2026-10-21-Fan Fiction By Brent Spiner

ISBN: 978-1-250-27436-6

October 21, 2026

Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner have a podcast that appears on Youtube called Dropping Names. It is a relatively entertaining discussion about various Hollywood experiences and contacts the two of them have made. Though one might expect the podcast to focus on Star Trek: The Next Generation the format of the show often touches on that obvious low-hanging fruit but tries intentionally not to dwell there. Offhandedly, on one episode, Brent Spiner mentioned that he had written a book in 2021 about his rise to fame portraying the android Data on the The Next Generation. He said that it was fiction, but then, at the same time, remarked that it really was not all that fictional but the attorneys told him he better put it that way. Frakes alluded to the topics in the book that one might think were imagined were definitely real, whereas the ones one might consider to be real were not. Clearly, whatever Spiner had written along with these descriptions was enough to warrant further investigation.

It is stretching nothing to say that the events that occur in this book are deranged enough that they certainly have to be true where the ride to fame was involved for Spiner. He said something on the podcast about having to get back into the mental space he was in when he was strapped to that rocket. He mentioned it was rather fun to be re-living a younger version of himself. I cannot imagine that the word "fun" would apply to most of the events that take place in this volume. A simple plot synopsis is that Spiner shows up to work and receives some unwanted mail from a fan of the show that is the stuff of nightmare fuel. It does not stop with one package, though, but instead becomes a series of packages that sound increasing tones of Spiner's impending doom which the crazed fan appears poised to engender. Spiner, naturally, tries to cope with this reality and winds up caught between twins who both happen to work for the FBI, romantic intrigue, and generally bouncing among the cast of the Star Trek crew who, at various times, seem to offer varying levels of assistance or useless advice. It can be said that Spiner is an entertaining writer. It can also be said that his religious attitudes are probably the kinds that can get one into eternal trouble. It might be that the occurrences in the book were a kind of prelude to the tribulation one might find should one orient one's faith toward fame instead of less transient, more eternal pursuits.

Still, a mark of a good book is how it affects the reader, and it is at once entertaining and informative. A little background research shows that Spiner is not veering too far from actual truths. For instance, President Reagan visiting the set is well known along with the tale of Roddenberry dropping his cane and Reagan picking it up for him. The details he chooses to reveal about the cast are the most suspect, although probably also only slightly hyperbolic.

One wonders, once one finishes to the conclusion of this book, whether Spiner felt all of the drama was worth the fame. Furthermore, one wonders what he made of all the chaos that occurred. Did it have a deeper meaning to him? We cannot say since he maintains a distance that the tale is inspired by true events, but not in and of itself true. He therefore has some "plausible deniability" constructed as a bastion from the reader either expecting too much from him or inquiring too much about what he hints at having happened.

There are some other hints that Spiner drops throughout the work that make one wonder if he is trying to signal certain people. For instance, there are details about a pizza in the book and delivery that do not quite flow with the rest of the narrative. Is he trying to add another layer of fiction into this tome, or is he trying to say something about the hidden world of 90's fame which is a club to which he ultimately belonged? It is hard to know for certain, but what one can conclude is that it is not a great idea to be playing around with such matters in 2026. A kind of insulated temerity and lack of fear of any repercussions of misunderstandings attend this playground, and one wonders what makes Brent Spiner think he is immune to such ordeals? People of equal fame level and greater have become ensnared for lesser violations, so how is it that he is seemingly unaware of such machinations that might cause him some PR headaches at the least? One suspects it is because he is so focused on being entertaining, everyone will simply think it is a joke, and nobody wants to be left out of not being "in" on a joke...

Of course, some things are not so funny. It did take Q, after all, to grant Data the ability to laugh...