Data's death

[rmkwebdesign]

I went to see NEM on opening night with high hopes. And like many of you, throughout the movie I was dissapointed. Not so much with stuff that was "out of character" (I can usually rationalize that away with...the characters have grown and changed) but with it being derivative of TWOK from start to finish. However.......

I was vigilant in avoiding spoilers for the movie before it opened. I loved visiting these forums, but would not go in the pre-release-Nem threads or even look at their titles. I did not want to hear about the movie ahead of time.

And I was shocked when Data died. When he said "Goodbye" and the ship blew up, I literally sat there with my jaw dropped and eyeballs wide open. I had no clue that was going to happen, and the shock made a significant impact on me.

Is there ANYONE who didn't hear rumors of this before they saw the film and who were as surprised as I was?

 

[K-Star]

Well, I didn't see it till spring break this year (because I didn't get into Trek until February), so obviously I knew what was going to happen beforehand since it's a well known fact by now amongst Trek fans. I wasn't surprised, but I was quite pissed since he's my favorite character ever.

I'll have to ask Dad how he reacted... He saw Nemesis when it first came out and I don't think it was spoiled for him.

 

[Csalem]

The first time I saw it I wasn't shocked as I knew it was coming, but when I went again a week later there was a slight tear in my eye as the enormity of the situation kicked in and I remembered he wasn't a character in a one hour forty film but someone with fifteen years of history.

 

[cultcross]

I didn't know it was going to happen before I went to see the film - I was reasonably spoiler free. But let's face it, it was no 'I have been and always shall be.. your friend' was it?

 

[cardinal biggles]

I don't think I'd read the script at that point, but I definitely knew Data was going to die when I went into the theater. So there was no element of surprise, just disappointment as we went through the memorial toast in Picard's quarters (didn't do much for me) and the closing scene with B-4 (which robbed Data's death of what little emotional impact it had).

 

[Jon1701]

Yeah, it was a shock to me.

I managed to stay spoiler free, although I wasnt as internet-obsessed as I am now.

For all its faults, I think Data's death works pretty well in Nemesis - although I feel pretty cheated on subsequent viewings.

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

Hmm, well i was heavily spoiled about the events in NEM. I'll be honest, it was the first of the TNG movies that I didn't go to see at the cinema. And yes I felt cheated, but not because i had been spoilt but in the way that I had been spoiled. Whilst this was no doubt due to the poor quality control I was using when it came to thread selection, I managed to feel cheated BEFORE I even saw him die. With such a big debate ongoing both on TrekBBS and other BBS' I was confronted with tons of potential and practical outcomes/solutions that could have worked to save Picard and the Ship, rather than the one we actually saw on screen.

Interestingly, the nearest thing I could compare it to was the loss of the Ent-D in GEN. Now THAT felt like a tremendous loss to me personally (It was the Enterprise I grew up with after all). I remember thinking as i left the cinema that "God how many ways were there to avoid that warp-core breach? We saw it in almost every episode of TNG!" Without the internet at home back then, it was quite a few years to discover that many, many posters had felt exactly the same as I had about the (in my view preventable) loss of the Ent-D.

I guess from my viewpoint I believe that regardless of being spoiled or not, an individuals feelings about Data's death would still be the same regardless.

 

[Trekker4747]

Data's death would of had more weight if it, you know, meant something.

I will say this: Self-sacrafice for the good of his crewmates, ship, and Earth is the ultimate step in the road to humaity. Kudos to Data for reaching it, points off for doing it at the cost of his life.

I also thought the scene with the crew memorializing him (with Riker remembering their first meeting) was nice and Geordi's expression in his eyes when Data left was great too.

But, overall, BOO!!! HISSS!!! No call for his death and in the end dosen't work all that wel dramaticly.

 

[The Borg Queen]

He only died because he fell into a bottomless plothole...

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's easy for me to avoid spoilers because I simply avoid going to message boards that might feature discussions of things I haven't seen yet but want to. In the case of "Nemesis" I stayed away from Trek BBS completely until I saw it.

While I didn't know that Data was going to die, I really wasn't surprised. I guess the moment they put B4 together, I found myself thinking that Data was suddenly expendable. Don't ask me why, but B4 just screamed "Data replacement!" to me for some reason.

I saw Star Trek II in theatres as a kid. Spock's death was moving (even my mom, who really isn't a Star Trek fan) felt a little something when it happened. But when Data died, and I hate to say this, but it was actually something of a "Meh" moment for me. I guess there was so much else in the film I was disappointed in that Data being killed off was just one more thing to add to the list. It was nothing new to get upset about.

