Why the heck did they kill Data?

[Freman]

I remember around the time that Nemesis came out, the reason they gave for killing Data was that Brent Spiner felt he was getting too old for the part. I accepted this at the time, thinking it made perfect sense. After all, Data's an android and therefore shouldn't age, while Spiner obviously is human, and can't help but age.

Yesterday, however, I watched the TNG episode Inheritance. There is a line in there, in sickbay, where Geordi is studying Julianna Soong's inner workings, where he refers to how she has a built in aging program similar to Data's. It's a throwaway line, I had to rewind to make sure I'd heard it correctly, but there it was.

Did they forget about this during the filming on NEM? I mean, with an aging program, Spiner could easily have kept playing Data until he (Brent) dropped dead. lol

 

[RoJoHen]

Did they forget about this during the filming on NEM?

Yep. They forgot a lot of things while filming NEM.

 

[GalaxyX]

I would have recast the role to a new actor. I would have hyped up the whole thing, and shown Brent Spiner giving the "new" person the blessing to go ahead and play Data in the movie.

Nemesis was one of those movies that had so many little things fail miserably, it's like death by 1000 cuts.

 

[Pemmer Harge]

Although I've been a TNG fan for ages, having never seen Nemesis, I managed to make it to this year before I learnt that Data had even been killed off. Even if they were going to make any new TNG productions, I wouldn't want anyone other than Brent Spiner to play Data. What would be the point of that?

 

[Colin Xavier]

Even if they forgot a throwaway line, how could they forget that Data aged in "All Good Things?" or am I remembering the episode wrong?

 

[RoJoHen]

Even if they forgot a throwaway line, how could they forget that Data aged in "All Good Things?" or am I remembering the episode wrong?

I thought AGT implied that he had only dyed his hair to "look" old.

 

[WHF]

The cynic in me thinks that they killed Data off because he was the easiest character to bring back if they did another movie.

 

[Forbin]

I'm wondering just exactly how an "aging program" works. Assuming he's made of some kind of molded plastic and steel frame, what can software do to completely change an android's outer phisicality?

 

[shadowedgalaxy]

Even if they forgot a throwaway line, how could they forget that Data aged in "All Good Things?" or am I remembering the episode wrong?

I thought AGT implied that he had only dyed his hair to "look" old.

Looks like a bloody skunk...

 

[AnyStar]

1: it was convienient to the story
2: he was always asking to be the one sacrificed (to whatever the evil of the week was) in many episodes.
3: they had a "new data" too, i'm sure they had some sort of insurance policy of using some sort of backup file they could plug into nuevo-data if they ever needed him on screen again.

at least that's how i always thought about it

 

[Too Much Fun]

Even the aging program wouldn't be able to explain how heavy Data looked in "Nemesis" especially compared to how he was in the early seasons of the show. And that's not even an aging issue, it's more just Spiner not staying in shape.

 

[Tomalak]

And that's not even an aging issue, it's more just Spiner not staying in shape.

Well, most people don't look the same in their fifties as their do in their thirties. It's called ageing, regardless of how many hours you spend in the gym.

 

[Neutral Zone]

And that's not even an aging issue, it's more just Spiner not staying in shape.

Well, most people don't look the same in their fifties as their do in their thirties. It's called ageing, regardless of how many hours you spend in the gym.

I see the evidence every time I look in the mirror and then at a photo of our wedding day.

Besides, did anyone see Arnie in Terminator 3 (?), one ancient looking artificial lifeform and did he care?

 

[mythme]

May be more about the receeding hairline than his actual appearance. Sure there are ways to "fix" that, but maybe he just didn't want to be reminded about it.

 

[Tomalak]

To be honest, I never had a problem with Spiner ageing - I'm not stupid, I have the ability to suspend disbelief. If I can cope with Kirstie Alley changing into Robin Curtis, a bit of middle age spread on our favourite android isn't much of a problem.

What did annoy me was they way Data was back to his emotionless TNG self, with no mention of the emotion chip. At least Insurrection name-checked it, even if Michael Piller couldn't be bothered writing an emotional Data. It just seemed a bit of a cop out to rob Data of the character development of the first two films.

 

[Kegg]

Yesterday, however, I watched the TNG episode Inheritance. There is a line in there, in sickbay, where Geordi is studying Julianna Soong's inner workings, where he refers to how she has a built in aging program similar to Data's.

Which is an attempt to wave away what otherwise seems incredulous, and is even inconsistent with the idea Data could stay the same for years (he expects to outlive most of the Enterprise crewmen).

What, is Data Tithonius? Immortality without the immortal youth thing? Bummer.

Really, though, the reason Data died is because Spock died in TWOK, and B-4 is like the whole katra thing just in case.

 

[Harvey]

The problem with Spiner complaining that he was too old for the part is that B-4 is alive and well at the end of the movie. Would age suddenly not be a factor when it came to Data's other brother?

 

[Too Much Fun]

And that's not even an aging issue, it's more just Spiner not staying in shape.

Besides, did anyone see Arnie in Terminator 3 (?), one ancient looking artificial lifeform and did he care?

I actually think this kind of proves my point. I honestly didn't think Arnold looked very unconvincing in "Terminator 3" as the same person we saw in "Terminator 2" not much later, and part of the reason is because Arnold stayed in shape. Same goes for Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones IV (at least as far as I can tell from pictures, having not seen the movie).

 

[Tomalak]

Yeah, but the difference there is that Indy had aged, because it was set twenty years after The Last Crusade. The Terminator was supposed to be unchanged, the same model from the first film in 1984.

 

[Anji]

You know if they ran out of ideas by the time they got to Nemesis why didn't they just stop making movies?

What's the old saying, "Sometimes it's just better to keep your mouth shut."