Data (Star Trek)

Template:Star Trek character Data is a character, portrayed by Brent Spiner, in the Star Trek fictional universe. Designed by Doctor Noonien Soong, Lieutenant Commander Data is an android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the starships USS Enterprise-D and USS Enterprise-E. Data appears throughout the Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) television series bar one episode named 'Family', and in the four films based on The Next Generation.

Data is a sentient artificial lifeform, or rather cybernetic or even technological being designed to resemble a human. His positronic brain allows him impressive computational capabilities, as to 60 trillion operations per second (60 TRIPS per sec.), at 800 quadrillion computational rate speed with the ability to perform all human activities, but at much more powerful 'output' in physical and mental terms. However, he has ongoing difficulties understanding various aspects of human behavior, and is unable to feel emotions per se, or in physical sense, for not having been programmed with them, or understand certain human idiosynchracies, until he was provided with an "emotion chip" designed by his father in Star Trek: Generations.

Dramatically, Data is a very rough counterpart to Spock from Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) in that he has a rational, analytical mind and finds humans hard to understand, and through his attempts to understand human behavior, the series' creators comment on certain aspects of humanity by that. Unlike Spock, however, he is drawn to the concept of humanity, constantly trying to emulate humans in all forms, at his endless desire to 'aspire' and evolve. Coincidentally, Data was one of the few non-Vulcans to master the Vulcan nerve pinch.

Data's name is properly pronounced (in IPA) /'dei.tə/ (or day-tuh) as opposed to the alternative pronunciations /'dɑ:.tə/ (dah-ta)or /'dæt.ə/ (datt-a). When Data corrects Dr. Katherine Pulaski for using the latter pronunciation, Pulaski asks, "What's the difference?" Data replies, "One is my name, the other is not".

Character arc

At the beginning of The Next Generation, Data was aware of some of his backstory: that he had been found on Omicron Theta after an attack by the Crystalline Entity and reactivated by Starfleet personnel. Data went to Starfleet Academy and served in Starfleet, being assigned to the Enterprise prior to Picard being given command of that ship.

Starting with the episode "The Naked Now", Data became sexually involved with Tasha Yar, however this relationship seemed not to have lasted until Yar's death, on her outright refusal to admit, 'that it ever happened', in view of both their 'intoxication' by some virus. In "Datalore" he discovers his "evil" brother, Lore and learns he was not the first android their father Dr Soong had made, whom he no less has to literally fight at the end, to prevent him from destroying the ship, and sends him into space. In "The Measure of a Man," Data was legally declared an autonomous individual as opposed to Starfleet property, 'a toaster', yet is not named a full sentient being as merely free officer, able to choose not to get disassembled as test subject for his positronic brain. Data attempted to reproduce in the episode "The Offspring" by creating a daughter, Lal, from his own neural net matrix, who but unfortunately died by the end of the story, on her emotional overload in the face of having to be forced away from him. In the episode "Brothers", Data finds his creator Dr. Soong, on the activation of his homing device, only to meet again with Lore who was believed dead, by the same means, and then see him steal the emotion chip made by Soong meant for himself. Data experienced dreaming for the first time in the episode "Birthright", as so generated by a plasma shock to his system, in which he sees his younger father again, telling him, 'to be as free as a bird'. In "Inheritance" he meets his 'mother', Dr Tainer, who turns out to be another 'Soong-type' android created by his father on her death, and finds it hard not to tell her about it, but on then middle-aged Soong's request he meets once again in a holodeck simulation, 'to let her live out her days believing to be human', as she thus could have been one of his own kind, he respects his wishes and she departs his life forever. Later in "Descent" he experiences "negative" emotions, as so subversively generated by his brother Lore, by tapping into that stolen chip to corrupt his ethical program, with whom he thus unwittingly reunites, 'to destroy the Federation' under his full control, until afterwards having regained his better sense of right and wrong, he disassembles Lore after a short fight, who tells him before he deactivates him, 'that without him, he would never feel emotions again'. Until the next film.

In the film Star Trek: Generations, Data finally installs that no less damaged emotion chip retrieved from Lore, and experiences the full scope of joy and 'humour', crippling fear in the face of danger, and overwhelming guilt at his failure to save his friend Geordi, which results in the chip to overload suddenly and fuse into his neural net, he seems however to be able to control later on much better. The Borg tried to use this emotion chip to manipulate him in the film Star Trek: First Contact, in which the Borg Queen could activate it against his will, before she tempted him with live flesh grafted onto his arm to generate physical sensations, to comply with her while still her unwilling captive, before she then seduces him more successfully after his failed escape attempt, and even proceeds to see him turned into a full 'human', with more skin grafted onto his face besides, before he has to kill her to end the dire situation, after having been tempted to join her for, '0.68 seconds', on their sexual encounter, an apparent 'eternity' for an android. In the film Star Trek: Insurrection he is seemingly malfunctioning after been shot at during a duck blind mission, causing his safety protocols to take over his cognitive functions, before he can be safely retrieved by Capt Picard, in the face of an entire attack force, thereby enabled to be returned to his usual functioning self. In the film Star Trek: Nemesis Data discovers another older brother, the childlike B-4, into whom he transfers his entire own memory engrams to help him evolve, prior to sacrificing himself to see Picard in the face of only one of them able to be beamed back aboard the USS Enterprise to be saved, and the crew from total destruction thus, after a lethal stand-off with the Reman Shinzon, by destroying his very ship the Scimitar, along with himself, so seen as symbolic act as to his ultimate encounter with death, thus having achieved full humanity by that, to give his life freely for humans, he had tried to emulate upon his known reactivation in 2338, for a mere 41 years of his own to his death in 2379.

Guest Appearances

Brent Spiner reprises his role of Data in the Star Trek Enterprise series finale "These Are The Voyages..." in a off-screen speaking role.

Brent Spiner on Data

Brent Spiner has noted that he has visibly aged out of the role and that it would be implausible for him to continue playing an android whose appearance should not change with time (although the seventh-season episode "Inheritance" establishes that Data has an aging program that can change his appearance). While Spiner has often expressed affection for Data and appreciation for his career within Star Trek, he has also made it quite clear he is ready to move on.

Scholarly and fan reception

Fans and scholars have compared Data to Spock from the original series, though Data's desire to comprehend and emulate humanity contrasts with Spock's disdain for his perceived human shortcomings.

In another vein, robotics engineers regard Data (along with "R2-D2 or C-3PO-like devices from the Star Wars movies) as the pre-eminent face of robots in the public's perception of their field.

See also

• Man vs. Machine
• Emergency Medical Hologram - Data's metaphorical, digital counterpart in Star Trek: Voyager

External links

• Data at Memory Alpha
• Data's biography at the official Star Trek website
• An Android for All Seasons. Star Treks science consultant Andre Bormanis about the creation of Data.
• Spot at Memory Alpha