Captain Kirk, the Enterprise-D, Data, Trip Tucker--what do all these things have in common, I wonder?

I'm not saying that characters shouldn't die or whatever, but sometimes it feels like they're killed off just because it would be a "kewl" thing to do.

 

[Ezri]

Do not have a problem with a character that wants their character to die. Think about it, who wants someone to play their character after they walk away from the character. Since Data can live 500 years or more, it would bug me if in 20 years there is a new Data and he does not look like you or act like you.

 

[rmkwebdesign]

Not to be grouchy here, but the point of my post was not whether his death was "meaningful," but whether it was "surprising." Did it work cinematically for a stand-alone film?

 

[Fedaykin]

It would have been very surprising if there was no such thing as the internet.

Same goes for all the kids who had Harry potter spoiled for them by a bunch of anonymous jerks online.

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

rmkwebdesign said:
Not to be grouchy here, but the point of my post was not whether his death was "meaningful," but whether it was "surprising." Did it work cinematically for a stand-alone film?

As a stand-alone film? No, not at all. You really couldn't have foreshadowed it any more. With the deleted scenes especially (but even without) the whole 'end of an era' thing is signposted, Data's 'quest' to be closer to humanity is heavily mentioned. The knowing looks Data gives Geordi as he prepares for his spacewalk past the massive sign saying "I'M NOT COMING BACK!"

But if you treat it, not as a stand-alone film as you describe it, but as part of the Star Trek franchise as a whole, then i would argue it IS suprising. Although we've let a main character die before (hell even had a dry run with Data in 'Tin Man'), The overiding 'Star Trek' thing to do would be to find a magic solution to end the film as we started it. Unecessary or meaningless as it was (IMHO), it is very unlike modern Trek not to solve everything in a nice little bundle by the end of the episode/movie.

Hope that's a little more on-topic! :thumbsup:

 

[Jack Bauer]

I was spoiled but even if I was unspoiled I wouldn't have been shocked as I knew Spiner was desiring to have Data killed off back in Insurrection. And once it was known he was helping with the story for the movie it was quite obvious what was going to happen.

 

[SmoothieX]

I knew Spiner was interested in killing off the character because he was getting too old to play an ageless character.

And I think I knew he bit it in the movie. Either way I wasn't too surprised when it happened.

His death was somehow hollow to me. It seems like they just squeezed it into the movie to say they did. After the obligatory Picard fist fight, it was like they said, hey the movie's almost over, let's add Data to the scene and have him killed off so we don't have to do it during the credits.

 

[Trekker4747]

I knew Spiner was interested in killing off the character because he was getting too old to play an ageless character.

Thing is, Data wasn't ageless. Dr. Crusher noted in a TNG episode that Data had an "aging program" that (I would venture to guess) allowed him to change the physcial apperance of his age.

 

[rmkwebdesign]

Redshirts_Widow said:

rmkwebdesign said:
Not to be grouchy here, but the point of my post was not whether his death was "meaningful," but whether it was "surprising." Did it work cinematically for a stand-alone film?

As a stand-alone film? No, not at all. You really couldn't have foreshadowed it any more. With the deleted scenes especially (but even without) the whole 'end of an era' thing is signposted, Data's 'quest' to be closer to humanity is heavily mentioned. The knowing looks Data gives Geordi as he prepares for his spacewalk past the massive sign saying "I'M NOT COMING BACK!"

But if you treat it, not as a stand-alone film as you describe it, but as part of the Star Trek franchise as a whole, then i would argue it IS suprising. Although we've let a main character die before (hell even had a dry run with Data in 'Tin Man'), The overiding 'Star Trek' thing to do would be to find a magic solution to end the film as we started it. Unecessary or meaningless as it was (IMHO), it is very unlike modern Trek not to solve everything in a nice little bundle by the end of the episode/movie.

Hope that's a little more on-topic! :thumbsup:

^^ There we go! Thanks!

So I guess what all the posts in this thread means is that there is no one on this board who abstains from reading spoilers!! lol

 

[Shatmandu]

He didn't die, as long as we keep him right here <taps chest, then vomits>.

Joe, before

 

[Redshirts_Widow]

Shatmandu said:
He didn't die, as long as we keep him right here <taps chest, then vomits>.

Joe, before

From memory he was vaporised right? not an awful lot of him left to keep anywhere...