Data was an Android constructed by Dr. Noonien Soong on the planet Omicron Theta in 2336. He was discovered and activated by Starfleet in 2338. Three years later, he joined Starfleet Academy and graduated in 2344. By 2364 Data had reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was assigned to the USS Enterprise-D, under the command of Jean-Luc Picard, as operations officer and second officer.

Unable to feel emotions or understand certain human idiosyncrasies, caused Data to strive to be human. Data was given an emotion chip by Soong and installed it a few years later. He also discovered a series of circuits in his positronic net that allowed him to experience dreams. Data created a daughter which he named Lal, who unfortunately died.

After the destruction of the Enterprise-D in 2373, Data transferred to the Enterprise-E where he remained until he sacrificed himself to save Picard and the Enterprise crew. Despite the destruction of Data's physical form, his consciousness was placed in a quantum simulation. In 2399, Data encountered the consciousness of Jean-Luc Picard and ask him to terminate the simulation, allowing him to die.

In 2401, Data was resurrected as Daystrom Android M-5-10, an android which had Data, Lore, Lal and B-4 stored inside of it. After a struggle for control with Lore, Data's personality emerged dominant, although with elements of everyone else, and he took control of the golem body.