Please note: All copyright is duly acknowledged. This interview is for the enjoyment of Brent Spiner fans, but please contact me if there is any objection to its reproduction.

Born and raised in Houston Texas, Brent moved to New York after college and performed in numerous off-Broadway plays and musicals. After moving to LA in 1984, he id several films including Woody Allen's Stardust Memories and made guest appearances on such television series as Cheers, Night Court and Hill Street Blues. It was until ST: TNG, thought, that Brent's name became known to the public. Recently, Brent completed his first record album entitled appropriately, Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back, which features some of his favorite pop standards and has some of his Star Trek costars signing back-up.

The official fan club recently talked with Brent about varied career, his involvement in Star Trek and the character he has grown very fond of over the last five years - the android we all know as Data!

Brent, initially, what attracted you to the acting profession?

"Well, I was always a huge fan of the movies. I spent a great deal of time , as a a kid, watching movies. I think between the ages of 12 and 17, I averaged about three movies a day on television. When it got to the point where I had to choose what I wanted to do with my life, acting was about all I was interested in. And, you know, when you are a kid, everybody wants to be an actor. I think that everybody wants to be in show business, frankly. There are some people who want it all little more than others and those are the ones who end up doing it. I really think that success in this field is about tenacity and just sticking with it. I think it takes a little longer for some to make it and some just give up. If you look around at the people in show business today they are basically the people who didn't give up. I think everybody wants to do it, but somewhere along the line they're either convinced by somebody else not to do it, that it is a foolish idea, or they convince themselves that they can't do it and they give up."

You started out as a fan of motion pictures. You watched these films with these larger-than-life characters and where probably in awe of them. And now, here you are, working in the business successfully. How does it make you feel now to look back at that little boy watching these larger-than-life characters and know that there are little boys watching you today, larger-then-life Data, thinking "Wow, what it must be like to be aboard the Enterprise working along side Data?

"I respect that. I really relate to those kids out there who do that because I do feel that way. Every morning when I walk into the Paramount lot, and look up and see the Paramount logo and I think, "Wow, I'm taking the same steps that Bob Hope and Bing Crosby and Dean and Jerry and Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and Alan Ladd and everyone else who worked here. Almost everyone has worked at Paramount at one time or another. I get a thrill every morning when I walk onto he lot. I have to pinch myself sometimes and say, "Oh, yeah, I remember sitting in front of my TV when I was about 12 years old thinking,' I wonder what this would be like?' And it feels real goo to now be doing that!"

Has some of the glamour you imagined would go along with being in show business faded a bit?

"(Laughter) There is no glamor. It doesn't exist. I think, for me, the only disappointing aspect, and is is reality, is the business side to 'show business'. I've always had a hard time with the word 'business' anyway. I've always felt that when you are in the business, that 'business' is more important than people. I think it's the business part of the word show business that causes me the most concern. But, it's just simply reality. You know, the whole idea is to make mone. After all is said and done, that is the point. But, I think Star Trek is a very honorable show and there is allot of television that one could be doing and feel embarrassed about and certainly not proud of, which I feel very proud to be part of Star Trek. I feel that way because of what Star Trek has to say more than anything else. And the basic sort of thrust of Star Trek being about equality and tolerance and things I believe in deeply. But to step back one step and to realize that really what it is about it's money machine for the studio! (Laughter) And that's not putting it down because it is a business. And sometimes business can be crewel and harsh and difficult. Hollywood has more than its share of harsh and crewel stories. In fact, it's probably more the norm than the exception.

I would think that actors, like yourself, that work on a weekly series are more the exception than the rule.

"I think there is something like 90% unemployment in the Screen Actors Guild, so we are the exception."

That's kind of disillusioning to someone wanting to get into the business. I would think that those of you who work on a show like Star Trek would say, 'Boy, I'm lucky that I am not in the 90% of the statistic.'

"Absolutely! There is no question that everybody who works in show business is lucky because of the number of people who wish they where working in show business. We are in a small percentage of people who actually get to enjoy our craft. I think we all do feel that we are very fortunate."

Data is one of the most unique characters on the show. When you first started out, was it really a challenge to play and android? What did you use as a reference when you went for the audition?

"In ways that makes things more difficult but in ways it also makes things easier because there is nobody who can say, 'That's wrong.' Certainly I find it most interesting to play a role that I can invent from nothing. But far as it being a challenge, it certainly is more or less a challenge then any other role. Acting is acting. It's all basically a series of problems you try to solve. Data is no different from any other role I've ever played in that it's always difficult and it's always something that you just want to find some level of truth and believability in and try to solve problems along the way. And that's sort of the way this turned out. Gene Roddenberry gave me a real nice hook in the plot by having Riker call Data ''Pinochio''. That was one of the best hooks one could hope for to develop a character from the beginning and still is. Pinochio is the little boy who wanted to be human, so there is not much difference here except that I am not a little boy."

