Spiner Felt Fans Were Done with 'Next Generation'

[Vic 17]

Brent Spiner Talks Enterprise, Nemesis & Trek XI

Source SciFi Pulse

19 January 2007

 

By Ian M. Cullen

 

Over the years one of the strongest supporters for Star Trek has been none other than ole yellow eyes himself, Brent Spiner who we all know best for his portrayal of the child like Android Lt Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In a recent interview with writer Nick Joy for Star Trek Magazine Spiner revealed his thoughts about numerous issues starting with why he felt it was time for Data to die and his thoughts on the cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise.

 

When talking about Data and his death in Star Trek Nemesis the actor revealed that he felt the heavy make up was no longer really able to hide the aging process.

 

“I was 38 when we first started doing The Next Generation, so when I finished the series I was 45. In the last film [Nemesis] I was in my early 50s. One really shouldn’t be playing a child like android at that point in their life! If I’d started at 28 I could have played it for 20 years without any noticeable change.”

 

Spiner attributes the aging process to have been the main factor in his decision to kill Data off, and make no mistake it was his decision.

 

“It was my decision, but I didn’t have to kill Data. We were all pretty much aware that this was going to be our last film and as such thought we’d go for broke.

 

“We worked on the story with the intention of making it for the fans,” Spiner recalls of the approach that he and writer John Logan used for Nemesis. “With every Star Trek movie prior to that we tried to find a way to bridge the gap between the fans and the general public. Even reading the latest quotes from J.J. Abrams about the next movie, it makes sense for the movie to be as inclusive as possible. With Nemesis we said, ‘Forget that! Lets make a movie for the fans, because that’s the people who actually go to see the films.’ And what happened? They didn’t go! Usually the films opened big, even if they had a lot of competition, but Nemesis didn’t even do that. This was a message from the fans that they were done with us.”

 

Of course like every movie Nemesis had it’s problems, and many people including certain elements of the cast were very critical about some of the creative decisions, which were made during the movies shoot. When asked to point out some of the issues Spiner couldn’t really give a straight answer due to the fact that he feels that it was more than just one thing, but many things.

 

“Nemesis was directed by an editor [stuart Baird] where pace was his number one concern. A lot of stuff that was cut out of the movie was pretty good, while some of it wasn’t. Could a better movie have been made from the material that was shot? Maybe. Maybe not.”

 

When asked about Star Trek XI Spiner feels that Paramount is doing the right thing by trying a reboot of the franchise.

 

“I think they’re right to start a new movie franchise that will hopefully spawn a new series that will spawn new movies.

 

“I think it was disappointing that they cancelled Enterprise, because I don’t think that they [the viewers] ever quite ‘got’ it. Enterprise wasn’t doing great numbers and they decided it wasn’t cost effective to keep it on. I disagree with their decision because I think that it was coming into its own in the fourth season. Like the other series that preceded it, it took a while to find its feet. I think they were getting good when they cancelled it. My experience on the show [as Arik Soong in the three part story Borderland/Cold Station 12/The Augments] was a really positive one.”

 

You can read much more of what Brent Spiner shared about his time on the TV incarnation as well as the movie incarnations of Star Trek in the current issue of Star Trek Magazine which is out now in all good news agencies.

[trekz 7]

I greatly admire Brent Spiner as an actor. He's a great Star Trek convention guest. Data is one of my favorite TNG characters. But I must respectfully disagree that the fans were tired of TNG. TNG and its time period and a number of its characters lived on in DS9 and Voyager, which were both quite popular. To me and a number of others, including a couple TNG cast members, the problem was that Nemesis wasn't that good a movie. I did not know that Spiner wanted Data to die, because that was a major coomplaint from fans that I talked to at the time.

 

It will be interesting to see if Spiner makes this same comment at the 20th anniversary of TNG during the upcoming Las Vegas convention this summer. If he does, I would think many fans there might disagree, even if they are polite about it.

[Binar 0]

I agree. I like Brent. I remember him on "Cheers", bit part I think, near the end of the episode.

But also, the movie could have been better. They could have used some pointers from

"Conundrum", the way the cast interacted in different situations.

I guess it just didn't 'gel' for me...

 

I look forward to "XI"

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

I don't think we were tired of the TNG cast. I think we were tired of where B&B were taking the franchise. Enterprise did get a lot better during it's 4th season but by that point they had lost their fan base and the quality of issues they were producing wasn't sustainable long-term.