his maturity, despite what the show’s writing often tries to portray.
In some ways, this struggle is even more clearly seen in Data’s android daughter Lal, whom he builds in the episode “The Offspring.” In both Lal herself and in Data’s interactions with her, we see the strange intersection of the childlike trope combined with Data’s quest to be more human by becoming a parent. We see many of the same tropes used against Data also used against Lal, and we simultaneously see Data asserting that he cannot feel love for his child (despite the fact that Lal means “beloved” in Hindi), while also seeing how achieving the emotional awareness Data craves ultimately spells doom for Lal. But I believe that Lal, perhaps even more than Data, has some interesting aspec parallels in her tragically short life that make her an interesting topic for this blog.
Lal, Data's Daughter
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| Image description: Data teaching his daughter Lal about the world around them in the episode "The Offspring". Because Lal begins her life in the appearance of an older teenager/young adult, the moments where she doesn't understand life can have shades of the "Childish" trope, but it also means she has some relatable struggles about how she fits into the world. |
When Data activates Lal, he makes it very clear that he considers her to be his child, that he considers himself to be a parent, and that he considers his creation of her to be an act of procreation. He even notes there is a “primal species instinct” of having an offspring to continue the existence of their parents. This raises some eyebrows among the crew and causes some problems with Starfleet (one of the admirals even says that calling them a family is too “sentimental for androids,” cringe), but the two view each other as father and daughter throughout the episode using what affection they know how to give. Although Data insists “I can give her attention, but I am incapable of giving her love,” many of his friends find that difficult to believe, and note the ways he cares for his child. I tend to side-eye stories that assume that people can only really live if they follow the normal path of having children, but this episode is nevertheless very poignant for Data, especially because he is having a child completely independent of sex or romance. He describes watching Lal learn things like learning those things himself all over again, and seems to find a great deal of meaning in watching her development. It’s an act that obliterates most of the tropes lobbed against Data and lets him shine as an individual.
But what about Lal herself? How does she become an individual? Right from the start, she is allowed to choose her gender and species (human female), and we see she has the same characteristics as Data, including the same intelligence and strength. But Lal is also extremely childlike, relying on Data to teach her about how she relates to the world. Interestingly enough, although there are moments where this means she falls into the “Childlike” trope, the episode also shows how the perception others have of her because of her personality is actually somewhat at odds with how she views herself or how she wants to be seen. We see this clearly when she doesn’t fit in with the ship’s children – she can’t understand how the older children relate to each other, but younger children are afraid of her. When she goes to school to try and learn more than the things a parent could teach her, she is laughed at by the children there because she is different. Data explains that people are often afraid of differences, but Lal says she “does not wish to be different.” Although Lal does not experience loneliness, she nevertheless doesn’t want to be isolated and feels that she is apart from the world because she doesn’t understand their experiences. “I watch them and I can do the things they do,” she says after observing the people on the ship, “but I will never feel the emotions” and wonders if this lack of emotion/humanity means she is “incomplete.” Moments like these have tremendous aspec parallels, and also remind us of Data’s own struggle to be seen as human. He tells Lal “we must strive to be more than we are” and that the “effort yields its own reward,” even though they know they can never truly get there.
There are also a few moments where Lal is likewise subjected to the type of tropes we usually see when non-human characters are presented with sex or romance for the first time. In fact, Lal’s comment about watching people but not feeling their emotions becomes even more aspec when you consider why it happens – because Lal is learning about flirting and kissing, but does not understand these things. She in fact first mistakes kissing for biting, and then gets the mistaken idea that kissing is just a normal thing that humans do to greet one another. This leads to a scene in which she grabs First Officer Riker and kisses him full on the mouth upon meeting him. Lal’s naïve misunderstanding of romance and her attempts to pantomime it without understanding does have some cringey overtones, but nevertheless gives us the opportunity to ponder if Lal, Data, and the androids like them are potentially asexual or aromantic.
Of course, the show chooses to play this more as “not understanding” or “not feeling any emotion” than an aspec identity per se. But it does still raise some interesting questions, especially because of Data’s assertion to his daughter that they should keep trying to strive for humanity all the same. What is that metric? For instance, at various points throughout the episode, Lal not only experiences relatable hardships like those mentioned above with not fitting in, but she asks very “human” questions, such as wondering what her “function” and “reason for being” is. Data suggests their function is to “contribute in a positive way to the world around them,” a desire that I would argue is far more human than figuring out what sex, romance, or flirting are.
