"The Offspring," will Data be the last of his kind in Trek Lit?

[wizkid]

As the title suggests, will Data be the last of his kind in Trek Lit? The Offspring was a great episode and I am reading Immortal Coil now and I went back to watch the episode to refresh myself with everything before I got to far into the book.

It made me think to ask this question.

So what say you Trek Authors. Is a Noonian creation even on the radar?

 

[Christopher]

B-4 is still intact and functional at last report, though it's uncertain whether he'll ever feature in a story again. As far as is known, he's the last surviving Soong-type android.

 

[KobayashiMaru13]

I would say B4 was the last, as Lal, Data, and Lore-being the latest and only talked about andriods- were all either destroyed, or deactivated due to malfunction.

 

[William Leisner]

So what say you Trek Authors. Is a Noonian creation even on the radar?

It's certainly within the realm of possibility that Bruce Maddox and his friends at the Daystrom could finally create a functional Soong-type android.

Beyond that... even if anyone was aware of a new android story on the drawing board, do you really think they would spill that info here?

 

[Sisko Lives!]

What are the chances Lore ever created a cache of Mini-me's that are lying around undiscovered somewhere, just waiting for a good storyline?

 

[JD]

I just checked Memory Beta, and it says that as of Juliana Tainer was still around. But that was 7 years ago now (if we consider the 2381 timeframe as the present).

 

[Therin of Andor]

I just checked Memory Beta, and it says that as of Juliana Tainer was still around. But that was 7 years ago now (if we consider the 2381 timeframe as the present).

Check out "Immortal Coil" for a more definitive answer.

It's certainly within the realm of possibility that Bruce Maddox and his friends at the Daystrom could finally create a functional Soong-type android.

As explored in "Immortal Coil".

 

[JD]

I just checked Memory Beta, and it says that as of Juliana Tainer was still around. But that was 7 years ago now (if we consider the 2381 timeframe as the present).

That was supposed to be "as of 2374".

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Immortal Coil is one of my favorite Trek novels and it still pains me that Data died in Nemesis because of how it affects the ending of Immortal Coil. *sigh*

 

[Icemizer]

With the use of mobile emitters and the gradual improvement of holographic technology I cannot think of many good reasons to spend the time and expense developing androids.

 

[Lonemagpie]

There's always the Normans etc to be reprogrammed...

 

[wizkid]

With the use of mobile emitters and the gradual improvement of holographic technology I cannot think of many good reasons to spend the time and expense developing androids.

You sound like you ARE from the 24th century.

Immortal Coil is one of my favorite Trek novels and it still pains me that Data died in Nemesis because of how it affects the ending of Immortal Coil. *sigh*

Killing Data off ranks almost as stupid as Killing Kirk. A long line of bad decisions by B&B. I hate that Data is dead and I want his character back.

 

[Christopher]

Killing Data off ranks almost as stupid as Killing Kirk. A long line of bad decisions by B&B.

Not this "B&B" rubbish again. Brannon Braga had absolutely no involvement with Star Trek: Nemesis. He was not Berman's creative partner as a matter of course. He worked for Berman as showrunner on three seasons of VGR (after having previously worked under other showrunners on TNG & VGR) and worked with him as a writing partner and co-showrunner on ENT. Braga and Ron Moore scripted the first two TNG movies, working with Berman on the story outlines for same, but neither man had any involvement in the final two films. Killing off Data was a decision made by Brent Spiner and John Logan.

For that matter, killing off Kirk was Ron Moore's idea. He's discussed this openly in interviews, and has taken plenty of heat for it on the Internet over the years. Berman produced the film and Braga co-wrote it, but Moore was the guy who made the decision about Kirk.

Berman and Braga made a lot of questionable decisions, separately and together, but there is simply no excuse for accusing people of things they aren't responsible for. Especially when anyone who bothers to read the credits can easily tell that Braga had no connection to Nemesis.

 

[wizkid]

Killing Data off ranks almost as stupid as Killing Kirk. A long line of bad decisions by B&B.

