Beyond Data, the actor has played five other characters and numerous versions of the android (see "A Fistful of Datas" for a few of them). This variety is something that Spiner says he's enjoyed over the years. "There's that double-edged sword of being identified with one role, but if I'm going to have to be identified for a single role, at least it's a role where I got to play all kinds of other different roles," he explains. "I really enjoyed playing Sherlock Holmes when we did that [on TNG episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle"]. We did all kinds of things, and I was inhabited by different creatures and personalities. It's a dream, for an actor, to be able to do that. And so really, I think of them all as the same thing, in a way. It was all one character, even though the Soongs were human."