Brent Spiner Considers Data Purged
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Paramount, RumorMonger, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels
Speculation is flying left and right -- or perhaps, more accurately, port and starboard -- regarding producer (and possible director) J.J. Abrams' proposed Star Trek film, which will be the eleventh theatrical feature for the long-running franchise. As previously reported here on Cinematical, Leonard Nimoy stated that he and William Shatner had been contacted and were told that Paramount might "want some involvement" from the two actors. There have been rumors of a Young Kirk and Spock angle, but it's mostly conjecture at this point.Regardless of what may happen with the newest film, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Commander Data will not figure into the mix. "I don't think I should play Data anymore. I think I'm too old to play him anymore to be honest," actor Brent Spiner told bangshowbiz.com, as reported by Comingsoon.net. Data is, of course, an android who does not age, making the fact that Spiner is now twenty years older than when he first played the character somewhat problematic. Spiner goes on to say that he had "skated along the edge in the last couple movies" regarding the issue of his age.
Some might argue that Data's death in Star Trek: Nemesis had closed the book on the character, though to add a little conjecture of my own, none of this would preclude further appearances by Spiner as Data's creator Dr.Noonian Soong. Spiner also joked that a "very sweet deal" might entice him back onto the bridge of The Enterprise which, as our sister site TV Squad points out, is essentially the same thing Leonard Nimoy said before Star Trek III and Star Trek VI.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-12-2006 @ 12:13PM
DJ said...
It wouldn't be hard to bring him back. Surely they have a backup of Data's memory somewhere, right? Given that, they could go a couple of ways:
1. Rebuild data and restore the backup. Those doing the rebuild decide that Data's rank/position would be better-received if he looked more "mature".
2. Restore his memory to a computer system, and project him as a hologram. Early stuff could be edited to make him look younger, and he could later decide to "enhance" his appearance to make him look more mature. CGI budget starts going down at that point, eventually leading to live appearances by Spiner, courtesy of fixed holo-emitters around the ship. The portable holo-emitters used by Voyager's EMH could make a comeback as well.
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9-12-2006 @ 11:27AM
Aqualize said...
1, 1 and 2? Shouldn't it be 1, 2 and 3 :)
Anyway, in nemesis, didn't Data transfer all his memory into B-4? In the end you see Picard telling B-4 about every thing.
If the story makers want Data they can simple say that eventually B-4 matured and not acted retarded, and because he have Datas memory he becomes Data. Voíla!
I think it's harder to rebuild Data from scratch. His positronic brain etc. is considered a really brakethrough by Noonien Soong and no one except Data (nearly succeded) and Soong has been able to build an "Soong-type android"
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Soong-type
I don't really belive in the hologram approach. Data have a positronic brain (treknobable), probally very different from computer subroutines that built the EMH.
And the mobile emitter - using it is a lame excuse by an eventuall story maker as the B-4 approach i wrote above. Both just say "we need to come up with something to get Data back from the dead, no matter how far-fetched it is.
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9-12-2006 @ 12:19PM
DJ said...
Don't know where that "2." came from at the beginning of my post :-) That's supposed to be an introductory paragraph, with points 1 and 2 below it.
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9-12-2006 @ 12:19PM
DJ said...
Oh, NOW I see -- the comment system is numbering the posts, and I numbered things WITHIN my post, so it looks a little strange. When you look at my original post, just filter the numbered sections, replacing the 1 and 2 with bullets or something. :-)
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9-12-2006 @ 3:28PM
roadkillbuddha said...
Maybe Abrams met with Shatner about Lost rather than Star Trek...
http://roadkillbuddha.blogspot.com/2006/09/lost-at-20000-feet.html
As for Data, why not just create a CGI model of him based on Spiner's younger days?
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9-13-2006 @ 12:29AM
josh said...
one of my problems with star trek is how they ignore the implication of a lot of the technology...
for example, the easiest way to create a copy of data would be to use the transporter technology. the transporters break people down into energy and then recreate them somewhere else. the replicators in TNG were an offshoot of this.
well, if you can transport data, you can make a copy of him. just make another data that way.
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9-30-2006 @ 5:26PM
Kaz said...
HI, I think instead of Data in a film how about the work of Arik Soong and follow that up to Noonian Soong. At least that way Brent can play a character other than Data.
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