Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 7, "Fully Dilated"
Since Lt. Commander Data's heroic sacrifice in Star Trek: Nemesis, Brent Spiner has only portrayed the beloved Star Trek: The Next Generation version of the android twice. As part of the original USS Enterprise-D crew on TNG, Data quickly became one of the show's most popular characters, thanks in no small part to Brent Spiner's compelling performance. Throughout TNG's seven seasons, Data's quest to discover his humanity became one of the show's best ongoing storylines, and his friendship with Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) remains one of Trek's best friendships.
Data's storylines in the Star Trek: The Next Generation films did not fair quite as well as his stories on the show, and the question of Data's age was also becoming a problem. As an android, Data did not age (although a line in the TNG season 7 episode "Inheritance" states that he does have an aging program), but Brent Spiner was beginning to look older by the later TNG films. It's unfortunate that Star Trek mostly forgot about Data's supposed aging program and killed him off in Star Trek: Nemesis, but modern Star Trek has given him a couple of chances to return.
Brent Spiner Plays TNG’s Data On Star Trek: Lower Decks - With A Twist
Star Trek: The Next Generation's Lt. Commander Data Now Comes In Purple!
In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 7, "Fully Dilated," the USS Cerritos sends an away team to Dilmer III where they find the severed head of Lt. Commander Data. This Data originates from an alternate universe where everything is purple and the events of Star Trek: Nemesis either did not happen or have not happened yet. As Lts. Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), D'Vana Tendi (Noël Wells), and T'Lyn (Gabrielle Ruiz) wait to be beamed back to the Cerritos, Tendi finds a way to reactivate Data's head.
Brent Spiner returns to voice Data, who seems unbothered by the loss of his android body. Data answers Tendi's science questions and helps her add more achievements to her resume as she vies for the senior science officer position on the Cerritos. This version of Data feels like the Data of TNG, with his willingness to help, his clever retorts, and his inability to use contractions. He ultimately chooses to return to his own universe (partly to get back to his best friend Geordi), and suggests that Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) give the science officer position to both Tendi and T'Lyn.
Brent Spiner Also Played TNG’s Data In Star Trek: Picard Season 1
Admiral Picard Dreamed About His Fallen Android Friend
Brent Spiner also returned as Data in the opening scene of Star Trek: Picard season 1, via a dream sequence. Clearly still haunted by Data's death in Star Trek: Nemesis, Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) dreams that he's playing a game of poker with the android aboard the USS Enterprise-D. When Picard looks out of the window, he sees Mars being attacked by rogue synths and soon awakens in his bed at his family's French vineyard. Picard later dreams of Data painting a faceless woman, reminding him of a real painting Data once did that resembles Dahj Asha (Isa Briones).
Data briefly returns in the Picard season 1 finale, as his consciousness supposedly dies after saying a final goodbye to Picard. Data's consciousness would later be restored in Picard season 3.
Star Trek: Picard season 1 de-aged Brent Spiner to portray Picard's vision of Data, making him look as much like Picard remembered him as possible. Still, it would be nearly impossible to make Data look exactly the same. Picard season 3 fixed this by giving Data a new synthetic body that does age, allowing Brent Spiner to continue portraying an updated version of the android. As an animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks has the ability to bring back actors like Brent Spiner from Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond to voice the original versions of their beloved characters.
