Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn't Know About The Soongs

[@vaska00762]

Number 9 isn't quite right. Arik Soong is told by the guards that his work is destroyed, but at the end of the three-parter, Archer tells Soong that his work is actually sent for secure storage, in case one day, his work might actually become useful to humanity.

[@QEin1786]

In case, one day, the writers need a plot device…

[@anthonyhackett1101]

Which is a smart move because you don’t want to write yourself into a hole.

[@DMSProduktions]

@@QEin1786 ISN'T that the SAME thing?

[@nicholashurst780]

@@DMSProduktions ask Indiana Jones

[@DMSProduktions]

@@nicholashurst780 Meh!

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

When Brent Spiner finally has his last performance in the Trek universe, it will be his Swan Soong.

[@markregan7639]

This comment is just the best. Bravo sir

[@leandabee]

😅👏👏

[@joe9739]

That is a joke! I get it! ....It is not funny, but I get it.

[@montylc2001]

boo hiss.

[@joshmcej]

Too Soon....g

[@christopherkraft1327]

Brent Spiner is a brilliant actor!!! He was able to create a unique & distinct personality for each character he portrayed!!! 🖖

[@johnbockelie3899]

"We are just clones of ourselves."

[@johnbockelie3899]

Khan led all the way to Spock's "death".

[@willmfrank]

And somewhere in that huge crowd of brilliant scientists is Bob Wheeler "Good evening, yer honor." 😉😁

[@gateauxq4604]

Watching this I was thinking ‘how do you cast an entire family of psychopaths? Cast the fan-favorite actor!’ It worked out well for everyone

[@Knight21030]

IDK Anything else Spiner was in was pretty campy. Outside of Data, all his other roles just seemed like he had no range or depth (Check out Master of Disguise, Dude Where's my car?, and Out to Sea) Even his cameo on the Blacklist was bad (personal opinion). Add that to his general disdain for his fans and the STTNG culture in general. Never get to know your heroes I guess 🤷‍♂

[@connorgonzalez4023]

I can tell from the comments that I'm not the only one who had this thought, but I subscribe to the theory that Adam Soong either cloned himself or tampered with his own genetics. I think it goes a long way toward explaining not only their obvious identical appearance, but their similar personality traits as well, such as a fairly evident penchant for arrogance and a near-obsession with personal legacy.

[@gemini_starr]

Yes this! He’s been Aric Soong all this time. This I thought too.

[@mrpocock]

I had assumed that he engineered his lineage. The culmination of this was to clone the consciousness as well as the body.

[@beberivera7011]

I think this makes a LOT of sense!

[@bjorn00000]

The weird part about Picard season 1 is that it should radically change our perspective on Noonian Soong more than any other character. First, the main reason why he succeeded was specifically because he was "often wrong" - he only likely managed to create his androids because the Zhat Vash weren't keeping an eye on him since they didn't think he would succeed. He created something that Ira Graves or the Daystrom Institute probably had the capacity to do otherwise if they weren't being misdirected. Second (and disagreeing with #3!), during TNG we assumed that Noonian was a narcissist that created his androids to look like him when he was younger. However, Altan Soong would have looked *exactly* like Data at that time, but he wasn't living with Noonian (and his stepmother) on Omicron Theta and no one really seemed to be aware that he existed at all. This heavily implies something a little more tragic, where a dad missing his estranged son created a series of androids as a reminder of what he had lost and likely the mistakes he had made.

[@GoddessPallasAthena]

Hmmm . . . interesting thought and it is heartbreaking.

[@Omegavision79]

A scientist creating an android son as a replacement. Just like Astroboy!

[@DMSProduktions]

@@Omegavision79 I thought it was Analboy!

[@workinprogress8978]

Or it implies that the Soong family are in fact a series of clones and they continued that practice when making androids. Highly speculative, I know, but still. It would explain in universe why every major member of the Soong family look basically the same.

[@bjorn00000]

@@workinprogress8978 Or they're just unfortunately following a trope. They should have honestly gone through with their original plan of casting Keye Luke as Soong to be honest.

