Star Trek Picard: Every Major Character Ranked
12. Bruce Maddox
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Poor Bruce. In the show, he lives to die, spurring the others into greater action. There might be a sense of justice here after his initial treatment of Data, but as a character on a new series, there's no avoiding feeling slightly short-changed.
With the novel The Last Best Hope, there is an expansion on his character and the efforts he went to to aid the Romulan rescue. He is directly responsible for the design of the A500's and is then blamed for their failure. His escape across the stars to join Soong is dubious but understandable and he is the one that manages to recreate Data in a sense, bringing back the man through a single neuron. Yet very little of this is experienced along with Maddox himself and is all added through exposition. The audience is told he was brilliant. The audience is told he had a love affair with Juratti. The audience is told he was on the run. The character gets roughly ten minutes of screentime and it simply isn't enough when so much of the drama happens because of him. This may contrast with the point made about Data but Data had seven seasons and four films to expand on. Maddox was given more weight that felt due.
John Ales does what he can with the few moments of time given to him but if there is any justice, he will return in flashbacks in the next season.