How Did Data Die On Star Trek & How Did He Return?
The character of Data, played by Brent Spiner, is one of the most beloved in the "Star Trek" franchise. Fans adored the android and his constant confusion with the behavior of organic lifeforms. His plotlines spanned the gamut from hilarious to deeply philosophical, which is why it was so heartbreaking when he met his end with a heroic sacrifice in "Star Trek: Nemesis." Shockingly, the character appeared to return in "Star Trek: Picard," with Spiner returning for all three seasons. But the truth of Data's return is much more complicated than it seems.
As mentioned, Data's first demise came at the end of 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis." With a Romulan praetor, Shinzon (Tom Hardy) about to unleash a doomsday weapon on the Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) boarded his ship, the Scimitar, to destroy the generator powering it. Meanwhile, because the transporters were damaged, Data physically leapt from the Enterprise to the Scimitar and made his way to the room where Picard and Shinzon were fighting, arriving just in time to find Shinzon impaled by a spiky beam from the ship's walls. Knowing that the destruction of the generator would blow up the Scimitar, Data pinned an emergency transporter to Picard's lapel and sent him back to the Enterprise, then fired at the generator, sacrificing himself.
For eighteen years, Data remained canonically deceased. Then, in 2020, Brent Spiner returned as the character for "Star Trek: Picard," but it took him all three seasons of the series to finally return to the physical world once more.
Data's Nemesis death was undone with a twisty Picard plot
Brent Spiner returned to "Star Trek" for all three seasons of "Star Trek: Picard," but Data's return was a complicated one. During the events of "Star Trek: Nemesis," the prototype android B-4 was discovered — the third of Noonian Soong's (Brent Spiner) prototypes along with Data's evil brother Lore — and Data copied his consciousness into its positronic net, though the transfer was unsuccessful. Some years after the events of that film, a catastrophic attack by unknown synthetic lifeforms caused the Federation to issue a total ban on synthetic life, as we learn in the pilot episode of "Picard." Unknown to anyone, Data's consciousness lived on in B-4, which was stored at the Daystrom Institute.
Picard died in the two-part finale of "Picard" Season 1, and his own consciousness was transferred to a synthetic body. In the process of being uploaded, Picard encountered Data's consciousness, which still survived inside the remains of B-4. Data asked his old friend to terminate the program and kill him for good, which Picard did. However, Noonian Soong's son, Altan (Brent Spiner) soon began work on a new android that would combine the traits of Data and Lore. The nefarious Section 31 confiscated the prototype and stored it at Daystrom Station. When Picard and his friends boarded the station in "Picard" Season 3, they found the prototype and discovered the Data and Lore sides of it were in conflict. Data ultimately defeated Lore, warring inside the positronic net, and was himself once more, but this time with the emotions he'd always wanted. He returned to the Enterprise to serve again.
Spiner may not return to the "Star Trek" universe again, but he and fans can both rest assured that Data lives on.