Brent Spiner Talks Returning for Star Trek: Picard

By Reggie's Take on January 14, 2020

With just over one week left before the premiere of Star Trek: Picard, Brent Spiner talks about returning to the Star Trek franchise and being digitally de-aged.

When Star Trek: Picard premieres January 23rd on CBS All-Access we catch up with the retired Starfleet admiral roughly twenty years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Living on the family farm in France, Picard is drawn back into space after an encounter with an unknown female visitor.

Even though the show will focus on Picard there will be some familiar faces making appearances during the shows first season one of those being Brent Spiner best known as known as Lt. Commander Data. In a recent interview Brent Spiner talked about how visual effects played a role in making the actor look like he did as Data in 2002’s Star Trek: Nemesis.

“Well, the powers that be, when I met with them, I said, “How am I going to play Data again?” And they said, well, that CGI has come a long way, and that they could make me look really good. I ended up in the same makeup and wore the same contacts… So, the first day on set, I put on the makeup and everything, and think, “Oh, this is okay!” Then I get this phone call – “It’s just too expensive. We can’t do the CGI. It’s just too expensive.” And I went, “Wait a minute, you know, I was told…

After a discussion, I said, “Well, you understand I don’t have to be CGI’d back to what I looked like on the series, it has to look like how I looked at the end of ‘Nemesis.’” And they went, “Oh, sure, that’s right! No problem! We’re gonna do it. And they did. It has changed a bit, though, from some trailers that came out early. Yeah, it didn’t look good. But they’ve repaired all that since. They just hadn’t finished yet.”

SDCC trailer (left) – January 2020 (color corrected) (right)

Spiner also talked about being asked to come back for Picard and how unexpected it was.

“I was surprised, but pleased – and convinced, by the pedigree of the people we were going to work with. Maybe it’s a good idea to come in and add a little spice to the show.”

Marina Sirtis, Jeri Ryan, Jonathan Del Arco and Johnathan Frakes are joining Brent Spiner in returning to Star Trek. Star Trek: Picard premieres January 23rd on CBS All Access.

To read the full interview with Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis aka “Counselor Deanna Troi” you can head over to Trek Core.