Picard’s New Brent Spiner Character Solves A Season 1 Data Mystery
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 2, Episode 5 - "Fly Me To The Moon"
Brent Spiner's new Star Trek: Picard season 2 character, Dr. Adam Soong, and his daughter, Kore (Isa Briones), finally solve a Star Trek: Picard season 1 mystery. Although there's a statue of Dr. Adam Soong in the 25th-century's San Francisco Bay in the dark future ruled by the Confederation of Earth, Star Trek: Picard season 2, episode 5, "Fly Me To The Moon," reveals that Adam Soong actually lived in the 21st century. However, a direct line can now be drawn between the Soongs in 2024 Los Angeles and the synthetic daughters of Commander Data in the late-25th century, Dahj and Soji.
Star Trek: Picard season 1 revealed that Dahj and Soji were twin androids built from a single neuron salvaged from Data, who uploaded his memory engrams to B-4 before the Starfleet android's death in Star Trek: Nemesis. However, years before when he was serving on the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data painted a portrait he titled, "Daughter," which resembled Dahj and Soji decades before the synthetic twins were built by Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong. Dahj was murdered by the Romulan Zhat Vash but Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was able to save Soji and bring her back to her homeworld, Coppelius, where they met a prior version of Soji and Dahj named Sutra, who had golden skin like Data but was otherwise identical. But it wasn't explained how or why Soji, Dahj, Sutra, and her twin, Jana, were all derived from Data's painting, "Daughter," and where he, in turn, derived the woman in the artwork from.
The introduction of Kore Soong in Star Trek: Picard season 2 clarifies where Data got "Daughter" from. Kore was the original Soong who Data's daughters, Soji and Dahj, and their synthetic 'sisters' were physically patterned after. And, like the future androids built in her image, Kore's life is tragic. The daughter of Dr. Adam Soong was born with a rare genetic disease that makes exposure to outside air and sunlight lethal. Kore's blood will turn to acid if she leaves the confines of her home or travels without the drones Adam built to shield her from the sun's ultraviolet light. Although she isn't being hunted the way the Romulans did Soji and Dahj, Kore's life is constantly in danger from everyday life. Essentially, Kore Soong is a prisoner who yearns to be normal, sort of like how Data was a machine who wanted to be human.
Brent Spiner has played multiple androids in Star Trek: The Next Generation, including Data, Lore, and B4, and he's also portrayed numerous members of the Soong family, such as Dr. Noonien Soong, Dr. Arik Soong, Dr. Altan Inigo Soong, and now Dr. Adam Soong in TNG, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: Picard. Isa Briones now follows suit by embodying Dahj, Soji, Sutra, and their human inspiration, Kore Soong. The fact that the Soong males and their android creations all resemble Brent Spiner is echoed by Kore and the synthetics built in her image. It's also obvious now that Data retained either memories or the information about Kore Soong and was inspired to paint an image of her, which he titled, "Daughter." Further, Star Trek: Picard season 2 finally lets Brent Spiner and Isa Briones play father and daughter on-screen, which wasn't possible in season 1 since Data was already dead.
Soji was left behind with the Deltans on Raritan IV before Q changed the timeline into the Confederation reality. Since Soji remained in the future that was rewritten by Q, there's no chance Kore Soong will meet her synthetic doppelganger Soji in the 21st century. Whatever happens to Kore in the 21st century, her legacy will continue in the form of Soji in the 25th century, although Adam Soong's daughter has no way of knowing this. But if Picard and his motley crew can set the timeline right, it may be possible for them to bring Kore Soong back to the future with them in Star Trek: Picard season 2. There may be a cure for Kore's tragic condition in the 25th century and she could possibly meet Soji if that were to happen.
Star Trek: Picard Season 2 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.