Very Cool And Interesting Little Pamphlet Nonetheless!! - Tumblr Posts
i have an interesting little piece of Star Trek TNG media to share today, it's pretty obscure and i've seen literally no discussion of it online at all. my dad is a really big fan of Star Trek, especially Star Trek TNG, and he has this DVD box set of season 1 of the show. it was released around 2002-2003 and it's this big bulky gray capsule box that contains a foldable disc sleeve thing, and most importantly, a little pamphlet that holds descriptions for the main characters of the series. it's a really neat little piece of media, but what i want to focus on is how it describes Data, because i think it's very interesting.
(apologies for the glare)
"Data - A unique and super-intelligent android, Data was created by the genius Dr Noonien Soong to be as human as possible. However, powerful though as his positronic brain might be, Data is unable to comprehend emotion."
the language it uses to describe Data and his relationship with emotions is really intriguing to me. it doesn't say he cannot feel emotions, but rather than he can't comprehend them. it's pretty commonly agreed on in the Star Trek fandom that Data can absolutely feel emotions, but he just can't process or express them in a human-like way. the show is not very good at convincing people that Data is an unfeeling automaton, lol. he definitely feels things, but he's convinced that he can't because he doesn't feel things like a human does. i feel like this pamphlet corroborates that in a way. just,, the language of "unable to comprehend" rather then "unable to feel" comes off as a very deliberate choice with this in mind. characters in the show, including Data himself, will always say that he cannot feel emotions first and foremost, and it feels significant to me that a piece of official media would instead focus more on Data having trouble comprehending emotion. comprehending something and feeling something are two very different things. i feel like this is important.
i'll try to see if i can get the whole pamphlet scanned and uploaded online. again, it's quite an obscure piece of media and i can't seem to find it anywhere. i don't know if i'll be able to account for pamphlets that were released with dvds of the later seasons as i think we only have the season 1 box from this set. i hope they all get found and scanned someday!!