Noonien Soong

Template:ST Character

In the fictional Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, Dr. Noonien Soong (played by Brent Spiner) is a human cyberneticist who lived on the colony Omicron Theta for several years, where he created six androids with positronic brains, the last two being Lore and Data, both of whom were also played by Spiner - the clear implication is that Soong modeled the androids' forms after his younger self. He is also the great-grandson of the infamous 22nd Century geneticist and cyberneticist, Dr. Arik 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. By all accounts he failed miserably and largely disappeared from academic and scientific circles shortly thereafter. (Learned in the episode "Datalore")

In 2328, Dr. Soong married Dr. Juliana O'Donnell, also a cyberneticist, who died shortly after the Crystalline entity attack on the colony, but most of her memories remain inside an android created in her image by Dr. Soong. He was presumed dead himself, but was discovered to be alive in 2367. He died of a heart problem soon thereafter on stardate 44085.7 on Terlina III , where he built his last laboratory.

Although Dr. Noonien Soong's ancestry is not explicitly stated in the canon, his name is East Asian, either Chinese or Korean. Soong is a popular Chinese surname (宋) and Korean surname (송). It is worth noting, however, that his great-grandfather Arik Soong possesses a first name most common amongst Israeli Jews.

Some of the O'Donnell android's memories were fragmentary, such as the death of Dr. Soong and her creation as an android. Dr. O'Donnell later remarried to Dr. Pran Tainer of Atrea IV, where Data discovered that O'Donnell is his creation mother (since Data's memories were erased during the Crystalline entity attack).

In the fourth season of the fifth television series in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Enterprise, Noonien Soong's great-grandfather, Dr. Arik Soong, (also played by Brent Spiner) is a fugitive geneticist seeking to lead a group of genetically-enchanced "Augments" in a three episode arc ("Borderland", "Cold Station 12", and "The Augments"). According to the backstory, Arik Soong, once the director of a high-security research station, was imprisoned after he stole nineteen augmented human embryos, placed in stasis after the end of the Eugenics Wars, in which genetically-engineered 'supermen,' including Khan Noonien Singh, attempted global domination on the basis of their genetic 'superiority.' Ultimately failing to in prove that 'improved' humans could peacefully co-exist with the rest of the galaxy, Arik Soong vowed upon returning to prison to find 'perfection' by creating artificial life-- a vision apparently passed on to his progeny.

Although it is not stated directly in any episode, it is strongly implied that, given Arik Soong's connection to Khan Noonien Singh, Data's creator was very likely named after him. The characters of both Noonien Soong and Khan Noonien Singh were named after a man named Kim Noonien Singh who Gene Roddenberry knew during World War 2.

External link

Navigation

  • Art and Cultures
    • Art (https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Art)
    • Architecture (https://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Architecture)
    • Cultures (https://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Cultures)
    • Music (https://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Music)
    • Musical Instruments (http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/List_of_musical_instruments)
  • Biographies (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Biographies)
  • Clipart (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Clipart)
  • Geography (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Geography)
    • Countries of the World (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Countries)
    • Maps (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Maps)
    • Flags (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Flags)
    • Continents (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Continents)
  • History (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/History)
    • Ancient Civilizations (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Ancient_Civilizations)
    • Industrial Revolution (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Industrial_Revolution)
    • Middle Ages (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Middle_Ages)
    • Prehistory (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Prehistory)
    • Renaissance (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Renaissance)
    • Timelines (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Timelines)
    • United States (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/United_States)
    • Wars (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Wars)
    • World History (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/History_of_the_world)
  • Human Body (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Human_Body)
  • Mathematics (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Mathematics)
  • Reference (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Reference)
  • Science (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Science)
    • Animals (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Animals)
    • Aviation (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Aviation)
    • Dinosaurs (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Dinosaurs)
    • Earth (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Earth)
    • Inventions (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Inventions)
    • Physical Science (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Physical_Science)
    • Plants (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Plants)
    • Scientists (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Scientists)
  • Social Studies (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Social_Studies)
    • Anthropology (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Anthropology)
    • Economics (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Economics)
    • Government (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Government)
    • Religion (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Religion)
    • Holidays (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Holidays)
  • Space and Astronomy
    • Solar System (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Solar_System)
    • Planets (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Planets)
  • Sports (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Sports)
  • Timelines (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Timelines)
  • Weather (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Weather)
  • US States (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/US_States)

Information

  • Home Page (http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php)
  • Contact Us (http://www.academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Contactus)

  • Clip Art (http://classroomclipart.com)
Toolbox
Personal tools