Star Trek: Brent Spiner on Discovery‘s ‘Refreshing’ POV, Data Reboot Outlook
Charlie Mason
Editor
Since Star Trek: Discovery showrunner Bryan Fuller has already said that he’s open to the possibility of bringing on some of the franchise’s former favorites — and The Next Generation’s Brent Spiner was on the 50th-anniversary panel that the EP moderated last month at San Diego Comic-Con — TVLine had to ask when we recently spoke with the actor: Did the two of them discuss a guest appearance for Data on the CBS All Access series?
“We talked about Discovery and what his plans are for it,” admitted Spiner, who’s currently playing the devilish Sidney on Outcast. “But I don’t know that it’s for me to divulge anything that he wants to do.”
Whether Fuller does envision Data aboard the Discovery at some point, “I’m not sure if I’d want to be a part of it, having done, at this point, 180-some hours of Star Trek,” Spiner said. “But I’d certainly like to work with Bryan Fuller.”
Though Spiner isn’t convinced that he should once again don yellow contact lenses, he’s “optimistic about what Bryan’s going to do with” the reboot, he hastened to add. “Bryan comes at it from a completely different point of view than a lot of people who have created Star Trek in the past, all of them being, by the way, very bright and creative people. Bryan comes from a much more emotional place — from the heart, really.
“And, at this point,” he concluded, “that’s a nice, refreshing way to go with it.”
Which past Star Trek characters would you like to see turn up on Discovery? Hit the comments.
Looking forward to the new series. Found Enterprise to be a disappointment, but am looking forward to Fuller’s vision. Would love to see Spiner on the show in some capacity, but not so much as Data. He’s a fine character actor, so no matter what role he has, it will be performed well.
I thought Enterprise was great. It took awhile, but it eventually jelled nicely. Getting ready to revisit the series. The wife has just plowed through voyager and is mid DS9. Takes a while with 2 a night after work, sometimes 3. Looking forward to any reboot.
Enterprise was pretty good. It just had some really stupid episodes, but so did all the Trek series to be honest. Bryan Fuller is a good writer who has written for Star Trek before. I will be checking it out.
I love Brent Spiner, and Bryan Fuller and I’m totally psyched about this reboot (although I’m pissed it is going to air on CBS All Access instead of network television or Netflix in the US).
That said, Brent Spiner cannot play Data on the Discovery because it wouldn’t make any sense. Sure it would be cool to see Spiner make a cameo as a different character – but he quite simply doesn’t look the same today as he did over 20 years ago, and Data is an ageless android.
Data could be introduced on the show as a different actor with an uncanny resemblance to a young Spiner – but no one wants to see that. If Discovery is going to have an android character, it would need to be a brand new android built using similar technology to what was used to construct Data. If the series is indeed a prequel as had been hinted in other articles, it wouldn’t fit the timeline to have such a creation since Data and Lore were the first of their kind though.
Anyway, I think it would be awesome if Spiner wanted to do a cameo as another ship captain, admiral, whatever, or heck, even if he wanted to act in an entirely different major role (certainly they could make him an alien character and use makeup/prothetics). I’m a huge fan of his and would love to see him on Discovery. Just not as Data because that would be kind of dumb.
That’s what I’d love to see, too. Drop Data through the time vortex, possibly sent as a back up to Spock, in a ship that was destroyed. The explosion burned off the synthetic skin and left him heavily damaged. You have a Starfleet scientist repair him and leave him skinless the entire episode until the end when you can unveil the new actor. You cast the Spiner as the starfleet scientist working on Data the entire episode with a very meaty role and it’s a good handoff with an opening for future episodes, as well.
How about Spiner not appearing as Data, but as Mr Soong.. A bit younger than seen in TNG etc and observered to be giving lectures on nueral nets.
Or depending on the exact timeframe..could come from just having dismantled Lore and is in limbo…
Spiner age now could player a younger Soong quite well
I’ve got the perfect answer for Brent Spiner. Brent could reprise his roll as Dr Noonien Soong. Get another actor to play Data. Just like they did with the 2 Spocks in the reboot movies…2 different actors.
No, replicating Data with a different actor won’t work, people wont buy it however good the actor is…
Soong… Or nothing I.m.o
Seems like a lot of stories going around where the whole story is just somebody saying they can’t talk about it.
I’d vote for Ken Watanabe as the new captain. He was excellent in The Last Samurai and in Letters from Iwo JIma; i’d watch the show just to watch him.
I’d really like to see The Doctor and Seven of Nine BEING TOGETHER on Discovery.
Guinana should absolutely be part of it. No question.
Guinan. And should absolutely be played by Whoopi Goldberg again. Absolutely.
And maybe even Q.
It’s cool that they did that on Picard.
It would be kind of fun to have Spinner as the humanoid version of Data after he finishes the process of becoming human with full emotion and all.