Posted in: Paramount+, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Brent Spiner, Data, gene roddenberry, lore, paramount, Star Trek Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Star Trek: Data's "Picard" Arc Aligns with Roddenberry Vision: Spiner

Brent Spiner discusses how Star Trek: Picard Season 3's Data was the evolution of the character that Gene Roddenberry originally envisioned.

When Brent Spiner was cast as Data, the android who became U.S.S. Enterprise-D operations bridge officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, creator Gene Roddenberry envisioned a specific path for the character he sadly would never see realized in his passing in 1991, and fans wouldn't see final stage until 2023 on Paramount+'s third and final season of Star Trek: Picard. At the Saturn Awards, the actor, who is set to return to another iconic role in Bob Wheeler in Night Court, spoke to TrekMovie.com about the long game Roddenberry had for Data when he met him, his evil twin Lore, and his thoughts on Terry Matalas' pitch to Paramount for Legacy.

Data is an android with superhuman intelligence and strength but longs to be more human. The one thing that eludes him is emotions. While it was teased, he finally achieved them fully in the 1994 film Generations which he developed experiencing a crash course over four films before the character's first death in 2002's Nemesis. In Picard season one, it's revealed a version of Data existed in the storage of Dr. Alton Soong's drives begging for his former captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to experience death, to which he obliges. Little did Jean-Luc know, Alton would repurpose the disassembled Lore and combine his programming, Data, and B-4 (Spiner) into the final form in season three.

From 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' to 'Picard,' a Destiny Realized

When asked about Roddenberry's original vision and how it turned out, "I think he would think it all went according to plan because one thing he said to me from the very beginning when I first met him, he said, 'What I want is for Data is for him to get more and more and more and more human as time goes on, and by the end be almost human, but still not.' And that's kind of where we are, I think," Spiner said as the Star Trek creator was honored with his own Saturn Lifetime Achievement Award alongside the TNG cast. "He really is an evolution. I think what's interesting about it is that for years and years and years, I was trying to become Data. And now, in the latest iteration, Data has sort of become more like me."

The final form of Data emerged as the two battled inside the vessel's mind as Lore was "consuming" the essence of Data by absorbing his trinkets. Data's path of non-resistance leads to Lore's undoing since Data "gives" his twin his precious treasures; he becomes him as Lore fades away in a miraculous reversal. When asked what part of Lore is retained in Spiner's performance as final Data, "Actually, of the two characters—Data and Lore—I'm much more like Lore. I mean, Lore was easy to play because I am evil. So they said, 'Yeah, just let yourself go, be yourself.' So, okay!"

As far as any interest in Legacy, Matalas has been discussing with fans to nudge Paramount over, "I really don't even want to weigh in on it. It's hypothetical at the moment. I'd be happy to another [NBC's] 'ER' if they want to do it [laughs]," Spiner said. "I just like to work. Certainly, if they came to me and I wasn't doing something else, I'd love to do it." Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on Paramount+.

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