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News Brent Spiner Returned for "Picard" (and you could do the CGI better in 15 minutes, we get it)

saladdays said:
I think we can debate the particulars all we want, but the likelihood of at least one person from TNG making some sort of an appearance on the show is pretty high, IMO. No matter what happens, though, I'm not going to be dismissive until I see it.
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I completely agree that the likelihood is high. Nor am I totally opposed to it but I am highly resistant to it because I do not see occuring naturally or as a greater service to the story. I see it being done for fan service. Which, is alright. But, it bothers me that this type of fan service was decried in Discovery and creates a small galaxy while in Picard it is expected and accepted.

But, I get it. One show is regarded as the destroyer of Trek while this one is considered the messiah of Trek. :sigh::shrug:
 
Danlav05 said:
What? Asked to actually appear?
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I doubt he/she meant that. All we know is that Frakes is directing 2 episodes. It would make for an easy cameo, but nothing has leaked to indicate that he will be on that side of the camera.
 
BillJ said:
Nobody went to see Nemesis. :guffaw:

Trek's darkest hour, beaten by Maid in Manhattan opening weekend.
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Common, J-Lo in her prime :)

BillJ said:
I went opening weekend. :rofl:
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I'm trying my damnest to remember, how/when I saw first saw Nemesis. I remember GEN, FC, INS, don't remember NEM at all. Whatever method I used to block remember watching it from my mind must have worked very well ;)
 
I've seen people say he can't play Data because of his age, but I think that is dumb. Data can artifically age himself, he did it to some degree in All Good Things, didn't he?
 
ITDUDE said:
Common, J-Lo in her prime :)


I'm trying my damnest to remember, how/when I saw first saw Nemesis. I remember GEN, FC, INS, don't remember NEM at all. Whatever method I used to block remember watching it from my mind must have worked very well ;)
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Lol, I saw every TNG movie apart from it, I didn't see Nemesis for years after and was still disappointed.
 
The Old Mixer said:
I'm afraid to say that I did, though I walked out of the theater wanting two hours of my life back.
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I went to see it. I had no idea, since I avoided spoilers, how bad it was going to be. I almost walked out. I wanted and still want my money back!


The Wormhole said:
Actually, Data does have aging software, according to Inheritance.
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But there has to be a reason after all this time to finally use. Remember, he didn't use it on the home world while with Soong; he didn't use it for the almost thirty years before he became a member of the Enterprise D; and he didn't use it through seven seasons and four films.

Aside from natural aging of the actor, which they tried to cover up, there was no aging seen or referenced on screen before he joined the Enterprise D. Suddenly having him age just because he can, is lazy writing. Between make up effects and de-aging computer programs, Data need not age. If anything, it's a way to erase Nemesis from Trek and proceed. Though it means little considering they're sticking with the J.J.-Rebootrams intrusion into prime Trek.
 
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For me the whole problem with Data's "aging software" (and shouldn't he have aging hardware?) was always the fact that you could tell that it was included to explain away Spiner having aged in seven seasons, to explain away why a character that should be immortal and apart from the process of biological decay has visibly changed. You know, the natural drawback of having human actors portray long-lived or even immortal characters over extended periods of time.

Over the course of seven seasons you don't really notice it since it's gradual, but I totally get why Spiner was vary to continue playing the character in movies 2 to 4 years apart. And suddenly going well, Data for some reason that doesn't make a lick of sense (*) has the inbuilt ability to age and for some reason decided it would be cool to have the body of a 70 year old dude is just calling undue attention to that weird hand-wave.

Also, harking back to aging hardware, if Data came back via hostile takeover of his brothers body, does B4 even have the capability to age? He was a pretty early and not very successful prototype, so I doubt that Soong was pre-occupied with programming aging at that stage.

