Thomas Brodie-Sangster as a young Data
You probably know Thomas Brodie-Sangster best as Jojen Reed from HBO’s Game of Thrones. While it will probably ruffle some feathers to see anyone but Brent Spiner play Data, Brent Spiner has aged and Data can not because he’s an android, and continuing Data’s story would be impossible because he was destroyed in Star Trek: Nemesis.
There’s no reason that Data’s character can’t be revisited at a time before he was on the Enterprise. We’ve never found out the story behind how an android entered Starfleet or how he rose through the ranks. Obviously Data was never a captain of his own vessel in the current Star Trek timeline, but rewriting timelines has never been an issue for Star Trek. Perhaps in this timeline, Data ends up commanding a smaller vessel before joining the crew of the Enterprise? We think there are still a lot of fun stories that could be centered around data and Thomas Brodie-Sangster would be the perfect actor to fill the role.
Next: John Slattery