Brent Spiner Interview
Jason Snell
for release sunday, august 4
By JERRY BUCK
AP Television Writer
from the Associated Press...
A slight smile crosses actor Brent Spiner's lips as he says, "I am not
Spock," then adds, "And I'm not Data, either."
Actually, Spiner says he's rarely recognized out of his golden makeup and
uniform as the android Lt. Cmdr. Data he plays on "Star Trek: The Next
Generation."
Spiner has escaped the close identification with his character that forced
actor Leonard Nimoy to occasionally remind his ardent fans that he was not Mr.
Spock, his role in "Star Trek" and the movie series.
"It happens only rarely that people recognize me," Spiner says. "When people
do ask me if I'm Data, I say, 'Sometimes.' There are people who think I wear
pointed ears, like Spock. I can't imagine why."
Data is frequently compared to Spock because both were meant by creator Gene
Roddenberry to be enhanced characters significantly different from the other
crewmen of the Starship Enterprise.
Data is a robot, a humanoid being whose superstrength and incredible mental
capacity cannot bring him what he desires most.
"I think the key to the character is that he wants to be human," says
Spiner. "In the first show Gene Roddenberry wrote in a line where Commander
Riker calls Data Pinnochio. That was the jumping-off place.
"The interesting thing to me about the character is that he has an arc. He
has somewhere to go, and that is toward humanity. If you'll look at the past
four seasons you'll see that we've done what we set out to do. He is becoming
more human, but Gene says he'll never make it. That's what's interesting for
me to play, a character who makes a journey."
The original "Star Trek," which lives on in reruns, in best-selling books
and in a hit movie series, is a popular creation that inspires almost
fanatical devotion from Trekkies. Roddenberry has endowed the second series
with the same magic and enchantment.
It's noteworthy, too, that Spiner has taken what could have been only a pale
imitation of Spock and made Data a character who stands on his own. Data is
complex, intriguing and provocative, and on occasion even surprising. He is
not as mystical as Spock, the logic-seeking Vulcan, but certainly more
endearing.
"I've never agreed with the comparisons with Spock, although I understand
why people do it." Spiner says. "Both characters are there to supply
information on the story, yet I think if anything Data is the opposite of
Spock. Data wants to enhance his humanity. Spock rejects his humanity. Data is
accessible. Spock is remote and mystical."
Data is a learning machine who is programmed to absorb every experience and
alter his behavior accordingly. As he watches humans, he is able to exhibit
more humanlike qualities. He has even learned something about humor and has
seen that not everyone or everything should be taken at face Value.
"It's difficult to describe the process I use to get to Data," says Spiner.
"After 100 episodes it's almost automatic. The canvas on which oyu paint a
character like Data is much narrower. You try to use as many colors as you
can. You try not to be a robot, yet not human either.
"In some films androids have been played as more human. Then they remind you
they're not human by cutting an arm off. We try to remind people he's not
human on an emotional level. We had an episode where he had a romance. No
matter how much he would like to be human, he's simply not."
Spiner's 10-month shooting schedule leaves him little time for other roles.
He did manage to squeeze in a small role in the new HBO comedy series
"Sessions." On "Star Trek," he also has played Dr. Noonian Soong, the man who
created Data, and, as Data, he has played Sherlock Holmes and Friar Tuck in
fantasies on the Enterprise's holodeck.
The holodeck and Q are two of the show's best devices. The holodeck creates
holographic programs in which the crew can participate, such as
turn-of-the-century London for the Sherlock Holmes sequence. Q, a superior
being who likes to set up challenges for the Enterprise crew, can also put
them into lifelike fantasies.
Spiner grew up in Houston and studied acting at the University of Houston.
After college he went to New York and drove a taxi for six months.
"I lucked out very quickly," he says. "I got a job off-Broadway in 'Polly,'
the sequal to 'A Beggar's Opera.' My first Broadway show was 'A History of the
American Film.'"
He appeared in the Woody Allen movie "Stardust Memories" and played a mad
bomber in the miniseries "The Dain Curse."
Spiner also had roles in such Broadway musicals as "Sunday in the Park with
George," "The Three Musketeers" and "Big River."
And his first album, called "Old Yellow Eyes Is Back," recently was
released. The title spoofs Data's yellow eyes and Frank Sinatra's sobriquet as
"Old Blue Eyes."
-jason
Jason Snell / jsn...@ucsd.edu / University of California, San Diego
"There is freedom within, there is freedom without--
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup."
-Neil Finn
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