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“.
Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) had encountered another android that had also exhibited signs of age, and the…
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