When you won the role of Data in the beginning, how did your family and friends react when you first told them you would be playing an android on the new Star Trek television series?

" Well my family and friends where delighted that I was going to be working on a regular basis and that they could turn on their TV every week and see me. Other actors and people in the business I know where concerned at first because they thought it could turn out to be very limiting role. They thought I wouldn't get much of a chance to utilize my acting abilities. I think as time has gone on, they've been pleased to find it not at all limiting role and probably the most wide open role in terms of what I am allowed to do. So it worked out real nicely."

You where working in the business before Star Trek came your way. But now you are associated with a very successful project as The Next Generation and people recognize your name. Has this fame affected the way your family and friends react to you?

"I think there is a sense of relief! (Laughter) I think they're happy that things have turned out the way I wanted them to, at least up to now. Like any family who has been in show business, there is a concern whether the person is going to be able to survive or not. So they're not treating me any differently on any level other than they are not asking any questions of the concern for my future."

Are you pleased with the way data has developed over the last four years? Is there anything in this fifth season you would like to see them add to the character?

" No, truthfully, I'm really pleased with the way it's gone. I think they have developed the character very nicely and it's gone exactly as it was planned to happen. I think the idea, from the beginning, was that Data was a machine that basically teaches himself everything he experiences and sees becomes a part of his programming. So from the first year to the fifth year, we've seen Data get closer to basically being human-but he's not. And I think that was the idea: by the end of the series, Data would ba about as close to human but still not be there. But he's absorbed so much information and so much behavior from serving with humans that he is allot less machinelike now than he was in the beginning, and that was intentional."

Do you believe that Data will ever be able to actually feel emotions or that he will always be limited to just imitating them?

"I don't think the word ''feel'' really applies. I don't know what the word would be for what he experiences- he senses, maybe. But it's not feelings. And I don't think he ever will have feelings. I think he will have something else but I'm not sure exactly what they would be called."

What do you find most challenging about playing this character?

"It;s always challenging to try to make a scene work- to make something you think would be interesting to watch. Certainly the most difficult thing for me, at this point, is just the 'technobabble' Basically, what that is the technical part of my dialogue. And I don't know if it can be made any more interesting than it is. You know. When you are a kid, and you're first becoming an actor and you are doing a play, and your family comes to see it and they say, ''How did you learn all those words?'' And that was the least of my concerns! (Laughter) But, oddly, it's become my major concern! As I get older and I get more of this dialogue and I lose more and more brain cells, it really does become the most difficult part of the job! (Laughter) After we finish a long day, to go home and open up my script and look at what I have to learn for the next day, that is the most stressful part for me."

Do you generally work all day and then go home at night and memorize your lines for the next day? That must be very tiring.

"Generally, I have to be able to get the lines out of my mouth without making a mistake before I go to sleep. And that's because this particular dialogue, and the fact I'm playing a machine, doesn't give me the luxury of being able to pause. And, you know, people talk with pauses in their speech- but not a machine. So I don't have that luxury of being able to do that so it has to have a flow to it and in order to do that I just have to have it memorized. There is no question about it."

Have you ever caught yourself pausing during some dialogue or using contractions and it slipped through?

"No not yet! (Laughter) There have been contractions but they've been purposeful. When ever I play Data playing someone else- that other person would use contractions so Data would, too, in his imitation of that person. But there are allot of times that people think they have heard a contraction but they really haven't. It's just that I was speaking so quickly. There have been times when I've said to myself, 'That sounded like a contraction.' But it isn't, because there is not just me watching out for that on set. We have our script supervisor, Cosmo Genevese, who is like a hawk with that stuff and stays on top of that all the time. Cosmo will come up to, if I have done it and say, ''Did you say 'Wouldn't' ?' and I would say, ''No I didn't.'' (Laughter) And she would say, ''Well I think you did,'' And I say, ''Lets do it again to be safe.'' So we do try to watch out for that."

The episode last season entitled 'Brothers' was very well-received and was a real challenge for since you were playing three different characters, some times interacting within the same scene. What are your memories from the episode?

"Well, it was very complex. It was a four hour job for me as an old man. Michael Westmore did a brilliant job with that. I was very impressed with that makeup. I really felt that once he had that head on me that was three quarters of the work right there. At that point, it could have been Milton Berle inside of that head! (Laughter) The episode, though was particularly difficult mainly because off the logistics of it and having to be somebody else every day. We would shoot the scenes with data and Lore on the same days and then Soong on the other days. After sitting in the makeup chair fro four hours to get that makeup on to make me old, getting my makeup on for Data seemed a piece of cake! We had two other guys helping me, too. If I was playing Soong, we would have my stand in Tim, play Data and another guy play Lore. It was difficult, though, because I had to hear dialogue that I hadn't read yet coming out of somebody else's mouth before I would get to it. It was difficult to remember where I was, when I was Data, etc."

