I really never understood why the crew was so critical of his art. Like the other bridge crew would have been any more proficient. Imagine it. Picard's technically proficient sonnets about horses and ancient architecture that leave him completely out of it. Troi's overly flowery ballad's about individual feelings. Riker's "Ode to the 'Bone"... "Ode to Spot" is technically proficient, focused, witty, and ends on a sweet, understated emotional turnabout. I maintain that it is a TRAGEDY that it was never appreciated in its time.
There is a factual error in "Ode to Spot." As all other cats and mammals, he gives _off_ heat mostly to maintain homeostasis. Therefore Spot is exothermic, not endothermic. Lizards are endothermic. As a poet, Data is allowed carte blanche to write what he wants, and that could even be an ironic twist. In fact, cats do follow the sun.
Was just about to say much the same thing. The guy is _amazing_ as an actor. Wish he'd do more, to be honest. Data is one of my favorite characters in all of Sci-Fi specifically because of Spiner's ability to convey so much with a character that most would've found prohibitively restrictive by its very nature.
I always loved it when Data Took Command, (also when Scotty took command in TOS). He was in stark contrast to when Spock or Tuvok took command, while emotionless and calculated, he actually considered the emotion of the crew, vs the Vulcans who found it annoying.
he was definitely very fair. he didn't always take their suggestions or let their upset inform his decision making, but he listens to their concerns and suggestions in full and gives them careful consideration. it certainly plays into what he considers to be the best possible option with the best possible outcome.
Warf had a warming up period when Data took command, but eventually came around. He initially thought he was being slighted and was irritated - almost infuriated by Data's commands.
Another huge part of his character is how he treats spot, his cat. Despite being emotionless he is clrearly caring for spot which is shown by him making spot the inspiration of his poetry, programming over 200 recipes for catfood to serve spots test as much as he could and by how he made sure Spot is save when there was a suspicion of him having aggresive episodes.
One of my favorite scenes is when Data is leaving the ship for a while and he gives instructions to Worf on taking care of Spot. He gies into detail about Spot's food likes and dislikes, playing with him, petting him, and telling him "he's a good cat." I remember thinking at the time that, for all the statements about Data lacking emotion, Data clearly had feelings for the cat. They were not as intense or visible as a human's, but he had his own version of them. In his quest to be more like his maker, he didn't appreciate he had developed emotions all on his own, they were just in his own form.
@@cubertmiso But he didn't have to say it. He could have left general instructions on the minimum amount of care necessary for the cat to be safe and healthy. Worf isn't human, so there was no need for him to attempt to be more human-like at that moment. He acted differently around people he deemed friends as well. So he was capable of changing. And in the episode where his right to autonomy was on trial, Picard brought out a little hologram of Tasha Yar that Data kept. He had no need to keep it if he was totally devoid of emotion. Even if he wanted to reflect on her memory, he had recordings of her in his memory bank. That episode was pointing at Data having some sort of rudimentary or alternative emotion system, even if he didn't fully recognize it in himself. That episode, and the one with the 3 little engineering robots that became sentient, and the one where Moriarty and his girlfriend became sentient holograms, all deal with where we draw a line between machines (or hologram projections) and sentient life. Where we draw the line with what constitutes an emotion is the same.
Data became acting captain of the Enterprise in 2367 when Picard was incapacitated due to a lack of REM sleep. TNG: "Night Terrors" Three years later, Data again became acting captain when both Picard and Riker were held captive by Arctus Baran. TNG: "Gambit, Part I", "Gambit, Part II"
Given what happened to Patti Yasutake, its time to do a "10 things you didn't know" about Ogawa. I only just found out, but I'm gonna be pushing for that video on *every* TrekCulture upload until it happens.
Thank you for this!! Data has always been my favorite ST: TNG character, hands down. His longing to be human gave us a kind of "outsider" view of our behaviors, quirks, etc. While I knew MOST of these, I had no idea that his well-known and endearing head-tilt was due to contact lens issues. I'm sorry he had issues (including discomfort) with those things, but am glad about the head-tilt. Always thought it was funny that he's one of the people who seems to have so many family members show up on the shows - his dad, mom, brother, (a few more later). daughter (OK, she didn't SHOW UP, he created her) and cat. :D I loved that he enjoyed artistic pursuits. By the time he begins to paint his own dreams, I believe he has become, at least visually, a real artist. I think, given time - like not dying in "Nemesis," he could probably have developed his own style in music, poetry and other endeavors. (Kind of ironic as I don't like generative AI, even though that kind of IS how Data works to learn artistic skills . . . 😑) In my head, I hope he is living a full life after Picard Season 3, hanging out with his old pals, maybe meeting he daughter, and I HOPE he is continuing his creativity. I know that he was going to therapy (with Deanna) and hope he continues to get help as he navigates his full and much more human emotions (to me, the chip was always kind of WEIRD). A part of me kind of wishes they did the "HEY Data is MUCH MORE HUMAN and in an older guy's body!" sooner in Picard, and wonder what could have happened had he AND Picard tried to help Soji, and in doing so, met his own half-brother.
The one big thing I couldn't get over with Data was how in the early episodes of ST:TNG he acted like a naïve rube and like everything was pretty much new to him - almost as if he was turned on for the first time a few days before "Encounter at Farpoint" But then in the Klingon Civil War episodes where the Romulans were smuggling supplies to the Duras sisters and Picard has to assign crew to command ships Data asks the captain why he didn't get assigned to a ship and then makes his case that he went to the academy and has been in Starfleet for many years (20 or more, I think). And that goes back to the earlier episodes where times like Geordi saying he has a "gut feeling" about something and that totally catches Data off guard, not having a clue what Geordi is talking about - one would just think that over 20+ years amongst humans and other specials Data would have encountered a few sayings or taken it upon himself to read up on the subject if he is planning a life where he'll be interacting with them regularly...
