Star Trek: Picard's Brent Spiner says Data never really "died" in the 2002 feature film Star Trek: Nemesis -- and his reasoning for this perspective is fairly simple.
During an interview with ComicBook.com, Spiner was asked if he believes Data's recent return in Picard fundamentally alters the iconic android's character arc, given his demise in Nemesis. "Well, it's difficult to describe where this character is concerned as opposed to a regular human being. I mean, Data, first of all, Data didn't die. I mean, Data's not flesh and blood, so he didn't have a human death," Spiner replied.
"His death was metaphorical and it was about hard drives and computers and things like that," he continued. "And I've said this to other people, but if your computer crashes or blows up even, and it's still possible for some genius out there to retrieve the hard drive and memories that are on it, that computer still lives. That's the heart of the computer. That's the essence, the heart or the brain of the computer and the rest is just a shell. And so the journey continues because they were able to access memories and we are nothing more than our memories and our experiences, and that's what they were able to access. So it makes perfect sense for me, for Data, of all characters to keep going on as long as they could make copies of that hard drive."
Data's Life, 'Death' and Return
Spiner originally portrayed Data -- an android officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise who was often defined by his desire for humanity -- in all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which aired on first-run syndication from 1987 to 1994. Spiner also played the character in a number of Star Trek feature films, namely Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and, finally, Nemesis. In the final film of the Next Generation era, it was Data who saved the day when all was said and done, sacrificing his own life in the process.
Spiner eventually reprised his role as Data as part of the first season of Picard in 2020, albeit in a metaphysical manner. Picard Season 1 dealt heavily with whether Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) would finally being able to make peace with Data's "death." Ultimately, the retired Starfleet captain was indeed able to say goodbye to his fallen friend. However, in last week's episode of Picard Season 3, "The Bounty," Data actually properly returned as a composite personality of Altan Soong's final android. While it was long known that Spiner would appear in Picard's third and final season as Data's evil twin brother Lore, his return as Data himself proved to be a surprise for Trek fans, especially given the actor's previous comments that he was likely done playing the character.
New episodes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 drop Thursdays on Paramount+.
Source: ComicBook.com