Data's Prosthetics In Star Trek: First Contact Led To A Super Glue Mishap

Partway through Jonathan Frakes' 1996 sci-fi film "Star Trek: First Contact," the android Data (Brent Spiner) is kidnapped by the Borg, a species of calculating cyborgs that has infiltrated the U.S.S. Enterprise-E. The Borg are known for assimilating technology and individuals into their dark collective, rewiring people's brains to serve as soldier-like meat-bots for the cause of further assimilation. Typically, the Borg will insert machinery and tubing into a victim's body, maybe replace an eye with a mechanical eyepiece, and sometimes even remove hands to install tools and widgets into people's arm-holes. It seems that the Borg requires their drones to possess an organic compound, otherwise the machinery won't work.

For Data, however, assimilation has to move in the opposite direction. Data, an android, is already 100% artificial, only possessing the smallest amount of organic compounds (Data has, on several occasions, alluded to certain biochemical functions). In order to assimilate him, the Borg Queen (Alice Krige) removes portions of Data's android skin and grafts on little strips of humanoid flesh. Data is initially fascinated by the experiment; how can human skin, which is less sensitive than his android skin, be incorporated into his artificial systems? His fascination takes a hard 180 when the Borg Queen gently blows on his skin, causing goosebumps to form. Data clearly got a sexual charge from the sense input.

Of course, Spiner's arm had to be wrapped in android mechanisms for the scene, requiring special fixatives and adhesives to keep the android wiring in place. James MacKinnon, one of the prosthetics makeup designers on "First Contact," told a story to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016 about how he was gluing some wires in place on set, and somehow managed to glue his arm to his chest. He emerged unscathed, but it was scary for a moment.

The head makeup artist on "First Contact" was longtime "Star Trek" designer Michael Westmore. For the Borg in "First Contact," Westmore altered the low-fi robotic seen on the Borg on "Star Trek: The Net Generation" and added more veins and blotches to their skin, giving them a sweatier, more animalistic texture.

Throughout "First Contact," Data loses more and more of his android skin, and has it replaced with human skin. Even part of his face is replaced. The exposed android components on Data's arm, however, needed to be made from blinking lights, actual computer parts, and other tchotchkes one might find at an old Radio Shack. While gluing said computer parts down within Spiner's prosthetic, MacKinnon made a sad, sticky mistake that left him incapacitated for a few hours. Yes, he glued himself to himself. As he recalled to THR:

"Michael Westmore asked me to work on Data's arm. It's a little flap of skin. We're gluing wires from one side to the other and I'm squeezing the bottle of two ounces of super glue and it's not coming out. All of a sudden I squeeze hard and the whole bottle explodes on my arm. The super glue sets quick. My arm is attached to my chest. It's kind of smoking, because it makes super glue go faster. Now my arm's burning. I finished my makeup with one hand and it takes me two hours to get out of the super glue."

The glue, mind you, wasn't meant to affix the arm appliance to Spiner's arm; there are safe makeup adhesives for that. It was only to fix components inside the prosthetic. Regardless, MacKinnon had his arm stuck to his chest for a while. Good thing he was wearing a shirt.