Star Trek Icon Brent Spiner Played Batman's Greatest Villain (Twice)

Brent Spiner has played so many characters on various "Star Trek" shows that even hardcore Trekkies may not be able to name them all off the top of their heads. Spiner is best known, of course, for playing the android Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," but he also played Data's evil twin Lore, and Data's creator Dr. Soong. In "Star Trek: Enterprise," he played an ancestor is Soong's, and in "Star Trek: Picard," he played both an earlier ancestor and a descendant. In "Star Trek: Nemesis," he also played an android prototype named B-4. And none of this is to speak of the many times he played characters who possessed Data's body (which happened more often than you might think), or played Data-looking characters on a holodeck. Data was an emotionless android, but Spiner managed to spin the role into one of the most dramatic, varied, and emotional careers in "Star Trek" history. 

Both before and after "Star Trek," Spiner's varied career was obvious. He appeared in many movies (he was in both "Independence Day" films) and many TV shows. Famously, he was in six episodes of "Night Court." 

Spiner also did a lot of voice work, notably playing the powerful magical imp Puck (as in from "A Midsummer Night's Dream") in the Disney series "Gargoyles." Spiner also landed a few gigs in animated superhero shows, including "The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes" (playing the obscure character of Purple Man) and "Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H." (playing the Silver Surfer). 

Spiner also once landed a gig playing Batman's nemesis, the Joker, in two episodes of the 2011 animated series "Young Justice." Then, not to rest on his laurels, Spiner returned to play the voice of The Riddler in the 2017 series "Justice League Action."

Nerds may find their heads exploding to learn that Data and the Joker were played by the same man, a pop-culture mash-up to match the casting of Spiner's "Star Trek" co-star Patrick Stewart as Professor X in "X-Men." Spiner clearly has a great deal of range as a performer, singing on stage, playing androids on TV, playing scientists in movies, and playing supervillains in cartoons. 

"Young Justice," for those unfamiliar, is a sporadically aired 2010 superhero series about the many teenage characters of the DC Comics universe. The series was led by Robin (Jesse McCartney). Despite its young cast and youthful name, "Young Justice" was actually a mature, adult drama that dealt with heady, dramatic topics like arms brokering, war, and conflicts superheroes aren't well-equipped to handle. It took place in a world where superheroes were still largely unknown in the world, so all the characters were still struggling to prove themselves. Characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were around, but they rarely appeared on the show. Spiner doesn't appear a lot on "Young Justice," but he does sink his teeth into the role. 

Hilariously, his Joker badmouths the Riddler, as, in the world of "Young Justice," the Riddler gets more press than the Joker. Spiner would go on to play the Riddler in the more kid-friendly, traditional 2018 superhero series "Justice League Action," the last series that Kevin Conroy (Batman) was a lead actor in. Spiner was only in one episode of "Justice League Action" and two episodes of "Young Justice," but the credits are worth bragging about. 

Spiner's most recent jobs were reprising the role of Bob Wheeler on "Night Court" and playing a parallel universe Data on "Star Trek: Lower Decks."