(*) it made sense with his mother since she didn't know she was an android and the aging was supposed to hide that even from her
 
tharpdevenport said:
Aside from natural aging of the actor, which they tried to cover up, there was no aging seen or referenced on screen before he joined the Enterprise D. Suddenly having him age just because he can, is lazy writing. Between make up effects and de-aging computer programs, Data need not age. If anything, it's a way to erase Nemesis from Trek and proceed. Though it means little considering they're sticking with the J.J.-Rebootrams intrusion into prime Trek.
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During TNG's run, there really was no way to handle the aging unless they just ignored it (which maybe they just should have done). There was no reason for it to really even come up until after TNG had been on the air for a while and Spiner's aging started to be apparent.
 
The makeup did a pretty decent job of hiding the gradual aging. In AGT, Data attempts to age himself by wearing old people clothing and painting his hair gray with a paintbrush, it's not like he made himself appear older. The aging of the rest of the cast was handled fairly well, and the "flashbacks" to Farpoint were handled pretty well.
Some flaws are more noticeable in the TNG-R bluerays, but overall the effects were done quite well.
 
saladdays said:
I think we can debate the particulars all we want, but the likelihood of at least one person from TNG making some sort of an appearance on the show is pretty high, IMO. No matter what happens, though, I'm not going to be dismissive until I see it.
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IMHO it would make more sense for somebody like Marie Picard to appear. She IS Jean-Luc's sister-in-law, after all. And she's most likely taken over the family business after Robert's death, so they may even be working together.

Is Samantha Eggar still acting? I wonder if she'd be up for reprising the role.
 
I never bought the aging non-sense with Data. If you're going to have the character, have him in a new body. Young African-American woman should be about right.

Would definitely stir the pot. :shifty:
 
BillJ said:
I never bought the aging non-sense with Data. If you're going to have the character, have him in a new body. Young African-American woman should be about right.

Would definitely stir the pot. :shifty:
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Even in Star Trek they already did it with various Dax hosts. Let's get some new material:

-Data is now part of the ship computer (dang Solo did it)...
-Umm ok, Data is now an AI bent on killing all humans (dang.. I think that's Resident Evil)
-Ok, how about this one. One Data is in an old body, another data is copied into brand new body without any memories (wait, that's Logan)

Have all the sci-fi tropes been already done? Have we come to the end of the line? :(
 
I really liked Data as a kid and still think he is one of the better TNG characters. But isn't his whole "I want to be human" thing a bit outdated nowadays? Today's society is all about being proud of who you are and in Data's case he is even superior in a lot of ways to humans. Data though wanted to be part of another race.

Of course at the time Picard plays, he has emotions like humans and wouldn't be so different to humans anymore. But that also means that the character would be more ordinary and the whole emotionless robot aspect of his character would be less pronounced. With other words he has hardly anything special to offer anymore.

So or so I don't think they should bring Data back from the dead. I prefer a new character whose story wasn't told yet.
 
BillJ said:
I never bought the aging non-sense with Data. If you're going to have the character, have him in a new body. Young African-American woman should be about right.

Would definitely stir the pot. :shifty:
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Actually, they could go and make his new body Asian, as a neat callback to the TNG bible Roddenberry wrote originally:

"Until the role is cast, Data can be defined as representing any racial group between Pacific Oceania and the Middle East. Whatever his final physiognomy, it is a result of his being manufactured by highly advanced (and never seen) aliens who intended him to serve as a repository of all the memories of a doomed Earth-Asian space colony."

Found here:
http://leethomson.myzen.co.uk/Star_...ion/Star_Trek_-_The_Next_Generation_Bible.pdf
 
Maybe Data was downloaded into a new body that has a T1000 liquid metal skin. He likes to change his appearance, so each week he can be played by a different actor.

PS: I'm kidding.
 
Cake said:
I really liked Data as a kid and still think he is one of the better TNG characters. But isn't his whole "I want to be human" thing a bit outdated nowadays? Today's society is all about being proud of who you are and in Data's case he is even superior in a lot of ways to humans. Data though wanted to be part of another race.
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As much as I don't like Data, I don't think his arc is outdated, especially with more recent adaptations of Alita and Ghost in a Shell, among others. I think there is a great deal of appeal due to current transhuman possibilities in current technology. The idea of people wanting to become part of the machine can have interesting exploration if the machine wants to become more human.

YMMV :)
 
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