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Arik Soong is an antagonist introduced in the Star Trek: Enteprise episode "Borderland".

He was portrayed by Brent Spiner , who also played his biological and artifical descendants Noonien Soong , Data , Lore , and B4 in other Star Trek franchises.

History [ ]

Soong was a renowned geneticist. Much like his ancestor Adam Soong , this Soong believed eugenics could improve humanity and was crucial for them to survive. Going rogue while working on Cold Station 12, Soong stole a number of Augment embryos that had been frozen prior to the Eugenics Wars and restarted their development. He remained in hiding with his "children" for a number of years until being captured and imprisoned.

When Soong's augments stole a Klingon ship, Jonathan Archer recruited Soong to help track them down before they could start a war with the Klingons. The augments rescued Soong but imprisoned him when he refused to allow them to destroy a Klingon colony.

Rescued by the Enterprise , Soong helped them track down his children before they could destroy the Klingon colony. Malik destroyed his ship rather than surrender, but beamed aboard the Enterprise to kill Soong for betraying them. Malik was killed by Captain Archer before he could end Soong's life.

Finally realizing that he had been wrong to attempt to improve humanity through eugenics, he abandoned his research in to genetics. Soong devoted the remainder of his life to studying the creation of artifical life, but said such life probably wouldn't be developed in his lifetime. At some point Soong had children of his own, and his descendant Noonien carried on Soong's work, successfully creating artificial life in the form of Lore , B4, and Data .

Soong's earlier work on genetics was stored in a secure vault, which was opened in the 2380s by the Federation in an attempt to resolve the Andorian genetic crisis.

Navigation [ ]

• 1 William Afton (2023)
• 2 William Afton (Five Nights at Freddy's)
• 3 Angstrom Levy

Star Trek: Enterprise Has Brent Spiner's Best Dr. Soong Character

Brent Spiner has played multiple characters in Star Trek series, and of the many versions of Doctor Soong, his Enterprise character was the best.

Even though it is the series set earliest in the timeline, Star Trek: Enterprise featured The Next Generation star Brent Spiner in an extended guest-starring role. He wasn't playing Data or any of the other android characters. Rather, it was a human character from the family of Data's creator. Doctor Arik Soong was the best of Brent Spiner's human Star Trek characters because he was the only one to care about other people.

Along with Data, Lore and B-4, Brent Spiner has played every male member of the Soong family in the franchise. Four have appeared throughout the series' various time periods. It would be surprising if a 23rd-century Soong appeared in Season 2 of Strange New Worlds . Gene Roddenberry named Data's creator "Noonian Soong." Like the character Khan Noonien Sing, was named in homage to Roddenberry's friend from his time in World War II, Kim Noonien Singh. Thanks to Brent Spiner's many guest roles, Enterprise 's Arik Soong connected TNG 's cybernetic scientist to the genetically modified Superman Khan. However, rather than an overt villain, Arik Soong is one of the few in the family to express concern for anything other than his own scientific work. He actually turned on his "children" to prevent a war and save a small colony of Klingons.

RELATED: Enterprise Is What It Looked Like When Star Trek Tackled Terrorism

How Star Trek Connected the Soong Family to Khan Noonien Singh

Of the four Soong characters Brent Spiner played, two are focused solely on synthetic life. Noonian Soong and his biological son Altan Soong devoted their lives to creating synthetic lifeforms, culminating in Data's final form in Picard Season 3 . It also led to Picard's resurrection after his death in Season 1. Yet, the two earliest branches of the family tree were interested in genetic modification. Adam Soong, from Picard Season 2, was revealed to have been connected to the "Khan Project," which presumably led to the creation of the genetically modified villain. Arik was also all about genetic modification, but he lacked his predecessor's megalomania. He truly wanted to help humanity. While in prison, he developed genetic cures to diseases, but Starfleet's ban on that kind of science meant his work went unused.

He was in prison for taking embryos from the same modified batch that produced Khan to raise as his children. When they eventually came to free him, they were murderous and uncaring about others they saw as inferior. Like Una Chin-Riley in Strange New Worlds , the augments' mere existence is a crime. Over a three-episode arc, Enterprise suggested that had the compassionate Arik been left to raise these kids instead of being arrested by Starfleet, they might not have become villains. When the augments decide to start a war between the Klingons and Starfleet, Arik goes to Starfleet to stop them. And he hates Starfleet.

