Data is an epic science officer in Star Trek Fleet Command. Data was the first android ever to join Starfleet. He was composed of 24.6 kilograms of tripolymer composites, 11.8 kilograms of molybdenum–cobalt alloys and 1.3 kilograms of bioplast sheeting.
He served as the operations officer and second officer aboard the USS Enterprise-E.
Captain’s Maneuver
Positronic Precision – Increase Critical Hit Chance Against Hostiles and Armadas by 17%.
Data’s captain’s maneuver adds to your critical hit chances against hostiles and armadas. Unlike Khan’s increasing chances each round, Data’s is a flat increase. With synergy that increase can get up to 25%. And this is added to your ship’s existing base critical hit chance and whatever increased chance you get from research.
Officer Ability
Effort Yields its Own Rewards – Against non-player targets, increase Penetration by (60%, 120%, 180%, 240%, 300%.)
As with the other TNG officers added in this update (Crusher and Geordi), Data gives you bonuses against hostiles and armadas. In this case, increased penetration – so increased shield penetration, accuracy, and armor-piercing. This is in contrast to fellow science officer Beverly Crusher’s defensive bonus. And you certainly could run them out together, though you’ll do so at the cost of a little bit of synergy.
The officer ability title here comes from the Next Generation, The Offspring. That’s the one where Data creates a “child,” another android, Lal.
“It is the struggle itself that is most important. We must strive to be more than we are. It does not matter that we will never reach our ultimate goal. The effort yields its own rewards.”
Lt. Cmdr. Data, “The Offspring”
Brent Spiner Background
Brent Spiner was born in Houston, Texas on Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 1949, the son of Jack and Sylvia Spiner. When Brent was just ten months old, his father passed away from Kidney failure. He was later adopted by his mother’s new husband, Sol Mintz, and he went by Brent Mintz until 1975. He went back to Spiner as he began his acting career.
He went to high school at Bellaire High School, just outside Houston. While there, he was on the speech team and won the national championship in dramatic interpretation. He enrolled at the University of Houston and did some local theater while there, even appearing in a TV movie, My Sweet Charlie with Patty Duke, but dropped out before graduating to move to New York to focus on theater full-time.
On Broadway, he appeared in plays like The Three Musketeers (which he later reprised as Data in the TNG episode Hollow Pursuits,) and the Stephen Sondheim play Sunday in the Park with George. George Surat in the production was played by Mandy Patinkin, and the play also co-starred Bernadette Peters.
While in New York, he got a bit part in Woody Allen’s 1980 film, Stardust Memories. Also appearing briefly in that film was a young Armin Shimerman.
On television, Spiner had guest roles on Family, Ryan’s Hope, Tales from the Darkside, Hill Street Blues, and Cheers (watch the clip here.)
The first role of Spiner’s that I remember him from was the hilarious sad-sack Bob Wheeler on Night Court. Spiner was going to become a regular on Night Court had he not been cast as Data. In his last appearance on Night Court, Bob and June had purchased the courthouse’s newsstand. It didn’t go well.
By the way, this scene features two other Star Trek actors. John Laroquette had been Maltz in The Search for Spock, and Annie O’Donnell, who played June Wheeler, appeared in the Deep Space Nine episode, Progress, where she played the mute character Keena.
Cast as Data
Gene Roddenberry had first played with the idea of an android character in his 1974 TV pilot The Questor Tapes. Originally, Leonard Nimoy had agreed to play the part of the android, Questor, and even posed in makeup for production photos, but the role eventually went to future Deep Space Nine and Enterprise guest star Robert Foxworth. (That program also starred a pre-MASH Mike Farrell, in addition to Walter Koenig and Majel Barrett.)
So when Roddenberry created another version of Star Trek in the 1980s, there was a need for a Spock-type character. And the Questor android, along with Spock would serve as the inspirations for the role. Whereas Spock was trying to move himself to be more logical and less human, Data would strive to be more human. The TNG writer’s bible compared him to Pinocchio, and a line of dialogue in Encounter at Farpoint has Riker jokingly refer to Data as “Pinoccio.”
Data’s line, “I am fully functional.” in TNG’s second episode, The Naked Now is a reference to The Questor Tapes, where Questor also claimed to be “fully functional.” By the way, if you’re interested in watching this bit of Roddenberry history, you can now get The Questor Tapes on DVD on Amazon.
Other actors up for the role of Data included Mark Lindsay Chapman, Eric Menyuk, Kelvin Han Yee, and Kevin Peter Hall (who was also up for the role of Geordi.) Of these, two would later guest star on TNG; Menyuk would appear as The Traveler, and Hall would appear as Leyor in The Price. Hall, by the way, is someone you might recognize if you’re old enough to remember Misfits of Science, Big Top Pee-Wee, or Harry and the Hendersons. Yes, he was Harry. And he was The Predator in Predator.
Sadly, Hall received an AIDS-tainted blood transfusion and passed away in 1991.
Back to Spiner, here’s a great video of him describing how he became Data, and that he tried to play him as restrained as possible, and let the audience fill in the rest.
Old Yellow Eyes is Back
After Trek
After TNG ended in 1994, Spiner went back to guest starring on other TV series almost immediately. His first outing was as Bob, the Dog Agent on Mad About You. After that came appearances on Dream On, Frasier, Friends, The Simpsons, and The Goldbergs among many others.
He came back to Star Trek playing Dr. Arik Soong on three episodes of Enterprise, and later back to the role of Data and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong for Star Trek: Picard.
And Finally…
And I couldn’t leave you without an example of Brent Spiner’s remarkable Patrick Stewart impression.