The Ultimate Lt. Commander Data Respect Thread
By Fetts 3 Comments
Intelligence
Data's greatest factor is his intelligence. His positronic brain gives him a maximum storage capacity of 800 quadrillion bits and has a computational speed of 60 trillion operations per second.
He is stated to make millions of calculations per second.
There are many examples of this. In this video, Riker is under an illusion. When he figures this out, he tests Data by asking him how long it'd take to get to one destination from their precise location at certain speeds. That's because Data is always the go-to-man for getting ETAs. In fact, in the earlier parts of the series, Data was able to give an ETA to the precise second within an instant.
Intelligence feats:
-Making a time machine out of nothing but tools from the 19th century. Heck one of the ingredients to this invention was an anvil. (TNG: Time's Arrow, Part II)
-Making a cure to nuclear radiation with tools from a civilization as advanced as we were in the 13th century. And his positronic brain was a little damaged at the same time. (TNG: Thine Own Self)
-His display of battle tactics is uncanny. Here is a prime example:
Here, The Federation was ordered to construct a tachyon detection grid in order to detect cloaked Romulan warships. When part of that detection grid was neutralized, Data's extremely clever and seemingly radical improvisation kicked in. (TNG: Redemption, Part II)
-Here's another good showing of his battle tactics. Here he single handily takes over the Enterprise on intelligence alone. Observe the badassery:
Honestly, with feats the first two feats alone, I'd consider him to be on or even surpassing Reed Richard's level of intellect. His intelligence is known throughout Starfleet and is one of Starfleet's most decorated officers.
His positronic brain also gives him a few extra abilities as well. For example, not only is his intelligence surpassing human intelligence, but it also allows him to exceed the human brain's capabilities. What I mean by that is that in his positronic brain grants him the ability to multitask within his brain 24/7.
And you'll notice how he was keep on going until he saw the look on Jenna's face. (TNG: In Theory)
Another ability his positronic brain gives him is to perceive time more slowly than other human beings. I n Star Trek: First Contact, Data said he was tempted to take the Borg Queen's offer of becoming human for half a second. He goes on to say that "For an android, that is an eternity". While this is exaggerated, it does imply that Data perceives time more slowly than we do. And I have reason to believe he perceives it significantly slower as well. This would explain his ability to absorb information and read detailed pages at extremely high speeds.
This would also explain Data's reflexes. But I'll get into that in a bit.
Strength
Data is not only designed to exceed human limits mentally, but physically as well.
Strength feats:
-Data's greatest strength feat is when he stopped a taxi cab moving at full speed, with an outstretched arm and little effort (TNG: Emergence). I recommend you watch the following video, because it's pretty great :). But you'll find it at 0:41. I know it's kinda brief but it's the best I can do.
-You can find a pretty impressive strength feat in the first video I showed you. Skip to 1:30. While that may not look very impressive, it is quite impressive. Listen to what Riker says. He says it has a tessile strength of 40 kilobars. A diamond only has a little over half that tessile strength. Heck that's more tessile strength than kevlar.
-B ending a barrel of a gun with two fingers effortlessly. (TNG: The Big Goodbye)
-Lifting a large beam effortlessly. While that may not seem very impressive, I believe that it is indeed a bit impressive. IIRC, Worf is considered to be about peak human, if not excessing peak human, in terms of strength. It took Worf absolutely all of all his strength and some serious motivation (the scene made those very clear) to lift a similar beam that was trapping his son, Alexander (TNG: New Ground). Data lifted a beam like that with one hand like it was nothing in the next episode (TNG: Hero Worship).
-Data has also breached doors of which not even Worf and an extra pair of hands could budge.
-Lifted an anvil that two people couldn't even hope to budge. (TNG: Thine Own Self)
-Lifted people with an outstretched arm. Now, "with an outstretched arm" may not seem like much, but you try lifting say 30 pounds with an outstretched arm for a good couple seconds and tell me it didn't put stress on your arm (TNG: Encounter at Farpoint).
-Carried a heavy anvil with one hand like it was a briefcase (TNG: Time's Arrow, Part II).
-Effortlessly pushed a full grown man I'd estimate 10 ft. back, judging from earlier on in the clip.
In conclusion, I'd estimate Data's strength level to be on a range of 2-4 tons.
Reflexes
I have reason to believe that Data has FTL (Faster Than Light) reflexes.
-He's dodged a phaser blast from about 5 ft. Despite what your belief may be (and what used to be mine), phasers actually fire at the speed of light, as they can be fired during warp speeds. Now I'm not referring to the instance in the video above (0:32), which has pretty bad graphics for a phaser blast in my personal opinion. However, I'm referring to the TNG episode "Legacy", where Ishara Yar fired at Data. That phaser blast is more accurate and faster than the phaser blast in the video above I assure you (TNG: Legacy).