This is obviously a case where the early depictions of Data, and all of the characters, was not fully fleshed out or realized. However, A headcanon explanation could be that Data was not welcomed by the people at the Academy or his early postings, never truly eginning in depth interactions with people until his posting to the Enterprise and his friendship with Geordi...who may have seen some of himself in the lonely outsider.
@@Mr_Oggie I ten to think that when they found him he had to start from scratch all over again , so in a way by the time he was on enterprise he was the age of 15-20 mentally.
Without fabricating an "in-universe *sensible* retcon," I expect the reason was the writers had an initial concept and the character grew as their understanding Data through writing him grew. [In a small-scale self-published "textual comic" - the opposite of a graphic novel - I've a pair of characters who were first though of as throwaway props for a a few scenes. During a hostage situation, as I was writing, I saw Brad seeming to remember something, rush to Liu and vow to her, "I swear I won't let anything happen this time!" *I* didn't know why, *that* was what flashed through my mind. As I continued writing that and the next issue, it struck me WHY he said that, which elevated him to a vastly more complex and interesting character! I expect this is akin to the writers' handling, development and expansion of Data's character which, granting human literary foibles, may be well excused.] In the early eps, his NON-humanness was the emphasis but that grew to encompass his nearness- and desire to become- human.
Which is why he barely gets any work outside of Trek. Right? He did a good job building the character of data but he’s not some terrific actor, he’s kind of a hack actually. Have you ever seen him in anything else? A lot of it is broad characters, ridiculous accents, he’s kind of …. not a good actor. There’s a reason Patrick Stewart is one of the only actors who expanded beyond Star Trek. He’s by far the best actor of the group. And to be honest, he’s not magnificent either, he’s just very good. I don’t get why people love things and then have to exaggerate how incredible they are. I like his performance as data, too. But it’s not that original, it’s not that great, he’s a rather mediocre actor.
Don't tell Starfleet! Also, man, it always annoyed me that The Doctor had to fight so hard to be recognised as sentient, when the entire Federation already knew about Data and what he'd been through.
"Measure of a Man" is certainly a great episode when one views it as a self-contained story, but the hearing shown within is problematic... both in how it has retroactive effects on Starfleet history and how it doesn't seem to have led to any codified rules by the time of the EMH's hearing over his rights as an author approximately 15 years later. Data being Picard's Second Officer (i.e., thiird in command of the Enterprise, after Picard and Riker) shouldn't have been allowed if Starfleet saw Data as only an advanced computer governed by programming that they could deactivate and/or disassemble, so his rank & position should have already represented Starfleet's tacit acknowledgement of Data's status as a sapient being with rights.
There is a difference between Data who joined Starfleet as a sentient being in his own right and the doctor who was created as a piece of technology. The doctor never went to Starfleet academy and wasn't technically a part of the crew so much as a piece of Voyager.
@@darrekworkman5595 Sure, I take your point, but my thinking was more that the existence of Data should really have led to new thinking in what can be possible when it comes to sentience in artificial beings, regardless of their origin story.
There are huge amounts of non-sapient holograms so it would be understandable to group him in with the rest at first. They must have had there suspicions back in the alpha quadrant as they didn't just delete the EMH marks ones and gave them breaks and holodeck access.
Who wants to argue for one being the best, just acknowledge it’s an ensemble of the best. I would argue Michael Dorn carrying Worf for two different series is just as impressive. That’s what makes the show so great
I sometimes wonder what would have happened to his character if Denise Crosby had stuck around. Do we think Worf would have eventually been promoted anyway??
I recall a friend commenting how Michael Dorn - who could most easily slide into other roles after the show - seemed the most committed to the TNG role. (I mean, w/o the makeup/prosthetics, who'd recognize him? How could be "type-cast"?)
The contraction mastery issue is something I always point out. Data has difficulty with context and where contractions can fit into colloquial speech, but he doesnt have a total inability to use them. Basically he would have difficulty understanding when not to add contractions and end up botching a phrase like "Wherever you go, there you're."
*Sees title* Okay, well, we'll see about that. Edit: Good video, well put together, but no, there was nothing in here that I didn't know. I'm a little obsessed, though.
I have met Brent Spiner once in Houston and he was one of the most funny guys I have ever met in my life and I adore him and his role as Data so much! He has made my day on this particular day and I will always remember this what he has done for me!
Data isn't the only literary character who doesn't use contractions to separate him from others. Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie", T'ealc from "Stargate SG1", The Robot on "Lost in Space" to name a few.
Fun fact. In the original broadcast of Encounter At Farpoint (and an episode or two of the first season), Data did use a contraction when Riker first met him. This was later edited out to fit the narrative that he did not use contractions.
You should make an episode entitled "All the times a charachter said 'I assure you'". I bet it would be well over 100 times and it would take an hour at least to get through them all. Picard and Gul Dukat said it all the time.
Data is, to me, the most relatable "Autistic" character I've ever seen. He is one of the only characters I've ever come across that I could watch and go "that is literally me." A close second and third are Dr. Brennan from Bones and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock.
I am not autistic but I am a big supporter of rationality when making important decisions and I also love those three characters. We would all be better off if more people were like them.
Spock is a long time hero of mine too. But also because he had to learn how to deal with the emotion. Strangely the best way to do so is through rationality. 😂 🤷 My ability to use my head before my heart is a skill of which l am quite proud. It makes me look cool as a cucumber 😎 when everyone around has lost their minds but stuff needs done. 👍 Never stop admiring thinkers
I was reminded of a character in the 1960's secret agent comedy "Get Smart", Hymie the Robot, an android. Hymie was very capable, except he took everything literally. When Max said to him "Hymie, give me a hand", Hymie removed one of his hands and with his other hand gave it to Max.
Spiner was by far the greatest actor in TNG. The way he could portray several different characters simultaneously was incredible. Only a few of the greats possess this ability
Brent Spiner is very smart and super quick witted, another reason he was able to bring data to life to become one of the most beloved charter of the enterprise crew.
