Star Trek: All Good Things - Reality Vs Fiction
5. Data
What Happens In The Episode: The greatest pain and tease that All Good Things offers the viewers is the fate of Lieutenant Commander Data. In the episode, he is now a Chairman at Cambridge University, occupying the same chair as Sir Isaac Newton once held. He is surrounded by cats, something Brent Spiner surely loathed as he was no fan of the creatures and is attended by Jessel, his grumpy yet efficient house keeper.
From the beginning, he at least entertains the possibility that Picard truly is moving backwards and forwards through time. Thanks to Data's help, they are able to put the pieces together that brings the crew together in the Devron System. Unfortunately, this is not the fate that awaited the android as the franchise went on.
What Really Happened: In Star Trek: Nemesis, Data is forced to sacrifice himself to ensure the survival of the Enterprise-E, destroying Shinzon's warbird Scimitar with himself inside it. From there, an incarnation of his android soul is resurrected by Dr Bruce Maddox and Dr Altan Inigo Soong, housed in secret after the ban on synthetic life. In a sadly cruel twist of fate, Data does in essence survive, though he is trapped inside a box, unable to ever leave.
It is only when Picard discovers this that he is finally deactivated, slipping away into oblivion without ever having been offered a position at Cambridge!