-Has dodged a drilling laser. This is however is debatable as to if it was a showing of FTL reflexes. While lasers travel at the speed of light, there was a targeting laser that fired onto Data's head before the destructive laser was fired. So it's hard to tell if the destructive laser inside the targeting laser was actually moving at the speed of light. But at the same time, it is indeed possible that it was moving at the speed of light (TNG: Home Soil).
It's been said by some that these feats are PIS. But given how fast his brain works, and how slowly he perceives time. I find it perfectly plausible. It may be hard for us to imagine Data perceiving time so slowly that he can dodge projectiles moving at the speed of light. But you have to remember that he is an android/artificial organism. Time means nothing to him.
Speed
Data can also be quite speedy with his hands. You can see most of those speed feats in the "White and Nerdy" music video I posted.
Speed feats:
-As you can tell, he's pretty fast with a computer.
-Towards the beginning of that video, you can see Data inserting a good amount of computer chips. IIRC, Data inserted hundreds of those computer chips into their correct slots in less than a minute before an asteroid could hit them. Think about that. Let's say he inserted 100 computer chips. Not only would Data have to insert each computer chip in 0.3 seconds, but he had to find their correct slots as well. Although, I will say a fair amount of them were already inserted from when he was intoxicated and not functioning properly. So it's a little harder to do the math. But I'd say he did insert at least a hundred of them in less than a minute. Meaning he could insert one in less than a second (TNG: The Naked Now).
-Another speed feat can be found towards the end of that video. Here's the full thing:
Builds a pyramid within seconds. Seriously look at how fast he's moving. He's practically moving his arms faster than the human eye. You can really only see his arms once they've stopped to set a piece down. And he's setting the pieces with an absolute perfect precision (TNG: Hero Worship).
Agility
Data doesn't have too much agility. The best I've seen him do is do a couple of hardcore barrel rolls when dodging blasts from a security system. When he dodged the phaser blast and the blasts from the drilling laser, he simply moved his head out of the way. Although, after Data was shown dodging the drilling lasers, the episode cut to a scene of where Geordi and another officer was on their way to help Data. When Data emerged from the room, the drilling laser was absolutely wrecked. However, the entire room seemed wrecked too, which may suggest that Data does have impressive agility. But we can't be certain (TNG: We'll Always Have Paris).
Durability
While there are not many durability feats, the few that he's had seem to be pretty impressive.
Durability feats:
-Data's best durability feat was when he was shown to be bullet proof in Star Trek: First Contact. Furthermore, the gun that shot Data was an automatic submachine gun (I think) from 2063, and thus more advanced than today's guns.
-Data has also shown incredible resistance to melee combat.
-Also, it's stated that in the episode "A Matter of Time", that Maximum Stun is capable of taking down Data. Now, if I told you that maximum stun is only Level 3 out of 16 levels, you may not think that to be very impressive. However, even Level 3 is capable of heating up metal significantly, which is probably why Data can be disabled at Level 3. You also have to remember this is an energy blast moving at the speed of light. This also suggests that he can take phaser settings Medium Stun and Light Stun. Medium Stun releases an energy projectile moving at the speed of light and is capable of knocking out an average person for 5 to 15 minutes (Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Guide).
Other Abilities
Despite the impressive physical attributes, Data has actually stated that he is not programmed for combat. That doesn't mean he can't fight. It just means that he wasn't programmed to go all Karate Kid.
However, he does have one unique ability, and that is the ability to copy the movements of others to a precision. He uses this ability to learn to dance. Here's the vid:
He's even used this ability in combat. One time, Spock knocked out a Romulan guard instantly via Vulcan nerve pinch. Soon afterwards, Data used the same Vulcan nerve pinch on Sela to knock her out instantly as well. Spock even complimented him. So in conclusion, any hand to hand combat skill that a friend or foe has can be copied by him, so long as that H2H combat skill doesn't include insane Spider-Man-like agility.
Lastly, Data has super hearing. In the episode, "Cause and Effect", Data could determine that he was hearing over one thousand voices (all speaking at the same time) and that they were all the voices of the Enterprise crew. In the episode, The Schizoid Man, Data could hear Picard's footsteps from about 10-15 ft. away, even though the viewer cannot hear hear his footsteps.
So that's all I have on Data for now. I might add some of the few comic book feats he has that I'm aware of. And maybe some more feats if I remember any more.
Feel free to post what you think. Thanks for reading :)
From yours truly, Fett Man.