Brent Spiner as DataFollow

I dunno, if this site actually got read you might have just hit the wasp's nest with a big stick.

I can see what you are talking about, and it really enjoyed the character of Data very much indeed. But unless an actor is obviously crap, or is a total glaring stand-out against the rest of the cast, I don't tend to rate actors against one another, I'm too busy enjoying the show. Especially a show like TNG, which I watched for fun, instead of for intellect and art.


I'll tell you who I DID admire for his stand-out performance (to my mind). The actor who played the lead in Wanted recently. He managed through mere expression (and probably hair-style) a total change in persona from total nerdiness, Clark-Kent Style, through to a cool, in command, urban warrior persona, Superman style... all without a change from normal street-clothes. Just the way he puffed his cheeks, slackened or tightened his lips and jaw, tightened his eyes, or got drenched in sweat (even if courtesy of a water-misting bottle).

I admired his performance more than I admired Bale's as Batman, but in that case I think Bale's script didn't give him nearly as many opportunities for emotional performance that Wanted's script gave whats-his-face-new-guy.

Yes and no, Stewart's performance (especially in the earlier episodes)reminded me quite a lot of a theater performance, but then so did all of those early episodes.

They all worked out their characters quite well later on.

I suppose Spiner was given more to work with from the start.



Yeah, he has played a nutter quite convincingly. Fight Club was borderline nutter and that he did well too. Not to mention Snatch, a nutty pikey.

Oh speaking of acting in general. Do you guys know who Ian McShane is? He played Swearingen on "Deadwood". I had never seen the show, but my friend got it on DVD and I watched a few eps at his house then ended up borrowing the 1st 2 seasons lol.

That guy is an AMAZING actor, and an overall great show too.

Are we talking about THE Leonardo DiCaprio? the retarded failed child actor right?

Sniping aside, I did enjoy Gangs of New York and not in spite of him being in it either.

Yeah, especially considering it's his first movie (I think), he does really well.

I always thought Leonardo DiCaprio would fizzle out or just be one of those superficial "Hollywood" type actors after Titanic, but I have to say, I've been really impressed with his work since then, like in The Departed or Catch Me if you Can.

It's easy to assume a pretty boy or pretty girl actor (especially one plastered in plastic make-up) in a conventional Hollywood crowd-pleaser is a poor actor... because their role, their script, and/or their director and producers give them no scope.

I dunno, sometimes it's hard to tell. Keanu Reeves and Nicholas Cage are both very wooden most of the time, but both of them have been in outstanding movies, where the role has suited them, or they have suited the role, very much.

Brent Spiner is an incredible actor. Data is easily my favorite (regular) character in TNG--Q being my favorite character period. While most acting is reliant on the actor communicating a thought, emotion, or feeling to the audience and making it believable, Spiner does a fantastic job portraying the *lack* of emotion whilst making it utterly believable and engrossing.

The few episodes where Spiner plays multiple characters e.g., any of the Data-Lore episodes, showcase his versatility as an actor. However, the episode that really does justice to how talented an actor Spiner is, is "Masks" (one of my favorites by the way). For those who don't remember, the Enterprise crew discovers an asteroid, decides to phaser it in the name of science, and accidentally uncovers an alien data storage unit which proceeds to embed an entire civilizations worth of personalities in Data's neural net, while using the Enterprise systems to wreck havoc and provide us with lulz.

While I don't remember how many alien personalities Spiner portrays, it gives him the freedom to communicate a wide range of emotions and really shows you just how good of an actor he really is.



This is because he *is* a theater performer. In fact, the majority of the cast is too. Gene Roddenberry cast stage actors in the original series (in fact, they even wore "theater" makeup during the shoot) and he kept this theme for TNG as well. The characters certainly became less....stiff(?) as the series wore on, and I suspect this was due in part to the natural progression of the characters within the series as well as the actors themselves getting a handle on their own respective characters, and due to the death of Gene Roddenberry after the first couple of seasons. Not to mention (if I remember correctly) that TNG didn't exactly get great ratings the first few seasons, and I suspect they tweaked the personalities of the characters (and how the actors portrayed them) in order to gain a wider appeal.

Picard is great, there's no doubt about that, but Data has to be the most appealing; in the sense of entertainment as well as the eternal metaphysical question: what exactly does it mean to be *human*.

Edited, Sep 9th 2008 8:22pm by Ponnx

Edited, Sep 10th 2008 12:23am by Ponnx

Brent Spiner is a good actor.
The first episodes of TNG were a bit heavy handed, perhaps to hammer home the point to some of the denser viewers out there, but it settled down into a fine show.

Bit of a derail here but... I watched the first episode of TNG and the Deanna Troy character was so despicable that I didn't watch it again for several years.
Got hooked later on but omg she was just unbearable. Airlock please, now.

I agree Brent Spiner is a great actor, but I hated Data. He just felt so damn CONTRIVED, especially with the way his "family" kept growing. Data-centric eps on the series always bored me to tears or had me desperately trying to find the "suspend disbelief" on/off switch and the heavy Data presence in the movies has, except for the way he was used in First Contact, been a major deterrent to my enjoyment of the films. I was glad he was destroyed.

It wasn't just Lore and B-4, it was Nal, and Soong himself, and later on Soong's android copy of his late wife, and for pity's sake the damn android had more family than the rest of the Enterprise crew combined!

But, yeah, I know a lot of people enjoyed him, but he just bored me to tears.

I am so taking your geek badge away until you can behave! ;p

Lore was definitely in Independence Day...

Brent Spiner was epic as the hillbilly dad in Night Court!