Why did Data stop using his emotion chip after FC?

[Farscape One]

I can actually defend, in-universe, the decisions about Data's chip going from fused to turn offable to removeable.

About two years pass between each film, except the last two films... that's about 4 years. We saw each character have a lot happen in just one year. I think as Data and Geordi looked at and tinkered in his head, they were able to gradually do exactly what was said in FIRST CONTACT and INSURRECTION... turn off, and remove.

I'm not really a fan of the emotion chip's apparent discontinuity, but I can understand it being a story told between films, off screen.

 

[jackoverfull]

Especially as Crusher said as early as in Generations that she would eventually find a way to remove it…

 

[Richard S. Ta]

It's the thing he aspires towards throughout TNG's 7 season run. I don't get why he'd ever remove it or deactivate it personally?

I suppose some people do win the lottery, find it makes them miserable and donate it all to charity... But yeah, it was a dreadful idea. A prime example of the journey itself being more interesting than the actual arrival.

 

[jackoverfull]

Ever wanted to press a switch and stop feeling for a while? Data has that option now.

 

[Damian]

He did have it in Insurrection and that was the last time it was mentioned. I don't really have a problem with it being removable by then. They said it was fused in Generations. One would think that he would have that taken care of at some point. In FC he was able to deactivate it if necessary and by Insurrection it took another step and was able to be removed. Nemesis is an open question, he didn't appear to experience emotions there and it wasn't mentioned there at all.

The A Time Too...novel series which takes place about a year before Nemesis provided an explanation for what happened to his emotion chip (in a nut shell it was removed on order of Starfleet Command based on some questionable actions Data took while he had it activated). That's not a canon source of course.

 

[dupersuper]

Ever wanted to press a switch and stop feeling for a while? Data has that option now.

"There are times I envy you."
- Picard, First Contact

 

[Yistaan]

He did have it in Insurrection and that was the last time it was mentioned. I don't really have a problem with it being removable by then. They said it was fused in Generations. One would think that he would have that taken care of at some point. In FC he was able to deactivate it if necessary and by Insurrection it took another step and was able to be removed. Nemesis is an open question, he didn't appear to experience emotions there and it wasn't mentioned there at all.

The A Time Too...novel series which takes place about a year before Nemesis provided an explanation for what happened to his emotion chip (in a nut shell it was removed on order of Starfleet Command based on some questionable actions Data took while he had it activated). That's not a canon source of course.

Wouldn't forcibly removing Data's emotion chip nullify the entire point of "Measure of a Man" where he was ruled an individual free to make his own decisions and not Starfleet property?

My personal guess is that the sheer horror of fighting in the Dominion war was too much even for Data and he just turned the chip off

 

[Damian]

Wouldn't forcibly removing Data's emotion chip nullify the entire point of "Measure of a Man" where he was ruled an individual free to make his own decisions and not Starfleet property?

I don't remember the exact details as to why (it's been about 10 years since I read those) but it was a decision Data didn't fight. I do recall when I read it that it didn't have that "Measure of a Man" vibe to it. A Starfleet ship was accidently destroyed because of some actions Data took while he had it activated.

 

[Oddish]

Maybe it suffered a cascade failure, like the one that took Lal. With Data, only one chip was affected, so he didn't suffer total systems failure like she did. But the chip was toast.

 

[Workbee]

After seeing the season one finale of Picard, I prefer to think that Data simply came to feel he didn't need it. Through TNG, he often described the ability to feel emotions as the missing "piece" in his quest to become more human. However, by the time of Nemesis...

Spoiler: Spoiler about Season 1 of Picard

... Data had come to realize that what he was missing wasn't the ability to feel emotions, but the sense of how precious and finite the time that humans have is. In other words, the emotion chip was simply a set of training wheels: those weren't "really" emotions, but rather simulates rudimentary psychological and physiological responses. Deeper emotion and feeling came through the connections with people in his life and the value of the time he had with them. In other words, a sense of mortality. By Nemesis, he had spent 15 years with his friends, saw them change, grow, and age. He had been a significant part of their lives, and they had been for his. These feelings came without the emotion chip. Data was never lacking any "hardware" needed to feel them; like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, he had everything he needed all along. Or more correctly, the Tin Woodman. Anyway, that is just my personal headcannon.

 

[SithHappens]

it amazes me more it was ever mentioned after generations.

 

[Oddish]

First Contact actually made good use of it. Data had gained control of it, could turn ot off at will (usually), but it was still a factor.

But then, FC's strength was that it built on what the show had done. The Borg were Borg-like, the holodeck was interestingly used, Worf's penchant for deadly cutlery came in handy, and there were even shoutouts to Barclay and Voyager's EMH.

 

[at Quark's]

Always took it as a logical progression. In GEN, he finally reaches his goal of achieving emotions, but without control. In FC, he's got an amount of control (switching the chip off). In INS, he can remove it, so the pattern seems to be here that while he learns control (both physically in actually being able to remove / switch off the chip, and probably also in dealing with the emotions) he also comes to the conclusion that emotions while on duty are more interfering than useful, so perhaps by NEM, he still has the chip, but strictly uses it in his private life, not when on duty.