Star Trek: Brent Spiner Thought Data’s Death in Nemesis Was the Right Way to Go

Star Trek: Picard is bringing back Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner as Data. Fans last saw Data in Star Trek: Nemesis, when the android sacrificed his life to save Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The ending proved polarizing with fans. Speaking at Destination Star Trek in Birmingham, Spiner said that at the time he felt the Nemesis story was a good way to close out his time as Data. “I’ll tell you what. I thought it made a lot of sense and because I was also part of the team that wrote the story, I knew that was going to happen,” Spiner said (via StarTrek.com). “We had been told in almost no uncertain terms by Paramount Pictures, that this was going to be our last film, so I thought it made a lot of sense to leave the audience with a really big, dramatic, emotional moment at the end of the film. If that’s the last time you were going to see the character then that’s the way it should be, you know … at the time I thought it was the right way to go.”

But it turns out that Nemesis won’t be the last word on Data that Spiner and others thought it would be. He’s back in Star Trek: Picard, though how that return comes to be is unclear. We’re forced to wonder if Data is all in Picard’s head.

Star Trek: Picard sees Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard, the character he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The new series will follow Picard into the next chapter of his life. Alongside Stewart, Star Trek: Picard also stars Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, Michelle Hurd, Alison Pill, Harry Treadaway, and Evan Evagora. The series is produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Secret Hideout and Roddenberry Entertainment. Alex Kurtzman, Michael Chabon, Akiva Goldsman, James Duff, Patrick Stewart, Heather Kadin, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth serve as executive producers and Aaron Baiers (Secret Hideout) serves as co-executive producer and Kirsten Beyer as supervising producer. Hanelle Culpepper directed the first two episodes of the series. Stewart’s Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes directed the third and fourth episodes of the season.

The first trailer for Star Trek: Picard released at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and revealed that some familiar faces, both friend and foe, will return in the new series. Those faces included Spiner as Data. Star Trek: Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan returns as Seven of Nine. The Borg will also play a role in the series, including Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh. Also, while not featured in the trailer, Comic-Con confirmed the returns of Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi.

Are you excited the first season of Star Trek: Picard? Let us know what you think in the comments. Star Trek: Picard comes to CBS All Access in on January 23, 2020.