by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2015/07/29 14:01 +00:00, original URI: http://www.siao2.com/2015/07/29/8770668856267196830.aspx
It was just over ten years ago that I wrote the blog Star Trek with linguistic pretentions but in truth the series often tries to bring linguistic nuggets or "eggcorns" (pardon the linguistic [mis]use pun!) to the masses. Take, for example, Lieutenant Commander Data, played by Brent Spiner. The episode The Offspring, for example.... It is all too convenient to think Brent Spiner aka lieutenant commander Data as an android who aspires to be human, and to look at his 'daughter' as a technological advancement because of the ability she has to use contractions, something that her 'father' was never able to do. And that is kinda linguistic, right? ;-)
But I found the episode to be rather unconvincing myself, from this clip
to this clip
to this other one
It was a betrayal of sorts to the ideals of Gene Roddenberry since it could only have been ameliorated if the admiral who caused her breakdown and death were brought up on charges for causing her death due to putting her under extreme stress so soon after her 'birth'. But I guess that there is no justice even in the fictional future of the Star Trek universe....