The first trailer for Star Trek: Picard sent fans into meltdown as it revealed that several more familiar characters would be returning for the upcoming series than we thought. One of those is Brent Spiner’s Data, with the android’s death back in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis referenced in the promo before he was somehow revealed to be alive again in its final scene.
This emphasis on Data suggested we’ll be seeing a whole lot of him on the show. However, Spiner has now clarified that he won’t be turning up in every episode of Picard‘s first season. That said, he teased that his character will be an important “story point.”
“Data makes appearances in the show, I can say that. And Data is a story point in this season as well. But I’m not in every episode. I’m not a major character on the show.”
Spiner has read all the scripts for the season, which he describes as routinely “excellent.” He then promised that fans will be pleased with what the writers have served up for Picard.Â
“I think people will be really, really excited about it, because it’s a great story.”
Presumably, the story point Spiner’s referring to is Picard’s efforts to reactivate his fallen android friend. We saw a shot of Data’s disassembled body in storage in the trailer, but the mystery’s not as easily solved as suggesting Jean-Luc simply puts these pieces back together. Spiner has elsewhere confirmed that this is B4’s (Data’s prototype twin) body but that he’s specifically playing Data on Picard.Â
As for the rest of the returning characters, Star Trek: Picard also features Jeri Ryan back as Seven of Nine, Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis as Riker and Deanna Troi, respectively, and Jonathan Del Arco as Hugh. The 10-episode first season doesn’t yet have a release date, but could be with us later this year, if not early 2020.
