UK Theater Network posted a new interview with TNG star Brent Spiner and here are excerpts.
CK: When you first met your fans and they approached you as if you were Data, how did you react?
BS: I tried to be nice about it, but….
CK: What did you feel?
BS: Well, it’s not like I’m not a fan of other people. I like a lot of actors, I like a lot of performances. When I met William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy for the first time, I didn’t talk to them like they were Spock and Kirk, I didn’t think they were. I kind of got the idea they were actors who were playing those parts. It is kind of peculiar. Even to this day, if I write something on Twitter that is so counter to what Data would have been, if it’s ironic or if it’s sarcastic, whatever, the things that I am, people think: “Oh man, I don’t really like you. You’re not like I thought you were.” And my reaction is: “That’s too bad! You know, you’re not like I thought you were either! I thought you were an adult.” (Laughs.)
CK: Well, I think, just because you don’t know anything other than the character you play and some of the interviews you give, people have a certain image of you and….
BS: Right. But I’m not responsible for that. I’m responsible for being me. And being honest. And you know what? You can’t please all the people all the time.
[...]
CK: Maybe not to that extent but to a certain extent….
BS: Yes, I hope it changes minds and enlightens. But I’m really of the mind primarily to entertain and if it happens to enlighten, well, that’s nice, too. But like Star Trek, for example, there’s a—I wouldn’t call it cult, necessarily, but there is a large number of people who take it very, very seriously and build their lives around it. It’s a religion to them almost.
CK: I met a guy who told me that The Next Generation was the Bible to him.
BS: Well, there you are. To me, it’s basically a western set in space and we’re trying to entertain people. And, yes, there is a little bit of a kind of philosophy running through it that’s kind of tame.
CK: You’re accepting everybody, the way a person is, which I like.
BS: I do, too. I like that about it, too. But I think there is an illusion about it. You know, if you ask somebody, why has Star Trek lasted so long, they always say the same thing: because it has a positive vision of the future. But to tell you the truth, I don’t know what is so positive about it. We are still blowing people away. We carry guns. It’s a joke. It’s like that illusion that it is somehow all about peace. It’s really not. It is a western, it is a shoot’em up. But it does have elements that are nice, like the fact that all people are celebrated for who they are, their differences rather than their similarities, and I think that’s a very positive thing. The positive thing about it is just that it depicts a future, and that is somehow reassuring, that there is going to be a future. I don’t think it necessarily depicts a future that’s better or worse than where we live right now.
. Perhaps it was that kiss with the Borg Queen in First Contact... it scrambled his brains... 