Why did they have you play all three characters? It would have been allot easier if they had hired another actor to pay Data's creator, Song.

"Yeah, it would have been easier on everybody! (laughter) I think if they did it ever again,. they probably wouldn't hire me."

I'm glad they did use you because I found it interesting that Data and Lore's creator had a similar look to them.

"I think the idea was that Soong was close to 100 years old. And if you took him back to when he was 35 or so, he probably looked allot like Data. And the idea was that he built Data in his image. So he was not only Data's father, he was his God, too."

Data has become one of the most popular characters on the series. Why do you think he struck a cord with the audience?

"I think there are allot of things. I think he is an extremely accessible character. In Data there is no potential for cruelty. And I think that is an attractive thing to people. He is a very trustworthy character in terms of other peoples feelings and emotions. I think he is a bit of an outsider: he doesn't quite fit in, he doesn't quite belong, and people relate to that idea of being an outsider and being alienated. And, yet, even though he is alienated and feels as if he is an outsider, he is incredibly capable. He is also an action hero. And that is attractive- that one can feel alienated and still be productive. There is also an innocence to Data. He's somebody you can feel safe with."

How did you feel about giving Data a daughter in the episode, 'The Offspring'?

"I loved it! It was one of my favorite episodes, mainly because it was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who I think is one of our best directors. I loved Hallie Todd, who was a wonderful actress. The fact that her mother was Milly Helper on the Dick Van Dyke Show made it even better! (Laughter) But, 'The Offspring' was a really nice script and I think that everybody did really good work on it. Patrick was wonderful in that episode. I think Jonathan got a really good handle and did a wonderful job with it. All those ingredients made a really good show. I think it is one of the best episodes we've done. It was a very clean episode."

Brent, what part of your job do you like the most?

" I like coming to work every day and hanging out with 50 or 60 people who are a lot of fun to be around. That's the part I really like. There's a great mood on the set. It's a real fun place to come to work. We don't take ourselves overly serious. Any job you can go to and have a laugh everyday has got to be a good job. Very few jobs are like that. But we laugh all day long! And you can't knock that!"

Is that very different form other shows?

"Well, I think there are other shows where it's a nightmare every day to come to work. That's certainly not the case here. Truly, the best part of my job are the people. They've put together a great bunch of people and not just cast, who are all very close, but the crew and the people in the offices and everything. They're a real delightful bunch to hang around."

Do you see the much of the cast socially?

" We all see each other. I had dinner with Michael and Marina last night."

How likely do you think it will be that we see androids in the future like Data?

"I think it was Voltaire who said something to the effect, 'If you can't accept an idea of life in the first place, then it becomes very easy to accept everything else and the possibility for everything else.' I think really it is anybody's guess. I think the potential for man is so enormous, if we can stay alive long enough, we're going to be seeing a lot of what Star Trek is projecting. And I think it's likely that there will be Data's out there one day. I hope so, if there are, that they all look exactly like me! (Laughter)
The majority of the cast went up to Washington recently to participate in the 30th anniversary of Alan Shephards first space shot and I met a gentleman named Marvin Minsky who is the leading roboticist in the world today. He was fascinating! Nut it was wonderful because we where big treated by the scientific community of Washington with as much respect as we were treating them because we were sort of the embodiment of what they where doing. We're great promotion for their work! But it was very interesting to meet the real thing and seeing fiction and reality coming together at the same time."

It's nice to see the new series working together with elements and characters from the original series.

''It's a validation, I think, of our series from the original series. It's joining of the two. There has been so much talk, in a competitive way, about the two series that whenever there is something like this, it's union, a joining, and it's very positive for the fans.''

In addition to Leonard, you mentioned that Paul Winfield was making a guest appearances as well?

''Well, there was no one specific, yet, that has been booked. But we have gotten a lot of interesting requests from people who have said they would love to do an episode this season. That list includes: Roger Reese (from Cheers), Robin Williams, Christopher Lloyd, Elliot Gould, and John Goodman (from Rosanne) The series' growing popularity is helping us get allot of interesting people who are showing great interest in being in the show.''

Are we going to see any characters this season that we've seen before?

''We have a show coming up where word's son is actually going to reappear. I think we'll be brining Barclay back. The crystal entity, as I said previously, will be back. Of course, we will always do an episode each season with Q.''

