12 Most Heartbreaking Moments In Star Trek
6. Lal Shuts Down - The Next Generation 'The Offspring'
Members of Data's family have a very sad tendency to have premature ends. While Lore and B-4 barely warrant sympathy for their shutdowns, the sad fate of Data's daughter Lal is a different matter entirely. Her only sin in living was feeling and becoming more human than even her father had intended or hoped.
Much like the audience watching, her emotions are too much for her to handle. Unlike the audience watching, these emotions proceed to wear her wires down to the point of no recovery.
Lal had been a point of contention for Picard, Starfleet and Data. While the academic arguments about what constitutes the right to life run riot around them, Data and his daughter simply attempt to exist and learn. She is given a job in Ten Forward, no better place to observe human behavior.
She emulates, she accepts and she feels. This is a mystery to Data and to the audience. Perhaps a simple twist of fate, that Data could create what he couldn't become himself. The pain though is very real as she begins to shut down. Data may not feel love as she feels love but the audience can feel it for him.
He absorbs her experiences into his own and he returns to his duty shift, ready to begin another day. Those closest to him though - they feel it for him and they mourn.