Despite certain missteps, both Lal and Data’s struggles for emotions could be played so much worse. It would have been very easy for the writers to tie their lack of emotions to a lack of romance and use that as a barrier to be overcome, as with many non-human characters I’ve mentioned before on this blog. But even if they are not shown to follow the equation of “emotions acquired, romance/sex acquired, humanity attained,” emotions are still used as a barrier to them at various points, most notably in the fact that emotional awareness overwhelms Lal’s brain and eventually causes her systems to fail. Despite his attempts to save her, Data is unsuccessful and in her final moments, Lal thanks her father for her life and tells him that she loves him. One of the only emotions Lal ever feels is love, but it’s not a romantic or sexual love; it’s love for the one who created her and gratitude that he made her in the first place. “I will feel it for both of us,” she assures Data when he says he wishes he could feel the same love. It’s an incredibly poignant scene, and one that has later echoes, even as far ahead as in the 2020 series Star Trek: Picard, when Picard remarks that Data always wanted a daughter.
Data’s daughter teaches us a lot of interesting things about humanity, development, and Data himself, but she is not the only member of his family. Data is also established as having two brothers – Lore and B-4 – who could not be more different from Data and from each other. Lore is the more developed of the two, so let’s focus on him first.
Lore, Data's "evil twin"
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| Image description: Data on the left and Lore on the right look identical, but Lore's emotions make him unstable and thus evil. But Data's "evil twin" makes us consider our metrics for humanity. |
I mentioned Lore briefly in my Data-specific essay. First introduced in the episode “Datalore,” Lore is quickly set up as an evil foil for Data and becomes an antagonist in his other appearances throughout the series. As mentioned in that post, it is even hinted that Lore’s sadistic nature comes about specifically because he has the emotions that Data lacks; not having emotions is often framed as a problem for Data, but it’s actually having emotions in the first place that presents the problem for Lore. In fact, the later episode “Brothers” even posits that Data got a better command on the concepts of “right versus wrong” specifically because he could approach situations without emotions during his earliest days. I don’t feel, however, that this is especially well portrayed in the series.
Lore’s origin is very similar to that of Data’s – created in the same place and in a similar manner by the same creators – but that is where the similarities cease. Lore, who was built with emotional programming, quickly began seeing himself as superior to humans. Naturally, the humans in the colony where he was created grew frightened of him and asked that he be dismantled, which he eventually was, and Data was created without the same emotions that destabilized Lore. Lore’s components, meanwhile, were put into storage until the Enterprise crew discovers and reactivates him.
Right away, Lore raises some valid points, claiming that what people wanted was androids who would be willing to serve and please them, but that they didn’t want these androids to make them uncomfortable (and in fact the Enterprise crew themselves theorize that Data was created to look human so humans could relate to him). Although Lore’s specific argument about people wanting “more comfortable, less perfect androids,” as he puts in the episode, is shown to be a manipulation, it’s nevertheless interesting to consider. Furthermore, looking at things from Lore’s perspective, it’s not difficult to see how he became warped and jaded. In his eyes, he was abandoned again and again, cast aside in favor of an attempt to build a better android (Data). In the episode “Brothers,” Lore even inquires of Soong – with what seems like genuine emotion – “why didn’t you fix me?” I’ve talked about the notion of being “fixed” before on this blog, so although Lore is speaking from a more mechanical sense, I as an aspec person can nevertheless understand the emotions underneath that statement. Furthermore, I feel they are statements that Data himself should be able to relate to as well.
But even though Data often goes through situations that prove Lore’s point at least to some extent, what could become an exploration of how humanity views those it considers “other” is immediately swept aside thanks to Lore’s over-the-top villainous nature. He only appears in four episodes, and in all of them he is evil, cruel, and sadistic. And yet, when Data deactivates him for good in the episode “Descent,” Lore’s last words are “I love you, Brother.” A careful Trek watcher may note that shortly before her death, Lal likewise comments, “I love you, Father.” Lal and Lore could not be more different, just as Lore and Data could not be more different, but Data’s brother and daughter both express their love for him in their final moments.
Moments like these raise the question of what love is and how Data’s android family feels it or expresses it. Is Lore able to really experience it, despite his cruel and amoral nature? Can Lal experience it despite her innocence? And can Data experience it, despite his insistence that he can’t? This particular line of questioning might be a bit too philosophical for a blog post, but I think it nevertheless presents an interesting paradox about what it means to love and have emotions. So much of TNG tries to tell us that the pinnacle of development is having emotions, yet both Lore and Lal are undone by theirs. Even Data’s later acquisition of emotions does not go according to plan, nor is it even really essential for him as a character. And beyond just that, if having emotions is what makes us human, both Lore and Lal achieve that in ways that do not have to be bound up in romance or sexuality.
