The funny thing is, it was completely unintentional. Spiner has said he had no idea when he was doing the show that Data was appealing to neurodivergent people, and also said he’s glad he didn’t know at the time, because being aware of it and trying to appeal to them might have ruined the performance.
That’s interesting! Especially given how Picard and some of the others treat him. You could have fooled me saying it was written into the show that way.
Also his tendency to info dump, his inability to fully judge social situations, how his “emotional” needs get dismissed by some people (cough picard cough). There’s just a lot of social things going on with Data that feel familiar.
The funny thing is, it was completely unintentional. Spiner has said he had no idea when he was doing the show that Data was appealing to neurodivergent people, and also said he’s glad he didn’t know at the time, because being aware of it and trying to appeal to them might have ruined the performance.
That’s interesting! Especially given how Picard and some of the others treat him. You could have fooled me saying it was written into the show that way.
It seems that writing a character that has no emotion just naturally lends itself to comparisons with neurodivergence.
Also his tendency to info dump, his inability to fully judge social situations, how his “emotional” needs get dismissed by some people (cough picard cough). There’s just a lot of social things going on with Data that feel familiar.