This article is aimed toward those who enjoy both major ends of the Science Fiction spectrum – Star Wars and Star Trek. Lt. Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, or TNG, has to be the series’ best character. He has class, is always helpful, and was selflessly ready to give his life whenever it was necessary. With child-like naiveté that made the series so special back in the ‘90s and early 2000s, we’re reminded of what made Star Trek the thing to watch back in the day.
TNG or even the Original films had. While I wasn’t a fan of 2009’s Star Trek, the following two films are certainly worth watching.
Enterprise-D sped around the galaxy, things were rarely as destructive and explosive as they are today. Some folks I’ve come across call anything before the alternate reality series “boring” and “unappealing,” among other things. I disagree.
TNG. For those of you who don’t know him, but were just looking for a good read, Data was an android (maybe even where the name of your phones comes from today) made by Noonien Soong, a descendent of Khan Noonien Soong, The Wrath of Khan’s villain (the defining film in the franchise – hands down). Built as a “less perfect” version of his evil, mentally unstable brother, Lore, Data had no emotions of any kind. He was a machine with the computational speed of several of the best computers and the strength and speed of many more men, but his heart was as large and beautiful.
The Offspring? Data decides that it’s time to become a parent and constructs a child based on his own positronic brain. The episode focuses on the philosophical dilemmas of who can be classified as a parent. It was a beautiful, tear-jerking episode that is still in my top five of all-time great Star Trek episodes.
Clues, which is another good one where he lies to Captain Picard to save everyone’s lives from a xenophobic race that destroys ships on sight. Genesis, when everyone onboard starts to de-evolve and return to their classic biological form. That’s just a few examples, because there are plenty more.
Brothers had him put in the longest code in Star Trek history with Picard’s voice (if you ever get bored, look it up; it’s pretty shocking). This was another fantastic episode, with Brent Spiner playing him, Lore and Soong. Descent saw Lore take over his emotional capacity to make moral decisions, thereby putting the ship on a collision course with a Borg ship and leaving Dr. Crusher in command of a skeleton crew.
