DREAMS OF BAD ROBOTS

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Fionnula Flanagan played Eloise Hawking in only 7 LOST episodes. As discussed previously, her character seemed to have complete knowledge of everything both on and off the island, including the unique island properties and time travel.

She also guest starred in Star Trek:TNG in the episode called "Inheritance." She played a scientist, Juliana Tainer, on a planet which has its core that is cooling which would cause the death of all the inhabitants. The Enterprise is sent to the planet to find a solution.  Juliana claims to be the former wife of Data's creator, Professor Soong. 

Data can only find one Juliana in his memory, a Juliana O'Donnell. She explains that protests from her mother caused them to elope. She explains that his early memories were wiped and replaced with memories of the colonists and he was about to be reactivated when the Crystalline Entity attacked.

During the episode, Data observes remarkable qualities about Juliana, and asks Dr. Crusher to examine her medical records. That is interrupted when Data is called to the planet to repair the plasma infusers, the solution to the core cooling problem.  Data and Juliana complete their task and return to the transport point, but find the pattern enhancers have fallen down a cliff. They must jump to safety. When Data jumps, he takes Juliana over the cliff with him. Data lands safely, but Juliana is knocked unconscious and her arm becomes detached from her torso. Data observes a network of circuitry and it becomes apparent that Juliana is an android.

Juliana is unaware that she is an android. After the Crystalline Entity's attack, Juliana was injured so Professor Sooong created a new android and used synaptic scanning to place Juliana's memories into it. After the real Juliana died, Soong activated the android and she awoke believing she was human. She later chose to leave Soong and he let her go (after installing the chip), sadly admitting that the real Juliana would have left him too. Soong pleads with Data to let her have her humanity.

Data replaces the chip. When he closes Juliana's head, she awakens. He tells her that she fell from the cliff and broke her arm, but Dr. Crusher has repaired it, and everything is fine. Data kept the secret of Juliana's humanity.

There are similar elements to this story and the LOST saga. The island survivors were attacked by a smoke monster. Many of them were wounded or killed. Their humanity was put into question: how did they view themselves as persons of faith or science.

This raises a new theory and premise to the show. Just in this Star Trek episode, what if the main characters thought they were human but were not. This goes beyond the idea that the 815 passengers became spirits after the plane crash caused them all to die. What if all these "humans with personal issues" were actually defective robots. Instead of Dorothy teleported to a fantasy world of Oz, these androids were sent to the island, a fantasy world that mimicked the humanity that they were supposed to have been programmed with; a Westworld reconditioning camp for computerized beings.

Human beings are in essence highly complex organic computer systems. It is easy to transfer those elements into a science fiction story world. What are the dreams of androids who don't know they are computer units? What are their fears? What happens when their prime programming gets corrupted? Can they be saved? Or do they get tossed away to be recycled?

If the LOST characters were androids being shipped away from their society, it would be a brand new point of view for the series.