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An official version of this species is available in the The Next Gengeration Characters PDF.
Welcome to Ten Forward Fridays, where a new playable species is presented for the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game, filling in some gaps until official material can be released.
This month’s theme is Technological beings, with this week being the humanoid robots known as Androids.
No less than four different types of Android were presented in The Original Series. These were followed by Data and the other Soong-type Androids of The Next Generation. In most instances, these androids were incapable of emotion and some of the nuances of humanity. However, it was shown in TNG episode 7×10 Inheritance that by the end of his life, Dr. Noonian Soong had greatly improved his skills and techniques, and was able to make Androids that were virtually indistinguishable from humanity and capable of the full range of human emotion.
As Data was reportedly the first Android in Starfleet, it’s tricky playing an Android crewmember in The Original Series era. Instead, Android might not be an official member of the crew and considered more an elaborate piece of equipment than a person. Alternatively, an Android might be an honourary crew member or acting officer lacking a formal rank. An Android might even be a duplicate of a former crewmember created by the machine on Exo III or created by an advanced race beyond the Federation. In later eras, an Android could be a later creation of Doctor Soong or a scientist copying his designs, such as Bruce Maddox. Perhaps Doctor Soong took an assistant/ apprentice in his later years who parted ways before Soong’s death. Data himself proved almost able of creating Androids in The Next Generation episode 3×16 The Offspring; as the default timeline of Star Trek Adventures is set four years later he may have solved the design problems that befell Lal. Furthermore, the body of the Android Lore had been recovered, allowing extremely close inspection of Soong’s designs.
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