Data

[paranoid marvin]

Does anyone else find him an annoying character? In the first two or three series he was ok, but later on many episodes seemed to be so Data-centric that they were kind of spoiled for me. The films even more so.

I think he was an interesting character, but the quest for him to understand emotion and become more human just seemed to drag on for far too long.

On a similar note, I think that the lack of new constant characters being introduced didn't help the series. Ok , you may argue that TOS kept the same crew, but that was only over 3 series. Seven seasons was far too long not to bring in someone new to help reinvigorate it.

 

[zmunkz]

I read this post 4 years ago, and have spent the intervening years considering my answer. I'm finally ready to weigh in: not really, I liked his character enough that I didn't mind several episodes fixed on him.

 

[Dave]

I liked the character (it was based upon the character in a Roddenberry pilot that never got the green light) however, there were elements that were cheesy. Getting and laughing at a joke after seven years was one that comes to mind. It has been so long since I watched the series I'm sad to say I'm starting to forget the stories now.

As for introducing new characters, I expect that would have happened if the series had not done as well. It is strange but TNG DS9 & VOY all seemed to take off after the third series. TOS and ENT were never allowed to get that far. TNG introduced new enemies - The Borg - to achieve that. DS9 & VOY had changes of cast instead. DS9 also had the Founders.

 

[Brian G Turner]

I enjoyed the characters of Spock and Data - but every Trek series after had to have a non-human character to which the virtues of being human could be preached to. It became super-repetitive. Roddenberry came up with that in the 1960's - surely someone could come up with a different character focus, instead of echoing it?

 

[zmunkz]

I agree. I was also less interested in his quest-to-become-human in general. The episodes I liked far more were Data's Day (where the episode is told from his POV and we see all the things he doesn't understand going on around him), Measure of a Man (where they debate with Starfleet whether Data is a lifeform or property), Time's Arrow, and the episodes with Lore / Borg. None of these focused on his desire to be human, instead they just used him as a character with his own interesting properties and abilities and conflicts.