I didn't know that thing about his contact lenses and I hadn't parsed the scene with Lal to mean that he might be able to use contractions but just not perfectly.
Try me.....I'm less the two months from turning 84, and most likely, although being a huge sci/fi fan and about ALL I ever read after first discovering it in the early 50's, don't think I ever watched a full episode of Star Truck in my entire life! The movie, "Dark Star" is much more my style. BHE
In “Parallels” one of the variants of Data has blue eyes (just Brent not wearing the yellow contact lenses.) I wonder if the Android twins on Copelius chose their outward appearance, much like Lal, so some chose to look like their “father” and others chose to look more “organic” or something in between.
It would be cool if someday we could see Data meet the Doctor. Just as Data took inspiration from Spock in his creation, so the Doctor took inspiration from Data. Spock and Data met, why not Data and the Doctor? The Doctor had emotions all along, but had more limited functions and was severely limited for a while to just Voyager's Sickbay and Holodecks, whereas Data was his mirror in that he was able to go anywhere, already had creative subroutines and was 'fully functional', subroutines the Doctor only added on as the years passed. It would be interesting to hear them compare their personal journeys.
Even with Prodigy season 2 and now into the Academy show we *still* don't know if the other versions of The Doctor are still being used as slave labour as seen at the end of Author, Author.
To be fair to Torres, the Doctor's sentience was emergent over the course of many seasons and probably the result of what was originally an overflow error. Data was at least intended to be an individual from the start.
I believe it was in the episode Measure of a Man, where Data stated that his memory capacity is 800 quadrillion bits, which translates to roughly 100 petabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes. His operating system could also perform 30 trillion operations per second; by comparison, a good PC is capable of around 3 billion operations per second, but the fastest supercomputers today can do a quintillion calculations per second.
I also thought the Insurrection scene about the "flotation device" was quite silly, but I had never made the connection with the story of sinking i "Descent part II". Very interesting.
Given Torres' appreciation of Data at the time in Voyager, the EMH was still essentially seen as a "tool", his program had not really yet evolved with the additions the crew nor himself had made over the course of the series, after all, he was just a hologram programmed purely for emergency use now and then & be replaced with others as time went by, Data was built and programmed to evolve and develop his sentience over time, so poor ol' Holodoc was considered no more sentient than any of the simulated people in the holodeck...
Spiner's concerns heading into the role were crushed when he made such a deep character from the character's "limited" emotional tools. Karl Urban managed to excel in a similar way with Judge Dredd a decade ago. A fantastic actor can excel with little to work with.
8:40 Just a note to say that this moment between Data and Geordi has elicited two thoughts. 1) Why haven't I watched ST:TNG in decades? 2) Will other actors perform these roles and say these lines in future theatrical productions? It seems to me the entire Star Trek canon is profoundly amenable to live performance.
It always bothered me that Data's sentience was in question, even though Starfleet had granted him a commission as an officer. It would seem that Starfleet would have had this debate _before_ commissioning Data as there are legal ramifications.
I wouldn't call Questor "childlike" -- he was very much like Data, actually. Intensely curious and yearning to expand beyond his initial programming. If you can call Data childlike for those qualities, then Questor could be called childlike as well -- but otherwise it's not a description I would personally use. The Questor Tapes was an early sci-fi favorite of mine, btw, and remains so to this day. Robert Foxworth (who later married Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched) played him perfectly, and I see Questor as very much a beta Data (rhyme not intentional).
Interesting topic! I'd love to see a topic on Star Trek romances that went nowhere. Data and Yar, Picard and Crusher, Janeway and Chakotay, Spock and T'Pring, Bashir and Garak, just to name a few off the top of my head. Has a topic like that been done yet? Maybe I missed it, if so, a link (please?) would be appreciated.
Fun fact: Lore managed to replace Data for a significant period of time after the episode Datalore. How do I know this? Because the episode made it very clear the way to know the difference between the two is that Data is unable to use contractions, and towards the end of the episode the android purporting to be Data very clearly uses the contraction "I'm."
My head cannon is that B4 is one of those two early prototypes. Soong thought they at failed and abandoned them, but one, if not both, might have regained operation after the fact. That or the Romulans found B4 and got him working somehow.
Considering that long ago (and still today) people would pray to a human semblance to calm the seas because they saw it as a valid reminder of a non-local, unembodied sentience, there is a strong basis to think that treating a local, embodied intelligence as sentient would be psychologically reasonable. This, especially if by so doing people maintained a sense of wholesomeness in their dealings with such an artifact, which essentially exists as a highly mirroring synecdoche of their own being. It would be similar to the psychology involved in how we treat other people who, at the end of the day, do not offer any more direct proof of their own sentience than could be programmed into an artificial simulacrum.
I think with artificial lifeforms like Data and Voyager's EMH, it'd be a case-by-case basis. Sentience would be viewed on a "we know it when we see it" way of thinking. I think that'd make the most sense to me. I think this is how they would handle it. Make sense?
@@Chokah Yes, they did. In an episode of Star Trek Lower Decks they show an Exocomp being treated as alive & sentient, as a crewmember of the Cerritos.
To be fair, when the episode prototype aired, the voyager crew had not yet begun to except the reality of the doctor sentence, and to be honest he hadn't really pushed the issue that heavily yet although he certainly would more and more as time progressed, but prototype was a relatively early episode, so the statement about Data being the only sentient artificial life form in the Federation was chronologically true, and was also true by the standard of the time since the doctors sentience had not been recognized yet.
My apologies, TrekCulture. Normally I watch the ads before your videos to support you. But I skipped the 24 minute ad that just appeared because I want to watch your 12 minute video in under half an hour 😅 Anyway, love your content! LLAP 🖖❤
#2 Family. Um forgot ALOT. [His Family Tree]1)Lore-brother 2)Dr. Ira Graves (accepted as a grandfather on father's side, since he taught Data's father Noonian Soong), 3)Lull Data's daughter 4)Dr. Noonian Soong, 5)Juliana Soong (android of his mother) 6)B-4 other brother You do mention a few I listed but #2 should have been more about Data's family tree.