Arik isn't a hero, of course. He's barely a good person. Early in his story, he tries to sell the crew of the Enterprise into slavery to make his escape. He takes what he wants, willing to hurt people to get it. Yet, he's not willing to kill. Adam, the other geneticist in the family, threatens to have people killed right and left. Yet, of all four Doctors Soong, Arik is the only one who actually seems to care about other people.

RELATED: Sorry Spock, Jolene Blalock's T'Pol Is Star Trek's Most Interesting Vulcan

How Brent Spiner Turned the Doctor Soong Gimmick Into Good Story

Looking at all of Brent Spiner's Soong characters in chronological order to the narrative, it tells an interesting family story. With the exception of Noonian, Data's creator, these characters only exist as a gimmick to justify Spiner's presence in the cast. Adam was a way to keep Spiner on Picard after Data's "death" in Season 1. Arik existed so Star Trek fans would get three episodes with an actor they enjoyed. Altan was less a gimmick but is nonetheless an essential part of how Data was able to finally "become a real boy." Noonian and Altan weren't straight-up villains like Adam, but they cared far more for synthetic life than any of the organic suckers living in the galaxy. Arik, however, seemed to care as much for people as he did for his genetically augmented children.

Arik was a criminal for the same reason Una faces a court martial in Strange New Worlds . Because of Khan and the Eugenics Wars, Starfleet lives in fear of any kind of genetic modification. The characters on Enterprise treated Arik as a villain, but he believed in the values of Starfleet along with his own belief in the augments' right to exist. Had Starfleet been more open-minded and worked with him, the last of Khan's augments could've truly helped create a better galaxy.

One Star Trek Episode Convinced Patrick Stewart That Brent Spiner Should've Won An Emmy

The writers of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" had a whole panoply of characters to work with, but they clearly liked Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Lieutenant Commander Data (Brent Spiner) the best. Of the episodes that focus on single members of the ensemble, Picard and Data seemingly had the most, and were usually given stirringly dramatic stories and no small amount of screen time. Picard was an interesting character as he was stern and resolute, and audiences liked to see his unflappable integrity get tested. Data was an interesting character as he was an android aspiring to be more human, despite having no human emotions. Data looked at humanity objectively, and eager Trekkies likely constructed imaginary conversations in their heads as to how they would explain humanity to Data (should they ever meet him).

Spiner's challenge in playing Data was mustering up emotional moments from within the artificial brain of a machine person. Data repeatedly professed that he felt nothing, but he clearly felt impulses toward curiosity, socialization, perplexity, and even justice. This implies emotions of wonderment, loneliness, relief and understanding, and outrage. There were occasional moments when something like an emotional response would break through Data's artificial exterior.

Stewart admires Spiner's performance as Data, an admiration he professes openly in his new autobiography "Making It So: A Memoir."  Indeed, Stewart reflects on one episode in particular — "The Offspring" (March 12, 1990), wherein Data sees his own self-built android daughter die right in front of him. By Stewart's estimation, that episode was proof that Spiner was a great actor. Further Data-adjacent moments throughout additional episodes of "Next Generation" only made Stewart sharply aware that Spiner deserved an Emmy.

'The Offspring'

"The Offspring" saw Data struck by a fit of reproductive pique. One of the conceits of "Next Generation" is that Data is such an advanced machine that recreating him is a near-impossible task. Only Data's creator — the presumed-dead Dr. Noonien Soong — had been able to build an android to Data's exacting specifications. Aiming to defy this notion, Data tries to build an android of his own, effectively constructing a child. Data allows his child to choose its gender and appearance, and he is eager to teach her the ways of humanity. However, Data fines that her brain is not stable and she will break down and die before the episode ends.

Stewart said:

"As I get to the third season, though, I see 'TNG' finding its own footing. In 'The Offspring,' the first episode that Jonathan Frakes ever directed, Data creates an android child whom he names Lal. She assumes the form of a teenage girl, movingly played by Hallie Todd, but she is literally not built to last, and Data musters something close to genuine human emotions as he watches the life drain out of her."

