Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 1, Episode 7
Soji (Isa Briones) is the synthetic daughter of the late Commander Data (Brent Spiner), but Data strived his entire life (and failed) to achieve, Data also never had to cope with the traumatic experiences Soji has endured in her time aboard the Borg Cube Artifact.
Introduced in the first episode of Star Trek: Picard, Soji and her twin sister Dahj are highly advanced synthetics built by the Dr. Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), to create the evolution of Data, who was the positronic android built by Dr. Noonien Soong.
Soon after Soji and Dahj were built, Maddox implanted false memories of their childhood and equipped the twins with an A.I. they knew as "Mom" to maintain their programming. Believing themselves to be human, Narek's attempt to kill her, Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) rescued Soji and they escaped the Artifact together.
Star Trek: Picard episode 7, "Nepenthe", compellingly explored Soji's fragile state of mind as she and Picard sought refuge with Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis), and their daughter Kestra (Lulu Wilson) on their adopted homeworld, Nepenthe. While Riker and Troi quickly realized Soji's synthetic nature and her ties to Data, the episode also delved into just how different Soji is from the 'father' she never knew.
All The Ways Soji And Data Are Alike
In part, Star Trek: Picard is a sequel to the classic TNG episode "Measure of a Man" where Captain Picard helped define Data's rights as a sentient being. Data was one of the most beloved characters in all of Star Trek, not only because of his captivating pursuit of humanity but also due to the endearingly versatile performance of Brent Spiner (who also played Data's other android doubles). It was certainly a risk to position Soji as Data's offspring since he had 7 TNG seasons and 4 movies to become one of Star Trek's greatest characters, but in Star Trek: Picard, Isa Briones has shrewdly played Soji as Data's successor: Soji subtly evokes Data while also simultaneously conveying herself as both his evolution and her own unique character.
As synthetics who are 'father and daughter', Data and Soji are indeed a lot alike, which includes both of them dealing with continual confusion, albeit different kinds. Data was often perplexed by human behavior while Soji now questions everything she thought she knew. But they both tilt their head when they find something curious and Captain Picard's Starship Enterprise. The two androids are also much stronger, can run faster, and jump higher than human beings, and are capable of defending themselves if need be, though Soji's (and Dahj's) combat skills are more formidable than what Trekkers saw from Data when he had to fight. However, Soji is indifferent to Sherlock Holmes and she can't play the violin, which were two of Data's hobbies.
It's worth noting that Data previously created a positronic android daughter named Lal (Hallie Todd) on TNG who was an evolved version of him in several ways. Lal was human in appearance, was capable of feeling emotions, and could speak using verbal contractions. However, Lal's neural net was flawed and caused her to die. In any case, the technology available in 2396 allowed Bruce Maddox to perfect 'Data's daughter' with Soji and Dahj, who are even more advanced than Lal was.
Soji Is The Evolved Human Android Data Wanted To Be
Soji and Dahj were built as the embodiment of Data's lifelong ambition to be more human. Unlike Data, who had yellow synthetic skin and yellow eyes, Soji is physically indistinguishable from a human being. Soji can cry, bleed, perspire, sleep, dream, and, as Kestra verified, Soji also has saliva and mucus, which Data did not have. While Data needed an emotion chip, Soji was 'born' with a full suite of human emotions, although because she is synthetic, a Betazed empath like Deanna Troi can't sense her. Soji can also eat and she itted she likes pizza, which must also mean she has a human-like digestive process.
Data struggled all of his life to understand humans and their emotions but Soji was built to exhibit them naturally, and she has proven herself to be a comionate person who freely expresses when she "loves" something. But it's because Soji can among human society without her true synthetic nature being obvious that the "nest" of sibling synthetics as well - that she and Picard must save from the Zhat Vash.
Soji's Problems Are Very Different From Data's
Although Soji is just 37-months-old, she has endured terrible experiences and an abusive relationship that Data never had to. After all, the Enterprise's android officer determined his own Starfleet career and his personal identity; Data chose his life's path, chose his friends, chose to own a cat named Spot, and he never doubted who and what he was. By contrast, Soji learned aboard the Artifact that the person she thought she was is a fabrication; her childhood memories and her identity as "Dr. Soji Asha" was a fiction programmed into her so she could penetrate the Artifact and complete her mission. While Data had his share of enemies, most notably his 'older brother' Lore, the Zhat Vash want Soji dead because they believe that she is "the Destroyer" who will bring about the end of all life in the galaxy.
Soji was also lied to and gaslighted by Narek, who convinced her that he loved her when what he really wanted was the buried information about the location of her homeworld. Tragically, Soji had no idea she was an android until Narek's murder attempt activated her. Afterward, she still clung, in vain, to the idea that she was really human. It was fascinating in Star Trek: Picard episode 7 how Soji's trauma and her realization that her life has been comprised of nothing but lies understandably caused her not to trust anyone she met, including the Troi-Rikers and Jean-Luc Picard himself. For his part, Data never had to cope with the kind of emotional abuse that Soji has thanks to Narek, so Data never had to doubt his own reality.
However, the glimmer of hope Kestra offered Soji that, if she wanted to, she and Picard could "have each other" in their lives, would mean that through Data's daughter, Jean-Luc could have his beloved friend back, in a way. Meanwhile, Soji could have the father figure and mentor in Picard whom she could truly trust. It remains to be seen if Soji and Jean-Luc in Star Trek: Picard can form the bond that he and Data had, but if they do, it's something Data himself surely would have wanted.
Star Trek: Picard streams Thursdays on CBS All-Access and Fridays internationally on Amazon Prime Video.