Brent Spiner is one of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s best performers. Playing Data, Spiner had the tough task of emoting without expressions as he was an android. Though it was difficult, Spiner pulled it off for seven seasons and four movies, while also pulling double duty as Data’s evil twin Lore and several other recurring characters.
Though Spiner shone in many episodes where the writing did not do complete justice to him, sometimes even he could not save the day. One of these times was during what is considered to be Star Trek: TNG’s worst episode, ‘Masks’. The season 7 episode sees Spiner go crazy with his acting skills, but the writing is just ridiculous.
Brent Spiner’s Emmy-level acting could not save Star Trek: TNG’s worst episode
Brent Spiner is easily the best actor in Star Trek: TNG, despite stalwarts like Sir Patrick Stewart headlining the cast. Not that the rest of the ensemble cast was bad, but Spiner had a lot more heavy-lifting to do as the ship’s android Data. He was mostly stoic, but in his stoicism lay a virtually endless spectrum of emotions.
Spiner’s performance in the show was so good that even actor Patrick Stewart felt he was not even getting an Emmy nomination, which was one of the biggest snubs in the award’s history. No wonder he was one of the most popular characters in the show. However, even this legendary performer could not save one of TNG’s most terrible scripts.
The season 7 episode ‘Masks’ sees the Enterprise come across an ancient artifact that houses the deity of an alien species. Data is taken over by multiple personalities as the artifact transmits information from the Enterprise to its source. Brent Spiner tries his best to make this work, but the writing lets him down.
One of the most ridiculous sequences is at the end when Data assumes himself to be the Moon Goddess and Patrick Stewart pretends to be the Sun God and confronts him. Both wear masks, and even on screen, it seems like they are trying their best to contain their laughter. It is truly one of the worst of Star Trek.
Brent Spiner recalled being laughed at by his Star Trek co-stars during ‘Masks’
Brent Spiner is not afraid to be hammy with his acting. Just watch his brilliant performance in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, and you will see a master at work. He surrenders to whatever tone the script demands and hence, can portray an eccentric scientist operating on aliens in a disaster movie and a stoic android two centuries in the future to perfection.
Spiner was not stoic throughout his tenure in Star Trek: TNG, though, as he also got to play more expressive characters like Lore and Dr. Noonien Soong. And, there were the multiple personalities in ‘Masks’, which, though Spiner tried his best, came across as silly and cringeworthy. Spiner told on the Inside of You podcast that his co-stars laughed at him.
I do some of the most preposterous acting you’ve ever seen in your life in it. I mean, the other actors were laughing in my face at some of the characters I was doing….Patrick and I were in masks and facing one another at 2 o’clock on Saturday morning…We couldn’t get through the scene.
Brent Spiner mentioned that the two were laughing so much that the crew started hating them because they couldn’t go home. But Spiner said that they just could not get through the sequence. While hilarious, the moment is truly one of the worst parts of TNG.
Star Trek: TNG is available to stream on Paramount+.
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