I’d
only seen a bit of TNG but I had seen Spiner on Warehouse 13. I was
disappointed that no one asked him about it but they did ask him plenty of
other things. He started by giving us ‘photo ops’ and freezing in place. Rather
than monologue, Spiner opened with questions.
He was asked about playing Data and Lor. He said it was difficult but an excellent opportunity to work with his favorite actor. While they were on TNG, they liked the idea of a Data/Picard body swap episode. Spiner started doing his impression of Patrick Stewart and he was good. Then he did his impression of Patrick Stewart as Picard doing a bad impression of Data. It was both meta and hilarious.
He thought one fan was so cute asking her question he made the camera turn around and face her while she asked it again. Anotehr person had a cold. When Spiner heard this he replied with “You have a cold? Did you shake my hand at the table?”
Spiner mentioned going to dinner with Shatner the night before and yes, they did have crabs and no, he did not remember where. When he got there Shatner was mid bucket for crabs. I didn’t know this but Spiner is mostly vegetarian. He’ll try a bit but didn’t order any. Somehow he got on a tangent about kosher leading to this sound bite: "What is the correct way to kill? What is that exactly? I've been trying to figure it out."
When asked about being an icon, Spiner said it doesn’t affect very much on the day to day but when his son is giving him grief he says “Don’t you know I’m an icon?” He also got to see Harrison Ford at San Diego Comic Con. Ford is a curmudgeon. When a fan asked what Han Solo would say to Indian Jones, Ford replied with “I don’t know. They’re fictional.” Clearly, he doesn’t get nerds.
Of course people asked about what happened to Spot. “Heaven. It was 25 years ago. He was the single worst actor I've ever worked with. They knew I didn't like working with the cat. I liked the cat but as an actor he stunk. We would spend all day on one scene.” Although Spot did nail one scene in one take once. “Data feeds Spot tuna. We did that in one take.” Spiner had to get a very tight grip at the end of Generations. “We had to drug him on occasion.”
Another friend of mine asked about all the colors they experimented with for Data in preproduction. “Bubblegum pink, battleship gray, bright gold, white hair, all colors of hair.” After all that work, they showed Rodenberry the first of many and he said “That’s fine.” Don’t you want to see the rest? During this a little kid left and Spiner of course said something. His mom said he was 6.5 years old and bored. Spiner asked “Was he expecting stunts?” My friend said, “He wanted you to sing.”
One fan asked about Data’s motivation since humans are motivated by emotion. What motivates Data? "His chip, his programming. What's your toaster motivation for making toast?"
Spiner was asked about The Big Bang Theory. He objected to the line about the action figures masturbating and did the scene without it. It was Galecki who convinced him to do the scene with the line and that made it into the episode. "If you're watching I'd like to be on another episode."
One of the big things about Data was his struggle with emotion and humanity. One girl said that she’s struggled with Asperger’s Syndrome her whole life and Data helped teach her what it meant to be human. Oliver Sacks came in to talk to Spiner about this and how much it was helping children who struggled with emotion. Spiner said he was glad they weren’t overly aware of this early on since it may have changed the way they wrote Data.
At the end they auctioned off an Andriod phone with unlimited data for charity. Spiner asked “Is it fully functional?” and got to play auctioneer. It quickly became a bidding war between two people. "This is exciting I feel like I'm on the reality show with the storage spaces." Spiner even had an imaginary conversation with Patrick Stewart where he gets hung up on. After the phone sold the crowd started chanting “Bunny” and Spiner was given a traditional Shore Leave bunny. He pretended to cry and left saying “I was delighted. Shore Leave is great.”
Hearing him and enjoying his energy makes me want to go back and watch more TNG. I’m sure Boy Toy will be excited to hear that since Data was one of his favorite characters.
Bonus quotes
On having an action figure: “It kind of freaked me out to have a doll of me but if it’s good enough for Alec Guinness it's good enough for me”
500 years into the future or the past: "500 years past. Did they have TiVo? We're soft and spoiled. 500 years ago was Game of Thrones." (The girl asking this was the one dressed as Dean Winchester as a PE teacher. When Spiner asked about her costume, she explained the episode. Spiner said “I’ll look for that episode. I love your work.)
On Stanford asking him to speak about A.I.: “I just read the lines and dazzle you with my talent.” He likened it to the robotics expert talking about acting.
My friend (he remembered her name, she’ll never live that down) asked him “Do you sing in shower and what do you like to sing?” He answered "I don't sing in the shower b/c there are other people in my house who don't relish that."
On Star Trek: "I believe Star Trek is most important show in history of America. It started fifty years ago. Fifty years? You can't not take it seriously. I'm honored to part of this epic tapestry of Americana at its best."
"The episode Masks contains some of the most preposterous acting in the history of television" We were filming one episode and got script for the episode shooting tomorrow & Data's 5 characters. 'How am I supposed to decide who these characters are?' 'We have faith in you.'”