Lal's death scene is heartbreaking and made all the more tragic by the fact that Data can't experience the love a human parent might. An additional conceit of "The Offspring" is that Lal, without Data's intention, has managed to achieve rudimentary emotions of her own, leading to her eventual mental breakdown as well as a disconnect between Lal and her father. Data managed to make a being that could feel more than he could. How tragic.

Into the Spiner-Verse

And that wasn't the only Spiner performance Stewart was impressed by. Prior to "The Offspring," Spiner had already played Lore, who is more or less Data's evil twin. Data and Lore were both constructed by Dr. Soong, with Lore coming first. Lore, however, was given an unstable brain matrix and his ethical subroutines weren't the strongest part of him. He was eager to commit acts of subterfuge and violence. In a later episode, "Brothers" (October 8, 1990), Data and Lore would meet the elderly Dr. Soong, also played by Spiner. Later still, in the 2002 film "Star Trek: Nemesis," Spiner would additionally play an early prototype android named B-4.

Stewart was amazed Spiner never got more awards attention, writing:

"Brent Spiner's performance is staggeringly good — he found new depths to his character's Pinocchio-like predicament of being a human invention who wishes to become human. It's a major injustice to me that Brent has never won an Emmy for playing Data, not to mention the androids Lore and B-4 and the bizarre Soong family of mad scientists."

The bizarre Soong family also eventually incorporated both ancestors and descendants of Dr. Soong throughout "Star Trek: Enterprise" and "Star Trek: Picard."  Data died in "Star Trek: Nemesis" and then died again in the first season of "Picard." In the third season of "Picard," Spiner was brought back as an amalgamated being that incorporated Data, Lore, Lal, Dr. Soong, B-4, and several others all into the same ultra-advanced android brain. He was also altered to look like he was 71 years old. This new Data was essentially a new character. All told, Spiner played seven major characters on "Star Trek."

Injustice indeed.

Screen Rant

Data’s evil relatives: every soong’s biggest crimes in star trek.

The Soong dynasty in Star Trek pursued their research with an almost fanatical zeal, not letting things like laws stand in their way.

• The Soong family in Star Trek consists of brilliant scientists who prioritize their research above all else, committing crimes to achieve their goals.
• Dr. Noonian Soong pioneered positronic technology and created Data and Lore, but his devotion to his work caused him to neglect others.
• Dr. Arik Soong, Dr. Adam Soong, and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong all followed in their ancestor's footsteps by specializing in genetics and/or robotics, disregarding laws in their pursuit of advancing synthetic life.

The Soong dynasty in Star Trek may have been full of brilliant scientists, but they committed a lot of crimes in their pursuit of improving humanity and creating artificial life. The Soong family was first mentioned in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 13, when Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the USS Enterprise-D visit Omicron Theta, the planet where Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) was created. At the time, Dr. Noonian Soong was known as a disgraced robotics scientist, but Data learned that Soong was the man responsible for creating Data and his evil brother Lore. Since Dr. Noonian Soong's introduction, several ancestors and descendants of his (all portrayed by Brent Spiner) have appeared in various Star Trek shows.

In addition to Noonian Soong in TNG , the other Soong family members include Dr. Arik Soong in Star Trek: Enterprise season 4, Dr. Adam Soong in Star Trek: Picard season 2, and Dr. Altan Inigo Soong in Star Trek: Picard seasons 1 & 3. All of these men were brilliant scientists who specialized in genetics and/or robotics, and they did not let pesky things like laws stop them in their pursuit of their goals. They perhaps should have listened to the axiom that just because you can does not mean you should, but at least all of their research eventually led to Data. He stands out as the best of the bunch, a triumph of technology and human ingenuity that took many years and some questionable methods to create.

5 Dr. Noonian Soong - Star Trek: The Next Generation

The first of the Soongs to be introduced in Star Trek: The Next Generation , Dr. Noonian Soong may also have been the best of them. He was the pioneer of the positronic technology that enabled him to create Data and Lore as sentient beings. Noonian cared deeply about his creations, thinking of them as his sons, but he neglected others around him in pursuit of his goals. After he was unable to achieve what he had promised as a Federation scientist, the disgraced Soong moved to the planet Omicron Theta to continue his research in relative obscurity. While there, he met and fell in love with Juliana O'Donnell (Fionnula Flanagan), and the two married.

