I’ve just returned from seeing
Star Trek: Nemesis, the tenth Star Trek movie overall, and the fourth
and final movie-trek for the crew of the Next Generation. The movie itself
was good, as I thought it would be. Great action scenes, incredible special effects,
and great acting all around. What started off as a slow movie turned into something
much, much more by its end.
But Data.... my favorite character in the Next Generation series. For
seven years we watched him grow, watched him find and begin his long quest to
become human. We watched him find a father and a brother, “father”
a child of his own, and become one with emotions that he always wanted-- all in
an effort to become like us. To become human. And in every conceivable way, he
succeeded with flying colors. He succeeded in ways that are hard to describe.
This android-- this machine... In the end, he took hold of humanity and didn’t
let go. I tend to think he made himself more human than most people in this world.
His journey was a long, hard path, and we followed him every step of the way.
And tonight, I witnessed Data’s end. The end of his journey.
And how best to leave this world than by demonstrating the one thing that makes
us all human-- sacrifice. Data went out as he should have, risking all
to save his friends and those he had come to love as family. And in the end, you
couldn’t help but look at this grief-stricken crew, and realize just what
Data meant to everyone he came in contact with. This machine had made people love
him more than he ever could have imagined. Tales were told about Data, Riker commenting
that the first time he’d ever seen Data, he was leaning against a tree in
the holodeck, trying to whistle. Riker couldn’t remember the tune, but sitting
there in the theatre trying my best to hold back tears, Data’s garbled whistling
of “Pop Goes the Weasel” rang out clear in my head. And in my mind’s
eye I could see him leaning against that tree doing his damndest to get it right.
And because he couldn’t, well, it only made him that much more human. Imagine
that-- an android with flaws...
In Nemesis, another android was introduced-- B4. A prototype android
created before Data, B4 was a very undeveloped model. Even with Data’s memories
and knowledge downloaded into his brain, B4 couldn’t understand them. His
memory banks simply couldn’t take in so much at one time. But in the end,
a shred of hope was glimpsed, with the android beginning to remember. And so it
would begin again-- things would come full circle. A new android would begin his
own quest to become a unique individual-- perhaps to find again what Data had
so longed for, and reached. A quest to be human.
Data’s maker wanted the world
for him. He wanted him to find his own path through life; to experience everything
he could. Data chose to enroll in Starfleet. And with that, his transformation
into a unique being began. It took him through so many stages, both good and
bad, and ultimately made him a better person because of it, eventually shown
in the way Data decided his own fate. Walking out of the theatre still wiping
my eyes at the loss, I couldn’t help but think-- Dr. Soong would be so
proud.
-- Leanne Shaw, 12/13/02
