Brent Spiner makes Data's efforts to understand people funny without making the android a fool. We rate his comic precision highly, though that one part still dominates a career that also makes good use of his talent for eccentric supporting characters.
Fi1m perspective
Data's curiosity gives Brent Spiner something more useful to play than mechanical detachment. In Star Trek: First Contact (1996), he makes the android's interest in humanity engaging even when the film has questions about artificial intelligence to get through. We warmed to him because the precision of the comedy never made that curiosity seem foolish. It is a performance we rate highly: Spiner gives us someone worth watching while the script attends to its explanations, and makes the prospect of another question from Data welcome.
The part began with Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), developing across seven television seasons before continuing through four films between 1994 and 2002. That sustained attention to an artificial being's emotional growth remains the centre of Spiner's screen work. Jonathan Frakes gets particularly good work from him in First Contact, where comic timing helps prevent the discussion of artificial intelligence becoming a lecture. Patrick Stewart gives the film weight, and Spiner contributes to its warmth without weakening the useful streak of horror. The crowded supporting cast sometimes leaves the film short of breathing space, but his contribution is clear and purposeful.
Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996) gives him a different comic task as Dr. Brackish Okun, an enthusiastic, eccentric scientist. Here, distinctive vocal and physical choices have to establish a character in a brief appearance. Spiner makes a quick impression, which suits a film whose cast keeps the business of saving the world unusually cheerful. The script is foolish, and his contribution does not make it less so. Okun is a useful reminder of what he can do outside Data, though the part offers less room to develop it.
The later work includes returns to familiar parts: Okun in the 2016 sequel and Data in Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023). Stage work, voice acting and guest appearances have continued alongside them, without displacing the android as his defining role. There is a limit to what the eccentric supporting parts let us judge, however effectively he makes himself noticed. Start with First Contact, provided its hurried explanations do not put you off; it gives his curiosity and timing substantial work to do.
Biography
Brent Spiner is an American actor. He played Dr. Brackish Okun in the film Independence Day (1996) and reprised the role in Independence Day: Resurgence (2016).
Spiner is best known for portraying the android Lieutenant Commander Data in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and the subsequent films Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). His performance as Data in Star Trek: First Contact earned him a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor; he received a Saturn Award nomination for his work in Independence Day.
He has appeared in other films including The Aviator (2004) and I Am Sam (2001), and has worked in theatre and as a musician. Spiner was born on 2 February 1949 in Houston, Texas.
