By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
When it comes to comparing Star Trek: The next generation has The original seriesMost fans consider Android data as a replacement for Mr. Spock thanks to his lack of emotions and a lively scientific interest. However, one of TNG’s most important writers did not want the character of Android to remain so Staid and Vulcan. This writer was Melinda Mr. Snodgrass, who complained that his script “Ensignes of Command” has changed so much that the data did not resemble Kirk more. As she said, the Android should “have to learn to shake your D * and hope that your D * CK is greater than that of the other.”
Data Kirk
To understand this story of an eminent TNG writer who wants data to channel Captain KirkYou may need a rapid summary of “order brands”. This is the episode where a frightening extraterrestrial race threatens to erase all the humans who have settled on one of their planets, and Captain Picard explodes all his skills as inexplicable lawyers to negotiate more time. Meanwhile, the data is responsible for moving the colonists, but their stubbornness and its lack of emotional IQ threaten to end this mission in disaster.
You might generously say that the episode as it is broadcast always has Captain Kirk’s pipeline data. While he was mainly an childish Android acolyte in previous seasons, “command signs” has data in charge of the situation and even using his phaser to engage in a little cowboy diplomacy. Above all, however, the purpose of this episode was to give the data a bigger taste of what it meant to be human, and the writer Melinda Snodgrass later said: “I wanted to stress him and face him Situation where logic is not enough, to show that to order, you must have charisma. »»
This is what led to his rather shocking statement that the Android should learn to agitate his metaphorical CK. Why, then, could we not see the data learn to look a little more like Kirk as Snodgrass foresees? In simple terms, the episode has experienced many rewritings thanks to producers, which may explain why Snodgrass, a well-known hiking editor at this stage, used the pseudonym “HB Savage” for the credits of the episode .
Become human
If you are still a little shocked by the idea that a hiking editor wanted to make the data Android more like the passionate kirk (up to swing, uh, phaser), you might think that snodgrass does not know what is doing this Character tinar. However, it should be remembered that she wrote “the measure of a man”, largely considered to be the best episode of data and one of the best Tng EPS never written. She knew everyone’s favorite Android enough Well, but she often clashed with the showrunner Michael Piller, which is why she finally left the show after season 3.
It is interesting to note that the data has never really become a kirk type figure even after obtaining its emotional chip … We have seen the android be all, from a quiid clown to a preliminary revolutionary thanks to this chip , but he has never become a charismatic commander in the vein of William Shatner. It does not matter, however, because the data has become an original character (the ultimate white-up white-up) that has managed to captivate science fiction fans around the world. And the fact that it is more likely to be a pedantic stick in the mud rather than a charging chief is ultimately part of his positively positronic charm.
