Star Trek’s Writers Secretly Believed Data Was An Idiot

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 31 seconds ago

Even though the character didn’t really deserve all the hate, it didn’t take Star Trek: The Next Generation fans very long to decide that young Wesley Crusher was the show’s worst character. He was basically franchise creator Gene Roddenberry’s self-insert character, and this brilliant wunderkind was meant to attract younger fans to this ambitious sci-fi show. However, the fandom decided that he was both precocious and annoying, and it didn’t help that he was written as a Mary Sue who was magically smarter than all of the trained officers around him.

Interestingly, one of The Next Generation’s best writers decided that another character was even more of a child than Wesley. That writer was Melinda Snodgrass, best known for writing “The Measure of a Man,” the episode in which Data successfully argued that he was a living being and not a hunk of Starfleet property. But she also wrote “Pen Pals,” an episode where she had to convince the other staff members that Data was the only one who would casually violate the Prime Directive in this way because he has the mind of a child.

Do Androids Dream Of Alien Pen Pals?

Some quick context: “Pen Pals” is an episode in which the Enterprise is investigating a series of unexplored planets. Data eventually picks up a radio transmission from an alien girl, and he keeps talking to her for a month while concealing his identity. However, after she reveals that her planet is going to be destroyed, Data must convince Captain Picard to break the Prime Directive in order to save a young alien that he never should have spoken to in the first place.

Notably, this was an episode where the Star Trek: The Next Generation staff already knew the general story, but they didn’t know which member of the crew would be the one to speak to this hapless alien. “Pen Pals” writer Melinda Snodgrass was adamant that the only officer who would be foolish enough to speak to the alien girl (and therefore violate the Prime Directive) was Data. The primary reason that she gave was that despite the android’s highly advanced positronic brain, his mind is still developing, and he’s prone to make even more childlike mistakes than Wesley Crusher.

Flagrantly Violating The Prime Directive

As recorded in Captain’s Log: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, Snodgrass successfully convinced other staffers that Data was the best choice because “[Y]ou can picture Data becoming entranced in answering [the] question, ‘Is there anyone out there?’” One straightforward reason for this is that “he’s an android and if you ask him a question, you’re going to get an answer,” especially because “the whole thing would be so charmingly intriguing to him.”

According to Snodgrass, “You never could picture any of the other characters doing that, but Data can make the mistake…and step out of his careful Starfleet training because he’s really just growing up.” She then ended her thoughts with a statement that may very well shock most Star Trek: The Next Generation fans. “He’s more of a child than Wesley,” she said.

This is very ironic because most of Wesley Crusher’s most annoying qualities are chalked up to his being so young and, therefore, prone to mistakes. But Snodgrass sees Data as someone who, despite all the knowledge he has tucked away in his positronic mind, is still trying to figure out what it means to be both a person and a Starfleet officer. Therefore, he is prone to making rookie mistakes (like violating the Prime Directive by talking to a primitive alien and then asking Picard to violate it even more by saving her planet) that characters like Riker or Troi would never make. 

Wesley Grows Up

As if to drive this point home even harder, the B plot of “Pen Pals” involves Wesley Crusher being chosen to lead a survey team of experienced Starfleet officers. One of them pushes back against his orders, causing the young wunderkind to seek out command advice from Riker. The young man successfully convinces an abrasive officer to run some time-consuming planetary scans that ultimately reveal how to save the little girl’s planet from certain destruction, all while demonstrating how much he has grown as a character and an officer.

There you have it, Star Trek fans: Wesley Crusher might be the most hated character on The Next Generation, but the woman who wrote the ultimate Data episode (“The Measure of a Man”) thinks the android is even more childlike than the bridge crew’s only child. Fortunately, both Data and Wesley would spend the next few years growing and maturing, and each ended up being a far better character than they were in Season 1. Wesley left Starfleet and became a traveler, while Data eventually discovered a more fulfilling hobby than operating a HAM radio: playing cowboy on the holodeck.