Star Trek's Makeup Artists Didn't Have An Easy Time Bringing Data Back For Picard

When "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was first casting actors in 1986, Brent Spiner — who would land the role of Data — was about 37 years old. Spiner's original makeup tests show that Data might have sported a pinker shade of skin, and producers were debating whether to give him his eventual chartreuse-colored eyes or use a more aggressive tangerine shade. Eventually, Data was given pale alabaster skin, and his hair was darkened and slicked back. The makeup made Data look artificial, yet human. It was a pretty simple, effective design.

But while Data was an artificial life form that didn't age, Spiner was a very human actor who did. The fact that Spiner began to show his age in the later seasons of "Next Generation" was hand-waved away in the episode "Inheritance" (November 22, 1993). Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) had encountered another android that had also exhibited signs of age, and the engineer mentioned in passing that some androids have "aging programs." "Not only does she age in appearance like Data," he said, "her vital signs change too." Spiner was aging, and now too, so was Data.

Years later, Spiner returned to the role of Data in the first episode of "Star Trek: Picard," called "Remembrance" (January 23, 2020). In a dream sequence, Data spoke to Picard (Patrick Stewart), looking very much like his old self. Spiner, however, was 71 by then, and looked different than he did at age 37. In a recent interview with Awards Radar, "Picard" makeup artist James MacKinnon revealed his approach to making Spiner look like 1990s-era Data. It was, it seems, a combination of makeup and just the right amount of CGI de-aging.

While Data did appear in several scenes throughout the first season of "Star Trek: Picard," it should be noted that it was only in dream sequences or subconscious psychic states. Data had died during the events of "Star Trek: Nemesis" several decades before, and his consciousness was being preserved on a computer hard drive on a distant planet. Picard was able to shunt his own brain into the same machine, and the two conversed briefly. That Spiner didn't look exactly as he did in 1987, or indeed in 2002, was appropriate for the abstract version of his character.

MacKinnon noted that Spiner, now in his 70s, required a different makeup application than he did in the past. Not that Spiner wasn't devastatingly handsome at age 71, but no one looks the same at age 71 as they did at age 41 (except for Paul Rudd, currently about to celebrate his 245th birthday). And when makeup didn't get the job done, the VFX department stepped in. MacKinnon said:

"If they have the same skin, it would be easy, which they don't, Brent is not a spring chicken anymore, but he looks fantastic. And we have little tips and tricks. And that's our job, besides makeup brushes, we have magic wands as well that we can pull and tuck and soften with makeup. If it's too much, visual effects steps in. Like, for season one, they stepped in and got rid of a little bit of Brent's age. But not enough where it changes who he is as a person and then as a character."

The result looks like a combination of makeup and CGI, and Spiner effectively recreated Data's voice and mannerisms perfectly.

The makeup, Trekkies might agree, was a little odd-looking, especially to those who had just come from watching "The Next Generation" reruns out of their DVD collections. However, it could be argued that the "updated" Data was appropriate for the character's abstract dream body. It seems that the CGI could have been even more aggressive, though. MacKinnon recalled getting some VFX tests back from the department and found that Data began to look too artificial. The elegance of the 1986 makeup had given way to something far too synthetic. MacKinnon said:

"There was a moment where a couple of those tests came back and I'm like that's too much guys. He looks like a doll. Relax it a little bit and they came back in it like that's beautiful." 

Picard terminated Data's consciousness at the end of the first season of "Picard," but Data was to return again for the show's third season. It seems that the scientist storing Data's consciousness (also played by Spiner), shunted it into a brand new android body, right next to the consciousnesses of Data's evil brother Lore, his prototype B-4, and his creator Dr. Soong. The new android body, in what might have been a mercy to the actor, was made to look exactly like Brent Spiner did in his 70s. Spiner still sported the chartreuse contact lenses, but also his own grey hair and natural skin. If one was to bring back an un-aging android, this was a clever way to address the actor's age. 

Spiner, incidentally, gave a great performance.