Data (Star Trek)
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant Commander Data (icon ) is a character in the fictional Star Trek
universe portrayed by actor Brent Spiner
. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation
and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact
, Star Trek: Insurrection
, and Star Trek Nemesis.
Designed and built by Doctor Noonien Soong, Data is a sentient android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the starship
s USS Enterprise-D
and USS Enterprise-E
. His positronic brain
allows him impressive computational capabilities. Data experienced ongoing difficulties during the early years of his life with understanding various aspects of human behavior
and was unable to feel emotion
or understand certain human idiosyncrasies, inspiring him to strive for his own humanity. This goal eventually led to the addition of an "emotion chip", also created by Soong, to Data's positronic net. Though Data's strive for humanity and desire for human emotion is a significant plot point (and source for humor) throughout the series, he continually shows a nuanced sense of wisdom, sensitivity, and curiosity.
Data is in many ways a successor to the original Star Trek
s Spock
(Leonard Nimoy
), in that the character offers an "outsider's" perspective on humanity.
Data has a storage capacity of 88.81784 PB
(800 quadrillion bits) and a total linear computational speed of 60 THz (60 trillion operations per second).
told Brent Spiner
that over the course of the series, Data was to become "more and more like a human until the end of the show, when he would be very close, but still not quite there. That was the idea and that's the way that the writers took it." Spiner felt that Data exhibited the Chaplinesque
characteristics of a sad, tragic clown. To get into his role as Data, Spiner used the character of Robbie the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet
as a role model.
Commenting on Data's perpetual albino-like appearance, he said: "I spent more hours of the day in make-up than out of make-up", so much so that he even called it a way of method acting
. Spiner also portrayed Data's manipulative and malignant brother Lore (a role he found much easier to play, because the character was "more like me"), and Data's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong. Additionally, he portrayed another Soong-type android, B-4, in the film Star Trek: Nemesis. Spiner said his favorite Data scene takes place in "Descent", when Data plays poker on the holodeck with a re-creation of the famous physicist Stephen Hawking
, played by Hawking himself.
Spiner reprised his role of Data in the Star Trek: Enterprise
series finale "These Are the Voyages..." in an off-screen speaking part. Spiner felt that he had visibly aged out of the role and that Data was best presented as a youthful figure.
from 2341–45 (he describes himself as "Class of '78" to Riker in "Encounter at Farpoint", but that may refer to the stardate and not the year that he graduated) and then served in Starfleet
aboard the USS Trieste. He was assigned to the Enterprise under Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2364. In "Datalore", Data discovers his amoral brother, Lore, and learns he was not the first android constructed by Soong. Lore fails in an attempt to betray the Enterprise to the Crystalline Entity, and Data beams
his brother into space at the episode's conclusion.
In "Brothers", Data reunites with Dr. Soong (also portrayed by Spiner). There he meets again with Lore, who steals the emotion chip Soong meant for Data to receive. Lore then fatally wounds Soong. Lore returns in the two-part episode "Descent", using the emotion chip to control Data and make him help with Lore's attempt to make the Borg
entirely artificial life forms. Data eventually deactivates Lore, and recovers, but does not install the damaged emotion chip.
The episode "In Theory" traces Data's literary roots to Isaac Asimov
's and Philip K. Dick
's exploration of the nature of artificial intelligence
and the nature of reality
and humanity
. The episode reflects the ideas created in such works as Bicentennial Man and Asimov's Robot Series
(which introduced the Three Laws Of Robotics
).
In "The Measure of a Man", Data is legally declared an autonomous individual, as opposed to Starfleet property.
In "All Good Things...", the two-hour concluding episode of The Next Generation, Captain Picard travels between three different times. The Picard of 25 years into the future goes with La Forge to seek advice from Professor Data, a luminary physicist who holds the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University
.
Although several androids, robots and artificial intelligences were seen in the original Star Trek series, Data was often referred to as being unique in the universe as being the only sentient android known to exist (save the other androids created by Soong).
In the film Star Trek Generations, Data finally installs the emotion chip he retrieved from Lore, and experiences the full scope of emotions.
In the film Star Trek Nemesis, Data beams Picard off an enemy ship before destroying it, sacrificing himself, saving the captain and crew of the Enterprise. However, before doing so Data copies much of his core memories into B-4, Data's lost brother who is introduced in the movie. This is with the reluctant help of Geordi LaForge who voices concerns about how this could cause B-4 to be nothing more than an exact duplicate of Data.
