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Star Trek: The Next Generation was a television series that followed in the footsteps of the original television show Star Trek.
But if didn’t have Captain James T. Kirk.
Or Mr. Spock.
But it did have Captain Jean Luc Picard.
And Commander Riker, Geordie LaForge, Worf (a Klingon!!) the Borg and many more characters and travelers and worlds.
Running between 1987 and 1994 it was set in space in the year 2364. Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced viewers to characters that continued a journey through the “final frontier” as the travelers sought out new worlds, life forms and adventures. A creative mix of characters populated the show hailing from different planets and worlds and this included Data, an android who was the ship’s second officer and one of the major characters in the show.
Throughout the series one of the themes was Data balancing the logic of an android with the desire to experience and understand human emotions. Many episodes dealt with Data’s confusion and struggle to be more human like, to understand human emotions and to experience life more fully like his companions.
The introduction of a cat, Spot, helped Data to develop an awareness of what caring for another might be like, and helped Data to appear more sensitive, yet logical, and to develop his character more fully. The scenes between Data and Spot were often charming in their awkwardness and naiveté with subtle humor in Data’s intent. Spot in true cat fashion often appeared quite indifferent to Data but was a nice counterpoint to the intensity of Data. Through several of the episodes Spot interacted, quite poorly, with several of the other characters and showed quite a lot of disdain for them. Data’s quest for being a pet parent resulted in him creating 221 different formulas of feline supplement (cat food) and writing a poem “Ode To Spot”
O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
The awkward yet charming interactions between Data and Spot helped to humanize Data and brought some humor and emotion to this interesting character who desperately wanted to be like a human.