[@GoddessPallasAthena]

Thank you, loved this. Data is my favorite, and I LOVE all that we learned from Juliana on the episode "Inheritance." I love that creativity is so important to him, making him feel as close to humanity as possible.

[@TheMAZZTer]

I always assumed Adam Soong's reveal to have the Khan notes was meant to tie into how Arik Soong would be continuing that research later. It's Lore who calls Noonian "Often Wrong Soong" and claims it was a nickname from the colonists. I always took that with a grain of salt considering this is Lore making the claim.

[@eliezerrodriguez5863]

Yes it is because according to TOS Kahn's Reign ended it 1996 and the Kahn Project is dated 1996 so im assuming this is A secret project he was involved with to continue the eugenics program using Kahns DNA.

[@Anduril74871]

Given the conflict mentioned as "The Eugenics Wars" in Strange New Worlds evolved into World War III, we can probably extrapolate that Project Khan being picked back up doesn't mean Adam created Khan, but tried to continue that work which led to the massive world war that ended up with so many dead and governments ruined which would lead to Cochrane's warp flight.

[@knightcrusader]

I still personally believe that Arik and Noonian are in fact the same Soong. Arik planned to escape to the Briar Patch, where the Ba'ku planet is that causes them not to age. The Ba'ku also knew about positronic technology. It stands to reason Arik escaped prison again and successfully made it to Ba'ku and spend a few centuries there doing his research, and once he had something he took on a new name as a "descendant" and started his work building the androids.

[@347Jimmy]

A very plausible theory, and it ties things together nicely I like it, am adopting it

[@MasterSandman]

** Headcanon succesfully Updated! **

[@brookead]

Unless I am mis-remembering, at the end of the Enterprise 3 parter it was revealed that NONE of Soong's research was destroyed, including the genetic engineering stuff. It was locked away in a vault.

[@davidmcclenton948]

It was locked away. I just watched that episode this morning. lol

[@thebullet7874]

Thanks! Great video. It helped show the through-line of all the Soongs and their evolutions.

[@michaelpapp5518]

Seeing this list helped make the Soongs in PIC feel more a part of the Trek universe. Trek’s own Android Saga feels like a natural continuation, story wise, from what we’d seen in TNG.

[@jorgnocke991]

Great video thank you so much please keep up your amazing works stay safe end live long and prosper🖖🏼

[@richardjohnson9543]

I've come to the conclusion that all the Soongs after Adam are his clones. We know he had the expertise because Kory and her predecessors were artificially created. So he created another child but this time a direct copy, living long enough to raise it to adulthood. And when that clone grew old he did the same thing and this was done through each generation right up to Alton. It explains why they all look the same and have pursued the same goals without deviation for nearly 400 years

[@3frenchhens818]

If you haven't seen Brent Spiner's work outside of Star Trek, you're missing a lot of great stuff. He makes the scariest villains.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

One might even say... spiner-tingling.

[@RandomNonsense1985]

Even Devlin Bowman from Master of Disguise?

[@paulinebotting7317]

Long time fan of Brent Spiner and have always enjoyed his work. As for scary villains, look no further than his role of Sidney in the TV show Outcast.

[@GotoMaki4Micah]

recommendations?

[@HumphreyapplebySir]

With all the Soongs and Soong type androids Brent Spinner has played he might have played more characters on Trek than anyone else, and all whilst showing his own face.

[@Vader47000]

Ira Graves developed the method of transferring consciousness into android bodies, as shown in "The Schizoid Man." As he claimed to be the mentor of Noonian Soong, that might be how Noonian was able to do it with his wife. So unless Altan Inigo Soong somehow missed the notes of both his father and his father's mentor, it's more likely he evolved the techniques they developed. Heck, the Arretans apparently knew how to do it too, which Kirk's Enterprise discovered when they uncovered Sargon in "Return to Tomorrow." For all we know the logs for that mission served as the basis for Graves' work. Would have been nice to see the Picard writers could connect those dots. They should have kept the aborted story point that I think they wanted to introduce in "Enterprise" that would have implied/established that all the generations of Soongs were just clones of each other.

