Star Trek's Brent Spiner Constantly Considered Quitting In The Franchise's Early Years

Actor Brent Spiner, who played the android Data on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," once called the role a double-edged sword. While playing Data brought Spiner a great deal of attention and fame, he also knew he would forever be associated with that one role. He once commented that he could go on to win an Academy Award, but that Data would still be listed first in his obituary. The associations that grow between "Star Trek" and its actors are unbreakable. Just ask William Shatner about it sometime.

Spiner has returned to "Star Trek" again and again, however, eventually playing seven different characters throughout the franchise: He played Data, Lore, B-4, Noonien Soong, Adam Soong, Altan Soong, and Arik Soong. Spiner has clearly made peace with his "Star Trek" associations and embraces them with enthusiasm. Most recently, Spiner appeared in the third season of "Star Trek: Picard," playing a very human-like android being that possessed the memories and emotions of Data, Lore, B-4, Noonien Soong, and even Lal, Data's long-dead daughter. The actor recently celebrated his 75th birthday, and 37 of those years have been parallel to "Star Trek." 

But there was a time when Spiner considered "Star Trek" to be a mere job, and one that he could walk away from at any point. The man is an actor, after all, and likely wanted to pursue a wider variety of stage and screen roles that the hard work of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" prevented him from seeking out. Indeed, after "Next Generation," Spiner immediately appeared in the hit film "Independence Day" and an acclaimed production of "1776."

In a 2012 interview with IGN, Spiner noted that he constantly considered walking away from "Star Trek."

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" lasted for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994, and would go on to inspire four feature films from 1994 to 2002. But Spiner apparently always had one eye on the door throughout those first seven years. Data was beloved by fans, and some might say he's the second most important character on "Next Generation" after Patrick Stewart's Captain Picard. Regardless, Spiner thought about quitting often. When asked if he ever got a little sick of playing the same character week after week, Spiner replied: 

"Well, definitely ... I did that every year. Seriously. Every year at the end of the year, I thought, 'Yeah, I don't know if I'm going to come back and do another year. I'm going to get out of this contract.'" 

This might be an attitude left over from the troubled early days of "The Next Generation." Some older viewers may recall that there was a lot of skepticism about the show, because a contingent of fans felt that "Star Trek" wouldn't be able to persist without the original cast involved. There was also a lot of tumult behind the scenes as the show's creator and various producers vied for control, exacerbated by a writers strike. In 1987, the general consensus was that "Next Generation" might make it to the end of its first season and then be canceled, doomed to remain a footnote in the "Star Trek" canon.

In was in that spirit that Spiner agreed to take the job. The gig paid well, and Spiner would probably be able to get away from the franchise after a year. He wasn't a Trekkie or anything. He just wanted the money, as any working actor might.

Keep in mind, 1987 was back when actors could — at least sometimes — make a decent amount of money on residuals. Both "Star Trek" and "Next Generation" operated on sweet syndication deals, meaning the shows would be re-run almost in perpetuity on whatever TV station would have them. For Spiner, Data was a plum gig and one that would handily get him out of debt. He said:

"[I]t wasn't a big deal, because also it was syndicated ... you know, I was going to be on a syndicated TV show. The only thing it had going for it, from my point of view, was that it was pre-sold for a year. I thought, 'Well, what is syndication? It's on at a different time, and a different channel, all over America.' So I thought, 'Well, I'm going to do this and I'm going to pay off my bills, then I'm going to be out of it; because it surely is not going to last more than a year.'"

It lasted more than a year. 

Spiner stuck around, though, mostly because his co-stars were all great and fun to work with. Also, despite his trepidation, Spiner did enjoy playing Data. When asked if he thought a lot about how "Next Generation" might have been on the brink, he admitted to keeping an eye on the work:

"No, I really didn't think about it much. I was enjoying doing it so much, because the cast was so pleasurable to be around. I really didn't think much about it. We knew pretty early on that we were going to do at least another year, because it was doing okay, numbers-wise."

It did okay, numbers-wise, for several more decades and helped keep the franchise alive. But it wasn't an easy road to success. Click here to find out what the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" cast hated about the show.