The android known as Data is a major character in the Star Trek franchise, having appeared as a major character in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the four films set during the TNG period and in Star Trek: Picard. He was created by cyberneticist Dr. Noonien Soong and has served as science officer aboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D under Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He was portrayed by Brent Spiner.
Creation and Early Life[]
Data was built on the planet Omicron Theta, a secluded Federation colony world. He was the fifth in a series of androids that Dr. Soong had made in his image and was designed with the ability to learn and develop much like a human would. When first activated, Data behaved much like an infant, curious about the world he had been brought into and wishing to explore it. He was shut down by Dr. Soong so that the doctor could continue developing the android's positronic matrix and imbue Data with a sense of conscience, a factor that Data's predecessor Lore did not possess.
Shortly after Data's completion, Omicron Theta was attacked by an unknown alien entity. Dr. Soong escaped the colony's destruction but was forced to leave his "son" behind. The entity destroyed all living matter on the planet before moving on, and so Data remained in the colony ruins inactive but physically intact. He would later be found by Starfleet and reactivated, quickly developing a sense of self and wanting to discover more about the universe that he was a part of. Eventually, Data would enrol in Starfleet Academy where he quickly excelled in all of his studies, putting all of his organic classmates to shame. By 2364, Data had joined the crew of the newly launched Galaxy-class starship, USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D, as science officer and secondary helmsman.
Aboard the Enterprise[]
During his tour of duty aboard the Enterprise, Data continued to explore the various aspects of humanity and made every attempt to advance beyond the restrictions of his original programming. Though he could not experience emotions, he would regularly develop his social skills and became good friends with all of the Enterprise's senior staff, most notably chief engineer Geordi La Forge, who all provided Data with encouragement and support as the android endeavoured to become more human. He tried to adopt numerous aspects of humanoid life into his daily routines. He learned to play the violin, he adopted a pet cat called Spot, practised painting and even played the role of Sherlock Holmes in his own holodeck program.
Over time, Data would even learn to dream and would eventually learn to experience emotions after liberating an emotion chip that was stolen from Dr. Soong by Lore. Initially when Data installed the chip, the emotions he felt overwhelmed him and even interfered with his duties. He would later learn to better control his emotions, but still felt that emotions may compromise his well-being and that of his shipmates, so he would later remove the chip.
Death[]
In the tenth Star Trek film Star Trek: Nemesis, Data's final step in his journey to become human would be taken in the year 2379, when the Enterprise-E was engaged in battle with the Reman warbird Scimitar. Both ships had been heavily damaged and Captain Picard had boarded the Scimitar to destroy the vessel's thalaron generator, which threatened to unleash a force that would wipe out the Enterprise crew and then later annihilate all life on Earth. Unwilling to let his captain die, Data threw himself into the vacuum of space and swam through the void to board the Scimitar. He found Picard trapped in the thalaron generator room and gave the captain an emergency transporter beacon, allowing him to beam back to the Enterprise. With that, Data uttered "Goodbye" and used his phaser to overload the thalaron generator. The chain reaction destroyed the Scimitar and Data along with it. In sacrificing his own life to save another, Data had proven just how human he had truly become.
Recreation and second death[]
Prior to his death, Data had attempted to copy his memories and upload them onto the positronic brain of B-4, his prototype brother. Many years later, these memories and a single positronic neuron would be used by Bruce Maddox and Dr. Soong's biological son, Altan Soong, to allow Data's consciousness to continue to exist in a massively complex quantum simulation. Because he had died after the upload to B-4, it was impossible for him to remember his death as that was not part of those memories, but he was aware of the death of his physical body and the circumstances in which he gave his life for Picard. Just as with Lore and B-4, Data considered Altan to be his brother as well.
In 2399, Data encountered the consciousness of Jean-Luc Picard while his memories were in the process of being uploaded to Soong's golem. The two had a discussion in which Data confirmed he did not regret sacrificing his life for Picard and that he was aware of Picard's love and affection for him.
As Picard was preparing to leave the simulation, Data made one last request to his old friend – that Picard terminate his consciousness. He explained to Picard that the finite nature of human life helped define and give it meaning. Once Picard left the simulation, he complied with Data's request. As he deactivated the simulation, Picard postulated that despite the "violence and corruption and willful ignorance" of humanity, Data was still able to see kindness, curiosity, and greatness of spirit possessed within the human race, motivating his desire to be a part of the human family. Data spent the time he had left enjoying a glass of wine, listening to "Blue Skies" on a record player, then reclining on a sofa until he rapidly aged and passed with a simulated Captain Picard, just as he was during the years on the Enterprise-D, by his side.
Resurrection[]
After the ban on synthetics was lifted, Altan Soong began construction on a new golem that would serve as a 'totality', combining parts of B-4, Lore, Lal and a large amount of Data into a singular being. While everything that Data had copied to B-4 had previously been unsalvageable, the lifting of the ban gave Soong the chance to work on it more and finally extract Data from B-4 properly. Soong gave the new golem an older appearance, based on an aged Soong, hoping to reflect the wisdom of age. However, he died before he could complete the project and his work was seized by Section 31 and stored at Daystrom Station.
The integration of the personalities was not successful, and while B-4 and Soong were mostly dormant, Data and Lore were at odds with each other inside the golem. The partition separating Data and Lore was later lowered, and despite Lore seeming to triumph, in taking Data's memories, Lore had effectively become Data himself, allowing Data to override Lore permanently and integrating elements of Lore's personality into himself. As part of the successful integration, Data's mannerisms became more human than they had previously - for instance, Data started using contractions in his speech, and remarked that he could truly feel emotion. With the renewed threat of the Borg, Data resumed his old post aboard the rebuilt USS Enterprise-D to save the Federation.