Trekkie Tuesday

Data's Day- Season 4, Episode 11
Greetings and salutations! It's that time again, to put on your Starfleet uniforms and boldly go where no one has gone before. In this episode, we get to see a detailed account of Data studying human emotions. Each crew member presents a unique emotion that Data is still in the process of understanding. Things like friendly jibes and sarcasm are confusing for him and his attempts to demonstrate that he understands often results in humorous incidents. Data's lack of experience with emotion is often dismissed as easily as a child's lack of experience yet Data is a highly sophisticated piece of technology.  This presents an interesting dichotomy with which we can examine ourselves.  

 His lack of emotions makes him closest to the Vulcans and their highly developed sense of logic and repression of emotions. However, Data finds that even with this way of living that the Vulcans cherish, they are still limited in their understanding of other beings. This example is here to show that it is more than a simple matter of suppressed emotion that makes humans confusing. Ain't it the truth?!
Data sees a kindred spirit in Worf since they were both rescued and taken in by the Federation. He seeks out Worf's perspective for some understanding on why we humans do what we do but Worf is often just as puzzled by humans as Data despite the fact that he is an emotional being.

 Data becomes more relatable when he talks about negative and positive emotions. He finds typically negative emotions such as anger, hatred and revenge continuously perplexing while the need for love and friendship make total sense to him. I often wonder myself at why people feel the need to be hateful towards others while the need to be kind and compassionate seem only logical.

I find Data to be the great equalizer on the show. He is the philosopher who will always ask why to every little thing that he does not understand. In his asking, we are forced to step back and take a closer look at our own lives. He's almost like a zen koan in that he brings up interesting questions that don't really have an answer. It's what we learn on the path to answering these questions that matters and not the answer itself.
What are your feelings on the matter?
Join me next week for "Ensign Ro." Until we meet again. Live long and prosper.