In the graphic novel "Star Trek: Countdown" (the plot of which was written by Orci and Kurtzman, in effect making it canon), B-4 has now successfully assumed the place of Data, and now commands the Enterprise-E in its mission to stop the Romulan Nero.
virus. Data does not require life support to function and does not register a bio-signature. The crew of the Enterprise-D must modify their scanners to detect positronic signals in order to locate and keep track of him on away-missions. Another unique feature of Data's construction is the ability to be dismantled and then re-assembled for later use. This is used as a plot element in the episode Time's Arrow where a copy of Data's head (an artifact excavated on Earth from the late 19th century) is attached to his body in the future.
Data is vulnerable to technological hazards such as computer viruses, certain levels of energy discharges, ship malfunctions (when connected to the Enterprise main computer for experiments), remote control shutdown devices, or through use of his "off switch." Data has also been "possessed" through technological means such as; Ira Graves' transfer of consciousness into his neural net, Dr. Soong's "calling" him, and an alien library that placed several different personalities into him. Data cannot swim unless aided by his built in flotation device, yet he is waterproof and can perform tasks underwater without the need to surface. Data is also impervious to sensory tactile emotion such as pain or pleasure. In Star Trek: First Contact
the Borg Queen grafted artificial skin to his forearm. Data was then able to feel pain when a Borg
drone slashed at his arm, and pleasure when the Borg Queen blew on the skin's hair follicles. Despite being mechanical in nature, Data is treated as an equal member of the Enterprise crew. Being a mechanical construct, technicians such as Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge prove to be more appropriate to treat his mechanical or cognitive function failures than the ship's doctor. His positronic brain becomes deactivated, and then repaired and reactivated by Geordi on several occasions.
Data is physically the strongest member of the Enterprise crew, and - in terms of his ability to process and calculate information rapidly - the most intelligent member as well. He is able to survive in atmospheres which most carbon-based life forms would consider inhospitable, as well as in the lack of an atmosphere or the vacuum of space (the only other Star Trek main characters with the ability to survive the vacuum of outer space are Odo and USS Voyager's EMH Mark 1). However, as an android, he is the most emotionally challenged, and with the addition of Dr. Soong's emotions chip, the most emotionally unstable member of the crew. Before the emotions chip, Data was unable to grasp basic emotion and imagination, leading him to download personality subroutines into his programming when participating in holographic recreational activities (most notably during Dixon Hill and Sherlock Holmes holoprograms) and during romantic encounters (most notably with Tasha Yar
and Jenna D'Sora). Yet none of those personalities are his own and are immediately put away at the conclusion of their usefulness. Also, the abilities of Data's hearing are explained in the episodes The Schizoid Man
and A Matter of Time where his hearing is more sensitive than a dog's and that he can identify several hundred different distinct sound patterns simultaneously, but for aesthetics purposes limits it to about ten.
Because of Julianna Soong's inability to conceive children, Data has at least five robotic siblings (two of which are Lore and B4). Later on, his "mother" is revealed also to be his positronic sister as the real Julianna Soong died and was replaced with an identical Soong Type android, the most advanced one that Dr. Soong was known to have built. Data constructed a daughter, which he named Lal (Hindi for "beloved") in the episode The Offspring. This particular android exceeded her father in basic human emotion when she felt fear toward Starfleet's scientific interests in her. Eventually, this was the cause of a cascade failure in her neural net and she died as a result.
cat
and a recurring character in the show. Spot appears in several episodes during TNG' s last four seasons, first appearing in "Data's Day". Spot also appears in the feature films Star Trek: Generations
and Star Trek: Nemesis
.
Despite the name, Spot is not actually patterned with spots. Spot originally appears as a male Somali cat
, but later appears as a female orange tabby house cat, eventually giving birth to kitten
s (TNG: "Genesis
"). The authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia jokingly speculate that these inconsistencies can be explained by the idea that Spot is a shape-shifter or victim of a transporter
accident (depending on which edition of the Encyclopedia one reads).
Data creates several hundred food supplement variations for Spot and composes the poem "Ode to Spot" in the cat's honor ("Schisms
"). (The poem was actually written by Clay Dale, the visual effects artist.) A computer error later causes some of the ship's food replicators to create only Spot's supplements and replaces portions of a play with the ode's text ("A Fistful of Datas
").
