As one of the original cast members of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data (Brent Spiner) quickly became a fan-favorite. The android's capacity for wonder and desire to be human made him a sympathetic and relatable character, despite his positronic nature. While Data never technically achieved his goal of becoming human over the course of TNG, he demonstrated human-like emotions and behavior on multiple occasions. He was already human in all the ways that mattered.
Star Trek: Picard season 3 finally saw Data's ultimate dream realized as he was given a more human-like synthetic body and a more organic way to experience human emotions. While this is a wonderful new chapter in Data's story, he already exemplified the best of humanity before Star Trek: The Next Generation even ended. His compassion and sincerity, his dedication to his job and his crew mates, his love of art and music, his desire for connection, all of these things and so many more made him a shining example of what humanity could be long before his synthetic upgrade in Picard season 3.