B-4, Data's brother
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| Image description: B-4 in Star Trek: Nemesis. B-4 looks just like his brothers Data and Lore, but he is an earlier and less advanced model. As such, his role is limited and he is by and large pushed aside. But I believe there is something to be said about this brother and the role he plays within Data's family, as well as in our own analysis and pondering. |
For a start, when the crew first meets B-4 it’s extremely clear that he’s not nearly as advanced as Data, and that his ability to process information is limited. But even though B-4 is nothing like Data, Data’s friend and the ship’s chief engineer Geordi La Forge asserts that maybe B-4 is not supposed to be like Data, but rather is supposed to be just what he is. By this point in his character development, Data has gone through quite a lot, including achieving emotions thanks to the “emotion chip” plotline in the earlier movie Star Trek: Generations. As such, he believes that B-4 should have the chance to become more. This is not in of itself a bad thing – after all, growth is a human metric that is not necessarily related to sex or romance. But the fact that B-4 is not allowed to be what he is and is considered inferior is a little cringeworthy, and also sadly familiar. Many non-human characters are treated the same way, as Data himself often is throughout the series, which makes this plot feel a bit strange.
As I said, B-4’s role is rather limited and as such he has little to no agency. For instance, Data decides to upload his memories into B-4 in the hopes it will help him grow. Meanwhile, the role that B-4 does have in the plot is essentially that of an unwitting spy for the movie's villain, who alters the android so he opposes the crew against his will. When this is discovered, Data decides he must deactivate B-4, despite the latter truly not knowing what’s going on. The fact that Data is the one to deactivate him feels terrible, considering Data's earlier desires to see B-4 be given a chance to grow; and beyond that, it also feels incongruous with all the things we have been taught to think and feel about the Soong-type androids throughout the entire TNG canon. We have come to care about characters like Data and Lal, but B-4 seems largely disposable. Although he is eventually reactivated later, and there is even a moment where it might be possible he retained Data’s memories and learned from them, the later Trek series Star Trek: Picard once again asserts that B-4 had very little in common with Data, and thus is treated as somewhat useless, a sad fate for the childlike android.
Because of this, there is not much to analyze when it comes to B-4, but I can’t help but zero in on an essential lesson I think B-4 can teach us – there isn’t one single right way to be. Data is an amazing character, but the movie does B-4 a disservice by constantly comparing him to Data, and in a way, it sort of proves some of Lore’s earlier points when he himself felt cast aside. B-4 may not be what people expect or want, but that doesn’t make him wrong. Even the villainous aspects of the plot that he is involved in are not things he chooses, and it is tragic to think this is his only real role in the plot, especially when the poignant final scene of the movie involving him is reneged by later canon. As strange as this might sound, I can’t help but feel some sympathy for B-4 because I think we all know what it’s like to fall short of some metric. B-4, like many non-human characters before him – and like many aspec characters and people too – is treated as “less than” because he does not develop in the ways people expect and his presence in the canon will always feel like a little bit of an anomaly. But like the rest of the members of his family, I think he can make us ask: How do we expect people to grow and what are we hoping they will be? In fact, what are we hoping we ourselves will be?
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| Image description: Captain Picard with B-4 |
At the end of Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard is left alone with a reactivated B-4, still as childish and seemingly lost as ever. When describing Data to B-4, Picard mentions things like Data’s curiosity and wonder, his evolution, his ability to embrace change, and his desire to become better than what he was. “In his quest to be more like us, he showed us what it means to be human,” he says. It’s a fitting tribute to Data’s character and what he represents, both in Star Trek and in sci-fi in general. I also find it a telling one; after dozens of plot points about exploring sex/romance, the things that truly made Data himself were ideas and emotions that go far beyond his orientation, and his legacy is the impact he had on people, not the impact they had on him.
The same thing is true of Data’s family. Each one of the Soong-type androids surrounding Data is very different – in personality, in how they relate to Data, in how they behave and relate to the world, etc. – but each of them teaches Data something valuable about himself and about life. Each of them likewise teaches the crew something about Data, who in turn teaches them about themselves and the concept of humanity, as Picard’s speech to B-4 at the end of Nemesis proves. Despite the way many of these androids (and sometimes Data himself) are written, each of them makes a thoughtful commentary about humanity, emotion, and love. Especially in the moments where this is done without sex or romance, I would argue that they do so in a rather aspec manner as well.
If Lal, Lore, B-4, and Data can teach us something about what it means to be human, perhaps they can also teach us a little something about what it means to be human by metrics beyond the usual. If Picard is right and being human comes in the forms of curiosity, wonder, and the ability to embrace change, then maybe that can be portrayed in more stories moving forward. If we can see these things in human characters and non-human characters with aspec tendencies, maybe we can finally see aspec representation go where no one has gone before.
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