In "Genesis
", the morphogenetic virus "Barclay's protomorphosis disease" temporarily mutates Spot into an iguana
-like reptile
.
Spot is notoriously unfriendly to most people other than Data. Commander William Riker
once received serious scratches while trying to feed Spot ("Timescape"). Geordi La Forge
borrowed her to experience taking care of a cat, but she knocked over a vase and teapot and damaged his furniture ("Force of Nature
"). When Data asked Worf
to take care of Spot, Worf proved to be allergic
to her and sneezed in her face, angering her ("Phantasms
"). However, she did get along with Lieutenant Reginald Barclay
, so when Data had to leave on a mission at the same time Spot's kittens were due, he persuaded Barclay to take care of her ("Genesis
"). After Data died, it was mentioned in a deleted scene
of Star Trek: Nemesis
that Worf
is now taking care of her on board the Enterprise.
and Spiner's fan mail came mostly from women. He descibed the letters as "romantic mail" that was "really written to Data; he's a really accessible personality".
Robotics engineers regard Data (along with the Droids from the Star Wars
movies) as the pre-eminent face of robots in the public's perception of their field. On April 9, 2008, Data was inducted into Carnegie Mellon University
's Robot Hall of Fame
during a ceremony at the Carnegie Science Center
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
.
The Beat Fleet
, a Croatia
n hip hop
band, wrote a song called "Data" for their album Galerija Tutnplok
dedicated to Data. The release of this album coincided with reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation being shown on Croatian Radiotelevision
. In 2005, the nerdcore group The Futuristic Sex Robotz released a song about Data entitled "The Positronic Pimp."
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe portrayed by actor Brent Spiner
Brent Spiner
Brent Jay Spiner is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four subsequent films. His portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact and of Dr...
. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
and the feature films Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact is the eighth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise, released in November 1996, by Paramount Pictures. First Contact is the first film in the franchise to feature no cast members from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s...
, Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Insurrection is a 1998 American science fiction film directed by Jonathan Frakes, written by Michael Piller , and with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. It is the ninth film in the Star Trek franchise, and the third to feature the cast from the television series Star Trek: The Next...
, and Star Trek Nemesis.
Designed and built by Doctor Noonien Soong, Data is a sentient android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the starship
Starship
A starship or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for traveling between the stars, as opposed to a vehicle designed for orbital spaceflight or interplanetary travel....
s USS Enterprise-D
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)
The USS Enterprise is a 24th century starship in the Star Trek fictional universe and the principal setting of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series...
and USS Enterprise-E
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)
The USS Enterprise is a Sovereign-class starship in the Star Trek franchise. It serves as the primary setting of the films Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Star Trek Nemesis...
. His positronic brain
Positronic brain
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. Its role is to serve as a central computer for a robot, and, in some unspecified way, to provide it with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans...
allows him impressive computational capabilities. Data experienced ongoing difficulties during the early years of his life with understanding various aspects of human behavior
Human behavior
Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics....
and was unable to feel emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
or understand certain human idiosyncrasies, inspiring him to strive for his own humanity. This goal eventually led to the addition of an "emotion chip", also created by Soong, to Data's positronic net. Though Data's strive for humanity and desire for human emotion is a significant plot point (and source for humor) throughout the series, he continually shows a nuanced sense of wisdom, sensitivity, and curiosity.
Data is in many ways a successor to the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
s Spock
Spock
Spock is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by Leonard Nimoy in the original Star Trek series, Spock also appears in the animated Star Trek series, two episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, seven of the Star Trek feature films, and numerous Star Trek...
(Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
), in that the character offers an "outsider's" perspective on humanity.
Data has a storage capacity of 88.81784 PB
Petabyte
A petabyte is a unit of information equal to one quadrillion bytes, or 1000 terabytes. The unit symbol for the petabyte is PB...
(800 quadrillion bits) and a total linear computational speed of 60 THz (60 trillion operations per second).