Are you going to have any time travel episodes this season?

"Yes, we have some unique time travel episodes that's coming up in which we have someone time travel to us. It's a show I have written and I hope it is terrific.''

What else do you have planned for this season?

Well, we have an episode that's going to be about some of our characters being help hostage in Ten Forward. We have a story about rape, but not sexual rape. It deals with more with an alien who basically rapes people by invading their minds. It's a very interesting concept. We have a wonderful episode coming up about a boy who, under a series of tragic circumstances, emotionally pulls himself back together by deciding that he is an android and he uses Data as his role model. It's a fascinating episode. WE have another one which deals with a girl who has an imaginary friend who, all of a sudden, becomes not so imaginary. We have some amnesia stories- we always have a couple of those! The viewers will also get a look at some costume designs for Patrick Stewart: it will be anew uniform that he will wear from time to time. We will also have some stories that will continue to follow Colm Meany as O'Brien. He's a marvelous actor and we're trying to take advantage of that. Wesley Crusher will be coming back in at least one, possibly more, episodes, too."

The final episode of the fourth season, Redemption, gave us a new look at Denise Crosby. Will we se her in reoccurring role as this Romulan character throughout the season?

"Well, she came up with the idea of this character. Obviously, she has appeared in both parts of Redemption. But, yes, she is a character we will see again."

How many more seasons do you believe The Next Generation will run?

" Well, saying 'as long as the show is successful and everybody wants to continue to do it, we'll do it,' sounds logical and reasonable. But, it doesn't work that way. There are very complex economics involved in that deal with the difference between first-run syndication and then second-run syndication when the show starts becoming stripped by the stations. There are numbers of episodes that stations question exceeding. So deciding when ''enough is enough'' is a very complex formula that is made up by the studio and the stations dealing with logical economics. We are not dealing here with a question of ratings because the shows ratings are better than ever and I would like to think they'll continue to be better than ever."

How do you feel about the rumor of doing Next Generation movies?

" I would assume that, at some point in the future, Paramount Pictures would consider doing a Next generation movie. As to weather that's going to be in tow years or eight years, I don't know. I would guess that Paramount doesn't have a clue either. People generally ask me, ''Do you ever think there will be a Next generation movie?'' And I say, ''Well, I cant imagine there wont be.'' And then it gets printed somewhere that I said there was a movie in the works. When asked that question, all I can say is that ''it might be considered at some point in the future,'' and that is all I really can say. I don't know. They have a television series here that is extremely successful and its a television series that is going to run for a while longer. You know, they waited almost 10 years to make a motion picture with the original Star Trek crew after their series had been off the air. So, who knows?"

Would you like to see more done with the Borg in this season?

"I would like to see more done with the Borg but they are very difficult to deal with since they are without personality, and without voice, and without specific character. they become a rather awesome adversary and they are kind of hard to depict and deal with. Also, because of their incredible might and abilities , they are difficult to confine. So we always have a borg story somewhere in the back of our heads but we're real careful about it. We're a little bit wary of the Borg."

How do you feel about the Emmy nominations this year?

"Well, I always resent the concept of 'technical Emmy's.' I find it almost laughable that if a person writes an episode, its considered 'creative' and if a person writs music for an episode, it's considered 'technical'. When we have composers and cinematographers and people who do remarkably creative job on the show get nominated for an Emmy, it upsets me when it gets couched as 'technical awards'. On the other hand, its a continual disappointment that we haven't gotten any of the 'creative Emmy' nominations. I think that some of our writers are so worthy of a nomination and I think some of our directors are too. The series, in light of the types of dramatic series that are on the air now, certainly deserves some recognition. It's a shame than none of our actors haven't been nominated yet. I don't believe there are five better actors on television than Patrick Stewart, and one could say the same about Brent Spiner. But we suffer from the fact that we are a syndicated show and a science fiction show. It's something we have learnt to live with. Each year, when the nominations come out, they call me up at 5:30 in the morning and tell me what they are, and we always hope there will be a big one and there hasn't been. But there are more nominations this year than we've ever had - we had a total of 10. So we'll be rooting for the nominees!"

Last season, Executive Producer MIchael Piller, had said that when the first half of the cliff hanger for Best of Both Worlds was written you didn't really know how it would end. Now you have Redemption. When the first half of this episode was written, did you know how it would be resolved?

" We never know how it is going to end. But this seasons cliffhanger , but as a two-part episode. But as to wether Ron moore or any off us had any idea what was going to happen in the second half, the answer is, 'Yes, some, but not as much as people would like to think!' But the second half is terrific and was directed by David Carson, who directed Yesterdays Enterprise, among others, and it's another well-done episode. I think the fans will be please!"