“I am borderline genius. On the high side of the borderline"
"I don't mean to tease you. Yes I do"
Spiner: "When you bit Holyfield's eat what was that like?"
Big
black fan: "Tasted like chicken"
He was asked about playing Data and Lor. He said it was difficult but an excellent opportunity to work with his favorite actor. While they were on TNG, they liked the idea of a Data/Picard body swap episode. Spiner started doing his impression of Patrick Stewart and he was good. Then he did his impression of Patrick Stewart as Picard doing a bad impression of Data. It was both meta and hilarious.
He thought one fan was so cute asking her question he made the camera turn around and face her while she asked it again. Anotehr person had a cold. When Spiner heard this he replied with “You have a cold? Did you shake my hand at the table?”
Spiner mentioned going to dinner with Shatner the night before and yes, they did have crabs and no, he did not remember where. When he got there Shatner was mid bucket for crabs. I didn’t know this but Spiner is mostly vegetarian. He’ll try a bit but didn’t order any. Somehow he got on a tangent about kosher leading to this sound bite: "What is the correct way to kill? What is that exactly? I've been trying to figure it out."
When asked about being an icon, Spiner said it doesn’t affect very much on the day to day but when his son is giving him grief he says “Don’t you know I’m an icon?” He also got to see Harrison Ford at San Diego Comic Con. Ford is a curmudgeon. When a fan asked what Han Solo would say to Indian Jones, Ford replied with “I don’t know. They’re fictional.” Clearly, he doesn’t get nerds.
Of course people asked about what happened to Spot. “Heaven. It was 25 years ago. He was the single worst actor I've ever worked with. They knew I didn't like working with the cat. I liked the cat but as an actor he stunk. We would spend all day on one scene.” Although Spot did nail one scene in one take once. “Data feeds Spot tuna. We did that in one take.” Spiner had to get a very tight grip at the end of Generations. “We had to drug him on occasion.”
Another friend of mine asked about all the colors they experimented with for Data in preproduction. “Bubblegum pink, battleship gray, bright gold, white hair, all colors of hair.” After all that work, they showed Rodenberry the first of many and he said “That’s fine.” Don’t you want to see the rest? During this a little kid left and Spiner of course said something. His mom said he was 6.5 years old and bored. Spiner asked “Was he expecting stunts?” My friend said, “He wanted you to sing.”
One fan asked about Data’s motivation since humans are motivated by emotion. What motivates Data? "His chip, his programming. What's your toaster motivation for making toast?"
Spiner was asked about The Big Bang Theory. He objected to the line about the action figures masturbating and did the scene without it. It was Galecki who convinced him to do the scene with the line and that made it into the episode. "If you're watching I'd like to be on another episode."
One of the big things about Data was his struggle with emotion and humanity. One girl said that she’s struggled with Asperger’s Syndrome her whole life and Data helped teach her what it meant to be human. Oliver Sacks came in to talk to Spiner about this and how much it was helping children who struggled with emotion. Spiner said he was glad they weren’t overly aware of this early on since it may have changed the way they wrote Data.
At the end they auctioned off an Andriod phone with unlimited data for charity. Spiner asked “Is it fully functional?” and got to play auctioneer. It quickly became a bidding war between two people. "This is exciting I feel like I'm on the reality show with the storage spaces." Spiner even had an imaginary conversation with Patrick Stewart where he gets hung up on. After the phone sold the crowd started chanting “Bunny” and Spiner was given a traditional Shore Leave bunny. He pretended to cry and left saying “I was delighted. Shore Leave is great.”
Hearing him and enjoying his energy makes me want to go back and watch more TNG. I’m sure Boy Toy will be excited to hear that since Data was one of his favorite characters.
Bonus quotes
On having an action figure: “It kind of freaked me out to have a doll of me but if it’s good enough for Alec Guinness it's good enough for me”
500 years into the future or the past: "500 years past. Did they have TiVo? We're soft and spoiled. 500 years ago was Game of Thrones." (The girl asking this was the one dressed as Dean Winchester as a PE teacher. When Spiner asked about her costume, she explained the episode. Spiner said “I’ll look for that episode. I love your work.)
On Stanford asking him to speak about A.I.: “I just read the lines and dazzle you with my talent.” He likened it to the robotics expert talking about acting.
My friend (he remembered her name, she’ll never live that down) asked him “Do you sing in shower and what do you like to sing?” He answered "I don't sing in the shower b/c there are other people in my house who don't relish that."
On Star Trek: "I believe Star Trek is most important show in history of America. It started fifty years ago. Fifty years? You can't not take it seriously. I'm honored to part of this epic tapestry of Americana at its best."
"The episode Masks contains some of the most preposterous acting in the history of television" We were filming one episode and got script for the episode shooting tomorrow & Data's 5 characters. 'How am I supposed to decide who these characters are?' 'We have faith in you.'”
“I am borderline genius. On the high side of the borderline"
"I don't mean to tease you. Yes I do"
Spiner: "When you bit Holyfield's eat what was that like?"
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