Development
Gene RoddenberryGene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
told Brent Spiner
Brent Spiner
Brent Jay Spiner is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and four subsequent films. His portrayal of Data in Star Trek: First Contact and of Dr...
that over the course of the series, Data was to become "more and more like a human until the end of the show, when he would be very close, but still not quite there. That was the idea and that's the way that the writers took it." Spiner felt that Data exhibited the Chaplinesque
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
characteristics of a sad, tragic clown. To get into his role as Data, Spiner used the character of Robbie the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and its plot contains certain...
as a role model.
Commenting on Data's perpetual albino-like appearance, he said: "I spent more hours of the day in make-up than out of make-up", so much so that he even called it a way of method acting
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
. Spiner also portrayed Data's manipulative and malignant brother Lore (a role he found much easier to play, because the character was "more like me"), and Data's creator, Dr. Noonien Soong. Additionally, he portrayed another Soong-type android, B-4, in the film Star Trek: Nemesis. Spiner said his favorite Data scene takes place in "Descent", when Data plays poker on the holodeck with a re-creation of the famous physicist Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity...
, played by Hawking himself.
Spiner reprised his role of Data in the Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
series finale "These Are the Voyages..." in an off-screen speaking part. Spiner felt that he had visibly aged out of the role and that Data was best presented as a youthful figure.
Depiction
Dialog in "Datalore" establishes some of Data's backstory. It is stated that he was deactivated in 2336 on Omicron Theta before an attack by the Crystalline Entity, a spaceborne creature which converts life forms to energy for sustenance. He was found and reactivated by Starfleet personnel two years later. Data went to Starfleet AcademyStarfleet Academy
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet Academy is where the future's recruits to Starfleet will be trained. It was created in the year 2161, when the United Federation of Planets was founded...
from 2341–45 (he describes himself as "Class of '78" to Riker in "Encounter at Farpoint", but that may refer to the stardate and not the year that he graduated) and then served in Starfleet
Starfleet
In the fictional universe of Star Trek, Starfleet or the Federation Starfleet is the deep-space exploratory, peacekeeping and military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets . It is the principal means by which the Federation conducts its exploration, defense, diplomacy and research...
aboard the USS Trieste. He was assigned to the Enterprise under Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2364. In "Datalore", Data discovers his amoral brother, Lore, and learns he was not the first android constructed by Soong. Lore fails in an attempt to betray the Enterprise to the Crystalline Entity, and Data beams
Transporter (Star Trek)
A transporter is a fictional teleportation machine used in the Star Trek universe. Transporters convert a person or object into an energy pattern , then "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter...
his brother into space at the episode's conclusion.
In "Brothers", Data reunites with Dr. Soong (also portrayed by Spiner). There he meets again with Lore, who steals the emotion chip Soong meant for Data to receive. Lore then fatally wounds Soong. Lore returns in the two-part episode "Descent", using the emotion chip to control Data and make him help with Lore's attempt to make the Borg
Borg (Star Trek)
The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cybernetic organisms depicted in the Star Trek universe associated with Star Trek.Whereas cybernetics are used by other races in the science fiction world to repair bodily damage and birth defects, the Borg use enforced cybernetic enhancement as a means of...
entirely artificial life forms. Data eventually deactivates Lore, and recovers, but does not install the damaged emotion chip.
The episode "In Theory" traces Data's literary roots to Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
's and Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's exploration of the nature of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and the nature of reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
and humanity
Human condition
The human condition encompasses the experiences of being human in a social, cultural, and personal context. It can be described as the irreducible part of humanity that is inherent and not connected to gender, race, class, etc. — a search for purpose, sense of curiosity, the inevitability of...
. The episode reflects the ideas created in such works as Bicentennial Man and Asimov's Robot Series
Isaac Asimov's Robot Series
Isaac Asimov's Robot Series is a series of short stories and novels by Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.- Short stories :Most of Asimov's robot short stories are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration...
(which introduced the Three Laws Of Robotics
Three Laws of Robotics
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov and later added to. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories...
).
In "The Measure of a Man", Data is legally declared an autonomous individual, as opposed to Starfleet property.
In "All Good Things...", the two-hour concluding episode of The Next Generation, Captain Picard travels between three different times. The Picard of 25 years into the future goes with La Forge to seek advice from Professor Data, a luminary physicist who holds the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
Although several androids, robots and artificial intelligences were seen in the original Star Trek series, Data was often referred to as being unique in the universe as being the only sentient android known to exist (save the other androids created by Soong).
