| “ | Why does a painter paint? Hm? Why does a boxer box? You know what Michelangelo used to say? That the sculptures he made were already there before he started, hidden in the marble. All he needed to do was remove the unneeded bits. Wasn't quite that easy with you, Data. But the need to do it, my need to do it, was no different than Michelangelo's need. | „ |
| ~ Soong, on why he created Soong type androids. |
Doctor Noonien Soong was a human male first mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Datalore.
He was portrayed by Brent Spiner, who had also played Soong's android "sons" Data, B4, and Lore, his biological son Altan, and his ancestors Arik Soong and Adam Soong.
Soong was a descendant of the 22nd century rogue geneticist Arik Soong, and carried on Arik's work in cybernetics. Born in the late 23rd century, Soong became one of the foremost cyberneticists in the United Federation of Planets. In the 2320s he tried to create a working positronic brain, but those efforts ended in failure, and his reputation was seriously damaged in the fallout.
Dropping out of the public eye, Soong travelled to Omicron Theta where he helped found a scientific colony. Meeting the young Doctor Juliana O'Donnell at the colony, the pair soon married over the objections of Juliana's mother. The two began an effort to produce an android with a functional positronic brain.
Soong's first two androids had unstable positronic brain matrices and they died soon after being activated. The next android - B4 - was also flawed and Soong deactivated him. Finally Soong and his wife were able to create a stable positronic matrix in Lore. However his personality was warped and unstable, and the Soongs were forced to deactivate and disassemble him because of the fear he engendered in the other colonists. Soong planned to fix Lore at some future date.
By then Juliana was opposed to creating any more androids, but Soong was able to convince her to help him create just one more android, which became Data. Juliana wanted to try a different look, but Soong insisted on making Data in his likeness and settled the argument by walking into the lab one day with Data's head. The first months of Data's life were challenging, but Data was harmless compared to Lore. Programming needed to be adjusted so that Data would not be so rude and that the anatomically correct android would keep his clothes on.
With Data's successful construction, Soong intended to turn his attention back to Lore to fix the programming issues that caused the personality instabilities. The Crystalline Entity attacked then. Soong and his wife left the colony, and left both Data and Lore behind. Juliana was seriously injured in the attack and died, but before she died Soong built an advanced android and transferred Juliana's memories and personality into this new android. His biological son Altan was able to improve the technique, and use it to transfer Jean-Luc Picard's consciousness into an android body after his human body died due to a brain abnormality.
Living in exile on Terlina III, Soong spent the next three decades continuing his work. Dissatisfied with her life, Juliana divorced Soong and left Terlina III. Before she left Soong implanted a chip in Juliana that had a holographic program to explain about Juliana's true nature should it be uncovered, and even added question and answer modules in the event it was Data that ran the program. Soong remained out of public view, but managed to keep up with the news of how Data was doing, and worked on a chip that would give Data basic emotions.
By 2367 Soong was dying. He activated a homing device which summoned Data and Lore to Terlina III. Soong attempted to give his son the emotion chip, but Lore was able to disable Data and pose as his younger brother. Stealing the chip, Lore assaulted Dr. Soong and left him for dead.
The Enterprise crew was able to beam down to Soong's house and discovered the dying Soong. Soong declined medical treatment, feeling it was too late for him. Giving Data the instructions on how to clear the memory block, Soong and Data said their farewells before Data beamed back on board the Enterprise to release the computer back to the control of the crew. Soong apparently died a short time later.
Novel Continuity[]
Soong had survived Lore's attack, and managed to transfer his mind into a new android body which was more advanced than Data's body had been. After the original Data died in 2379, Soong learned that Data's matrix had survived within B4 and began working on an even more advanced body for Data. The work was interrupted by the Borg invasion of 2381, and the body was destroyed.
Left with no choice, Soong transferred Data's memories in to his own body before Data's matrix collapsed. Soong died when he deleted his personality so that Data could survive in the new body. Even though Soong's personality was now gone, Data had access to Soong's memories and knowledge.
