What was the name of the android on the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” crew?

The answer is: Data

Data was the unforgettable android crew member on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," you know, the pale-faced one with an insatiable curiosity about humans. Created in 2336 by Dr. Noonien Soong as an experiment in artificial intelligence, Data possessed superhuman intelligence but couldn't experience emotions until he acquired an emotion chip later in his journey.

Plans for a second Star Trek series had been underway for a while, but "The Next Generation" took its time getting on screen. While Paramount was busy chasing Star Wars glory with Trek films, they finally noticed how much money those reruns were making and gave creator Gene Roddenberry the green light for a new series.

Replacing the crew of "The Original Series" was a pretty bold move, but Captain Picard, Geordi La Forge, and Data quickly proved themselves worthy successors. The new Starfleet crew discovered Data with no memory of his past. Data's journey on the Enterprise centered around his own self-discovery and desire to understand humanity. The show managed to balance topics like human rights for androids with lighter moments as Data worked to master everything from jokes to poetry.

Spoiler alert: Data sacrificed himself to save Picard from Romulan captors, beaming his captain to safety before destroying the enemy ship. Though he would return in physical form in "Picard," appearing both as a flesh-and-blood human in dreams and as a quantum simulation, his original sacrifice remains one of Trek's most memorable moments.