10 MORE Star Trek Moments You Never Knew Were Improvised

Time's the thing, be that the bending of its arrow, or the dilation down on Dilmer III in Fully Dilated. As with Sam Witwer in the previous entry, time in the recording booth was also the time of improvisation with Brent Spiner for his appearance as an alternate, purple-headed Data in the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks.

"Guy in a silver jumpsuit" must be crying himself to sleep and/or plotting his revenge — 'We silver-suits are the lifeblood of the Federation, don't you know!' — but the reference to the cold open of Time's Arrow was hilarious. It was also entirely made up on the day. In an interview with CinemaBlend's Adam Holmes, Lower Decks supervising producer Barry Kelly explained the genesis of the idea:

I think [Brent Spiner] just said, 'I was found in a cave.' But then I think we just rewatched the episode right there with him or just described it. Like, 'Who found him exactly'? […] Well, it's Picard, and then there's just some random guy in a silver jumpsuit. […] 'How about you just say that?'

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, the final draft script of Time's Arrow gives said "random" as "SCIENTIST, male, late forties". In the episode, Picard also refers to him as "Doctor". He was played by Milt Tarver.