For months, the return of Data, Starfleet's first android and a beloved member of the Star Trek: Picard. As the latest series in the Star Trek Universe, it charts a new course for one of its most revered characters, Jean-Luc Picard, as his bucolic life after Starfleet is disrupted by Romulan secret service, nefarious plots to undermine Starfleet, and a quest to find a young woman who may be the key to the fate of the Federation.
But nothing could be more disruptive than the appearance of the famous android, which has prompted frenetic theorizing from all corners of the Trek fandom. To some, Data was the harbinger of doom during the synthetic attack on Mars, and for others, he remains the puppet of a messenger controlling Picard's dreams from a distant future. Whether the theories make sense or not, they're all part of the fun of the series and the tradition of Star Trek fans.
MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE: DATA KNOWS HOW MANY ANDROIDS LIKE HIM EXIST
When Data appears to Jean-Luc Picard in the first episode of Picard as a familiar presence in his dream, they are playing a game of poker, and Data has a hand with five queens. This is before Picard has met his daughters, the flesh-and-blood androids, and some fans believe the cards represented more of them than the twins.
With how often Data communicated with Maddox over the years, and no doubt answered questions about his positronic brain, it would make sense that he knows not only how many of these type of androids there are, but where they are located. He probably has more information than Agnes Jurati, Maddox's colleague at the Daystrom Institute.
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: HIS DAUGHTERS ARE DESTROYERS
Following Soji's narrative on the recovered Borg cube, viewers learn that not only is she the sister of Dahj, but she may also have her powers and unique abilities. When she encounters the only known rehabilitated Romulan Borg, Soji learns that she may be the entity known to them as the Destroyer.
Her storyline is worked into a shared Romulan myth, which may be separate from her actual identity as a flesh-and-blood android. The only way that Data ever destroyed anything was if his programming was compromised or intentionally tampered with. He was incapable a violence towards those he cared about or those who did not pose an immediate threat.
MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE: SOMEONE IS USING DATA TO GUIDE PICARD'S DREAMS
In the first episode of the series, fans were made aware that Picard was dreaming about interacting with Data when the android revealed a poker hand with five queens. As this is an impossible hand to have, it revealed to the audience that something wasn't quite right about their time together.
Dissecting the five queens of hearts, some fan have extrapolated that they represent someone trying to communicate with Picard through nanoprobes in his dreams. Data is just a messenger, possibly from the trickster Q, who in the last season of TNG, communicated with Picard through his dreams.
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: DATA WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE REVOLT ON MARS
In the year 2385, Robeson FedEx from the Daystrom Institute's Advanced Synthetic Research Division attacked the shipyards on Utopia Planitia, as well as hacked the Martian defense network. The synthetics who attacked were considered by some to be slave labor, and more reminiscent of automatons than Data ever was.
In response to androids being treated as subhuman again, some fans felt that Data might have been behind the synthetics revolt, especially after Starfleet was supposed to implement search and personhood laws after the trial in the TNG episode "Measure of a Man." However, Dana was deceased by 2379.
MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE: MADDOX GOT PART OF DATA'S BRAIN FROM THE BORG
As most Star Trek fans know, Data sacrificed himself to save Picard in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis, before Picard's clone could reach Earth and achieve catastrophic violence. When that happened, his positronic brain was destroyed, leaving nothing behind for Dr. Maddox to use with his fractal neuronic cloning.
In Star Trek: Picard, we learn that B-4, Data's rudimentary sibling, would not have possessed the positronic brain that necessary to make flesh-and-blood androids using fractal neuronic cloning. Therefore, some fans believe Maddox could have retrieved some of Data's components from when the Borg attempted to assimilate him.
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: FRACTAL NEURONIC CLONING
Dr. Bruce Maddox was able to create a flesh-and-blood android using fractal neuronic cloning. Using a neuron from Data's positronic brain, he was able to replicate his unique processing abilities, and house them in a model of humanoid that was indistinguishable from a regular human. He did not build androids; he grew them.
Typical of a lot of components in the sci-fi genre, flesh-and-blood androids are only vaguely explained, with just enough hard science to make them plausible. It remains to be seen why Maddox wanted to make androids more human than what Doctor Soong intended when he made Data.
MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE: HIS BROTHER WILL RETURN
Just as Data had twin daughters, he had a doppelganger of his own in the form of his older brother, Lore. Lore first appeared in Season 1 of Star Trek: The Next Generation, when the Enterprise visited Data's destroyed home planet. Lore was found disassembled, but was later reassembled on board, and he appeared to be even more human-like than Data.
It's possible that in the search for more flesh-and-blood androids, Picard and his new crew will encounter Lore, who no doubt will be anxious to return to his role as antagonist, such as in Seasons 4 and 7 in TNG. Perhaps Dr. Maddox could have reactivated Lore after the android was done collaborating with the Borg.
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: HE ISN'T REALLY DEAD
Some fans have postulated that Data isn't really dead, especially given Dr. Maddox's progress in artificial intelligence. These fans believe that it's possible that Maddox was able to grow a new Data with fractal neuronic cloning the same way he was able to make Data's twin daughters.
This would mean that when a new Data was created, a new brother would be created with him. While Maddox no doubt had the ability to do this, he didn't have access to the components unless Data authorized experimentation on himself. Also, Maddox would not have the means to give the new Data the old Data's personality.
MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE: HIS BROTHER LED THE REVOLT ON MARS
Lore was often a nefarious character due to his having an emotion chip, and the fact that felt that he was superior to humans. Many times he tried to get Data to him in his plan to overthrow the Enterprise, especially when he had access to a small contingent of Borg drones in Season 4 of TNG, but Data always refused.
While most Star Trek fans feel that the synthetics revolt on Mars was the result of a Romulan hack or possibly a political scheme by the Federation, it's very possible that it was started by Lore after Bruce Maddox reactivated him. Knowing that he was inadvertently responsible by trying to access Lore's positronic brain might have driven him into hiding.
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: DATA'S HARDWARE WAS PAIRED WITH ORGANIC MATTER
In Episode 5 of the series, Agnes watches a video involving her and Bruce Maddox in which he explains that in order to make a good artificial cookie with all of its imperfections, you can't replicate it — you have to replicate its ingredients and bake it. Since he couldn't replicate Data's hardware — the cookie, in this case — he had to replicate the ingredients, an organism capable of providing housing for Data's positronic brain.
Some fans believe that Agnes not only loved Bruce Maddox but was the one to give birth to the twins, with Data's neural-net inside them. However, if she knew she was the one to give birth to the twins, why did she lie to Picard at the Daystrom Institute? If she was going to come clean to anyone, it should have been him.