20 Things You Never Knew About Star Trek: Insurrection
17. Sorry, Kill You Next Time
Brent Spiner was thoroughly done with the character of Data by the time that Star Trek: Insurrection rolled around. He had initially even been reluctant to appear in Star Trek: Generations, though negotiations went his way. He preferred the script for First Contact, as it allowed him a large range to act alongside Alice Krige's Queen.
By Insurrection, he was beginning to have concerns about aging-out, feeling that it was beginning to stretch plausibility for him to play the ageless android. A couple of factors went into his agreeing to appear. First, he credited his then-girlfriend, who persuaded him that being the only hold-out from the main cast would be a decision he would go on to regret. The second reason was the handsome salary he received.
Thirdly, he wrote a note to Rick Berman asking for Data to be killed in the movie. That way, he reckoned, no one would have to go through this process again for a future film. However, when he received the script from Berman, it came with the note 'Sorry, Kill You Next Time', and Data survived the events in the Briar Patch.