The Best Star Trek Actor From Each State
By Jeremy Dick
Texas – Brent Spiner
Who’s the greatest android character ever depicted on television? You might get some different answers to that question, but many people would answer “Data”. Having been originally introduced on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the android Data has become one of the most recognized characters in all of Star Trek. You wouldn’t be too hard pressed to find many Trekkies considering Data to be one of their most favorite characters.
What certainly makes Data so special is how believable he is as a robot. Texan actor Brent Spiner plays the android over fifteen years, throughout the TV series and four subsequent feature films. His final film appearance in Nemesis hints at a future storyline for Data, but Spiner has since declared himself to be finished with the part. As he tells it, the character of Data works because he has a childlike innocence to him. With Spiner only getting older, he feels he can no longer convincingly play the part.
Spiner’s logic is as sound as Data’s. But he would get the final opportunity to do something else with Data on a TV series. In the final episode of Enterprise, Data’s voice can be heard, doing the “These are the voyages…” spiel.