In the film Star Trek Generations, Data finally installs the emotion chip he retrieved from Lore, and experiences the full scope of emotions.
In the film Star Trek Nemesis, Data beams Picard off an enemy ship before destroying it, sacrificing himself, saving the captain and crew of the Enterprise. However, before doing so Data copies much of his core memories into B-4, Data's lost brother who is introduced in the movie. This is with the reluctant help of Geordi LaForge who voices concerns about how this could cause B-4 to be nothing more than an exact duplicate of Data.
In the graphic novel "Star Trek: Countdown" (the plot of which was written by Orci and Kurtzman, in effect making it canon), B-4 has now successfully assumed the place of Data, and now commands the Enterprise-E in its mission to stop the Romulan Nero.
Characteristics
Data is immune to nearly all biological diseases and other weaknesses that can affect humans and other carbon-based lifeforms. This benefits the Enterprise many times, such as when Data is the only crew member unaffected by the inability to dream and the only member to be unaffected by the stun ray that knocked the crew out for a day. One exception however was in the episode "The Naked Now" where Data was also a victim of the Tsiolkovsky polywaterPolywater
Polywater was a hypothetical polymerized form of water that was the subject of much scientific controversy during the late 1960s. By 1969 the popular press had taken notice, and by 1970 doubts about its authenticity were being circulated. By 1973 it was found to be illusory...
virus. Data does not require life support to function and does not register a bio-signature. The crew of the Enterprise-D must modify their scanners to detect positronic signals in order to locate and keep track of him on away-missions. Another unique feature of Data's construction is the ability to be dismantled and then re-assembled for later use. This is used as a plot element in the episode Time's Arrow where a copy of Data's head (an artifact excavated on Earth from the late 19th century) is attached to his body in the future.
Data is vulnerable to technological hazards such as computer viruses, certain levels of energy discharges, ship malfunctions (when connected to the Enterprise main computer for experiments), remote control shutdown devices, or through use of his "off switch." Data has also been "possessed" through technological means such as; Ira Graves' transfer of consciousness into his neural net, Dr. Soong's "calling" him, and an alien library that placed several different personalities into him. Data cannot swim unless aided by his built in flotation device, yet he is waterproof and can perform tasks underwater without the need to surface. Data is also impervious to sensory tactile emotion such as pain or pleasure. In Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: First Contact is the eighth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise, released in November 1996, by Paramount Pictures. First Contact is the first film in the franchise to feature no cast members from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s...
the Borg Queen grafted artificial skin to his forearm. Data was then able to feel pain when a Borg
Borg (Star Trek)
The Borg are a fictional pseudo-race of cybernetic organisms depicted in the Star Trek universe associated with Star Trek.Whereas cybernetics are used by other races in the science fiction world to repair bodily damage and birth defects, the Borg use enforced cybernetic enhancement as a means of...
drone slashed at his arm, and pleasure when the Borg Queen blew on the skin's hair follicles. Despite being mechanical in nature, Data is treated as an equal member of the Enterprise crew. Being a mechanical construct, technicians such as Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge prove to be more appropriate to treat his mechanical or cognitive function failures than the ship's doctor. His positronic brain becomes deactivated, and then repaired and reactivated by Geordi on several occasions.
Data is physically the strongest member of the Enterprise crew, and - in terms of his ability to process and calculate information rapidly - the most intelligent member as well. He is able to survive in atmospheres which most carbon-based life forms would consider inhospitable, as well as in the lack of an atmosphere or the vacuum of space (the only other Star Trek main characters with the ability to survive the vacuum of outer space are Odo and USS Voyager's EMH Mark 1). However, as an android, he is the most emotionally challenged, and with the addition of Dr. Soong's emotions chip, the most emotionally unstable member of the crew. Before the emotions chip, Data was unable to grasp basic emotion and imagination, leading him to download personality subroutines into his programming when participating in holographic recreational activities (most notably during Dixon Hill and Sherlock Holmes holoprograms) and during romantic encounters (most notably with Tasha Yar
Tasha Yar
Lieutenant Natasha "Tasha" Yar, played by Denise Crosby, is a character in Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the fictional series, the character served as chief of security aboard the USS Enterprise-D for the first season....
and Jenna D'Sora). Yet none of those personalities are his own and are immediately put away at the conclusion of their usefulness. Also, the abilities of Data's hearing are explained in the episodes The Schizoid Man
The Schizoid Man (TNG episode)
"The Schizoid Man" is the 32nd episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:A brilliant scientist, Dr. Ira Graves, attempts to cheat death by uploading his memories and personality into Data.-Plot:...
and A Matter of Time where his hearing is more sensitive than a dog's and that he can identify several hundred different distinct sound patterns simultaneously, but for aesthetics purposes limits it to about ten.