Spock, Data, Odo and Tuvok Same character standing in their crews I wished they'd done more with the Pinocchio nickname 'Sentient artificial life form' Data mentioned that he was going beyond his programming, the Doctor mentions that he updates his programming. The Doctor changes what he can do with his programming, but only Data does things outside his programming
Data and Spock were always my favourites 💛💙ode to spot is probably one of the greatest poems it’s right up there with blackadders baldrick’s poem the German guns
If you watch the progression of Star Trek, every time we run into Data he's always disassembled hidden somewhere in the federation. That tells me, they don'tthey don't trust him or afraid someone would use his technology
I’ve admired how Brent Spiner chose to do a sharp breath in before speaking. It indicates that Data only needs to breathe when talking because his voice based on humanoid speech mechanics.
It's interesting how a future with touch interfaces like the Enterprise computer that the only way to shut down and turn on Data and his brothers was to physically move a switch in the lower spine. I keep picturing it like a mains switch on a power line the way that Riker and Geordi move it.
I really got confused when you said - Data was a B-9 robot - I had to double check where I heard that b4. It seemed that I was wrong and the robot I was thinking about was the - AB9 Model, Class YM3 Environmental Control Robot, from "Lost-In-Space" I was thinking of - What a Goose I am.!! How could I confuse AB9 with B9 ----> farrk
I've never understood why the Bruce Maddox and Richard Daystrom were as touted as they were. In the Picard series, they simply needed a "respected cyberneticist." It did not have to be Maddox and he did not carry himself well in his tv appearance. They didn't even get the same actor. Even more so for Daystrom, his TOS appearance implied that he was going if not gone crazy, and on TNG they named a research center after him? Sloppy writing.
And to think Brent initially didn’t want the role because he didn’t think it would amount to anything. IIRC, he said he was just hoping it would pay the bills for a while.
At least one thing you did NOT know about the actor who played Data, Brent Spiner - He said he was not particularly a fan of Star Trek. It was merely an acting job for him, and most of what he enjoyed was the shenanigans on set with other actors between takes. Suffice it to say that his acting skill are at the very top, along with those of Patrick Stewart.
I love "Ode to Spot". It is one of my favorite poems of all time. I quote it sometimes.
I really never understood why the crew was so critical of his art. Like the other bridge crew would have been any more proficient. Imagine it. Picard's technically proficient sonnets about horses and ancient architecture that leave him completely out of it. Troi's overly flowery ballad's about individual feelings. Riker's "Ode to the 'Bone"... "Ode to Spot" is technically proficient, focused, witty, and ends on a sweet, understated emotional turnabout. I maintain that it is a TRAGEDY that it was never appreciated in its time.
@@pippiniyt I think you see it as I do. If you've ever loved a cat, you know everything about this poem.
I have a Christmas ornament of Data holding Spot that has the audio clip of this poem.
There is a factual error in "Ode to Spot." As all other cats and mammals, he gives _off_ heat mostly to maintain homeostasis. Therefore Spot is exothermic, not endothermic. Lizards are endothermic.
As a poet, Data is allowed carte blanche to write what he wants, and that could even be an ironic twist.
In fact, cats do follow the sun.
I love the idea that he named his cat "Spot". It shows a creative irony that lends him to be more human.
Let’s be honest; Spiner is arguably one of the best actors ever. He created a whole new character with body language and way of talking only.
Yup. Very underrated in the broader acting and film fan worlds, I'd say.
Jeffery Combs!!! From DS9. Every Weyoun is different in their own right.
He was able to make lemonade out of lemons
He made one of the most beloved characterscever
Was just about to say much the same thing. The guy is _amazing_ as an actor. Wish he'd do more, to be honest. Data is one of my favorite characters in all of Sci-Fi specifically because of Spiner's ability to convey so much with a character that most would've found prohibitively restrictive by its very nature.
I always loved it when Data Took Command, (also when Scotty took command in TOS). He was in stark contrast to when Spock or Tuvok took command, while emotionless and calculated, he actually considered the emotion of the crew, vs the Vulcans who found it annoying.
he was definitely very fair. he didn't always take their suggestions or let their upset inform his decision making, but he listens to their concerns and suggestions in full and gives them careful consideration. it certainly plays into what he considers to be the best possible option with the best possible outcome.
Scotty was an AWESOME captain!
Warf had a warming up period when Data took command, but eventually came around.
He initially thought he was being slighted and was irritated - almost infuriated by Data's commands.
Another huge part of his character is how he treats spot, his cat. Despite being emotionless he is clrearly caring for spot which is shown by him making spot the inspiration of his poetry, programming over 200 recipes for catfood to serve spots test as much as he could and by how he made sure Spot is save when there was a suspicion of him having aggresive episodes.
One of my favorite scenes is when Data is leaving the ship for a while and he gives instructions to Worf on taking care of Spot. He gies into detail about Spot's food likes and dislikes, playing with him, petting him, and telling him "he's a good cat."
I remember thinking at the time that, for all the statements about Data lacking emotion, Data clearly had feelings for the cat. They were not as intense or visible as a human's, but he had his own version of them. In his quest to be more like his maker, he didn't appreciate he had developed emotions all on his own, they were just in his own form.
i loved that, but it's just an android mimicking humans. saying things isn't emotions.
@@cubertmiso But he didn't have to say it. He could have left general instructions on the minimum amount of care necessary for the cat to be safe and healthy. Worf isn't human, so there was no need for him to attempt to be more human-like at that moment.
He acted differently around people he deemed friends as well. So he was capable of changing. And in the episode where his right to autonomy was on trial, Picard brought out a little hologram of Tasha Yar that Data kept. He had no need to keep it if he was totally devoid of emotion. Even if he wanted to reflect on her memory, he had recordings of her in his memory bank.
