Lieutenant Commander Data: The Android Wonder

Lieutenant Commander Data, a character in the TV series Star Trek: the Next Generation, was the only Soong-type android ever to enter Starfleet. He was created by Dr. Noonian Soong and his wife Juliana in the planet Omicron Theta, the second-to-last of the known androids that Soong ever made. At his application, only one member of the evaluation committee, Bruce Maddox, protested his entrance on the grounds that he was not a sentient being. His performance at Starfleet Academy was excellent academically, although he faced many social obstacles.

Upon graduation, he served as the operations officer and second officer on the USS Enterprise, commanded by Capt. Jean Luc Picard. The two officers developed a close friendship, with Data regularly consulting Picard on human matters. Data possessed many super-human characteristics, such as a photographic memory, super-human strength, dexterity, self-diagnostics, and voice duplication.

He has also been programmed to be unable to lie. Although an android, he sought to develop his humanity by keeping pets, imitating human mannerisms such as dance moves, whistling, laughter, sneezing and even entering into romantic relationships with humans.

When offered the opportunity to become human, he turned it down, but the discovery and his usage of the Soong emotion chip allowed him to further approximate and gain an appreciation for human complexities. After some practice, he was able to turn it on and off in situations where emotions would be a burden.

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