I remember Brent Spiner saying that a lot of autistic kids and parents of autistic kids found that the children related a lot to "Data" specifically because of his inability to process emotions, and so the conversations with data about emotions actually helped the kids to understand feelings.
That doesn't mean you retcon data into being an autist, rather than an android.
I remember Brent Spiner saying that a lot of autistic kids and parents of autistic kids found that the children related a lot to "Data" specifically because of his inability to process emotions, and so the conversations with data about emotions actually helped the kids to understand feelings.
That doesn't mean you retcon data into being an autist, rather than an android.
You just turn Spock into a closeted gay autist in the next set of movies.
I'm surprised that they haven't done that yet.