When the Crystalline Entity attacked Omicron Theta, Juliana was fatally injured, but Soong transferred her consciousness into an advanced android body. Though he remained married to the artificial Juliana, she eventually left him because he placed his work above all else. Although Noonian followed Data's Starfleet journey and continued to work on updates for him, Soong believed that Lore remained deactivated. Because of this, Soong did not work to improve Lore's emotional instability, which prompted Lore to steal the emotion chip meant for Data . Soong was undoubtedly a brilliant scientist and the creation of Data makes up for many of his flaws, but his devotion to his work sometimes came at the expense of those around him.

4 Dr. Arik Soong - Star Trek: Enterprise

Arik Soong was a brilliant geneticist who believed that humanity should not have abandoned genetic engineering after the Star Trek history's devastating Eugenics Wars . While working as a doctor, Soong stole Augment embryos from the top-secret research facility called Cold Station 12. Soong went on to raise his Augment "children," until he was arrested in 2144. He was later recruited from prison by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) to help track down his children, who had killed the crew of a Klingon Bird-of-Prey.

After the Augments came to the NX-01 Enterprise, they helped Soong escape, and he resumed his work with them. Although Arik tried to convince the Augments to refrain from killing, they became increasingly violent. Soong eventually left and aided Captain Archer in stopping his children from committing mass murder. Soong was then sent back to prison, where he decided to move on from genetics to researching forms of artificial intelligence. This would of course lead to future generations of Soongs who focused solely on synthetic life, which would eventually result in the creation of Data and Lore.

3 Dr. Adam Soong - Star Trek: Picard

Another Soong dedicated to his work above all else, Dr. Adam Soong lived during the 20th and 21st centuries. His life's goal was to create artificial human life and use his work in genetics to improve humanity. Soong created dozens of "daughters" using genetic engineering, but none of them lived more than four years until Kore Soong (Isa Briones) . Although Kore grew into a young woman, she lived her life in a bubble because she could not breathe unfiltered air or be exposed to sunlight. Adam even created a fabricated history for Kore, telling her she had a mother.

In trying to find a cure for Kore's condition, Soong partnered with organizations involved in illegal human experimentation, eventually losing his license and access to funding. After being approached by Q (John de Lancie) and later the Borg Queen (Anne Wersching), Soong attempted to kill Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell) in order to secure his own legacy. While Soong did not succeed in killing Renée, he did kill Tallinn (Orla Brady), a Traveler who had been tasked with watching over Renée. Thankfully, Picard and his crew were able to preserve their version of the future. Kore then deleted all of Adam's files, leaving him with nothing but a report on Project Khan from 1996 .

2 Dr. Altan Inigo Soong - Star Trek: Picard

The son of Dr. Noonian Soong, Altan followed in his father's footsteps, devoting his life to working on artificial intelligence and synthetic life. After Mars was attacked by synths in 2385 , the Federation banned all synthetic life, dismantling any androids still in operation, including Data's brother, B-4. Despite the ban, Altan Soong continued his research, building a laboratory on the planet Coppelius with Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales). Soong stayed on Coppelius, acting as a surrogate father to the androids he and Maddox had created. On Coppelius, Soong worked with the androids to create a beacon to contact the alliance of synthetic life, which would protect synthetic life even at the cost of all organic life.

Soong eventually realized that his so-called children were no better than their enemies, and he aided Admiral Picard and his friends. Soong then helped to transfer Picard's consciousness into a synthetic golem body after Picard succumbed to his terminal illness. Soong later came to see the problems with some of his earlier methods, and he created a new organic golem body to house pieces of his own consciousness, as well as that of Data, Lore, B-4, and Data's daughter Lal (Hallie Todd). Picard and the reunited crew of the Enterprise-D later rescued this golem, who became a new, updated version of Data .

1 Lore - Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Picard

As the first of Noonian Soong's creations to possess a functional positronic brain, Lore should have been a great success. And while he was an extremely advanced android with the ability to experience emotions, those emotions proved to be his downfall. After his creation, he began to grow emotionally unstable, making the colonists of Omicron Theta uncomfortable and even afraid. After being disassembled, Lore was later reactivated when the Enterprise-D found him, and he wasted no time before taking a villainous turn. The first words out of his mouth were a lie about being created after Data, and he quickly proceeded to contact the crystalline entity that had wiped out the colony of Omicron Theta to offer it the Enterprise crew.

