Noonien Soong
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Noonien Soong | |
| Species | Human |
|---|---|
| Home planet | Earth |
| Portrayed by | Brent Spiner |
In the fictional Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, Dr. Noonien Soong is a human cyberneticist who is the creator of the regular android character Data. He is played by the same actor who plays Data, Brent Spiner.[1][2] Arik Soong was Noonien Soong's great-grandfather;[3] the two share similar ambitions.
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[edit] Appearances
Soong is first mentioned in the first season episode "Datalore",[4] in which Data and the USS Enterprise crew discover a hidden laboratory, and learn of Soong's existence on the colony world Omicron Theta, on which Data had been discovered. The Enterprise databases contain mention of Soong: Early in Dr. Soong's career he was widely hailed as Earth's foremost robotic scientist. He claimed he could make Isaac Asimov's dream of a positronic brain come true and set about trying to do exactly that, and was popularly thought to have failed miserably and largely disappeared from academic and scientific circles shortly thereafter.
Soong's backstory is further elaborated on in the seventh season episode "Inheritance", in which Data and the Enterprise crew come across Juliana O'Donnell, Soong's ex-wife. O'Donnell had accompanied Soong to Terlina, later leaving him and marrying Pren Tainer on Atrea IV. O'Donnell was in fact an android duplicate of her that Soong had made after her death (she had been injured in the attack on the colony and never recovered) Her android body was vastly superior to Data, bearing a closer resemblance to human appearance, physical abilities, aging and even a limited life span. So perfect was her resemblance that she could fool the ships sensors into thinking she was human.[5]
He appears in the fourth-season episode "Brothers". He had escaped the attack on Omicron Theta that had wiped out the colonists and settled on Terlina III, where he lived in isolation while following the exploits of Data. He summons Data with the use of a homing signal, so that he can fit Data with his final invention, an emotion chip. He also inadvertently summons Lore, who ultimately kills Soong after posing as Data to acquire the chip.[6] The chip eventually makes its way to Data, who finally fits himself with it in Star Trek Generations.
Soong also appears in the novel Star Trek: Glass Empires as part of the resistance against the Terran Empire in the Mirror Universe. He draws the Borg into the Alpha Quadrant and is assimilated into the Mirror Universe Locutus of Borg. He is killed in the end of the novel.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Wang, Cynthia (8 November 2004). "Sounds Off - Brett Spiner". People Magazine 62 (19): 40.
- ^ Brent Spiner joins 'Enterprise' for three episodes
- ^ Brent Spiner
- ^ [http://www.sff.net/people/krad/aotfann.htm Annotations for Star Trek: Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido]
- ^ Androids in Science Fiction from bbc.co.uk
- ^ Dr. Noonien Soong fron Startrek.com
[edit] External links
- Noonien Soong at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- Biography of Lt Commander Data from USSenterprise.co.uk
- Dr. Noonien Soong from Startrek.com
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