[@Chuck-PK]

There's something very... Mel Brooks'ish about the way he plays Noonien Soong.

[@roberthunter5059]

Amazing! I didn't know a single one of these major plot points!

[@antjuanwebster1386]

Ira Graves deserves an Honorable Mention. True he's not a Soong, but he was a colleague and possible mentor to Noonian. I think it says something that the two men's work paralleled each other. Ira Graves' final project was an attempt to transfer his own consciousness into a computer. A technique that Noonian perfected with Juliana Tainer's Android. And at the very least, Data did consider him to be his Grandpa.

[@Ellestra]

But we all agree that Soongs were cloning themselves and pretending those clones were their children, right?

[@Taral81424]

Great list, though I feel like the work and contribution of Ira Graves should have been included, especially given it ties into and predates the consciousness transfers of Tainer and Picard.

[@stevengalloway8052]

Excellent video about the Soongs, thank you... 👏

[@Anduril74871]

Man, taking Juliana into account, Picard's golem body shouldn't have been that much of a divisive shock. Also, there should be a list of things that Star Trek and Brent Spiner have forgotten about Data as it was very inconveniently forgotten that Data WAS programmed to AGE.

[@lovehawks2814]

I still think Alton Inigio Soong is actually Lore. Possibly cured of his mental instability by way of Maddox and a disembodied Data. "But he registers as human." Yeah, so did Juliana Tainor. Lore was in rough shape after Data point blank shot him. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that he was rebuilt a little more human.

[@ZeoViolet]

Unlikely, if the most recent trailer proves to be true to what is implied about Lore. Still, Lore wasn't at the Daystrom Institute. And his anger was real at the "Why didn't you just _fix me?!"_ Alton surely knew all about Lore, and would never have reactivated him and just left it at that, not without some serious work doing what their father should have long since gotten around to doing! In creating Data's emotion chip, surely Dr. Noonian Soong would have weeded out what he figured had gone wrong with Lore, before daring to give Data anything close to the same. The notes were probably laying around Soong's lab somewhere. It would be easier to get around to fixing Lore if you could ensure, first, that he's not going to be a threat to you in the meantime.

[@neiloxley7229]

I agree. Altan is in fact Lore. Altan Enigo = Alter Ego. Its the setup for S3.

[@viciousyeen6644]

Most important line from Soong when data met him, „I always had an escape plan, a way out“ I think it’s fair to believe he had secret clone-vats all over the quadrant as back-ups

[@SB-vj7sz]

Watch Night Court. He is an amazing character actor.

[@frankharr9466]

Wow. That is a lot I didn't know. Thank you.

[@shadow7901]

I wonder what exactly were the synthetics in season 1 of picard? Were they organic synthetic beings like artificial tissue or bio-organic? Considering one of them did an Vulcan mind meld.

[@ChipsAplentyBand]

Star Trek writers' room theme music: "I Write the Soongs"

[@JeremyWS]

The Soongs are one of my favorite Star Trek families. I mean how many times in fiction is an entire family all played by the same actor? I mean it quite a unique way to save on the expense of different actors, when think about it. I also really like the androids that were built. I like the idea of artificial life. I don't like the idea of transferring human consciousness into a golem (artificial) body, because it isn't the real you -- it's just a copy that thinks it's you.

[@DarkKnightBatman420]

Back in the early 2000s I heard that Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek named Khan Noonian Singh after a person in (Vietnam?) that saved his life. I have no more context. He simply hoped to run into him or be contacted afterwards. Ever since coming across this information I've asked around if anyone knows if they did meet again. No one responds or knows. Has anyone heard anything about this or has extra information? I'm just curious. Figured someone might know something.

[@danarseti]

Indeed, this is all true. I can't recall from where I got the confirmation of this info, but it was probably in one of the "special features" of the Blu-rays. This is also why Noonian (Data's creator) Soong's name sounds pretty much like Khan "Noonian Singh", because Roddenberry was hoping to connect with this fellow that saved his life. Sadly, Roddenberry never connected with the individual, never knowing what happened to him.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

5:55 Not entirely sure what an "advanved" android would be.

