Spiner Felt Fans Were Done with 'Next Generation'

Brent Spiner believed that the cast and crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation were making a movie for the fans with Nemesis, but when the fans didn't come, he felt that it meant that his cast's era was over.

"We worked on the story [for Nemesis] with the intention of making it for the fans," Spiner told Star Trek Magazine (via Sci Fi Pulse). "With every Star Trek movie prior to that we tried to find a way to bridge the gap between the fans and the general public. Even reading the latest quotes from J.J. Abrams about the next movie, it makes sense for the movie to be as inclusive as possible. With Nemesis we said, 'Forget that! Lets make a movie for the fans, because that’s the people who actually go to see the films.'"

However, when opening weekend arrived, the box office take was disappointing. "They didn’t go," lamented Spiner. "Usually the films opened big, even if they had a lot of competition, but Nemesis didn't even do that. This was a message from the fans that they were done with us."

Spiner was not particularly devastated, as he knew that he had become too old to play Data convincingly. "I was 38 when we first started doing The Next Generation, so when I finished the series I was 45," he said, adding that during the filming of Nemesis, he was in his 50s.

"One really shouldn’t be playing a child-like android at that point in their life!" Spiner exclaimed. "I didn’t have to kill Data. We were all pretty much aware that this was going to be out last film and as such thought we’d go for broke."

Spiner refused to place the blame for the failure of Nemesis, as have some of his castmates, with director Stuart Baird, though the actor and writer acknowledged that "pace was his number one concern. A lot of stuff that was cut out of the movie was pretty good, while some of it wasn't. Could a better movie have been made from the material that was shot? Maybe. Maybe not."

For more, including Spiner's statement that he thinks a reboot for the franchise in the next film is a good idea, see the full article here.

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