You say ‘tomato’, I say ‘tomatoe’

I was driven to distraction by American on the radio today referring to his area of expertise – data – as ‘dahtah’.  His English counterparts referred to it as ‘dayter’, creating an odd dichotomy.  It is like ‘aluminum’ rather than aluminium.  But I think the superiority of the British English version is summed up in, of all places, Star Trek: The Next Generation.  Patrick Stewart, as Jean-Luc Picard, referred to his android bridge officer, played by Brent Spiner, as ‘dayter’ for he was Data.  For uniformity, all the Americans in the series follow Stewart’s lead.  Data is dayter is Data.  Here endeth the lesson.