Because of Julianna Soong's inability to conceive children, Data has at least five robotic siblings (two of which are Lore and B4). Later on, his "mother" is revealed also to be his positronic sister as the real Julianna Soong died and was replaced with an identical Soong Type android, the most advanced one that Dr. Soong was known to have built. Data constructed a daughter, which he named Lal (Hindi for "beloved") in the episode The Offspring. This particular android exceeded her father in basic human emotion when she felt fear toward Starfleet's scientific interests in her. Eventually, this was the cause of a cascade failure in her neural net and she died as a result.
Spot
Spot is Data's petPet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
and a recurring character in the show. Spot appears in several episodes during TNG
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek Generations is a 1994 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. Generations is the seventh feature film based on the Star Trek television series and the first film in the series to star the cast of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.Parts of the film...
and Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek Nemesis is a 2002 science fiction film directed by Stuart Baird, written by John Logan , and with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. It is the tenth feature film in the Star Trek franchise, and the fourth and final film to star the cast from the television series Star Trek: The Next...
.
Despite the name, Spot is not actually patterned with spots. Spot originally appears as a male Somali cat
Somali (cat)
The Somali is a cat breed created from long-haired Abyssinian cats. The breed appeared in the 1950s from Abyssinian breeding programs when a number of Abyssinian kittens were born with bottle-brush tails and long fluffy coats...
, but later appears as a female orange tabby house cat, eventually giving birth to kitten
Kitten
A kitten is a juvenile domesticated cat.The young of big cats are called cubs rather than kittens. Either term may be used for the young of smaller wild felids such as ocelots, caracals, and lynx, but "kitten" is usually more common for these species....
s (TNG: "Genesis
Genesis (TNG episode)
"Genesis" is the 171st episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data return to the USS Enterprise to discover the rest of the crew de-evolved into more primitive forms of life, including spiders, amphibians and cave...
"). The authors of the Star Trek Encyclopedia jokingly speculate that these inconsistencies can be explained by the idea that Spot is a shape-shifter or victim of a transporter
Transporter (Star Trek)
A transporter is a fictional teleportation machine used in the Star Trek universe. Transporters convert a person or object into an energy pattern , then "beam" it to a target, where it is reconverted into matter...
accident (depending on which edition of the Encyclopedia one reads).
Data creates several hundred food supplement variations for Spot and composes the poem "Ode to Spot" in the cat's honor ("Schisms
Schisms (TNG episode)
"Schisms" is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation from the sixth season. It was originally aired on October 19, 1992.-Plot summary:...
"). (The poem was actually written by Clay Dale, the visual effects artist.) A computer error later causes some of the ship's food replicators to create only Spot's supplements and replaces portions of a play with the ode's text ("A Fistful of Datas
A Fistful of Datas (TNG episode)
"A Fistful of Datas" is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which premiered in the United States on November 9, 1992. It is the eighth episode in the sixth season...
").
In "Genesis
Genesis (TNG episode)
"Genesis" is the 171st episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data return to the USS Enterprise to discover the rest of the crew de-evolved into more primitive forms of life, including spiders, amphibians and cave...
", the morphogenetic virus "Barclay's protomorphosis disease" temporarily mutates Spot into an iguana
Iguana
Iguana is a herbivorous genus of lizard native to tropical areas of Central America and the Caribbean. The genus was first described in 1768 by Austrian naturalist Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti in his book Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena...
-like reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
.
Spot is notoriously unfriendly to most people other than Data. Commander William Riker
William Riker
William Thomas Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes, is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe primarily appearing as a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation...
once received serious scratches while trying to feed Spot ("Timescape"). Geordi La Forge
Geordi La Forge
Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge is a regular character in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and its feature films, played by LeVar Burton...
borrowed her to experience taking care of a cat, but she knocked over a vase and teapot and damaged his furniture ("Force of Nature
Force of Nature (TNG episode)
"Force of Nature" is the 161st episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:In this episode, a pair of sibling scientists show that warp drive propulsion is harming the very fabric of space...
