Star Trek: Picard evolved Data but took him past what Gene Roddenberry may have wanted for the character

Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced us to the evolution of the Spock character, a non-human entity trying to better understand humanity. A stand-in for the audience. That was Spock in the original series and in the follow-up series, it was the android Data. A machine with the desire to learn, programmed to be more human-like even if he could never truly be human.

He was created and evolved throughout the series. Gaining the ability to emote, create, and even engage in romantic relationships. As the series continued, he evolved past just a robot looking to learn and into his own, unique, identity. He even gained the ability to physically feel thanks to the Borg. He was as close to human as he could be, without ever actually being human.

Then Star Trek: Picard took away the notion that he wasn't "human" or at the very least, wasn't "living". They gave him a synthetic body and all the blessings and curses that come with such a gift. According to Brent Spiner, who spoke to TrekMovie.com, this was always the endgame for the character, in theory. Spiner cites series creator Gene Roddenberry as proof of this, telling the website;

"I think he would think it all went according to plan. Because one thing he said to me from the very beginning when I first met him, he said, “What I want is for Data is for him to get more and more and more and more human as time goes on, and by the end be almost human, but still not.” And that’s kind of where we are, I think."

But did it? Did it go as Roddenberry wanted? It's fair to say if he hated The Wrath of Khan, and made edict after edict for The Next Generation that was broken time and time again, that maybe Roddenberry didn't want a "living" Data. It's fair to say he'd never want to have killed Data off at all, as happened in Star Trek: Nemesis, or that he'd be swayed, however briefly, by the Borg Queen, or that there'd even be a Borg Queen in the first place.

History tells us that Roddenberry was actually against a lot of the things that fans would end up liking, and so it'd be fair to say that Picard probably took Data past what Roddenberry had envisioned.