When I was first assigned the task of providing a fan’s analysis of Lt. Cmdr. Data, I was excited and ready to go, thinking I could just bang it out and be done with it. However, as I sat down to do my research on Data, I realized that it wouldn’t be quite so easy as just flying through it at warp speed. There is more to the character of Data than I, as a casual fan, realized.

My first step was to look up Data on Memory Alpha, which has a virtual ton of material on the character. For instance, I didn’t know (or had forgotten) that Data is composed of 24.5 kilograms of tripolymer composites,  11.8 kilograms of molybdenum( which according to Wikipedia is a non-naturally occuring metallic element which has a high melting point and is virtually indisolvable in water)-cobalt alloys and 1.3 kilograms of bioplast sheeting for a total approximate weight of one hundred kilograms. According to my calculations, that would’ve put his weight at approximately 220 lbs which is quite heavy and  although he wasn’t exactly a stick-figure, I would not have thought that Brent Spiner (who played Data) weighed anywhere near that much. Data always appeared to be rather fit and trim.

While looking up facts on Data, I also ran across a website called  Celebheights.com which states that Brent Spiner’s height is approximately five feet, eleven inches. Celebheights also states that there were lifts in Brent’s shoes to make him taller by at least an inch or so than Captain Picard (who for whatever reason was made to look like he was shorter than everybody except perhaps Geordi…not sure why on that).

Memory Alpha tells me that Data is the only Soong-type android to ever join Starfleet. Data’s reasoning behind this is that he was rescued by Starfleet personnel after the destruction of his homeworld and he wanted to give something back in return for all they’d done for him. Giving back is a theme which we will see Data talk about later in the episode “The Offspring” when he is explaining why he created a second android, a daughter named Lal.

Is Data a sentient being or is he a walking, talking toaster? In the episode “Measure of A Man”, that issue is explored because Data’s life is literally on the line. If Captain Picard had not been able to convince the judge advocate general (JAG) officer of Data’s sentience then he would’ve been taken apart and we would’ve lost a character who, over the seasons, became an important member of the cast. I choose to believe that Data is a sentient being, even though he is technically a machine because we are all, in a way, machines. But should biology rather than technology determine who is sentient and who isn’t? I’ve never felt so although I know many do. A thing cannot be sentient if it is not alive, but Data is alive, in my opinion.  I feel that with the advances we are making in technology and in Artificial Intelligence in particular, we may not be that far away from a day where we share our world with androids much like Data. And like Data, they will need their rights and privileges defined as his were in “Measure of a Man”. I just hope there are some lawyers that are as good at arguing android rights as Picard was.

As an android, Data is physically stronger and smarter than humans, but that doesn’t mean he’s infallible. In the episode “The Naked Now”, we learn that Data is just as susceptible to the water-based virus that is infecting the other members of the crew. I know that, when Data uttered the line “If you prick me, do I not leak?” in such a goofy voice, with a drunken look on his face, that I laughed out loud for several minutes. It was nice to see the straight laced Data loosen up a bit, something we wouldn’t see for quite a while yet in the series.

Another thing that Memory Alpha informs me is that Data is left handed (as I believe is Brent). Whenever you see him painting, writing or firing his phaser, he always has it in his left hand. It makes me wonder if Dr. Noonien Soong was left handed and if he was, if he chose to deliberately  make Data left handed as well. I myself am left handed and I’m always silently happy when I see another lefty on TV or in the movies because there are so many right handed people in the world. Being left handed presents many challenges from writing (you tend to smear your ink and it becomes a semi-permanent stain on the side of your hand) to throwing and catching (the left hand/arm is supposed to be weaker than the right)and even eating because although they look like they would be designed for either hand most utensils have a slight right hand bias. I think they should’ve shown more of that..shown how Data learned to cope with being left handed in a right handed world. Or maybe, in the future, being left or right handed wouldn’t matter because everything will be designed to be completely universal and usable by people with either hand preference. Or at least I”d like to think so.

Data at times displays some odd contradictions. Although he states that he is designed as a flotation device, in the episode “Descent part II”, Geordi states that they once tried to go swimming in a lake, Data sank and it took two weeks to get all the water out of his servo mechanisms because somehow he didn’t have enough buoyancy to get back to the surface. In the first few episodes, it was also not quite set in stone yet that Data would not use contractions and so there’s a few instances when you catch him saying “I’ve” or “they’ve”. I think it was later decided he would not use contractions because they decided it wasn’t in his programming. Although, you’d think that with programming as complex as his they’d be able to input a formula or a series which allowed him to use contractions like anybody else.

One of the things I’ve always liked about Data is his desire to become more human. He acquires a pet cat whom he names Spot (who seems to change gender and breed at will…maybe all cats can do that in the future?), he installs a program to let him dream and he attempts (disastrously) to fall in love. Like Spock before him, Data’s attempt to become more human, to understand humanity better is what endears him to the audience. He pulls it off with a sweet, almost child-like seriousness that makes the viewer want to watch even more, to see exactly how Data is going to solve his next issue.

In the episodes “Descent” parts one and two, Data began using an emotion chip provided to him by his evil brother, Lore. He carries the emotion chip with him for the rest of his life although he does not always use it (as evidenced in the film “Nemesis” where Star Fleet orders him not to). Although I had mixed emotions about the emotional chip, I think that Data needed to experience all those things that he could not before without it. Love, hate, anger, passion, loss…these are all a part of the human condition that he is striving to emulate and you cannot fully immerse yourself in being human without these emotions which make up our daily lives. We’ve all gone through them and it makes sense that Data would too, even if he eventually goes back to not using the emotion chip because he’d rather be emotionless. It is possible, however, to feel emotion without expressing it, as the Vulcans do. They have very deep, powerful emotions that they keep tightly controlled and I like to think that Data is the same way. Not because he’s afraid of the emotions (as I’ve always felt the Vulcans were) but because he knows that he could easily get out of control because he is unused to feeling such powerful things

Data is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the Star Trek universe simply because he is unique. Outside of Lore (who was destroyed) and his brother B4 (who eventually takes over where Data left off), there are no other androids. Not in Star Fleet, not in the galaxy, not anywhere. And that makes his story something that is worth reading about, worth writing about, worth finding out more about because there is so much there to learn, to learn from in fact. The lessons that we can learn from Data are simply these: Be curious. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Don’t be afraid to try. Make some really good friends. Don’t be afraid of sacrafice. I think these are all lessons we can use in our daily life at  one point or another.