Not this "B&B" rubbish again. Brannon Braga had absolutely no involvement with Star Trek: Nemesis. He was not Berman's creative partner as a matter of course. He worked for Berman as showrunner on three seasons of VGR (after having previously worked under other showrunners on TNG & VGR) and worked with him as a writing partner and co-showrunner on ENT. Braga and Ron Moore scripted the first two TNG movies, working with Berman on the story outlines for same, but neither man had any involvement in the final two films. Killing off Data was a decision made by Brent Spiner and John Logan.

For that matter, killing off Kirk was Ron Moore's idea. He's discussed this openly in interviews, and has taken plenty of heat for it on the Internet over the years. Berman produced the film and Braga co-wrote it, but Moore was the guy who made the decision about Kirk.

Berman and Braga made a lot of questionable decisions, separately and together, but there is simply no excuse for accusing people of things they aren't responsible for. Especially when anyone who bothers to read the credits can easily tell that Braga had no connection to Nemesis.

Yes, I did say they made a long line of bad decisions. Yes, I was wrong for using their names. I retract that.

A long line of bad decisions in general since Gene's death in Trek TV and film. It was a stupid move. Spiner even getting a choice in his characters death is ludicrous. It doesn't seem the Star Trek powers-that-be know what fans want or what drives ticket sales.

This has been the case up until the latest ST movie of which I would say it was a success but I don't agree with the alternate reality.

 

[Christopher]

Spiner even getting a choice in his characters death is ludicrous.

What? Who's more entitled to have a choice than the man who plays the role? Actors aren't slave labor, you know. Nobody could force Spiner to go on playing Data indefinitely. He had the right to decide it was time to move on.

 

[wizkid]

Spiner even getting a choice in his characters death is ludicrous.

What? Who's more entitled to have a choice than the man who plays the role? Actors aren't slave labor, you know. Nobody could force Spiner to go on playing Data indefinitely. He had the right to decide it was time to move on.

I don't know the details of his contract. If he wanted to stop, they could have just made him a mentionable afterthought or put him at a well known research institute. Data's death is a business decesion. While he may be the actor that plays the role, he is not the creative mind and owner of the character. In the end Paramount should have refused to kill Data off for the good of Trek.

It's Paramounts final decesion, is it not?

 

[wizkid]

Spiner even getting a choice in his characters death is ludicrous.

What? Who's more entitled to have a choice than the man who plays the role? Actors aren't slave labor, you know. Nobody could force Spiner to go on playing Data indefinitely. He had the right to decide it was time to move on.

I also don't think getting paid the cash Spiner got paid would classify him as slave labor either. He is not entitled just because he plays the role.

 

[William Leisner]

^ He's more entitled than you are. By far.

 

[Therin of Andor]

He is not entitled just because he plays the role.

If the role did not satisfy Brent Spiner's whims - as an esteemed character actor always seeking a new challenge for a well-worn character - he'd simply refuse to sign his "Nemesis" contract - and the movie probably wouldn't have gone ahead with its major co-star. Similarly, Nimoy refused to sign on for "In Thy Image" and, when it became ST:TMP, new director Robert Wise told Paramount to pay whatever Nimoy wanted to get him on board.

So yes, as one of the movie's bankable stars, he is very "entitled".

Fans seem to think it's the fans that have entitlement.

 

[Christopher]

I don't know the details of his contract. If he wanted to stop, they could have just made him a mentionable afterthought or put him at a well known research institute. Data's death is a business decesion. While he may be the actor that plays the role, he is not the creative mind and owner of the character. In the end Paramount should have refused to kill Data off for the good of Trek.

It's Paramounts final decesion, is it not?

So what you're saying is that movie studios should have the right to force filmmakers and writers to compromise their creative freedom and submit to what the studios demand. While it is true that that's already the case, you will never get me to agree that it's a good thing. This is a decision that was made by two of the screenwriters of the film (Brent Spiner co-plotted the film's story, so you're wrong to say he wasn't a "creative mind" on this production) as well as its producer and director. It is outrageous for you to claim (on this forum in particular) that it's somehow morally wrong for those people to be allowed to make their own creative choices.

Let's cut the crap. They didn't do anything objectively wrong or improper. All they did was make a creative choice that you personally didn't agree with. It's obnoxious in the extreme to argue that people shouldn't have the right to make a choice just because you didn't enjoy it.