Data in Nemesis (Spoilers for the climax!)

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

In Nemesis, Data is killed off. Numerous TrekBBS members say the pressense of B4 cheapened Data's death. I disagree. B4 looking like Data and having his memories is no different than if you died and your identical twin of the same gender ended up with journals you kept since childhood. Would that cheapen your death? B4 is B4, he will never be Data 2.0.

I think the reason why Data's death left us with a bland feeling is because it was poorly executed. First off, it should have been Picard, Riker, Data, and Worf who went to the Schimitar. There could be a need for one to stay behind and manually detonate the vessel to save the Enterprise. Picard chooses to stay behind, but Data nerve pinches him and orders Riker and Worf to take him back. After they leave, Data whispers goodbye as we see a montage of images progressing from the beginning of the series to the end and then from the movies. Data has relived his entire life. With that, we see Data's skin melt away in slow motion revealing his inner circuits which spark and melt until nothing is left except for Data's skeleton which then shatters. Time speeds up to normal, the ship explodes.

That would have been a good death scene.

Instead, we get goodbye and boom.

 

[DonIago]

I liked Data's Death more when it was Spock's Death in TWoK.

 

[Maurice]

1. Data couldn't order Riker back to the Enterprise
2. A montage from the series...in the middle of a movie? Wouldn't work.

 

[Deckerd]

If he wasn't alive, how could he die?

 

[SmoothieX]

Picard chooses to stay behind, but Data nerve pinches him and orders Riker and Worf to take him back.

Of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most...positronic.

*Cue 'Blue Skies' on bagpipes*

 

[Ssosmcin]

Charles Trip Tucker III said: First off, it should have been Picard, Riker, Data, and Worf who went to the Schimitar. There could be a need for one to stay behind and manually detonate the vessel to save the Enterprise. Picard chooses to stay behind, but Data nerve pinches him and orders Riker and Worf to take him back. After they leave, Data whispers goodbye as we see a montage of images progressing from the beginning of the series to the end and then from the movies. Data has relived his entire life. With that, we see Data's skin melt away in slow motion revealing his inner circuits which spark and melt until nothing is left except for Data's skeleton which then shatters. Time speeds up to normal, the ship explodes.

That would have been a good death scene.

Instead, we get goodbye and boom.

I see what you're trying to create, but if you have too many people there, it makes it tougher for Data to stay. Nobody with a higher rank than Data should be there, so Riker's out. By not using the cheesy portable transporter to suddenly get Picard out, you then have to resort to Data assaulting Picard. Consider this; as before, Data goes over alone because the transporters are out. However, Geordi is working dilligently to repair them. Before Data gets to the Theleron Matrix, Geordi calls over "the transporter is working but barely. Use the signal enhancer for a positive lock."

Data finds Picard and, knowing he has a better chance to make it back alone and since someone needs to destroy the matrix, Data slaps on the enhancer and has Geordi beam him out.

Leave out the montage. But keep your idea for the slow motion death. That I like.

It's still a decent death scene and fixes the whole "super tiny pattern buffers in a disc the size of a dime."

 

[Charles Trip Tucker III]

Think of the montage being a bombardment of images lasting only about one minute, nothing long-winded.

 

[Ssosmcin]

One minute is an eternity when you're rushing to the climax of the film.

 

[T'Cal]

I like the montage idea quite a bit but still like Data's death scene as is and probably wouldn't change it. Data became as human as he could become, and without the emotion chip, by giving his life so that others would survive. He's dead! Or is he???? Cheesy, cheesy, cheesy. I didn't like the entire B4 arc. I would've liked more time spent on Will and Deana, Beverly, and Geordi. Really, the way the battle scene from INS went, I figured Geordi was bucking to be Will's XO. He certainly performed as if he was the best candidate. I would've liked to see the Titan. Also, who better to play Picard's clone than Stewart? And, as a younger man, why not get the actor who played Rene (Family) and Picard (Rascals)? That would've been perfect for Shinzon. There were so many small things that could've improved this movie that weren't done that it came off as bland and uninteresting. Because it was so bad for so many people, we may never see TNG again. Unforgivable, Mr. Berman, Mr. Braga, and Mr. Stuart. Simply unforgivable.

 

[Lek]

Whatever happened to the numerous transporters on all the E's shuttlecraft and the Captain's Yacht?

I blame it all on Geordi

 

[Ssosmcin]

T'Cal said: Unforgivable, Mr. Berman, Mr. Braga, and Mr. Stuart. Simply unforgivable.

Braga had nothing to do with Nemesis.

 

[Good Will Riker]

^^ Good...

 

[cardinal biggles]

You're missing the point. Everyone blames him for the movie when he wasn't even involved with it (at least not in a direct manner for which he could receive screen credit). Criticize Braga all you want, but don't blame him for stuff he didn't do.

 

[shatastrophic]

A ceremony would've been nice but there was no body remains not that you really need them i guess. It wasnt B4 that ruined his death, it was b4 that ruined the movie. once he was introduced the movie became immediately redundant, ideas we already seen and done before, romulans, data and picard were also kinda dealing with the same thing too which made it worse. We knew going into the theater he would die, it wasn't going to be a surprise. It was different with the wrath of khan and Spock dying, everyone knew it was going to happen but they had an original idea and gripping way of doing it that still satisfied viewers who cared about Spock, The way they forced humor out of Data in the Movies and having already dealt with death concerning data in the shows combined together made it anti climatic, which is sad becasue it wasted stewarts great stare showing how he felt a great loss, on a down note with it being anti climatic, I almost wanted to yell out loud at sirtus when she would start crying. Don't get me started on how Riker and Picard exchanged farewells, "It's been an honor, later dude"-riker.

 

[DonIago]

Some of us didn't know in advance that Data was going to die...

That being said, the manner in which it was handled was underwhelming, particularly in regards to other deaths we've seen in Trek.

 

[ancient]

The problem with Data's death, is the same as the problem with the rest of the film. It was poorly paced and felt so...staged. There was no build-up, and the mourning scene was poorly done. The whole 10+ minutes of 'let's talk about Data' scenes just made me check my watch a lot.

 

[Good Will Riker]

ancient said:
The problem with Data's death, is the same as the problem with the rest of the film. It was poorly paced and felt so...staged. There was no build-up, and the mourning scene was poorly done. The whole 10+ minutes of 'let's talk about Data' scenes just made me check my watch a lot.

This is one film on my DVD shelf that I never watch, except for its special features. The disappointed/embarassed looks on the faces of the people who worked on this film pretty much says it all.

Except for Richard Berman. He'll eat up anything that comes out of his mouth because he is "very pleased."