Data

Data was found in 2338 on the colony of Omicron Theta, wiped out by a Crystalline Entity. He went through the Academy and, in 2364, joins the Enterprise-D under Picard. He studies humans, tries to get jokes, plays the violin, dresses up as Sherlock Holmes on the holodeck and adopts a cat, Spot. On the first mission, Riker calls him Pinocchio.

Scientist Bruce Maddox wants to take him apart to build copies. Data refuses, and Starfleet holds a hearing to decide whether he's a person or property. Riker is forced to prosecute and even switches him off in front of the judge. Picard, after a talk with Guinan, argues that mass-producing Datas would create a race of slaves. The judge rules that Data has the right to choose.

On Omicron Theta, Data finds Lore, an identical, older android Soong built before him. Lore has emotions, despises humans and tries to hand the Enterprise to the Crystalline Entity. Data fights him, and Lore ends up beamed into space.

Data builds a daughter, Lal, who chooses her own appearance and learns fast, but her brain fails and she dies. Later, a still-living Soong summons Data to give him an emotion chip. Lore shows up, steals the chip and wounds their creator, who dies. After another showdown with Lore, Data shuts his brother down and keeps the chip, but decides not to use it yet.

Data installs the emotion chip. His first reactions are over the top: he laughs at old jokes, feels fear for the first time and freezes at a key moment when Soran kidnaps Geordi. He thinks about switching the chip off, but pushes on.

When the Enterprise-D crashes on Veridian III, Data searches the wreckage for Spot, finds the cat alive and cries with relief, not quite sure why.

On the trip to 2063, the Borg invade the Enterprise-E and capture Data. The Borg Queen grafts human skin onto his arm, giving him the sense of touch he always wanted, and tries to win him over. Data seems to give in and hands over the ship's codes.

At the critical moment, he reveals it was an act: he ruptures a coolant tank, and the gas destroys the Queen and her drones. Later he admits to Picard he was tempted for 0.68 seconds, which for an android is nearly an eternity.

The crew finds B-4 on a planet, a Soong prototype that looks like Data but is far more limited. Data downloads his memories into him, but B-4 can't take them in. When Shinzon kidnaps Picard, Data swaps places with B-4 and rescues the captain.

In the final battle with the Scimitar, Data leaps to the enemy ship, beams Picard back and destroys the weapon's generator, dying in the blast. Afterward, B-4 starts humming a song Data sang at Riker and Troi's wedding.

Twenty years later, Picard learns that Dahj and Soji, androids Data considered his daughters, were made from one of his neurons. Data's consciousness survived in a computer simulation. He asks Picard to let him die, because being finite is what gives life meaning, and Picard does.

Later, Geordi activates a synthetic body kept at the Daystrom Institute, holding the memories of Data, Lore, B-4 and Lal. Data and Lore fight for control until Data comes back, more whole than before, to help the old crew in one last battle.

Gene Roddenberry created Data for The Next Generation as an artificial being who wants to be human, like Pinocchio. Patrick Stewart was briefly considered for the role before becoming Picard. Brent Spiner played Data as well as his brother Lore and his creator Noonien Soong. On Star Trek: Picard, he also played other members of the Soong family.