Brent Spiner is elated Star Trek: Picard is offering greater insight into Data and Lore by delving deeper into their creator’s family tree. The iconic (essentially good and evil, respectively) humanoid androids were introduced in the Next Generation series.
The award-winning actor pulled double duty in the first season of Picard as Data and Altan Inigo Soong, the son of Noonian Soong (also played by Spiner on TNG) who created Data and Lore, among other androids. This season, Spiner is portraying 21st century geneticist Dr. Adam Soong, who appears to be far more sinister than the desperate father he was portrayed as in last week’s episode, “Fly Me to the Moon.”
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter prior to the premiere of this week’s “One of Two,” Spiner discussed his “fascinating” return to the sci-fi franchise — specifically not as Data, per his contract — where he and fans are gaining better insight into the brilliant, but complicated, Soong family.
“He is much more complex than he would lead us to believe,” Spiner tells THR, being careful not to reveal too much after the dramatic events of this week’s episode. “Adam is in a lot of denial about who he is, which is a classic narcissist. And I think it is his DNA that made its way to the dark side of the Soong family, all the way to Lore. There is a light side to the family with Noonian. Data is the light side.”
Lore was introduced during the first season of TNG in the episode “Datalore.” The malevolent “brother” of Data believed himself superior to humans, and thus posed a grave danger on a number of occasions.
Spiner notes his contract for this season stipulated he would not play Data, who had a sublime goodbye last season. “Everyone agreed on it. The writers knew early on where this season was going.”
In addition to titular star Patrick Stewart, Spiner found himself once again playing in the Star Trek sandbox with pals and TNG colleagues Jonathan Frakes, who directed “Fly Me to the Moon” and “One of Two,” and John de Lancie, who is back as the dastardly Q.
“Jonathan is a fantastic director, and everyone loves working with him,” Spiner explains. “He knows what he’s doing, and he brings so much joy to the set. That’s infectious, the cast and crew feel it. De Lancie is so focused and serious about the work, which makes it fun because there is no struggle to find common ground with someone of his caliber.”
Just prior to this week’s episode of Picard dropping, news broke that Spiner, along with TNG stars Frakes, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis, would appear in the third and final season of Picard. “It is really rewarding for all of us,” Spiner says of the group working together once more. “Here we are still doing it — together, which has just been a blast.”
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