[@jabarumba]

Title card for #5 is spelled wrong. "Advanved" and not "Advanced." Love this channel.

[@hmmdoughnuts]

Arik Soong did not engineer the first batch of augments to be less violent. He was attempting to engineer this aspect out of the augments they had stolen them from cold station 4. When the augments heard that he was going to do this, the augments rejected his leadership.

[@aaronking5170]

Another Star Trek character that played a part in the Khan Program and Eugenics Wars was Flint from TOS season 3 episode "Requiem For Methuselah." Flint was a brilliant research scientist in the Eugenics Program. He was then Dr Green and supposedly was helped by Gary Seven in stopping Khan and his people from conquering Earth and taking the Botany Bay to look for a planet to begin a world of their own.

[@philmartinez1872]

Thank you …..,! Now you have to do one on all the dates in the time line when we went back in time and the over lap of time.

[@MikefromTexas1]

Great list.

[@jasonjimerson7046]

How timely is this being posted. The day this was posted, Datalore was on H&I, the first Star Trek episode that mentions the name Dr. Soong.

[@YTEdy]

It's remarkable how they can find 4 actors who look so much alike. Probably brothers.

[@FirstDan2000]

Great list. I did laugh at the typo though (advanved). You're not often wrong I guess that means I was watching thoroughly. We'll, I was actually. I was looking for horgons and NX enterprises.

[@sisterblissuk9253]

More soong,s in star trek , means more Brent Spiner 🥰

[@alessandrospampinato8917]

my personal theory is that all members of the Soong family are clones of the first one, Adam. a progeny of misfits with serious relationship problems

[@billkeithchannel]

Great analogy to YHWH (Yahuwah) and the _humans_ created in his "image".

[@marchofsaints]

This wasn't so much a "list of rare facts" as it was a chronological retelling of the known Soong family.

[@neiloxley7229]

Aaaahhhhh! Thought! Altan Enigo Soong was, in fact, Lore and that is the series 3 setup. And here we all were Altan Enigo (or whatever) was a clue for Alter Ego. Could we have been right?

[@JosephDickson]

I can’t wait to see how La'an Noonien-Singh builds upon this lore.

[@thespicemelange.1]

Brent spiner is one of the most underrated actors. He should get a lot more credit for the roles he's played.

[@Knight21030]

What other stuff did you like him in?

[@thespicemelange.1]

@@Knight21030 I really liked him in independence day. He was all right in the aviator. I like all his episodes in Picard. He's been in quite a few movies in supporting roles along with television and some on and off Broadway plays. He really is a good actor, he just doesn't get as much recognition as he deserves. He's kind of pigeonholed in playing Data but he did the best I think, more than anybody else could have done in that role.

[@Knight21030]

@@thespicemelange.1 100% agree on the fact that no one else could have played Data. Lol as soon as I hit "Enter" I remembered Independence Day. I DID like him in The Outer Limits episode "The Programmers" check that one out if you haven't seen it.

[@RJ.Farr8]

Thanks! 🖖

[@WhoCulture]

#11: They're distant relatives of the Songs.

[@MatthewSuffidy]

Well they keep getting more and more sinister as they go.

[@zelwojtek]

Nice one Ellie and Team 🖖🎩

[@somarriba333]

I wondered why Voyager didn't encounter or mention anything about the war when they time traveled to the 1990's. Or did they time travel to a time right before the war?

[@stevekirkpatrick1612]

The biggest question I've wondered is why Data was programmed with "multiple techniques" as he put it to Tasha. Why exactly was Data built?

[@AustynSN]

It's probably just another facet of Noonian Soong's obsession with making his androids as close to human as possible.

[@Meshamu]

Data was to be the suavest space gigolo there ever was. If the crystalline entity snafu didn't happen, if all had gone differently, and Soong had the resources to finish the emotion chip sooner.

[@dorientjewoller113]

Can we stop using title with "You didn't know about". Who says that we don't know certain things about a certain subject? Wouldn't it be rather more respectful to your follower to use the phrase "10 things you might not know about"?

