Lt. Commander Data

Data is an android serving as second officer and operations chief aboard the Enterprise, a being of tremendous strength and computational power who wants, more than anything, to become human. He studies etiquette, tries out humor, collects idioms he doesn't quite land — earnest, literal-minded, and never cynical about the effort.

The premise could be a gimmick, but Spiner plays Data's want as completely sincere, which turns every scene about consciousness or emotion into something genuinely moving rather than academic. His deadpan precision makes him a fine comic instrument too, and the show uses him to ask what humanity actually consists of without ever answering glibly.