Movies - TV
Star Trek’s Brent Spiner Was Warned He’d Be ‘Miserable’ Playing Data
By ANDREW HOUSMAN
While some initially saw him as a Spock knock-off, Brent Spiner’s Data became one of the most iconic “Star Trek” characters for his exploration of what humanity really means.
Before taking on the role of Data, Spiner was warned by one “Star Trek” director that it would be “limiting” and “miserable,” since the android character cannot express emotions.
Gene Roddenberry disagreed, telling Spiner, “‘Through the series […] Data is going to get closer and closer and closer to being human. And at the end of the day, still not.'”
Spiner agreed with Roddenberry, stating, “[The director] was wrong. And I just saw that, you know, the canvas was smaller, but I had the opportunity to paint every, you know, inch of it.”