For seven seasons, actor Brent Spiner played the fan-favorite character Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The character was known for his insightful observations on the human consciousness as an AI system and gave valuable advice to Captain Picard. The actor reprised his role for the four films with the TNG cast.
Despite sacrificing his life in the film Star Trek: Nemesis, Data returns in the show Picard, albeit with multiple changes. Spiner was reportedly not entirely convinced when he performed the ‘Data taking over Lore’ scene in the show’s third season and was not sure how his performance would land.
Brent Spiner Was Unsure About Data’s Return In Star Trek: Picard
Brent Spiner played the role of Data for seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The actor also portrayed his evil twin Lore and their creator Dr. Noonien Soong. While Soong was set to be played by another actor, Spiner convinced the makers to play it, implying that Soong created both Data and Lore in his own image.
Spiner reprised his role in four films starring the TNG cast. Data sacrificed his life in Star Trek: Nemesis, but his consciousness was kept alive in a device, which was revealed in Star Trek: Picard. In the new generation show, Data exists along with the consciousness of Lore and Soong.
In season three of Picard, Data finally returns to full form after defeating Lore’s consciousness by giving him his memories. Brent Spiner was reportedly not convinced of his performance until the episode was aired and was received well by fans. He said in an interview with The Mary Sue,
I personally had no concept how this was gonna land. I thought it was sort of a risk. Terry [Matalas] pitched the idea to me. We tweaked it a little bit, [and] tried to understand it better, and I’m so happy that it’s being received the way it is.
The episode sees Data being threatened to be vanquished by Lore and while the crew tries to save him, Data manipulates Lore into taking his memories (which Lore did not possess and differentiated him from Data), thus merging himself with Lore’s consciousness.
The Network Was Reportedly Not Sure If Audiences Would Accept Similarly Dressed Data And Lore
While Brent Spiner mostly played Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series, he would also portray multiple other variants such as the Sherlock Holmes variant and his evil twin Lore. Spiner not only differentiated the two characters with the way he performed but also with slight tweaks in the costume.
However, when he reprised his two roles in Picard, he was wearing the same costume, which the network reportedly thought would confuse audiences during his pivotal scene. He said,
I know when we initially proposed that scene, there was some concern, I think, on the part of the network more than anyone whether they really wanna be in two different kinds of costumes so that the audience would be able to distinguish between the two characters.
And Terry and I really thought that, and I kept saying, ‘I really think when you see it, if you let us do it, you will be able to tell which character is which.‘
However, Spiner reportedly convinced them by saying that the difference lay in his performance as well and how differently he played both characters, which ultimately worked for the scene.
Star Trek: Picard is available to stream on Paramount+.