That episode was pointing at Data having some sort of rudimentary or alternative emotion system, even if he didn't fully recognize it in himself.
That episode, and the one with the 3 little engineering robots that became sentient, and the one where Moriarty and his girlfriend became sentient holograms, all deal with where we draw a line between machines (or hologram projections) and sentient life. Where we draw the line with what constitutes an emotion is the same.
Spots inputs were very much anticipated 😊
I love Data and Brent
And proved it! 😉
"Oh, you jewel!"
And when he confessed "performed adequately for over nine hours." :-O :-D
Perhaps this relates to why the colonists found his nudity objectionable. 😉😆
@@dennisanderson3895 That Data is a real machine!
I would love a voice pack for Siri for Google Assistant that's Data's voice.
I want Majel! The ship's computer should be telling me when to turn.
@@pippiniyt There is a way to make both, but I'm not gonna go into it here.
Data became acting captain of the Enterprise in 2367 when Picard was incapacitated due to a lack of REM sleep.
TNG: "Night Terrors"
Three years later, Data again became acting captain when both Picard and Riker were held captive by Arctus Baran.
TNG: "Gambit, Part I", "Gambit, Part II"
Given what happened to Patti Yasutake, its time to do a "10 things you didn't know" about Ogawa. I only just found out, but I'm gonna be pushing for that video on *every* TrekCulture upload until it happens.
🖖 totally support this idea
Nurse Ogawa was a great character.
i second this
i saw her name in the wikipedia necrolog and it made me sad
"Lower Decks" (the episode, not the animated series) was one of her best. The world won't be as bright without Patti in it. 🖖😔
@@bghoody5665I wish she was in more episodes I always liked her.
Data has always been, hands down, my favorite Star Trek character.
Mine too!! I love Lt. Commander Data!!! I adore him. 🥰
“Ode To Spot” is one of the greatest pieces of poetry ever written
“Ode to Spot” brings tears to my eyes every time it’s recited 😢😂😅
Thank you for this!! Data has always been my favorite ST: TNG character, hands down. His longing to be human gave us a kind of "outsider" view of our behaviors, quirks, etc. While I knew MOST of these, I had no idea that his well-known and endearing head-tilt was due to contact lens issues. I'm sorry he had issues (including discomfort) with those things, but am glad about the head-tilt.
Always thought it was funny that he's one of the people who seems to have so many family members show up on the shows - his dad, mom, brother, (a few more later). daughter (OK, she didn't SHOW UP, he created her) and cat. :D
I loved that he enjoyed artistic pursuits. By the time he begins to paint his own dreams, I believe he has become, at least visually, a real artist. I think, given time - like not dying in "Nemesis," he could probably have developed his own style in music, poetry and other endeavors. (Kind of ironic as I don't like generative AI, even though that kind of IS how Data works to learn artistic skills . . . 😑) In my head, I hope he is living a full life after Picard Season 3, hanging out with his old pals, maybe meeting he daughter, and I HOPE he is continuing his creativity. I know that he was going to therapy (with Deanna) and hope he continues to get help as he navigates his full and much more human emotions (to me, the chip was always kind of WEIRD). A part of me kind of wishes they did the "HEY Data is MUCH MORE HUMAN and in an older guy's body!" sooner in Picard, and wonder what could have happened had he AND Picard tried to help Soji, and in doing so, met his own half-brother.
The one big thing I couldn't get over with Data was how in the early episodes of ST:TNG he acted like a naïve rube and like everything was pretty much new to him - almost as if he was turned on for the first time a few days before "Encounter at Farpoint"
But then in the Klingon Civil War episodes where the Romulans were smuggling supplies to the Duras sisters and Picard has to assign crew to command ships Data asks the captain why he didn't get assigned to a ship and then makes his case that he went to the academy and has been in Starfleet for many years (20 or more, I think).
And that goes back to the earlier episodes where times like Geordi saying he has a "gut feeling" about something and that totally catches Data off guard, not having a clue what Geordi is talking about - one would just think that over 20+ years amongst humans and other specials Data would have encountered a few sayings or taken it upon himself to read up on the subject if he is planning a life where he'll be interacting with them regularly...
I felt many of the characters in the early TNG episodes seemed like naive, uninformed rubes. Almost infantile in some ways.
This is obviously a case where the early depictions of Data, and all of the characters, was not fully fleshed out or realized.
However, A headcanon explanation could be that Data was not welcomed by the people at the Academy or his early postings, never truly eginning in depth interactions with people until his posting to the Enterprise and his friendship with Geordi...who may have seen some of himself in the lonely outsider.
@@Mr_Oggie I ten to think that when they found him he had to start from scratch all over again , so in a way by the time he was on enterprise he was the age of 15-20 mentally.
Without fabricating an "in-universe *sensible* retcon," I expect the reason was the writers had an initial concept and the character grew as their understanding Data through writing him grew. [In a small-scale self-published "textual comic" - the opposite of a graphic novel - I've a pair of characters who were first though of as throwaway props for a a few scenes. During a hostage situation, as I was writing, I saw Brad seeming to remember something, rush to Liu and vow to her, "I swear I won't let anything happen this time!" *I* didn't know why, *that* was what flashed through my mind. As I continued writing that and the next issue, it struck me WHY he said that, which elevated him to a vastly more complex and interesting character! I expect this is akin to the writers' handling, development and expansion of Data's character which, granting human literary foibles, may be well excused.] In the early eps, his NON-humanness was the emphasis but that grew to encompass his nearness- and desire to become- human.
@@dennisanderson3895 so Brad is a secret assassin and told her I won’t slaughter these guys 😉
And all this is why Data is my fav character in all the Star Trek franchise.
Mine as well. And also because I look a little like him
100% a Genius of an actor❤❤❤
AMEN!!