[@NediSafa]

What about the songs? Blue Skies? Shadows of the Nights? Modern Major General?...

[@freelancenerd4804]

Brent Spiner if great at playing Brent Spiner…..in every movie he’s been in.

[@dredgerivers7730]

2:45 The walls of his cell, if I recall, were "covered" (ahem) with not too many different sheets, copied and shuffled from wall to wall, as if we WOULDN'T NOTICE.

[@colonelgraff9198]

A Soong of Fire and Ice

[@panelvixen]

The Soongs were probably indirectly responsible for how the Klingons looked in The Original Series.

[@GabePuratekuta]

Which is revealed in Enterprise as the last time Archer sees a Klingon is after one is deridged.

[@billkeithchannel]

Worf: It is something we Klingons don't talk about.

[@Rpu4]

Every time I watch this videos I am shocked how much stuff was censured when the shows aired in my country. I am anticipating Paramount plus ever so badly each time.

[@gordroberge3824]

To think if Brent Spiner took the offer for a bigger role on Night Court in 1986 & not The Next Generation,Star Trek would be a lot diffrent.😲

[@kamalalsb7292]

I just enjoy the fact that basically every member of the Soong family EXCEPT for Noonien was like, kind of evil? Like he was the black sheep of the family by not being an asshole.

[@robertmartinjr.4537]

Khan Noonien Singh was active during the 1990s the Eugenics Wars/Conflicts. True the Records were spotty but Kurtzman as usual had to mess up what came before in Star Trek Canon.

[@EphPhaThaINC]

And actually, if you listen to the context of which Data told Julianna. He did managed to tell her that she was an android. He was subtle in his explanation to her and she was hurt in the attack but then he got her back to sickbay and he “repaired her” and brought her back. It’s one of those ways where if Julianna played it back, she would put two and two together and figure out that she was an android.

[@MrWocnam]

The ban on genetics was the best thing for Eric, he realized his mistake in trying to perfect humanity, was emotions. They are the forefront of what we are. Instead of something we develop after logic and mathematics. Androids allowed him to approach the problem in the appropriate order. Proving that he had done it correctly, Data found emotion in many ways and feeling without the chip. That I think was proof that forcing the improvement as Lore did, caused him to fail as the augments did, because he didn't develop the necessary skills to use it. (compatibility issue aside, I think Sung was smart enough for them to be compatible. This was his nice way of saying you aren't experienced or mature enough.) Also the chip was meant to give him HUMAN emotions. Data 100% had Android emotions the entire show, everyone has seen it.

[@karencarter18042]

I want a family tree, cause there is some abandoned or ignored Soong sons and possibly daughters

[@welcometogeektown]

Head canon: Part of Adam's research allowed him to alter his genetic code in such a way that all of his male descendants were nearly identical clones, with very little or no input from the female genetic material, thus explaining why all of the Soongs look exactly the same.

[@jameszuniga7573]

Project Khan retcon is the one thing I don't like about Picard. Khan had already left earth by 1996. Also, No, Spock wasn't wrong. Just like people hate everyone being or knowing a Skywalker or Solo in Star Wars, we don't like retconing so every major moment in Trek is related to main/caused by Trek characters.

[@ajax_galaxy1701b]

How about 10 times actors wore aging makeup? Covers a range of temporal anomalies, hallucinations, and other situations

[@andrewmurray1550]

So this is the "long story" about Klingons lacking forehead ridges that Worf doesn't want to talk about in "Trials and Tribbleations."

[@kalaniproductions7862]

I wish that would have had Data re-emerge from B4. He was too valuable a character to just be blown up, but that's just my opinion.

[@Pureevil01]

With my sinister eyes I see it coming... They will give us a soong series as a "half- anthology -like" series. Every 3 episode a different Soong from the beginning till the last soong, with a Simpsons like intro. I do not know... Am I right the enhanced human beings like kahn, are involved with the Soongs too, right? Sorry for my bad English. Hahahuha! See you Soong! And every body! "The Soohooongs..doo do doo dodoo doo do..."

