Is Star Trek: Picard going to resurrect Data?

Brent Spiner will be appearing on the third season of Star Trek: Picard.

We now know that Brent Spiner, who previously played Lt. Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, the follow-up movies, and the first season of Star Trek: Picard, is returning to the third and final season of Picard as his evil twin brother, Lore. That piece of news has created an interesting question, one which Screenrant recently explored with the suggestion that Lore could be used to ressurect Data.

Data’s memory engrams are successfully stored and ready for access. All they need is a convenient android body. That is where Lore could come in. If the evil android were to have his positronic brain erased, his body could be used for Data 2.0. Of course, as Screenrant mentions, this would negate Data’s beautiful final scene at the end of the first season of Picard. Data wanted to know what it felt like to experience both life and death, and Admiral Picard allowed him to do that. Changing that would change the importance of that scene.

Star Trek: Picard season three is going to be about passing the torch.

Picard executive producer Terry Matalas called the final season of Picard a “passing of the torch from one generation to the next.” So doesn’t it make sense for Data’s torch to also be passed to the next generation? That should have been Soji, but as Isa Briones isn’t going to appear in the final season, perhaps there will be a set-up that allows for Data’s engrams to be utilized later for another generation of androids.

However this plays out, I will be surprised if Data is resurrected after such an emotional ending to the character. Brent Spiner did say he was done playing Data so I’m thinking he also wants to wrap up any chance of Lore returning after this as well. It is a loose end that needs to be tied up, and killing Lore once and for all will do just that.