Which is why he barely gets any work outside of Trek. Right? He did a good job building the character of data but he’s not some terrific actor, he’s kind of a hack actually. Have you ever seen him in anything else? A lot of it is broad characters, ridiculous accents, he’s kind of …. not a good actor. There’s a reason Patrick Stewart is one of the only actors who expanded beyond Star Trek. He’s by far the best actor of the group. And to be honest, he’s not magnificent either, he’s just very good. I don’t get why people love things and then have to exaggerate how incredible they are. I like his performance as data, too. But it’s not that original, it’s not that great, he’s a rather mediocre actor.
Don't tell Starfleet! Also, man, it always annoyed me that The Doctor had to fight so hard to be recognised as sentient, when the entire Federation already knew about Data and what he'd been through.
"Measure of a Man" is certainly a great episode when one views it as a self-contained story, but the hearing shown within is problematic... both in how it has retroactive effects on Starfleet history and how it doesn't seem to have led to any codified rules by the time of the EMH's hearing over his rights as an author approximately 15 years later.
Data being Picard's Second Officer (i.e., thiird in command of the Enterprise, after Picard and Riker) shouldn't have been allowed if Starfleet saw Data as only an advanced computer governed by programming that they could deactivate and/or disassemble, so his rank & position should have already represented Starfleet's tacit acknowledgement of Data's status as a sapient being with rights.
And don't forget the Exocomp incident.
There is a difference between Data who joined Starfleet as a sentient being in his own right and the doctor who was created as a piece of technology. The doctor never went to Starfleet academy and wasn't technically a part of the crew so much as a piece of Voyager.
@@darrekworkman5595 Sure, I take your point, but my thinking was more that the existence of Data should really have led to new thinking in what can be possible when it comes to sentience in artificial beings, regardless of their origin story.
There are huge amounts of non-sapient holograms so it would be understandable to group him in with the rest at first.
They must have had there suspicions back in the alpha quadrant as they didn't just delete the EMH marks ones and gave them breaks and holodeck access.
Who wants to argue for one being the best, just acknowledge it’s an ensemble of the best. I would argue Michael Dorn carrying Worf for two different series is just as impressive. That’s what makes the show so great
I sometimes wonder what would have happened to his character if Denise Crosby had stuck around. Do we think Worf would have eventually been promoted anyway??
I recall a friend commenting how Michael Dorn - who could most easily slide into other roles after the show - seemed the most committed to the TNG role. (I mean, w/o the makeup/prosthetics, who'd recognize him? How could be "type-cast"?)
What about Colm Meaney? Chronically underappreciated.
@@pippiniytuntil Lower Decks
5:39...I pause that scene from "Inheritance" everytime it comes on. Much like I did here. Fionnula Flanagan was absolutely gorgeous in this shot🥰
They all look better in the money shot position.
Lol.
The contraction mastery issue is something I always point out. Data has difficulty with context and where contractions can fit into colloquial speech, but he doesnt have a total inability to use them.
Basically he would have difficulty understanding when not to add contractions and end up botching a phrase like "Wherever you go, there you're."
This is great! It’s not just surface level stuff and actually goes in depth.
*Sees title* Okay, well, we'll see about that.
Edit: Good video, well put together, but no, there was nothing in here that I didn't know. I'm a little obsessed, though.
I thought that. Then it goes on to say things that we may have forgotten about him…😼
Amen. "10 Things Every Fan Knows About Data" is more appropriate. Would have clicked just for the novelty alone.
Thats not obsessed. Its just being a Trekie
I knew all these things about Data. He was my childhood idol.
I have met Brent Spiner once in Houston and he was one of the most funny guys I have ever met in my life and I adore him and his role as Data so much! He has made my day on this particular day and I will always remember this what he has done for me!
Self deactivating has been in the writing room in my head for many seasons.
Data was a good character and Brent a great actor.
Data isn't the only literary character who doesn't use contractions to separate him from others. Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie", T'ealc from "Stargate SG1", The Robot on "Lost in Space" to name a few.
Fun fact. In the original broadcast of Encounter At Farpoint (and an episode or two of the first season), Data did use a contraction when Riker first met him. This was later edited out to fit the narrative that he did not use contractions.
You should make an episode entitled "All the times a charachter said 'I assure you'". I bet it would be well over 100 times and it would take an hour at least to get through them all. Picard and Gul Dukat said it all the time.
I have Autism. I like characters who favour logic over feelings. That’s why I like Spock, Data and Seven.
Data is, to me, the most relatable "Autistic" character I've ever seen. He is one of the only characters I've ever come across that I could watch and go "that is literally me." A close second and third are Dr. Brennan from Bones and Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock.
I am not autistic but I am a big supporter of rationality when making important decisions and I also love those three characters. We would all be better off if more people were like them.
@@k_a_y_l_e_e Have you seen the "Fantastic Beasts" series? If so, I'm wondering of your opinion of Newt. I'm pretty sure he is Autistic.
@@marilynsobel7414 ^ this.
Spock is a long time hero of mine too. But also because he had to learn how to deal with the emotion. Strangely the best way to do so is through rationality. 😂 🤷 My ability to use my head before my heart is a skill of which l am quite proud. It makes me look cool as a cucumber 😎 when everyone around has lost their minds but stuff needs done. 👍
Never stop admiring thinkers
I was reminded of a character in the 1960's secret agent comedy "Get Smart", Hymie the Robot, an android. Hymie was very capable, except he took everything literally. When Max said to him "Hymie, give me a hand", Hymie removed one of his hands and with his other hand gave it to Max.
Spiner was by far the greatest actor in TNG.
The way he could portray several different characters simultaneously was incredible.
Only a few of the greats possess this ability
Can we also have 10 things we did know about Data? we just like to hear you say it
I knew every one of those things.....Data is my favorite character in the star trek world.
Data is adorable, I love him ❤️❤️❤️
Brent Spiner is very smart and super quick witted, another reason he was able to bring data to life to become one of the most beloved charter of the enterprise crew.