[@ShovelingJedi]

Yayyyy The Soong Family and Ellie Littlechild!!!!😏

[@MrAwol007]

love em or hate them The Soongs are epic :)

[@77sivart]

Aha. I always thought Khan Noonian Soong was a decendant of Dr Soong (Data's father). The more you know.

[@kristanmadalleon]

So technically Picard died and the current one is just a copy

[@Sparky8472a]

What about the giant battle flowers?!

[@Metalliumzer0]

Some spoiler warnings for Star Trek Picard would have been nice...

[@billmanzke758]

It would have been nice to include Data's daughter Lol.

[@Wesley_H]

Khan you hear the people Singh, Singhing the Soongs of angry men…

[@hezekiahramirez6965]

Number 11: AI Soong is secretly Lore. Also maybe he downloaded B4's matrix

[@jamesparker4471]

Soong was always wrong. Augments wrong because of superior ambition etc. Data and it's ambition to be human also illogical and dangerous.

[@wtk6069]

For one thing, the Soongs all have a strong family resemblance to one another.

[@combatking0]

With all the Soongs in Star Trek, you'd think it was a muusical.

[@SuperHippy7]

I had no idea it was spelled "Soong". Just assumed they were saying Tsung.

[@lykanbluepaws]

You should call this a list of things you Might not know, the only way not to know these things would be if you didn't watch the show.

[@christopherwilson7092]

I knew all this

[@andrewmurray1550]

yeah, but the painting didn't come naturally to Data...it took a blind man to each him, and "....worth a page or two in somebody's book....".

[@greyshadow9498]

"Thank you for your interest in the Soong of the Month Club. If you sign up for our Annual plan you can get 2 additional Soongs for free, just pay separate shipping. Or our Lifetime plan where shipping of your new Soong is always FREE!"

[@shanepye7078]

Thought this was “10 things we didn’t know”? All of these are mentioned in the shows...

[@reedallen4613]

Here's my question: was the ORIGINAL Soong an admirer of Sing, or was Sing an admirer of the ORIGINAL Soong?

[@tonyvillarreal1812]

In the episode Schizoid Man. We meet the man Dr. Ira Graves (W. Morgan Sheppard) who claims to have taught dr soong everything he knows. Even tells Data to call him Grandpa. He later puts his mind in data's body because he's dying. That doesn't work out so well so he eventually downloads everything he knows into the Enterprise computer.

[@grahamturner1290]

🖖

[@lordsjaak]

hm... i was really more thinking it was just one Soongs than offsprings of them

[@ArcaneEther]

"10 Things You Didn't Know" should have been written "10 Thing You Probably Know, If You, I Don't Know, Watch The Fucking Shows?"

[@danielsweeney6742]

Well we now know how Professor Moriarty becomes real in Picard.

[@scottmantooth8785]

*true*

[@shawnconder4984]

I figured Moriarty somehow ended up with his own mobile emitter like The Doctor's

[@danielsweeney6742]

@@shawnconder4984 I was thinking the same until I saw this.

[@durasaxon5131]

Missed any? Are you kidding? Are you a relative of the Soong's? +Durasaxon+

[@Frankie5Angels150]

Two things I hated about this Soong nonsense: 1) It tried embarrassingly similar to Khan Noomian Singh and 2) Soong is a Korean name, yet the character was not. Much of TNG was derivative and the writers seemed to phone it in. Enterprise, however, was a worthy prequel to TOS.

[@davidmcclenton948]

This list is solid, a side from from "Project Khan" Just bad writing on the part of Star Trek Pricard season 2 writers. There wasn't a Project Khan. Khan was just one of several leaders of the nugenix war. *sigh* 😮‍💨 I hate when shows can't write within canon. But anyway, It's wild to think our favorite Android has such a rich history in Trek Culture.

[@thugsfunny7594]

Dude as long as addicted trekkies keep demanding endless ST prequels and sequels, the writers out of spite will continue to trash classic and legendary characters, its a way punishing the fans 😒which is what most TV shows still do to this very today 💯

[@artonline01]

Wait Elle out with a video that is not highlighting the 10 worst something or other about star trek?

[@HepCatJack]

He bought a new Android body for a Soong and dance...