10 MORE Star Trek Moments You Never Knew Were Improvised

4. Purple Head, Silver Guy

Star Trek Lower Decks Fully Dilated Purple Headed Data
CBS Media Ventures

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.

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Jack has been a content creator for TrekCulture since 2022, and a Star Trek fan for as long as he can remember. He has authored over 170 articles, including one of TrekCulture's longest, and has appeared several times on the TrekCulture podcast. He holds a first-class honours degree in French from the University of Sussex, a master's with distinction in Language, Culture and History: French and Francophone Studies and a PhD in French from University College London (UCL). He has previously worked in the field of translation. His interests extend to science-fiction television and film more widely. His favourite series is Star Trek: Voyager, followed closely by Stargate SG-1.