Data:becomes as close to being a real boy as possible.
Noonian:"I'm proud of you son" *taps cheek*
"The question of his sentience"
*Yells at TV in Picard's torture tunic from Chain of Command* THERE! IS! NO! QUESTION!
Shouldn't this video be called 10 things people who don't watch Star Trek don't know about Data.
I didn't know that thing about his contact lenses and I hadn't parsed the scene with Lal to mean that he might be able to use contractions but just not perfectly.
That's Data, not data.
@@holycannoli2 happy?
Try me.....I'm less the two months from turning 84, and most likely, although being a huge sci/fi fan and about ALL I ever read after first discovering it in the early 50's, don't think I ever watched a full episode of Star Truck in my entire life!
The movie, "Dark Star" is much more my style.
BHE
@@uyegidgg Since you're correcting your writing errors, Star Trek should also be capitalised because it's a proper noun.
Great video . TNG is my favorite show of all time
Gotta love the people asking for spoiler warnings for a series that ended over 30 years ago.
In “Parallels” one of the variants of Data has blue eyes (just Brent not wearing the yellow contact lenses.)
I wonder if the Android twins on Copelius chose their outward appearance, much like Lal, so some chose to look like their “father” and others chose to look more “organic” or something in between.
It would be cool if someday we could see Data meet the Doctor. Just as Data took inspiration from Spock in his creation, so the Doctor took inspiration from Data. Spock and Data met, why not Data and the Doctor? The Doctor had emotions all along, but had more limited functions and was severely limited for a while to just Voyager's Sickbay and Holodecks, whereas Data was his mirror in that he was able to go anywhere, already had creative subroutines and was 'fully functional', subroutines the Doctor only added on as the years passed. It would be interesting to hear them compare their personal journeys.
The most important thing to know about Data is that he is fully functional and programmed in multiple techniques.
Oh, that randy ol' Noonian!
Should i be ashamed that i knew exactly which scène that is?
IYKYK
But was it Noonian, or Juliana?
@@pippiniytTasha
Even with Prodigy season 2 and now into the Academy show we *still* don't know if the other versions of The Doctor are still being used as slave labour as seen at the end of Author, Author.
I mean, hopefully they'll clear it up in Academy...
To be fair to Torres, the Doctor's sentience was emergent over the course of many seasons and probably the result of what was originally an overflow error. Data was at least intended to be an individual from the start.
Thank you so much for brightening my day with the positive vibes!
How about some basic stats on Data:
Maximum runtime between charges?
Charging time?
Gigabyte capacity?
Strength comparison to a human?
Etc....
I believe it was in the episode Measure of a Man, where Data stated that his memory capacity is 800 quadrillion bits, which translates to roughly 100 petabytes, or 1,000,000 gigabytes. His operating system could also perform 30 trillion operations per second; by comparison, a good PC is capable of around 3 billion operations per second, but the fastest supercomputers today can do a quintillion calculations per second.
Oh no! Now Data's looking Dated!
I also thought the Insurrection scene about the "flotation device" was quite silly, but I had never made the connection with the story of sinking i "Descent part II". Very interesting.
EXCELLENT! Many thanks TC. Very well constructed vid. Much learned.
Given Torres' appreciation of Data at the time in Voyager, the EMH was still essentially seen as a "tool", his program had not really yet evolved with the additions the crew nor himself had made over the course of the series, after all, he was just a hologram programmed purely for emergency use now and then & be replaced with others as time went by, Data was built and programmed to evolve and develop his sentience over time, so poor ol' Holodoc was considered no more sentient than any of the simulated people in the holodeck...
Spiner's concerns heading into the role were crushed when he made such a deep character from the character's "limited" emotional tools. Karl Urban managed to excel in a similar way with Judge Dredd a decade ago. A fantastic actor can excel with little to work with.
4:01 Spinner truely is a legend.
Excellent video! There is much about Data's pre-Enterprise past that I would like to know more of, though.
My fav Mr. Data quote, “I am FULLY functional”. … If you know, you know… 😂 ❤
8:40 Just a note to say that this moment between Data and Geordi has elicited two thoughts. 1) Why haven't I watched ST:TNG in decades? 2) Will other actors perform these roles and say these lines in future theatrical productions? It seems to me the entire Star Trek canon is profoundly amenable to live performance.
As Always, Excellent Video. Please stay safe and healthy 🙏
It always bothered me that Data's sentience was in question, even though Starfleet had granted him a commission as an officer. It would seem that Starfleet would have had this debate _before_ commissioning Data as there are legal ramifications.
I wouldn't call Questor "childlike" -- he was very much like Data, actually. Intensely curious and yearning to expand beyond his initial programming. If you can call Data childlike for those qualities, then Questor could be called childlike as well -- but otherwise it's not a description I would personally use. The Questor Tapes was an early sci-fi favorite of mine, btw, and remains so to this day. Robert Foxworth (who later married Elizabeth Montgomery of Bewitched) played him perfectly, and I see Questor as very much a beta Data (rhyme not intentional).
Superb video, thanks for the great work.
what I don't understand is, why Data thinks humans are oh-so-interesting in the first place
Brent Spiner's best work was a recurring role on Night Court.
As to the " when is AI sentient?" question. I do feel that owning a cat should be the benchmark.
Most of this was stuff any fan would know from watching the complete series and movies. Still nice to visit the past.
Don't forget Data's relation to his cat Spot.
Interesting topic! I'd love to see a topic on Star Trek romances that went nowhere. Data and Yar, Picard and Crusher, Janeway and Chakotay, Spock and T'Pring, Bashir and Garak, just to name a few off the top of my head. Has a topic like that been done yet? Maybe I missed it, if so, a link (please?) would be appreciated.