"). When Data asked Worf
Worf
Worf, played by Michael Dorn, is a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in seasons four to seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appears in the films based on The Next Generation. Worf is the first Klingon main character to appear in Star Trek, and has appeared in more Star...
to take care of Spot, Worf proved to be allergic
Allergy
An Allergy is a hypersensitivity disorder of the immune system. Allergic reactions occur when a person's immune system reacts to normally harmless substances in the environment. A substance that causes a reaction is called an allergen. These reactions are acquired, predictable, and rapid...
to her and sneezed in her face, angering her ("Phantasms
Phantasms (TNG episode)
"Phantasms" is the 158th episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:As the Enterprise sits adrift in space from unknown warp engine problems, Data's dream program leads to apparently aberrant behavior....
"). However, she did get along with Lieutenant Reginald Barclay
Reginald Barclay
Lieutenant Reginald Endicott "Broccoli" Barclay III, played by Dwight Schultz, is a recurring character in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation...
, so when Data had to leave on a mission at the same time Spot's kittens were due, he persuaded Barclay to take care of her ("Genesis
Genesis (TNG episode)
"Genesis" is the 171st episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.-Overview:Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data return to the USS Enterprise to discover the rest of the crew de-evolved into more primitive forms of life, including spiders, amphibians and cave...
"). After Data died, it was mentioned in a deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
of Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek Nemesis is a 2002 science fiction film directed by Stuart Baird, written by John Logan , and with music composed by Jerry Goldsmith. It is the tenth feature film in the Star Trek franchise, and the fourth and final film to star the cast from the television series Star Trek: The Next...
that Worf
Worf
Worf, played by Michael Dorn, is a main character in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in seasons four to seven of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also appears in the films based on The Next Generation. Worf is the first Klingon main character to appear in Star Trek, and has appeared in more Star...
is now taking care of her on board the Enterprise.
Reception
Like Spock, Data became a sex symbolSex symbol
A sex symbol is a celebrity of either gender, typically an actor, musician, supermodel, teen idol, or sports star, noted for their sex appeal. The term was first used in the mid 1950s in relation to the popularity of certain Hollywood stars, especially Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte...
and Spiner's fan mail came mostly from women. He descibed the letters as "romantic mail" that was "really written to Data; he's a really accessible personality".
Robotics engineers regard Data (along with the Droids from the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
movies) as the pre-eminent face of robots in the public's perception of their field. On April 9, 2008, Data was inducted into Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
's Robot Hall of Fame
Robot Hall of Fame
The Robot Hall of Fame was established in 2003 by the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is designed to honor both achievements in robotics technology and robots from science fiction that have served as creative inspiration in robotics...
during a ceremony at the Carnegie Science Center
Carnegie Science Center
The Carnegie Science Center, located in the Chateau neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened in 1991.With a history that dates to October 24, 1939, the Carnegie Science Center is the most visited museum in Pittsburgh...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
.
The Beat Fleet
The Beat Fleet
The Beat Fleet, also known by initialism TBF, is a rap-rock band from Split, Croatia, founded in 1990. Members of the band are: Mladen Badovinac , Luka Barbić , Aleksandar Antić , Ognjen Pavlović , Nikša Mandalinić, , Janko Novoselić .The Beat Fleet are widely considered to be one of the...
, a Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
n hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
band, wrote a song called "Data" for their album Galerija Tutnplok
Galerija Tutnplok
Galerija Tutnplok is the fourth studio album by the Croatian hip hop / rap rock band The Beat Fleet. The album was released in November 2007.Galerija Tutnplok won three Porin Awards in 2008, including Album of the Year.-Track listing:...
dedicated to Data. The release of this album coincided with reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation being shown on Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision
Croatian Radiotelevision is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite...
. In 2005, the nerdcore group The Futuristic Sex Robotz released a song about Data entitled "The Positronic Pimp."
External links
- Data's biography at the official Star Trek website
- http://trekmovie.com/2009/03/26/five-page-preview-of-star-trek-countdown-4-comic/#comment-2738607 a review of the Star Trek: Countdown comics, with Cpt Data
- An Android for All Seasons. Star Trek's science consultant Andre Bormanis about the creation of Data.