Lore pretended to be Data on multiple occasions to fool those around him, even using this tactic with Dr. Noonian Soong to steal the emotion chip meant for Data. Lore later became the leader of a group of Borg who had become disconnected from the collective, and attempted to coerce Data into joining him. Lore's ultimate goal was to destroy the Federation, and though Data briefly sided with him, it was only because Lore was manipulating Data's emotions. By any century's standards, Lore broke dozens of laws throughout his existence in Star Trek . He was eventually deactivated permanently before his consciousness was later incorporated into the Daystrom Android M-5-10 android that became an upgraded Data in Star Trek: Picard season 3.

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

A friendly reminder regarding spoilers ! At present the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the finale of Picard and the continuations of Discovery , Lower Decks , Prodigy and Strange New Worlds , the advent of new eras in Star Trek Online gaming , as well as other post-56th Anniversary publications such as the new ongoing IDW comic . Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{ spoiler }}, {{ spoilers }} or {{ majorspoiler }} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old . Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. ' Thank You

• Memory Beta articles sourced from novellas
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta articles sourced from video games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from Star Trek Online
• Memory Beta articles sourced from short stories
• Soong-type androids

Soong family

• View history

The Soong family was a line of Humans and androids known for their research in genetics and cybernetics . The Soong line included Starfleet 's first android officer , Data . ( STO - Agents of Yesterday mission : " Message From Another Time I ")

• 1.1 mirror universe family members
• 1.2 Cultures
• 2 Family members gallery
• 3.1 References

Soong family genealogy list [ ]

• Persephone Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Despoina Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Persephassa Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Persephatta Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Prosperina Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Artemis Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2]
• Kore Soong , Adam's clone creation and "daughter" [2] , and a transtemporal Traveler from 2024 [3]
• Arik Soong , 22nd century geneticist [4] and a cyberneticist from 2154 [5]
• Noonian Soong , 24th century cyberneticist and creator of the Soong-type android [6]
• Altan Inigo Soong , cyberneticist, member of the Coppelius colony , and Noonian's only biological child [8]
• Noonian's failed Soong-type prototypes [9]
• B-4 , mentally impaired android [10]
• Lore , sociopathic android [6]
• Lal , Data's daughter [12]
• Dahj Asha , Data's posthumous daughter and twin of Soji. [13]
• Soji Asha , Data's posthumous daughter and twin of Dahj. [13]

mirror universe family members [ ]

• Lore (mirror) [16]
• Data (mirror) [17]

Cultures [ ]

The Soong-type androids developed by the Soong family and imitated by other scientists formed their own society on Coppelius . They became a Federation protectorate in 2399 . ( PIC episode : " Et in Arcadia Ego ")

In an alternate timeline were Doctor Noonian Soong and the Federation achieved android mass-production, their society split between those remaining in the Federation and those forming a society around Data and Lore on planet Turing ( Iconia ). ( TNG - Myriad Universes - Brave New World novel :)

In another alternate timeline , the Children of Soong were a culture of Soong-type androids which dominated former Federation space circa the 44th century . They were created by Data on Omicron Theta . ( TNG - Strange New Worlds II short story : " I Am Become Death ")

Family members gallery [ ]

Appendices [ ]

References [ ].

• ↑ PIC episode : " Fly Me to the Moon ".
• ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 PIC episode : " Mercy ".
• ↑ PIC episode : " Farewell ".
• ↑ ENT episode : " Borderland ".
• ↑ ENT episode : " The Augments ".
• ↑ 6.0 6.1 TNG episode : " Brothers ".
• ↑ TNG episode : " Inheritance ".
• ↑ PIC episode : " Et in Arcadia Ego ".
• ↑ TNG novel : Immortal Coil .
• ↑ TNG movie & novelization : Star Trek Nemesis .
• ↑ TNG novel : Encounter at Farpoint .
• ↑ TNG episode : " The Offspring ".
• ↑ 13.0 13.1 PIC episode : " Maps and Legends ".
• ↑ ENT - Mirror Universe - Glass Empires novel : Age of the Empress .
• ↑ TNG - Mirror Universe - Glass Empires novella : The Worst of Both Worlds .
• ↑ TNG novel : Q & A .
• ↑ TNG - Mirror Broken comic : " Prelude ".
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Nicholas Locarno
• 3 Odyssey class