Fun fact: Lore managed to replace Data for a significant period of time after the episode Datalore. How do I know this? Because the episode made it very clear the way to know the difference between the two is that Data is unable to use contractions, and towards the end of the episode the android purporting to be Data very clearly uses the contraction "I'm."
My head cannon is that B4 is one of those two early prototypes. Soong thought they at failed and abandoned them, but one, if not both, might have regained operation after the fact. That or the Romulans found B4 and got him working somehow.
Considering that long ago (and still today) people would pray to a human semblance to calm the seas because they saw it as a valid reminder of a non-local, unembodied sentience, there is a strong basis to think that treating a local, embodied intelligence as sentient would be psychologically reasonable. This, especially if by so doing people maintained a sense of wholesomeness in their dealings with such an artifact, which essentially exists as a highly mirroring synecdoche of their own being. It would be similar to the psychology involved in how we treat other people who, at the end of the day, do not offer any more direct proof of their own sentience than could be programmed into an artificial simulacrum.
Show this video to Alex Kurtzman and his team... Thanks.
I think with artificial lifeforms like Data and Voyager's EMH, it'd be a case-by-case basis. Sentience would be viewed on a "we know it when we see it" way of thinking. I think that'd make the most sense to me. I think this is how they would handle it. Make sense?
Did Starfleet ever make a ruling on the Exocomps?
@@Chokah
Yes, they did. In an episode of Star Trek Lower Decks they show an Exocomp being treated as alive & sentient, as a crewmember of the Cerritos.
To be fair, when the episode prototype aired, the voyager crew had not yet begun to except the reality of the doctor sentence, and to be honest he hadn't really pushed the issue that heavily yet although he certainly would more and more as time progressed, but prototype was a relatively early episode, so the statement about Data being the only sentient artificial life form in the Federation was chronologically true, and was also true by the standard of the time since the doctors sentience had not been recognized yet.
Loved the show
My apologies, TrekCulture.
Normally I watch the ads before your videos to support you. But I skipped the 24 minute ad that just appeared because I want to watch your 12 minute video in under half an hour 😅 Anyway, love your content! LLAP 🖖❤
1:39 of course they weren't too impressed, he was fully functional in every way. 🤣
#2 Family. Um forgot ALOT. [His Family Tree]1)Lore-brother 2)Dr. Ira Graves (accepted as a grandfather on father's side, since he taught Data's father Noonian Soong), 3)Lull Data's daughter 4)Dr. Noonian Soong, 5)Juliana Soong (android of his mother) 6)B-4 other brother
You do mention a few I listed but #2 should have been more about Data's family tree.
I always thought the contractions thing was weird.
I love Seàn Ferrick
The whole daughter arc in Picard blew my circuits.
I almost tend to think of the Coppelius androids as nephews and nieces of Data since it was Alton who created them.
I remember Star Trek Online outright claiming Data was captain of the 1701-F before they removed that bit and retconned it.
Spock, Data, Odo and Tuvok
Same character standing in their crews
I wished they'd done more with the Pinocchio nickname
'Sentient artificial life form' Data mentioned that he was going beyond his programming, the Doctor mentions that he updates his programming.
The Doctor changes what he can do with his programming, but only Data does things outside his programming
Spock did not lack emotions. He knew how to control them.
True. But his human half often tormented him.
I love him in Independence Day.
Data and Spock were always my favourites 💛💙ode to spot is probably one of the greatest poems it’s right up there with blackadders baldrick’s poem the German guns
When I was a kid watching Star Trek in the 1960s, Spock was my idol... he was so scientifically brilliant and could fix ANYTHING!
11. Data was one of a few characters that wasn't the object of Riker's raging libido. Probably.
Brent is perhaps one of the greatest actors of this generation. NO other actor has so BECOME THE CHARACTERS they portrayed.
I need that Data poetry book.
If you watch the progression of Star Trek, every time we run into Data he's always disassembled hidden somewhere in the federation. That tells me, they don'tthey don't trust him or afraid someone would use his technology
data is proberply one of my favorite crew on tng
I’ve admired how Brent Spiner chose to do a sharp breath in before speaking. It indicates that Data only needs to breathe when talking because his voice based on humanoid speech mechanics.
It's interesting how a future with touch interfaces like the Enterprise computer that the only way to shut down and turn on Data and his brothers was to physically move a switch in the lower spine. I keep picturing it like a mains switch on a power line the way that Riker and Geordi move it.
I remember The Robot on Lost in Space. Sometimes Will Robinson had to remove its power-pack when it started to act crazy!😀
I really got confused when you said - Data was a B-9 robot - I had to double check where I heard that b4. It seemed that I was wrong and the robot I was thinking about was the - AB9 Model, Class YM3 Environmental Control Robot, from "Lost-In-Space" I was thinking of - What a Goose I am.!!
How could I confuse AB9 with B9 ----> farrk
Quick question where did you get that Starfleet uniform at the end of the video?
I've never understood why the Bruce Maddox and Richard Daystrom were as touted as they were. In the Picard series, they simply needed a "respected cyberneticist." It did not have to be Maddox and he did not carry himself well in his tv appearance. They didn't even get the same actor. Even more so for Daystrom, his TOS appearance implied that he was going if not gone crazy, and on TNG they named a research center after him? Sloppy writing.
I believe that the space craft crew
would see me like Lt.Worf and Ensign CRUSHER, with potentials being Lt CMD Chekotay....
And to think Brent initially didn’t want the role because he didn’t think it would amount to anything. IIRC, he said he was just hoping it would pay the bills for a while.
It could be the lighting, but also lens could be going cloudy on the one side.
At least one thing you did NOT know about the actor who played Data, Brent Spiner -
He said he was not particularly a fan of Star Trek. It was merely an acting job for him, and most of what he enjoyed was the shenanigans on set with other actors between takes.
Suffice it to say that his acting skill are at the very top, along with those of Patrick Stewart.
Great video
Loved Data's daughter.
Don't miss the AMC series "Humans" (may be on Hulu or Netflix)