Isn’t Data’s whole identity based around making himself more palatable?
I think it’s more about learning to be human. He imitates other people and their mannerism not because they find his nature inconvenient, but because he think that by imitating them he can understand.
Other way around, his mandate is to emulate humans, so he seeks to understand so that he may do so better, even while lacking emotions.
Not a lack of emotion, but a learned habit of suppressed emotions, which is why it works for masking.
“Act more like this fictional character” said no decent therapist, ever.
Implying Spock is fictional
This is funny but I’m not sure how logical (🫣) it is. Is Spock autistic? He’s just…(half)Vulcan? Doing Vulcan things. Any autistic traits he demonstrates would be kind of projection wouldn’t it? That said, I understand allegory exists but I doubt this sort of thing would have been intentional by Gene Roddenberry. (I’m very fun at parties 😆)
I feel like if anyone was possibly an autist it was Odo. The man struggled so much with human emotions and expressions he literally couldn’t make a believable human face. Instead of masking he just did his thing.
Which Spock? A big part of Spock’s character development post TOS was starting to be more himself and less what others expected him to be.
If Spock never masks, why does he act so different in ‘The Cage’ huh?
And again in “The Menagerie”!
Because he unmasked after “The Cage”…
