Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Picard Season 3, Episode 6 - "The Bounty"Thankfully, the return of Data (Brent Spiner) in Star Trek: Picard season 3 doesn't hurt or invalidate the beloved android's prior deaths. In Picard season 3, episode 6, "The Bounty," Captain Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Commander Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), and Captain Worf (Michael Dorn) penetrated Daystrom Station to find a new human-like synthetic Soong android is the black site's A.I. security system. What's more, the Soong android is a hybrid containing aspects of Dr. Altan Soong, Lore, B-4, Lal, and "a great deal of Data."
Commander Data died in Star Trek: Nemesis when he sacrificed himself to save the USS Enterprise-E from Shinzon's (Tom Hardy) destructive thelaron weapon. iral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) mourned Data for years, but he got the chance to say goodbye to his android friend at the end of Star Trek: Picard season 1. After Jean-Luc himself died but was resurrected in a synthetic body, Picard connected with a remaining aspect of Data's personality. Data gladly faced death as the last and most important stage of his quest to understand humanity, and he and Picard said their goodbyes. Or so it seemed until Star Trek: Picard season 3.
Data's Picard Season 3 Comeback Doesn't Invalidate His 2 Star Trek Deaths
The fact that Data is back as part of a hybrid Soong synthetic doesn't negate the poignancy or impact of either of his deaths in Star Trek: Nemesis or Star Trek: Picard season 1. Yes, as Raffi pointed out, "Data died... twice," and those deaths count because it was the original Data who was lost. The Data whose physical form was destroyed in Nemesis and whose positronic essence faded away in at the end of Picard season 1 was the android who served for 15 years in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the TNG movies.
However, before his death in Star Trek: Nemesis, Data ed his memory engrams into B-4, his imperfect 'brother.' B-4 could never 'become' a Data, but as Riker pointed out, once the Federation's ban on synthetics was lifted after Star Trek: Picard season 1, "anything is possible." There was enough of Data's original programming recovered from B-4 to be transferred into Altan Soong's new synthetic golem, which he built to age like a human. So, Star Trek: Picard season 3's Data isn't the Data who died twice, but in many important ways, he is the same Data... but he is also "more," as the synth proclaimed.
Data's Comeback In Picard Is His Star Trek Evolution
Data's return as a human-like hybrid synthetic who shares his body with the minds of Lore, B-4, Altan Soong, and even Data's android daughter, Lal (Hallie Todd) from Star Trek: The Next Generation, is a long-awaited evolution of the original (and best) Soong android. Data was the pinnacle achievement of Dr. Noonien Soong decades ago, but by Star Trek: Picard season 3, the Soong android needed an upgrade. After all, Altan Soong and Dr. Bruce Maddox (John Ales) perfected human-like synthetics with Dahj and Soji (Isa Briones), who were built from one of Data's positronic neurons recovered from B-4.
Star Trek: Picard season 3's new hybrid synthetic is also the best of all Soong androids. While Data seems to have the most aspects of his personality in the new design, he still competes for dominance with the sinister Lore, the childlike B-4, and his creator, Altan Soong. Yet together, the new Data is indeed more than the sum of his parts. What happens next to Data, and how he will impact the remainder of Star Trek: Picard season 3's story, will be fascinating to discover.
Star Trek: Picard Season 3 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.