Additionally, Buck Rogers' premise of a modern man being frozen and waking up in a distant future reeks of influences from H.G. Wells' "The Sleeper Awakes." However, I'd say the similarities between Flash Gordon and Foundation are very superficial as Foundation is more of a galactic history focused on minimizing the consequences of an Empire's downfall than a pulpy futuristic adventure like Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. That said, the concept of telling a story in the future as if it were historic also existed as early as Verne and Wells, perhaps most notably with H.G. Wells' "The Shape of Things To Come" (not to be confused with the 1979 Canadian B-movie, which only uses Wells' name and title in an effort to promote a boring Star Wars mockbuster).
This is surprisingly accurate. Data is strong enough to casually knock a Klingon on his butt and is smart enough to single-handedly outwit a Romulan fleet. The protagonists were dang lucky he was on their side.