Picard Always Knew: Data Is Star Trek TNG's Away Team MVP

Posted: November 12, 2023 | Last updated: November 12, 2023

• Lt. Commander Data's android abilities, including enhanced strength and intelligence, made him a crucial asset on away missions in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• Data's observant and open-minded nature, combined with his lack of bias and emotion, allowed him to excel in various situations and display empathy for other life forms.
• While Data's android capabilities saved the day on numerous occasions, his distinct appearance and vulnerability to manipulation also posed challenges during undercover missions and encounters with individuals who understood his technology.

From the earliest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) proved to be crucial to the success of numerous away missions. As the second officer on the USS Enterprise-D under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), Data was always an important member of the crew, but away missions were where the android truly excelled. With his superior strength, intelligence, and agility, Data was instrumental in saving the day on countless occasions. Captain Picard always made sure to play to Data's strengths, and the lovable android became one of Picard's most trusted officers and closest friends.

More than anything, Data wished to be human, and he spent much of Star Trek: The Next Generation studying humanity in order to understand it better. Despite this desire, it was often Data's android abilities that came in most useful on away missions. Not only did Data have the enhanced abilities of an android, but he was also incredibly observant and open-minded. He noticed things that others missed and approached every situation without bias or emotion. While Data did not technically experience human emotions, he cared deeply about those around him and often displayed empathy and concern for other life forms in Data's best Star Trek episodes .

Related: Star Trek: The Next Generation Cast & Character Guide

Data Was The Most Valuable Member Of TNG Away Missions

Why wouldn't you want the super strong and super smart android watching your back.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1, episode 13, "Datalore," Data learned that he had been created by Dr. Noonian Soong (Brent Spiner), a brilliant cyberneticist. Soong had created Data and his "brothers" to have as much in common with humans as possible, while also having enhanced abilities beyond human capabilities. As the only android serving in Starfleet , Data was a unique and irreplacable asset to the USS Enterprise-D, and the Federation flagship would have been destroyed many times over if not for him.

Of course, Data rarely saved the day alone, and it was the combined efforts of the Enterprise crew that made it such an exceptional ship. It also helped that Captain Picard was a master at playing to the strengths of his crew and delegating tasks.

For example, in TNG season 1, episode 18, "Home Soil," Data not only faces off against a laser (and wins), but he also discovers a new life form on the planet being terraformed. The laser in question had already killed a member of the terraforming team, and it was only Data's android reflexes that allowed him to escape unscathed. Data also proves invaluable in situations when a virus or mental attack incapacitates the rest of the crew.

Thanks to Data's positronic brain , he can perform calculations and search for information incredibly quickly. He can also link himself to other technology, such as in Star Trek: TNG 's classic "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II," when Data shuts the Borg down by connecting to their network through Locutus. While Data's android brain and abilities helped save the galaxy on numerous occasions, they have also caused their fair share of problems.

Data Being An Android Was Also A Handicap Sometimes

Data's not easy to hide on an away mission..

Because Data does not look quite human, he cannot easily be disguised as other aliens, making it difficult for him to go on any undercover missions. When Data was sent to observe the Ba'ku people in Star Trek: Insurrection , for example, he had to remain cloaked and unseen. Although he is incredibly advanced, Data is still a machine , meaning he can malfunction or be tampered with by those who understand his technology.

In TNG season 4, episode 3, "Brothers," Dr. Noonian Soong recalls Data to his laboratory, and Data single-handedly takes over the entire Enterprise to get there. While no one was hurt in this particular instance, the ease with which Data gained control of the ship while not under his own command was frightening. Data is also manipulated by his evil brother Lore in the two-part episode, "Descent." Still, the positives to having Data on the Enterprise outweigh the negatives, and his journey to be more human in Star Trek: The Next Generation only made him a better Starfleet officer.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Star Trek: Enterprise (soundtracks)

• View history

To date, three Star Trek: Enterprise soundtracks have been released since the series premiered in 2001 .

Releases [ ]

Other soundtrack releases featuring enterprise score [ ].

• 1 Nick Locarno
• 2 Sito Jaxa
• 3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)